“Your joke. You know, the talking stars.” She rolled her eyes. Talking stars. That wasn’t a word combination she ever expected to utter, either. Ryan was really expanding her vocabulary in interesting ways.
“The what? Either you’re stoned or you’re having some kind of medical emergency.” In a strange re-enactment of the previous night, his voice muffled. “Stay where you are, I’m coming over there.”
When the door banged open and Ryan raced in, Eve had sat back at her desk. She took a slow sip of her coffee and looked at his red face and wide eyes. If she didn’t know better, she’d suggest his expression hovered somewhere close to panic.
“Eve?” Yep. Panic.
“Yes, Ryan?” She set her paper cup to one side, slid from her chair, and enjoyed a gentle stroll to the telescope. “Shall we see if they’re still there before you dismantle the projector?”
“The talking stars?” His voice quavered a little as he spoke.
“The talking stars.” She nodded her head and patted his arm. “Your trick was quite effective. I wouldn’t have even known it was you, most likely, but I’m just not sure Bob would refer to himself as ‘bad’.”
“Bad or creepy?” Ryan’s short laugh cut off abruptly as he picked up the sketches of the constellation from the desk. “Wait—this is what you saw tonight?”
He threw the papers back onto the desk. “I didn’t do this, Eve.” He stood and ran his hands over her head, his fingers combing through her hair.
She shook him off and stepped away. “What are you doing? You can’t just touch me.”
“Are you injured? Did you bump your head earlier? I can take you to A&E.”
She laughed, keeping it casual, then pouted a little. “You mean you don’t want to see them? You’ve gone to so much trouble to set this whole thing up, after all.” Bending at the waist, she focused the telescope on where she’d seen the lights last. She couldn’t keep calling them stars—not when she had Ryan as good as caught in his own joke.
“I..I…okay.” Ryan took his position at the eyepiece. “Oh, wow.” He turned to her, his face pale. “How long have they been doing that?”
“Can you see it?”
He squinted, his mouth suddenly flat, suspicion etched in each line of his face. “See what? Tell me what you saw first. Is this a joke? Are you trying to get me kicked off Bob’s programme?”
“What are you talking about? Here, let me have a look.” She pushed him from his spot in front of the telescope. At first, she saw nothing, then the lights played as if God was up there thumbing through his cartoon flip book.
O B B A D B O B B A
“But that makes no sense.” She stepped back and looked at Ryan.
“I know!” He stood and threw his arms up. “Stars don’t behave like that. I think we’ve found what Bob needs to make his name…our name, too, but we can’t exactly tell him.”
Eve laughed. “He’d think we both needed rehoming if we told him we’d found stars that spoke to us. Especially if they said ‘obbadbobba.’ That’s not even a word.” She laughed again and walked away. “Coffee?”
“Eve, don’t be so stupid.”
She turned to find Ryan running a hand through his hair, his eyes wide. “The stars said ‘Bad Bob.’ Not obadaobbabdbaoobbadd. Or whatever you think you saw.”
“Bad Bob?” She pushed her hair behind her ear. “Are you sure?”
“That’s what I saw. Over and over again. Really fast. What kind of stars do that? I’ll tell you one thing. I’m handing in my notice, effective tomorrow. I’m not doing this creepy shit anymore.”
She placed her hand on his arm and ignored his last thought. “You know what? I don’t think they’re stars.”
He raised an eyebrow. “What clued you in?”
“I think they’re lights.”
“Still, Eve, what kind of lights do you know that can do this?”
“I know, I know.” She bit her lip. “That’s why I thought it was some kind of a joke. Like you were messing with me. Is it you? I won’t be upset. And if it’s Bob you’re afraid of, we can plan what to say.”
He shook his head. “I didn’t do this.”
“You didn’t?” She looked out through the telescope again and gasped.
R U N R U N R U N
“Ryan…it’s changed. We’ve got to go.”
“What? We haven’t done any of the documents, we haven’t made a plan. We have nothing ready for morning.”
“Forget all that. We just have to go.”
He grabbed her arm and spun her to face him. “What did you see?”
“We have to go.” She headed to the door and opened it, but the trudge of footsteps heading up the stairs outside the office forced her back towards Ryan. “We’re too late.”
“Too late for what? What’s wrong, Eve?”
As he finished speaking, the door burst open, and Eve winced away from the noise.
“Good evening.” Bob swung his briefcase onto his desk. “I thought I’d stop in and see this vanishing constellation for myself.”
“There’s nothing to see.” Ryan’s face paled and sidled behind Eve. “Like I told you, it’s gone.”
Bob cast a curious glance in Ryan’s direction. “I thought you were too unwell to work tonight, Ryan, or are you here for a secret assignation with Eve? Maybe that’s why you two can’t keep your constellations straight.” He held out a hand, his skin glowing white in the moonlight streaming through the window. “Paperwork. Come on, come on. I haven’t all night.” He moved his fingers in an impatient motion.
Ryan sighed and began to shuffle Eve’s rough diagrams into a pile.
“What are you doing?” Eve hissed the words, but Bob twitched his head to the side and fixed a glare on her.
“Problem, Eve?”
“N…n…no.” Sounding more sure of herself would have been better. She squinted in the gloom. Bob’s fingers looked longer, the nails more claw-like. As she watched, his body changed shape, hunching and stretching, until he stood before them, grotesque.
“What are you?” Fear claimed Ryan’s words, and he pressed against the wall, his gaze darting to the door.
“Not of this world, young man.” Bob walked toward them, nothing like the meek civil servant he’d been for the past three weeks. His skin had paled to an alabaster marble, his forehead bulged and protruded, and his clothes ripped to reveal rippling muscles with every step he took.
“He’s coming this way!”
Bob laughed at Ryan’s mouse–squeak whisper.
“Oh, I was always coming for you, Ryan. All of you.” He threw back his head and laughed, closing his eyes, but widening his arms as if to include the whole world. “You humans are such a primitive race.” He cracked one eye open, watching them through the narrow slit. “Yet, so tasty. My abject apologies Eve. I didn’t mean for things to end this way. I came back to ask you to sit beside me. Rule with me, if you will.” He walked away, head bowed, and clasped his hands behind his back. “I see, now, though, there was no chance for a mere all-powerful extra-terrestrial such as myself. That really is a shame.” He shook his head and tutted. “Ah, well…I’m sure you’ll taste especially sweet.”
Eve shrank back to the window, pressing against the cold glass. Something hard dug into her back, and she worked her hand behind her before wrapping her fingers tightly around the door handle.
“Take her…she’ll be sweet.” A sheen of sweat danced on Ryan’s skin. “I’ll probably just be bones and gristle. I’m sure we don’t all taste good.”
“Put it this way, I haven’t yet met a human I didn’t like.” The controlled fury in Bob’s voice was at odds with the lazy way he drawled the words.
As Eve pushed the door handle down in slow, gentle increments, Bob seemed to flash across the room, one moment standing next to his desk, the next holding Ryan in a headlock.
Ryan gasped and his eyes bulged. The veins in Bob’s arms stood out as he applied more pressure to Ryan’s neck.
His studied her, before dropping his hold on Ryan and letting him fall to the floor.
Eve gasped and pushed her way through the door behind her onto the balcony. She slammed the door shut and the whole window juddered under the force. Who was she kidding? A glass door wouldn’t stop whatever kind of monster Bob was.
Awareness prickled through her and she glanced over her shoulder. Lights beamed down on the field behind her and danced a huge letter B over whatever green crop the farmer had growing there.
“Ah, they’ve arrived. I’m almost surprised it took them so long.” Cold fingers folded around her arm, and she jerked away from Bob’s putrid breath as he continued. “Still, I am a master of disguise, wouldn’t you say?”
She ignored his words and instead focused on the dancing lights. Up close, she could see the giant space ships making them. “How did they get here so fast?”
Bob laughed. “That’s your only question? After everything you’ve just seen, you’re wondering how the pretty, twinkly lights from deep space could be right above your head? Maybe you weren’t fit to rule alongside me, after all. Stupidity never makes a good companion. I might as well eat you, now, in fact.” He bent his head, and Eve froze as fangs grazed her neck. Bob groaned. “Mm…such sweet flesh. How I shall adore you as a last meal.”
“I won’t be anyone’s meal.” Using strength she didn’t know she possessed, Eve turned and shoved.
Bob’s mouth gaped as he crashed through the rickety wooden railing surrounding the balcony, falling to the cold concrete below. His shout was cut short by a smashing sound, and the world returned to eerie quiet.
Eve peered through the gap Bob had made in the wood, and drew her hand to her mouth at the sight below her. Bob lay motionless and broken, as if she’d dropped a statue instead of pushing a beast.
She looked back out into the field. A single figure approached. When he reached the ground near where Bob lay, he swept a bow and spoke a single word.
“Eve.”
“Yes?” Seemed she could only manage single words, too.
“I’m Rank Captain Adam Thirsk. And on behalf of Intergalactic patrol, I thank you. We’ve been chasing this stone devil for quite some time.”
“Oh.”
“Permit me to execute our clean up procedure. You should be quite safe.”
“Yes.” She hesitated. “Is he dead?”
“In this state?” Captain Thirsk shook his head. “Incapacitated would be more accurate. But he certainly shouldn’t be able to harm you again.”
“Are you taking him away?”
“Far, far away.”
Eve laughed, then looked up at the stars. Far away, indeed.
Captain Thirsk pulled a small handheld device from his pocket and held it above Bob. After a brief glow, the concrete was empty and Captain Thirsk shifted as if to leave.
“That’s it?” She was experiencing possible the strangest night of her life, and she couldn’t manage more than two words. She glanced into the office where Ryan hadn’t moved from where Bob let him fall. “What about Ryan?”
“He took quite a large bump to the head, I’m afraid.” Captain Thirsk sounded regretful, but he pointed his device towards the window. “The best I can offer is to wake him—I can’t guarantee his memories.”
Eve nodded, although no one would have seen the movement in the dark. “I…yes. Yes, okay.” In a way, it’d be quite a nice secret to keep just for herself. “Will I remember, though?”
The captain hesitated. “I’m not really supposed to let you. Clean up is supposed to remove memories. Like I said, nature has probably taken care of your companion.”
“I think I’d like to.” She nodded again.
Captain Thirsk waited as though expecting her to say something else. When she didn’t utter one, his device glowed again.
“Clean up complete. Your companion is awake now. Thank you for your help.” He bowed a second time before striding to wait beneath the hovering ships.
“Oh, Captain!” Even before Eve called, it seemed as if he’d anticipated her shout and turned around.
He waited.
“Ryan’s not…he’s not my companion.”
“You can call me Adam.” The captain waved briefly, although Eve was sure she’d seen the glint of a smile in the moonlight, and returned the rest of the way to the waiting ships.
After his form blinked away, Eve returned to the office and looked around. All Bob’s stuff remained, as if he’d never been anything but her slightly strange boss. His super scientific telescope still stood in the corner, as if on guard against the night sky. And now she knew why. Bob had been on the run. Only she never expected Bob might be an actual alien being. She could have bought criminal mastermind or mass murderer, maybe. After all, weren’t serial killers always the quiet ones?
As she walked back to her desk, Ryan groaned and rolled over. “Oh my God. How long have I been asleep? Did I come into work with a handover? The inside of my mouth feels like a litter tray.”
She laughed and threw her jacket over him, adjusting it to it covered most of him. “Go back to sleep, Ryan.”
Habit propelled her to the telescope and she looked through it, seeking the constellation she knew had never existed. Faintly, barely discernible to even the telescope’s magnification, three letters appeared in rapid succession.
B
Y
E
She blinked, then saw one last switch before they faded for good.
?
Author’s Note
From a magical land of castles and Kings (Okay, it’s England), Gina doesn’t feel as old as she looks, owns three children who can’t be tamed, and writes in spare – usually stolen – time. She sometimes bakes – not always with quite the desired results, and has found the only solution to keeping the characters in her head quiet is to placate them with lots of other lovely books and worlds.
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10 Lords A-Leaping: Framed
Jenny O’Brien
Day Ten
On the tenth day of Christmas my true love sent to me…
10 Lords A-Leaping: Framed
Jenny O’Brien
A Paranormal Romance
Sir William, the fourth Earl of Maudon, is stuck where a lord should never be stuck. But being trapped inside a Seventeenth Century painting with nine other lords is no reason not to chase his dreams…
10 Lords A-Leaping: Framed
‘Don’t look now but she’s just arrived, Sir William.’
Sir William, Earl of Maudon, sat up straight, his gaze never wavering from the view in front of him. You’d think he was looking at something interesting, riveting even, the way his wide, blue stare fixed on some point in the middle distance but you’d be wrong. All he could see, apart from the bright red of the fire extinguisher, was the little white notice stuck above explaining the fire evacuation routes. If he closed his eyes, for a moment, just for a second, he could still see the words imprinted on his brain but he daren’t. He daren’t even blink for fear of the consequences.
He’d been standing staring out at the same view for three years now; three years, twenty-five days and a handful of minutes and it was starting to grate. If only he could see what the other Lords looked out on but, for some unknown reason, the artist had deemed him to be the one in the forefront attracting all the attention. For some reason, he was the one that wasn’t allowed blink for fear of the truth coming out.
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The truth; what was the truth? The truth was that the artist, their artist, also dabbled in the dark arts and alchemy. He hadn’t been very good or prolific if the dearth of paintings was anything to go by, but perhaps that was a blessing. Moving pictures was for the cinema and not the walls of the illustrious Dutch museum.
‘Can’t I just..?’ he continued through clenched teeth.
‘No you can’t,’ Lord Cranberry’s tone adamant. ‘She’ll see you if you do. Even now, her eyes are on your face so you need to be as still as a mouse hiding from a cat.’
‘But I haven’t even fixed my cravat or combed my hair—?’
‘Well, you should have thought of that, shouldn’t you? You know she always visits on a Friday afternoon. I’m telling you; it’s far too late. You know how risky it is. If she doesn’t notice, one of the guards or the security cameras will. If you hang on a minute, she’ll cross over to the other side like she always does although I don’t know what she sees in him, I really don’t.’
‘Who?’
‘That self-portrait of Rembrandt. A more miserable looking fellow you’ve ever seen. You’re so lucky not having to stare at his ugly mug, day in day out.’
William let out a sigh. ‘So what’s she wearing today?’
‘She’s got on that blue coat and her face is all wet - it must be raining,’ he replied, peering out from behind his monocle. ‘No, oh it’s not rain she’s crying. Ye gads, I can’t bear to see a gal crying,’ he added, with a sniff.
‘What else, man? Come on. I’m dying here.’
‘Shush. She’s looking at you. She’s always looking at you. I don’t know what it is…’
‘It’s because I’m tall dark and handsome, Lord Cranberry, as you very well know,’ he muttered, his lips barely moving.
‘And rich, you’ve forgotten about the rich part.’
‘That too, although you’re not so poor yourself.’
12 Days of Christmas: A Christmas Collection Page 25