Armitage

Chapter 1 - It Begins, Again

Madeline Jameson was asleep; the quiet, almost imperceptible sound of her breathing the only noise to be heard in the room, and as she slept the shadows played on the wall from the night time light that found its way through the gap in the curtains.

Shadows that were perhaps darker than they should be.

Shadows that were wrong.

In amongst the regular shadows something was moving, stirring, coalescing into a form more solid, and as it continued to take shape it peeled itself away from the wall. The strange, dark shape glided silently across the room, tendrils that could almost be described as fingers stretching out from it, reaching towards Madeline’s sleeping figure.

‘Good morning Armitage!’

The radio clicked into life and the tendrils snapped back, the shadows retreating across the room and dissipating into the wall. Madeline awoke and rolled over lazily, pressing the snooze button and returning to her sleeping position for the nine minutes that her alarm clock would allow. When the radio sounded a second time she threw back the covers and swung her legs out of bed, stretching her arms and back and yawning widely.

Standing up, Madeline walked to the window and opened the curtains, blinking slightly at the bright autumn sunshine that lay low in the sky. She opened her top window a crack to freshen her room and began preparing for her morning jog. Retrieving a grey hooded sweatshirt and a pair of navy blue jogging bottoms out of her wardrobe, Madeline quickly changed and sat down on her bed to put on her trainers. After brushing the night out of her dark red hair Madeline fished a purple hair band out of her pocket and secured a ponytail through the hole in her Boston Red Sox baseball cap. Picking her keys up from the bedside table, Madeline put them in her pocket and left for her jog.

Madeline Jameson was a twenty four year old Undergraduate student at the University of Armitage, a somewhat prestigious educational institution in the North Eastern United States. She was studying in her final year towards a degree in History, and while she embarked on her morning ritual of a brisk jog around campus, a lone figure in a dimly lit room was studying her, or at least her name. The figure held a sheet full of names, one of which was Madeline Lorraine Jameson, and quietly he chuckled to himself.

‘Yes, she will do quite nicely.’

*          *          *

Madeline stepped out of her dormitory building into the crisp autumn air and set off at a moderate pace. There were not many people around at this time of the morning, save for fellow joggers and returning all night partiers, and Madeline appreciated having free reign over the campus grounds and not having to duck and dodge out of people’s way. She rounded the library and did a circuit of the playing field before heading behind the bleachers on her way back to her dorm. As the sun was blocked from view Madeline noticed what looked like a pile of forgotten rags lying tattered and forlorn next to one of the bleacher supports. She didn’t give it much thought as she passed, until it moved.

Stopping instantly in her tracks, Madeline watched in surprise as the pile of rags stood up and revealed itself to be a person. She could not tell whether it was a man or a woman, because there was not one place on this strange figure that was not either completely covered in ragged material or shrouded in shadow. Madeline turned to jog back the way she had come when the figure spoke.

‘Wait!’ it rasped, its voice denoting it as male. Madeline’s first instinct was to run back to her dorm as fast as she could, but her curiosity overcame her and she hesitantly turned around to face the robed figure.