Their confidence was suddenly increased by the discovery of the killer’s blood on some of the snow, showing that he had been wounded and that they had not imagined it, and they collected some and examined it and Bryson was amazed that it actually looked different and as though the person had something on the wound that had altered it somehow – and he wondered if they would trace and catch him if he got away.
Through one of the police communicators he listened to the police back at the castle communicate with the police somewhere else and he listened to their exchanges with interest and heard them mention a helicopter coming out.
When it finally appeared it was far darker and they saw its light racing over the trees, going towards the castle, and he wondered how long it would take to reappear over them. He wondered where the guy was going to and why he thought there was no danger being there in the wood at night? Had the guy originally intended to stay in the castle at night? And where was he going to now?
He decided to accept that the person knew of the disturbances and deaths that had occurred in the wood and wondered if he had made a mistake being there at night or if he had some means of avoiding it, and Bryson started considering all the things available to him. Yet there were few and going by the direction that they were going in that he might pass part of one of the tunnels or there might be another, if there was an entrance to it there.
When he saw one of the police with a map of the region he examined it and saw that there was a small place about twenty miles out across the wood in front of them and he wondered if the guy intended to go there, and he thought he might have made a mistake as if he reached there surely they could be waiting for him. Yet would the guy attempt to get there at night or did he have a hiding place?
The heavy blizzard, going deep into the thick wood, started obscuring their view the darker that it got and they tried to catch up with the guy more.
The snow glowed brightly in their lights, from their lights beaming out, and Bryson spotted the beam of light from police helicopter beam through the wood as it followed their path to them, and he wondered what would happen?
It was turning too dark and he grew tired from the evening spent searching the castle and he remained confused at what the police knew about the disturbances there and if they would make the mistake of staying there in the dark night and he could not think of a proper way to tell them of the dangers that existed there!
To his disappointment the helicopter flew straight overhead blowing up all the snow at them and throwing the blizzard about it, and it raced away into the distance, and he tried to hear what one of the others in front of him was talking about on his communicator, but could not, and was happy to see the helicopter return and stop at a place ahead of them – where he saw it land on an empty region of ground in the trees.
Away in the distance they watched three of the police using their lights to search for something beside the helicopter, and the police around Bryson all tried to see what was happening, through all the trees, and they raced towards them.
The policeman with the communicator hollered to them to go faster – now with his communicator blaring out at full volume with the frantic voices of the police over at the helicopter.
Another policeman eventually grabbed it and started to use it to speak to one of the men there, that he knew, who told them to come over as fast as they could.
Chapter 20
The Death
Bryson rushed over to the helicopter, going in front of the rest of the police, determined to find out what happened, and was blinded by the helicopter’s bright light blasting through the blackness and he waited until he saw where the police from the helicopter were and moved over to them, standing away in the distance around something in the vegetation.
Bryson rushed over, sensing that it was needed for some reason, almost blinded by the mixture of intense lights and darkness, considering everything that he was up against and attempting to observe every place at the one time.
He listened and all he noticed was the wind blowing the trees about the police ahead, with snow blowing around wildly.
Then just before he reached them he darted over to them and one of them turned and shone his torch over him, and one of the other police there acknowledged that he knew Bryson and that he was with them.
In all the footsteps in the snow Bryson suddenly noticed the killer’s footprints and that they staggered around and he saw that he had collapsed where the police were standing around, and he saw a trail of blood to him, from him clearly being shot by them.
They had attempted to fix his wound with bandages, and when Bryson stood beside them he saw that he was close to death.
Yet the police still had their hands on their guns at their sides!
By their reactions he was sure that they did not have a clue what they were dealing with for some reason and he searched for the reason. It was dark, within the grounds of the castle, and they had chased a vicious killer and had shot him.
From the helicopter they had easily traced him out into the dark wood, blanketed in deep snow.
The clothing of the killer was thick and wrapped around him, almost entirely covering him, and Bryson froze trying to see his face – expecting him to pull out a gun and start a gun battle.
When he saw that he had been handcuffed Bryson moved to his side to see what the problem was, and saw his face, and watch heaps of snow falling about him from the pine trees.
Bryson’s heart exploded, beating faster than he had ever felt it beat, when he saw its facial features!
He watched the figure almost fall over sideways, barely able to stay alive, and he saw its blood and that it was different.
The other police that were with Bryson strolled there, not shining their lights there – as though not daring to – approaching in wonder as though they were going to meet the devil himself.
When one of the police standing around him shone his light there they all were dumbstruck, and wondering what it was?
Bryson stared down in horror at what he was positive was a genetic cross between a human and some sort of alien, crippled on the ground!
It resembled some form of ghost, with it giving weak splutters from its form of mouth!
“Do you know what it is?” one of the police muttered, slightly shivering and gritting his teeth with the cold.
And they waited for Bryson to say something!
“I want to talk to it first!” he pleaded, and they moved back as he knelt down beside it.
“A scientist!” its weak voice muttered, and Bryson nodded in agreement, knowing that it could speak his language.
“Where did you come from?” he asked confused.
“A gateway threw a few of my species here years ago! They were trapped here, unable to return. I’m one of their experiments, and crossed with them and your species! I am the last of them! They were unable to return after all! They also made me to handle your species, communicate with your species, your outside world, and I was to find a way for them to return home! They built those tunnels you used to find the castle! They were built to get about the wood safely!”
“Were you watching us?”
“I used their technology to detect you and follow where you were going ...”
“Why did you kill the people here?” one of the police finally asked, amazed at what it was. “And where were you going to?”
“They could’ve killed me ...! My species were killed here ...!”
“There was a skeleton in a large dome cavity within the tunnel,” Bryson continued. “How did that happen?”
“Some of the people of my race still worshiped ancient gods! They gave the sacrifices to the gods, believing that they had been punishing them putting them here!”
Bryson saw it was weakening and decided to alter the subject!
“What were you looking for in the library that he found? You left all the books disrupted!”
“I have been trying to find a way back to my world to tell them wha
t happened – and you found more information, which I had to check ...”
“Did you discover anything?”
It pulled out a crumbled bit of paper and allowed it to fall at its side, unable to move any further.
Bryson instantly picked it up and examined it.
“It’s a page from a diary? There’s nothing really on it?”
“It’s more! It’s definite proof of the diary of your ancestor – William Randall! I’ve been searching for it for most of my life.”
He stared down at its body cringing onto life, with blood pouring from its mouth, and it fell over dead and Bryson strolled away watching the confused faces of the police, wondering what they really thought of it.
Chapter 21
Another Death
At a top floor room window Bryson observed most of the police leaving in helicopters and was amazed to see the body of the alien being put aboard a military helicopter and Mitchell shaking hands with a high-ranking officer and Mitchell handing him his report and being handed documents and his orders.
Bryson knew there was far more behind it and Mitchell, and the military being there, and he left it there as he knew he was going to get information about it! Mitchell was being far more open than he had been, and would be if he intended to be secretive, and he wondered what Mitchell would have put in his report for when he had gone into library tunnel and through the vortex.
He even considered searching his stuff to have a look at what he had put down! What had happened to him? Had it been just the same? He thought of ways to get him to reveal what he wanted, realizing that it might not be secretive any longer.
What was their story? Why was he there? Why did they not send in an entire military group to search the place? It would take them far longer for them to get results the way that they were working there!
He felt amazed at actually meeting an alien and one of the builders of the tunnels out there, and the killer that they had been hunting for, with the police everywhere and the story being covered by the media in such depth.
The problem now was he never thought the other death was the alien killer and that something else had completely drained the body of water and of something else that they could not recognize.
A glance into the corridor once again showed him that the archaeologists were scanning regions of the castle with their equipment as they had said they would.
Bryson was amazed at the destruction some had made and they had removed the lower ceiling to reveal the original ceiling, made of solid oak beams, and he considered what it would be like being upon the castle roof and wondered why they never searched there?
The wires from the lights had rot and webs over them and had been easily broken and were in bits scattered over the floor, and he eyed up the mess wondering why they had not left it and if someone intended to fix it as they would have no lights there if they were not repaired.
The place would have to be cleaned up anyway or left if the place remained with its disturbances, as many more deaths would follow, and he wondered how the hell they would handle the situation? Would the military make it a forbidden zone?
Bryson marched along the corridor occasionally looking into rooms, which the others had clearly rigorously searched through, and he made an occasional search of anything that looked interesting to see if he could spot anything that they had not.
Bryson decided to go and see William, and left the top floor, and was amazed to see the police rushing up the stairs on the next floor and going out to the scene of another death, and he decided to follow to discover what had happened.
At the door of a room, where the police had gone in, Bryson studied a crumpled up body of one of the police and gasped and realized that all the police would be returning there, and he realized that he recognized the policeman and had seen him a few times at the lounge and he tried to see if he had missed anything about the death and if there was anything different this time, and as he did he realized that the police there thought the alien was the culprit – and that they thought there was another there.
Again the body was completely drained of water and of something else that he could not recognize and he saw why they had blamed the alien, and he even considered if it had been. The alien in the wood had been a genetic cross with a human! What if the proper alien was far different? The genetic cross version was clearly adapted to meet and talk to humans.
According to the alien they had advanced technology – and had built the tunnels – and had made human sacrifices to their ancient gods. Yet it could have lied to cover up there being aliens there, or were there others that it had not known about?
Chapter 22
The Invasion
Only a few days had passed and six more deaths had occurred in the castle, and Bryson realized that there must be at least a hundred policemen there now.
The entire castle and media to Bryson seemed to be going crazy – mentioning and thinking of the occurrences at the castle!
The deaths were unbelievable and all done in the same hideous fashion leaving the victims drained of energy! The police could not realize anything new now! And it seemed something was killing people all about them, right under their noses, which was totally unbelievable, and it was like someone had come up with something to make a fool of them all and ruin their methods of detection and representation. All their leading people from all over the country were trying to solve the mystery! The most advanced surveillance methods and equipment were everywhere monitoring the place night and day.
Yet the problem with it was that they never put it in people’s rooms or in the rooms that the people were working in – but in the main places and corridors that any person would have to through to get someone, including the outer building.
Yet most of the people now had phones and were sharing rooms and could hear any sounds from the rooms next to them, as well as having the corridors monitored by the police and soldiers guarding them.
What annoyed Bryson was nothing indicated and gave any clues to what it was!
William seemed confused and to be in danger like the rest of them and Bryson and everyone else watched him everywhere, and he just gave confused remarks.
There were stories being put on television for days and mainly because it was the only real occurrence that was happening! Everyone seemed to be taking an interest in it and their safety! Most, Bryson believed, wondered what would happen if it started occurring everywhere – and they could not even control the region of the castle!
Everyone took it that it had been a human killer and not something else, which was only suggested, clearly because of the castle! Surely something so hideous, evil, and unearthly that they suggested could not exist? He tried to ignore how hideous it was, trying to look upon it as an artist observed a crazy exhibit, but it was no use! Something was now out to get them! The things in the wood, if they were not the culprits, were nothing compared to it and they now looked as if they had been playing with them and only scaring them away from their territory.
The thing, whatever it was, played with their imaginations and they were not allowed to get anything about it and if it had been something like the aliens that had built the tunnels in the wood. There still was no connection and anything in the castle!
He had thoughts that it could be what had caused all the deaths through the centuries and that the thing had been thrown out of one of the gateways, vortex in the tunnel, or from what had put the aliens there. It could have been trapped there, and perhaps not been such a killer, and it could either have gone mad or something had happened to it to make that way.
The only real evidence that existed was what had happened to the people killed by it! The complexion of the bodies showed it had drained them of blood and showed the deadliness of the place, and their chances of survival had vastly decreased and danger could now exist there in the castle and during the day.
They never knew what they were up against and how to survive against it! They were becoming defenseles
s and they could not do anything about it!
They were confused more than he could ever recall seeing the police and they had difficulty talking about what was occurring because they had so little!
Strange thoughts of him leaving the cold confines of the place and whole region gave him shivers of ecstatic pleasure once again!
Yet the pleasure they would get if they solved the case and showed it to the world was far greater, and it was clear in the things that they said, especially in the dinning room when they were not working. It was a classic new scenario and there seemed no way to solve it! Something had to happen? How could they stay there with more and more deaths occurring without what was behind it being caught?
Bryson kept thinking of it at two angles and that he could leave and go on holiday to some hot place next to a desert or when he realized what was happening that he quite definitely would have to be forced into leave there as he did not want to miss what happened there.
He worked out the exact time the deaths occurred and asked the police what their times for the deaths occurring were and they all closely matched, and he recorded all the times, and he tried to compare the times with each other to see what they all had in common. What had been happening there when the deaths had occurred? Were they at the same times of the day or were they at times something happened?
Yet after a great deal of investigation he only proved that they were random times! He also checked the people who had been killed and what they had in common, what they had been doing, and at the time of their deaths, and what locations they had been in and he established that there were no real connections other than that they had been on their own and mainly in places that people had not been near, which showed whatever it had been had deliberately hidden itself, which he considered might show that it might be destroyed.
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