The White Room E-Book

Christine Spencer

• Herausgeber: Christine Spencer
• Kategorie: Abenteuer, Thriller, Horror
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

Is the time travel possible? A middle-aged librarian Jim Riley certainly thinks so, after he inherits a mysterious crystal ornament. During his trips into the past, Jim encounters something sinister lurking in the dark cobbled streets of a Victorian town and becomes a witness to horrific events. Things are not what they seem to be and Jim soon loses the track between dreams and reality.

Leseprobe

The White Room

By Christine Spencer

The White Room is a work of fiction.Names, characters, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

This short story contains mild profanity and is intended for mature audience.Text copyright © 2015 C. Spencer

All rights reserved.

Prologue

“Can anyone hear me? Please… help!” Jim shouted and pleaded until his throat was raw. He thumped the thick glass until his fists were red and bruised. The white figures on the other side of the window continued going by their business like nothing happened. No one noticed him. Jim turned away from the glass and slowly slid down to the floor. Tears of desperation run down his cheeks. There was no way out.

Part One 

Where the hell have they gone… Jim stood by the front door, searching pockets for the keys. It was a cold and dark November evening. Heavy rain battered the ground and brown leaves spun in the air, taken by gusts of piercing wind. Jim was shivering. He wished he had fixed the outside light long before the weather changed. This is ridiculous! Frustrated, he considered knocking on Mrs Parker’s door for a spare set, when at last, his fingers touched the cold metal. Jim took the keys out of the hole in the lining of the coat and unlocked the door, stepping into the quiet emptiness of his bachelor pad.

He took off the soaked shoes and went into the kitchen, where Jim carefully placed a large cardboard box on a table. After a quick dinner of microwaved beef casserole, he poured himself some brandy and flopped into an old leather chair in front of the TV. It was a long day. Jim had to endure a boring drive into the country to pick up some items left to him by the late Aunt Virginia and do some work at her cottage to make it ready for the auction. After plastering and painting were done, Jim returned to his beloved library, where he worked since leaving school.

The salary was not great and Jim often struggled to make the ends meet. However, he did not care. Jim loved the stress-free environment the job offered, the musty smell of the old building and of course, shelves full of books. Reading gave him an ability to travel through space and time and explore any century and any place he wished, be it ancient Rome or Victorian London. Jim led a simple, but comfortable life and considered himself to be very fortunate indeed.

***

After an hour of flicking through the channels, Jim got bored and brought the cardboard box into the living room. A black and white cat appeared from nowhere and settled on a brown couch, lazily watching him with big yellow eyes.

Jim reached into the box and fished out a photo album. “Look, Whiskers! I remember when this one was taken,” he said to the cat, pointing at the picture of a little boy with mischievous face and curly blonde hair. The boy held a big cone of ice cream and a balloon. “It was my fifth birthday and Dad took me to the fairground!” A wide smile crossed Jim’s face, whilst he reminisced about the past.

Jim’s childhood was great, until his Dad Robert passed away. Jim was only seven at the time. His mother Elaine, a lady of leisure with no qualifications had to find a job to be able to support herself and the child. Life was hard and Elaine, desperate to blame someone for her misfortune, began to resent her own son. When her sister Virginia offered to look after the boy for a while, Elaine happily jumped at the opportunity to get rid of Jim. He ended up living with the aunt until he graduated from school and found a job at the library.

Jim took a big sip of brandy and continued browsing through contents of the box. His aunt was not a rich woman. Jim found some old books, vinyl records, a red wooden lorry made for him by Uncle Peter and a collection of china ornaments. Jim picked up a round paperweight, made from heavy crystal with a crimson rose inside. When he was a child, Aunt Virginia used to keep it on a mahogany sideboard by the window in a living room. Jim used to stare at it for hours, captivated by the light playing inside of the crystal bubble.

He was just about to place the paperweight on the shelf, when he noticed something shimmering inside. Oh, no! A crack! How did that happen?? Jim sighed with disappointment. He brought the ornament closer to his eyes to inspect the damage and suddenly felt cold wet ground hitting him in the face.

***

“Hey!!! Look where you are going, you bloody idiot!”

Jim slowly got up and brushed the mud off his clothes. He felt too shocked to say thank you to a stranger who pushed him out of the way of a black carriage taken by fiery horses. The man walked away loudly swearing, leaving Jim alone in a dark maze of unfamiliar cobbled streets.

Good Lord, what has just happened?? How did I get here?? Jim helplessly looked around and spotted two passers-by. “Excuse me, what is this place?”

A pretty young woman wearing a long Victorian style dress, a warm coat and a hat decorated with feathers gave Jim a blank stare, as she was rushed away by her older stiff-lipped companion.