The shadowy figure crept over the road, hunched over and alert, as if the whole worlds troubles were on his shoulders. Not allowing itself the sanctity of the light the creature lurches forward into the next shadow, covering its existence from all who could see.
Finally it reaches its destination, no cave nor forest but a run down apartment, only due to the dirt could you see the apartment number. The creature emerges finally and pulls itself straight, the features of a middle aged man, heavily unshaven and unkempt are seen before giving a final look and then disappearing into the doorway.
His door is flung open hastily as he quickly enters, discarding his raincoat to the floor. A bag of groceries is dropped to the ground with equal thoughtlessness as he rushes over to a faint green screen, humming gently. A random assortment of junk food is spilled as he feverishly stares at the screen, it would appear he has been sat there for some time.
‘Come on you piece of crap, don’t give up on me yet’, his hands clasped as if in prayer, his eyes haven’t blinked since he sat back down.
Suddenly the screen explodes into light, the man falls backwards off his chair almost in disbelief. Picking himself up he looks at the screen, a wrinkled and sore smile etches across his face as he sees the fruit of his labours.
There, across the screen he sees the words ‘Federal Bureau of Investigation Abnormal Activities Network’.
‘Harry you are a bloody genius! It has only taken you what, two years?’ he thinks to himself.
His hand dives into the nearly empty bag of cheese nibbles, dusty fingers run back to his mouth and then the keyboard, to join the other in furious tapping. The more he types and uncovers, the more questions appear;
‘I’m never going to find out who they were, maybe they were all right, maybe I did just imagine it’, he thinks this to himself as he leans back.
Suddenly a file catches his eye, hidden away, hardly noticeable through the layers of secrets and cover ups. An abbreviated term, something he missed but something that brings back his memory of that night;
O.D.A.
Harry jumps up out of his chair and begins pacing his room, his thoughts filled with what that folder contains. Does he really want to open it? What will it answer? Will it tell him who that shadow figure, that…monster is? All he remembers is what the ‘man’ told him, and those eyes…those piercing glowing blue eyes.
‘The O.D.A. does not need you remembering what happened here, what you need to do is forget it, and move on, this is our struggle, not yours’.
He opens the file.
What he sees is not half of what he expected. Files and files of missions, tasks, locations and secrets litter his screen. Whoever the O.D.A. are, they are bigger than he thought, and linked to much more than he even thought possible. What confuses him even more is when he finds out what O.D.A. stands for.
What does Outerworld Defence Agency mean? Outerworld? Does that mean off this world? What does this all mean!
His heart pumps faster as he sees more and more files, suddenly one catches his eye.
‘The Bermuda Triangle? These people have had something to do with the Bermuda Triangle? Please tell me this is some kind of sick joke’. He almost closes down the whole folder sensing it is as fake as his apparent ‘hallucination’. Then he sees it. A chilling reminder about why he started searching.
A file simply labelled ‘Operative Shadow Sword’.
Again he leans back on his chair, cradling his unshaven chin in his hands. Seeing that file lit up on his screen for once did not lead to another question, but to that memory; the memory that has consumed his life.
2 Years Ago
‘It was not as if I thought vampires were really real, I just thought they were probably one of those fads that kids go through these days’ he thinks to himself lying on his bed, allowing the memory to consume his conscious. It was a typical night, typical for me anyway. A boring day at work followed by a rerun of ‘Forbidden Planet’ at my local Cineplex; like I said, typical. Walking from the movie I notice that a small group of men had started to follow me. Nothing new I thought to myself, I am walking towards the residential area of town, they are probably going home. One shouts to me, asking what the time is. I answer and continue my walk, yet he asks again, the group are getting closer to me. Before I know it one of them is in front of me, I do not know how fast he was, or where he came from but I smacked right into him as I walked. Now, I have been mugged before, it happens everyday in Chicago, its no big deal. You have your wallet taken, maybe get a few hits and they go. You ring the police, they don’t get back to you, continue. But these guys did not want to mug me, well…not for my wallet at least. It was then that I noticed their teeth, their big…shiny…stabby teeth. There had been reports of vampirism lately, people being attacked and their blood taken. But I didn’t think it was real, not real enough to affect me anyway. I was cornered by them all, being pushed down a dark alley, away from prying eyes and ears. Their eyes glowed in the dark! Glowed…in…the…dark, it only hit me then that I was involved in something that was way beyond my comprehension. I did not see them at first, the shadows covered everyone’s forms, only their eyes gave away their presence. There was no sound, only my breathing broke the silence as they moved closer. The waiting was killing me, I did not know what to do, so I just closed my eyes. It felt like eternity as I stood there, the chilling air holding me still. I finally opened my eyes to see why I wasn’t dead yet, and just saw darkness…and one set of pure blue eyes. I was still frozen to the spot, the eyes did not move, just stared at me. As suddenly as I was nearly killed they came, loads of them, bathed in a hundred spotlights. Everything from then on is a blur, masked men cleaning the alley, dragging the slumped corpses of these…’vampires’ away in black bags. I see it now, the creature who saved me, his deep blue eyes framing almost black skin covered in what looked like tattoos. Wearing combat gear and carrying a now blood soaked sword, he just stared back at me,
‘The O.D.A. does not need you remembering what happened here, what you need to do is forget it, and move on, this is our struggle, not yours’.
And with that…they were gone. And I was left having seen what I did, having known what I knew, and wanting to know more.
Harry snaps out of his memory and returns to staring at the screen, and the name flashing across it. It has been two years of his life, two years in which he has lost his wife and his daughter to this obsession, two years he has dedicated to him. And now he can uncover the truth, he can discover what he saw. He can…end it all. He slowly climbs out of his seat and goes to his bedside cabinet, taking a letter out of it. He gently places it on his bed and collects a clean pressed suit off his wall. He changes into it slowly as he stares at the computer. Now he is ready, sitting back down he opens his bottom drawer and takes and places something on his desk. A final deep breath and he opens the file.
