CHAPTER 1: WeLcOmE tO StRaNgErViLlE

"My name is Doctor Jon Quayle Cornelius and I am what is known as a New Wave scientist and parapsychologist.  A little over a month ago I received a request from the Department of Paranormal Research in America for my help in investigating a mystery they had encountered in the town of Strangerville.  They couldn't tell me much but what they were able to piqued my interest so I am taking a leave of absence from my work at Cambridge University and travelling to the United States to do some field work in trying to solve this mystery.

My companion in this investigation is David Wright.  A promising young history postgraduate and expert in the arcane who was born and raised in nearby Sim City.  His local knowledge will be invaluable in my investigations.

What we're up against I don't know at this stage but I feel it is my duty as a scholar to keep a journal of our findings for posterity."

"The place has barely changed since I was last here, Cornelius" said David, looking around the main town square.  "That must have been about 8 years ago...when I was still in High School.  So, why are we starting here and not at DPR labs?"

"Observation, David.  Like an ornithologist sets up a hide to observe avian goings-on we will set up ours close to the centre of town so we can observe the locals' behaviour better."

"Where's our hide going to be then?"

"Here!" replied Cornelius and with a flourish of his hand he indicated the run down looking wooden house right next to where they were standing.  David shrugged his shoulders, Cornelius fished in his pocket for a key and then they went inside.

"Phew, this place hasn't been lived in for a while!" said David.  "It's hardly to your taste, Cornelius"

"I will add a few of my personal refinements in due course but in terms of location, this is ideal" replied Cornelius, who sat down on the one couch in the living room.  He patted the seat, trying to smooth out a lump in it.

"Who knows how many bugs are buried in that couch?  I'll sit in this seemingly un-infested wooden chair, thank you" said David.

"Your problem, David, is that you don't like to take chances" said Cornelius.  "But, fortunately, you are an expert in history and this area in particular so that balances things out.  What can you tell me about Strangerville?"

"A backwater of a small town, really.  Overshadowed by Sim City and not as touristy as Chestnut Ridge it struggles to attract businesses or industry of any kind.  The main income is from off duty military personnel from a nearby army base and it's sometimes the home of various hippy colonies although most don't stick around for long."

"Interesting" said Cornelius, getting to his feet and flicking a flea off of his velvet blazer.  "I want to take a look outside again" and he briskly strode towards the door with David scrambling to keep up with him.

"Outside is marginally better than inside" said David.  He noticed Cornelius scanning the town with an intense look on his face.

"What are we looking for?" asked David.

"Anything and everything..." came Cornelius' cryptic reply.

"It's hard to know what to look for; the DPR have told us hardly anything!"

"That's because they don't know themselves yet..." said Cornelius, turning to face David.  "Strange lights, behaviour from the locals and one or two military personnel going missing is what prompted the investigation.  The Department sent one of their top men, a man named Holden, to look around the place and ask questions but he too went missing for a while.  He showed up three weeks later having completely lost his mind.  He's in an asylum and will be for many years..."

Cornelius surveyed the scene and noticed something that was of interest.  It was a man who was walking in an unnatural way and with the most bizarre expression on his face.  

"David!  Look at that chap over there!  Walking down the main street...he has one of those Stetson hats on.  Look!"

"Why yes!  That is weird, Cornelius.  He's moving...so...strangely"

"A possible loss of co-ordination perhaps, showing signs of some neurological disfunction?" said Cornelius.

"But look at his facial expression!  It's...it's like some nervous tick" said David.

"Or twisted in a rictus of pain, perhaps?  THAT, my friend, is maybe what we've come to find!  I must go and speak with him to learn more!" 

Cornelius walked briskly towards the oddly behaving man and stood in front of him, barring his way.

"Ah, excuse me my good sir...I am new in town and I was wondering if you could help me" said Cornelius as a way of starting a conversation.

"OuR eYeS aRe OpEn!" came the reply from the man, his voice had an echo like quality as if he was speaking from inside an aircraft hangar.

"Your eyes?  Is there something wrong with them?" asked Cornelius, taken aback by the man's strange voice.  Close up, the eyes had a crazed intensity about them that he had never seen before in anyone.  Could this be one of the strange occurrences that the Department wanted investigating?  Cornelius made a mental note of what he was witnessing about this man; the facial expression, the voice and what he was saying.

"OuR eYeS aRe OpEn..." the man repeated.

"Hello?  Can you hear me talking to you, sir?  Are you conscious of me?" asked Cornelius, waving a hand in front of his face.  No reaction.  Then, after a few more seconds, the man barged his way past Cornelius and continued his strange walk along the road until he vanished from view.

"I've not seen anything like that before, David" said Cornelius after he had returned home to report on this encounter.  "He was completely mentally detached from his environment.  Unresponsive to external stimulus as well..."

"Could it be some drug induced mania?  Like he'd taken LSD or something like that?" David replied.

"Possibly:  The effects of LSD on human behaviour can be random and variable but this seemed more like a monomania.  He kept repeating the phrase 'open your eyes'".

David took a deep breath before responding.  "Obviously that is something that has meaning to him, just not to the rest of us" he said.

"More things to investigate, David!  I don't know about you but I'm practically salivating at the prospect of getting to the bottom of this." said Cornelius, enthusiastically.

"It's going to take a lot of work...we might need some help in it." said David.

"Exactly!" said Cornelius with a grin.  "I've asked the Department to send one of their best researchers to aid us in doing a lot of the drudge of going through local incident reports, witness statements and the like and they're sending us a chap named Chalke.  Apparently they're super keen and very, very good and on top of all that they're also a computer expert.  They should be joining us here later today."

"That's good news at least.  It shows the Department is taking us seriously" said David with a wry smile.  "Especially if they're sending a computer boffin to join us; we could certainly use one of those egghead types with thick glasses, dandruff and a badly worn blazer!" he added with a chuckle.

The doorbell rang at that moment.  "That's probably the man now" said David, getting up to answer the door.  Upon opening it he was in for a surprise.

"Hello?  Doctor Cornelius?  My name is Peggy Chalke...I work for the Department Of Paranormal Research" said the attractive young woman at the door.

"A woman!" blurted David.

"I see you're observant." she replied dryly with a raised eyebrow.

"Erm...yes...sorry...oh and I'm not Cornelius; I'm David Wright, Cornelius is through here." he replied sheepishly.

Cornelius got up from the sofa and greeted Peggy warmly.  "I'm Doctor Jon Quayle Cornelius, Miss Chalke."

"Call me Peggy, Doctor" she replied.

"And you can call me Cornelius.  I admire promptness, Peggy.  Has the department informed you of the nature of our field work here?" he said, sitting down at the small dining table after shaking her hand.

"They have...scant though that information is.  Have you found anything else since you've arrived in Strangerville?" she asked.

"Some strange behaviour from one of the locals.  A combination of monomania and disassociation.  Alas I never found the name of the chap but I can draw you a rough sketch of the man...see if you can find out who he is as your first task" said Cornelius, taking out a sketch pad and a pencil and proceeding to draw the man he encountered from memory in just a few minutes.

"There you go, excuse the rough edges of this drawing but I can add that the man stood at 6' in height, one blue eye... the other one was firmly shut...black hair flecked with grey, wearing an aquamarine corduroy suit and dark brown ten gallon hat." he said handing the sketch to Peggy.

"Meanwhile David, I want you to check out the local library.  I noticed there's one right in the middle of town when I arrived here this morning.  See if they have a local newspaper archive."

"On it..." replied David.

He left Cornelius and Peggy back at the small, run down house and made his way to the town centre.  One thing he noticed was the preponderance of military personnel walking around. 

The library itself was easy to locate; it looked like an old Western schoolhouse that had been converted into a modest sized repository.  It stood out in the town for looking like some effort had been put into making it look pleasant, in contrast to the often stark and run down appearance of the other buildings that surrounded it.  On entering the place he saw that is was surprisingly busy...he also couldn't help but notice that everyone had turned to glare at him as he walked in.  No one said a word, but everyone could spot he was a newcomer to Strangerville.

He walked along the bookshelves, looking for anything about local history and on a cursory look he found three in total.  He made a note of the titles and authors before moving on to look for any sign of a newspaper archive.

His attention was distracted by a young female who was putting books back on the shelves and inspecting the inside covers, presumably checking on the library tags to see if they'd been returned on time.  He supposed she must be the librarian but he also noticed that she looked sad and downcast and that she had recently been crying, judging by the redness in her eyes and the slight smudges of her mascara.  She put the last book back on the shelf and then turned to walk away, her shoulders slumped and her face looking downwards.

David was both concerned about what had made this woman sad but also wanted to make contact with the librarian so he could ask her questions about the archive.

"Excuse me, miss?  Are you by any chance the librarian here?" he asked.

"Eh?  Oh, sorry, sir...I was distracted there.  Erm, yes, I'm the librarian here.  Can I help you with something?" she said, suddenly regaining her composure.

"I hope so" said David, smiling warmly at her.  "I'm wondering if you have a newspaper archive here.  One with local newspapers covered?"

"There is only one newspaper printed in Strangerville, sir, the Strangerville Echo.  We keep copies on microfiche over there." she said, pointing to a section of the library on the opposite side to the entrance.

"Thank you, that's very helpful Miss?"

"Oh Miss Mercer, Lauren Mercer"

"My name's David Wright.  I haven't been to Strangerville for years and I'm still finding my way around." he said, warmly.  She was an attractive young woman who still looked upset and she was trying to be polite whilst struggling to keep her sad emotions in check.

"Do you live here, Mr Wright?" 

"Please, call me David.  Yes, just moved in but I shuttle between here and the campus at Britechester University.  I will be doing a lot of research here for the next few weeks at least and I might need your help finding my way around, if that's OK with you?"

"I know every book and resource in this building, David.  What is your research about?"

"A bit of local history with an emphasis on recent events" he replied.  She went suddenly pale.

"Well, I don't think there's much here that would be of interest to you.  You must excuse me but I have to leave.  It's the end of my shift.  Goodbye, Mr Wright...David...I really can't stay." and with that she hurriedly grabbed her handbag and shot straight out of the library.

She's frightened of something...or someone.  I'm sure of it! thought David to himself.

He tried to spot where Lauren had run off to but she had quickly vanished from his view.  At this point he decided to report in to Cornelius about this encounter and delay his investigation into the archive so he headed home.

"...and then she turned pale, made some excuses to leave and ran off looking very distressed.  I'm sure she knows more, Cornelius" he said, relating the whole encounter to him and Peggy.

"Indubitably, David.  Do you think you can strike up a rapport with this Mercer woman and find out more?"

"Oh I think you could use your charm on her" interjected Peggy with a sly smile on her face.

"I hope so, Cornelius.  Something is troubling her, that's for sure.  And what have you and Peggy discovered in the meantime."

Peggy piped up at this point.  "That sketch you gave me, Cornelius, I took it around town and showed it to some locals.  They say the name of the man you encountered goes by the name of Ted Roswell and...get this...apparently he's the mayor of Strangerville and its most wealthy resident."

"Did they also tell you why he's been acting crazy?" asked David.

"No reason why, they just say he started behaving oddly about three weeks ago." she replied.

"Around the time Holden was discovered, raving and gibbering" mused Cornelius.

As Cornelius made another mental note and pondered over how significant this new information was, David and Peggy were chatting to each other.

"So you're a computer expert, I hear?" asked David.

"You sound surprised" she replied.

"Oh no...although I was expecting a man when I heard we were being assigned a computer expert but, hey, I'm totally cool with women's lib and all that.  I admit, I don't know my way around a computer but there's a microfiche reader at the library.  I know it's not the same..."

"Hmmm, not much but it's still information retrieval on a screen but, yes, we could go there soon and do some digging around whilst Cornelius figures everything out.  Say, is he always this flamboyant and dramatic?"

David nodded.  "And this is one of his more restrained days!  He's a real eccentric Englishman" he replied.  "I sometimes wonder if there's something in the water over there"

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door and Cornelius leapt up from his seat to go and answer it.  "I wonder who this is?  We're not expecting anyone..."

There were three people standing on the front porch, all with the same crazed expressions that Roswell had and with the strange bodily movements where limbs and head all seemed to move independent of one another.  There was a young woman dressed in hippy clothes writhing and gyrating in a bizarre manner and a man in a pale suit and hat who stood perfectly still but with his unblinking gaze fixed forwards.  The third person, a woman, was wearing military fatigues and holding a plate with something wrapped on it.

"Hello?  And who might you all be?" asked Cornelius of the group.  They didn't respond to his voice but continued to move in a disturbing manner, all except for the man who stood stock still.

"OuR eYeS aRe OpEn!" they said in unison.  Cornelius observed their movements to see if he could garner any clues from them.

"So I've heard..." deadpanned Cornelius in reply.

"What's going on, Cornelius?" came Peggy's voice from inside.  "Who's there?"

"Visitors.  All displaying the same characteristics of Roswell." replied Cornelius.  "So far they don't appear dangerous..."

"You'd better stay here and call DPR headquarters, Peggy.  I'll go and help Cornelius." said David, getting up.

"Are you trying to protect me because I'm a woman?" said Peggy, indignantly.

"No...it's because I don't have the phone number" said David, heading to the porch.

Once outside he could see the three visitors for himself and he was taken aback by their appearance and mannerisms.  He approached the blonde woman and tried to talk with her.

"Hello.  My name is David, what's yours?"

"ThE mOtHeR" the girl replied.

"Mother?  Whose mother?" said David, thoroughly confused.

Meanwhile the man in the pale suit finally started to move and he shambled into the house, closely followed by the other two.

David walked over to where Cornelius was standing and spoke in a low voice.  "Cornelius...these people are showing exactly the same characteristics as Roswell!  Could this be mass hysteria?"

"Or something biological.  We can speculate later...right now they're heading inside the house and who knows what they're up to?"

The woman in the combat fatigues shot straight past Peggy and out of the back of the house, as if she knew exactly the layout of the place.  Peggy tried to follow her but her path was blocked by the man in the pale suit, who stood by the back door again, motionless.  

Peggy was scared and went to find Cornelius and David, who had just come back inside.

"David!  Who are these people and why are they acting this way?  I've not seen anything like this ever!"

"We don't know, Peggy, but I'm trying to communicate with them...which is proving difficult"

Cornelius found his path to the back of the property barred by the big man in the suit so he didn't notice the woman in fatigues burying something in the back garden...

Whilst Cornelius was trying to engage with the big man David saw his chance to slip by him and head into the garden to see what was going on.  He couldn't say the woman in fatigues but he did see the hippy girl so, once again, he tried to speak with her.

"Can you tell me what you want?" he pleaded.

"MoThEr..." the girl replied.  "OuR eYeS...."

She had a completely fixed stare that gazed off into the distance and didn't even seem aware that David was standing right in front of her.  He waved his hand in front of her face but there was no response.  Then he tried to slap her back into consciousness but, quick as a flash, she grabbed his hand and bent it far back.

"AAAARRGGHHH!  YOU....ARE...QUITE....STRONG!" he gasped as he felt the pain.

Cornelius had tried the same tactic with the man in the pale suit but instead of trying to twist his hand, the big man just stood there and took the slapping without showing any reaction.

David was still nursing his injured hand when the hippy chick went back inside and went straight to the fridge.  Peggy noticed that she placed something in it, but couldn't see what that was.

The drama had shifted back inside so Cornelius and David followed the strange visitors and watched their every move.  Trying to interact with them was proving fruitless so the best they could do was stand aside and watch the trio go through their strange motions.  They moved like clockwork figurines, working to some strange pattern; moving from room to room, one blocking the path of anyone who tried to interfere, the others moving towards the kitchen or a bookshelf in the hall.

Then another of the town's residents showed up:  Ted Roswell.  He was still displaying the strange traits of his fellow townsfolk that Cornelius had observed earlier and he approached the flamboyant scientist directly:  The first time any of these people acknowledged the existence of anyone.

"Mr Roswell, we meet again..." said Cornelius to the other man, who was now standing right in front of him and fixing him in his enlarged, crazed eye.

"SlEeP!  dEeP sLeEp!" said Roswell

"If it's all the same to you, I'd rather not..." deadpanned Cornelius.

"SlEeP!" repeated Roswell.

"I...I...wait a minute...I'm starting...to...feel...drowsy..." gasped Cornelius.  "Peggy....David...must...stay...alert..."

But it was no good; Cornelius staggered over to the sofa and collapsed in a deep slumber.

And then, just as they had arrived, the mysterious visitors left the house...

Cornelius awoke as the sun was starting to set and looked around a peaceful house, noticing that the visitors had gone.  David and Peggy were still unconscious and instead of rousing them he went out the back to see what the visitors were doing out there.  He could see that the soil in one of the planter boxes was disturbed but on investigation he couldn't find anything that might have been buried there.

His companions were arousing from their sleep now and Cornelius went back inside to greet them.

"They've gone, by the way" he said.

David rubbed his head.  "How could they put us into a slumber like that?" he said.

"Another thing to determine, David.  Are you alright, Peggy?"

"Just about...my head feels so...fuzzy.  Like it's been shaken about" she replied.

"Sit down on the couch and don't try to move too much until you feel steadier." said Cornelius.

She staggered over to the couch and she and Cornelius sat down together, with David heading off to the kitchen to make coffee for everyone.

"I hope this incident hasn't put you off helping us uncover this case, Peggy" said Cornelius.

"Put me off?  If anything it's fired me up!" she replied.

"That's my girl!" said Cornelius, clapping his hands.

"Cornelius...something's odd in this kitchen" chimed David.  Cornelius and Peggy turned to see what David had found.

"What's the matter?" asked Cornelius.

"Someone's taken our fridge."

"The fridge?" exclaimed Peggy.

"I hope no one has cream in their coffee..." said David.  "But why take the fridge?"

"Wait!  I remember seeing that girl put something in it!  I couldn't see what though"

David sat down at the little dining table and stroked his chin in thought.  "Why put something in our fridge and then take the whole thing?  Was it meant to be a gift?"

Cornelius stood up and paced the room before sitting down opposite David.  

"Or....just maybe...it wasn't them who took it!"