Fear Of Darkness

A serial novel by Joe Lake.

(So far: Julie meets Susan, the social worker, who says that she is from five hundred years in the future and gives Julie a ring to travel in different parallel universes. Susan warns Julie not to turn the ring by herself. Back in the van, the hologram of a man’s face appears and tells them that Susan gave the ring illegally and it is to be given back. John tells the image to get lost. When John tried to step from the van, the door was still blocked by a glass wall. Julie said she’d turn the ring.)

“You turned the ring,” said the holographic image of Susan, the woman from another dimension. Her projection was hovering just above the driver’s armchair in the motor home.

       Julie said, “I turned the ring, although you told me last time to throw it away which I couldn’t because I’ve never had anything so mysterious and precious and I thought that you might one day want it back.”

       “It has a powerful transmitter inside of millions of gigabytes and is being manipulated by forces that are in opposition to myself and all well-meaning humans from the past, present and future. It wants to lure you and John into a trap beyond my, our, control.”

       “But why are we prisoners with this force-field at the door and windows and suddenly we have been transported into what looks like a jungle?” said John.

The hologram began to fade in and out as the ancient television sets used to do when the reception was bad. “You are under the control of the people who created the ring which is a tool most of us here in the future use like a mobile phone, only these miscreants, these hackers, have moved your home through space into a parallel universe; actually, they haven’t, they made a copy of you both and your contrivance and now there are two of you, well, four in different universes. One Julie and John, here on this jungle planet, and two of you still there at Cooee where your twins are now free to leave the van to do whatever business pleases them.”

“But we still can’t get through the door, can we?” asked John.

“No. It is better if you don’t. Now, Julie, turn the ring right-side up and all may be back to normal and you won’t even remember that you’ve been in another universe.”

“We still remember flying through the air above Burnie when you took us,” said Julie.

“You didn’t, really. I put those images into your head,” said Susan.

Julie turned the ring right-side up.

(To be continued next month