H Syndrome

H. SYNDROME



Written By

Kevin Murphy



Hart Fell, Scotland, AD 2083

Rianne rolled over to see the time was 2:34 AM. A deep sigh and she moved to snuggle up to her soundly sleeping husband, Colin. From outside came the rumbling of thunder from a storm in the distance. Then she heard something from inside the cottage.

“Oh my God!”

She knew right away that it was a burglar.

Colin stirred, “Um, what?”

Rianne shook him frantically. “Colin!” She whispered, “There’s someone in the house!”

He rolled over on his back coming out of his sleep, but it was too late. Two large and dark figures burst through the bedroom door. Colin struggled to rise and defend against the two assailants, but was slashed across the neck with a knife as he tried to get up. Then for Colin, it was over, a blow to the head and he was knocked down and stunned nearly to unconsciousness.

The two figures then grabbed Rianne and she fought furiously against the two attackers as they made their way quickly out of the cottage. Outside, the thugs quickly tied her up and tossed her into a van. Colin fought to get to his feet, struggling to stay focused on the pursuit of the two men that had taken his beloved. Once outside, he saw with blurred vision the van speed away. Without hesitation, he hurried to his Land Rover and the chase was on. Down the winding road next to Hart Fell they raced the criminals with Rianne speeding to get away with their crime, and Colin in hot pursuit.

Driving with one hand and dialing the cell phone for the constabulary with the other, Colin, bleeding badly from his neck and head, raged at the thought of Rianne in the hands of evil men. It had begun to rain as the storm had finally come. The four cylinder topped out its RPM’s as Colin was gaining on the van, and Rianne.

Driving with one hand and reached the police with his cell phone, “Yes!” His speech was slurred because of the deep gash in his throat. “I need help! I am…NOOOO!”

As he tried to maintain hold of the truck going around a sharp turn in the road, he lost control of the vehicle. It slid sideways then caromed off the road and rolled side over side down into a deep gully. It came to a stop on its side against an ancient oak.

Shaken and bruised, Colin clambered out of the wreck and could not find his cell phone. His right arm was useless; as he knew right away it was broken badly, as were a couple of ribs. He was fast losing blood from the gash on his neck and contusion on his head from the battle in the cottage. He was going into shock as he barely felt any of the wounds as he fought to remain focused on the situation. The rains were heavy now, and he shook from the cold.

“Goddammit…ahhh!”

He struggled to make it back up the gully, but his physical condition and the mud caused him to slide back down into the ditch, which was filling with the rains. The pain and shock made him fight for his consciousness as he turned and stumbled, then made his way through the wood blindly into the unforgiving night. He made his way through the darkness, not sure where his next step would take him. Suddenly he tripped and fell headlong into a dark pool. He choked on the water as his clothes caught a submerged fallen tree and it held him under the water.

His mind screamed out “Rianne!” Then darkness overwhelmed him.



Caledonian Forest, West Scotland, AD 2083

The van stopped and the door was opened. Rianne was grabbed and taken into the forest.
“Oh God.” she muttered.

She was being pulled along, fighting against her antagonists’ efforts to hold her. ‘Whatever they do,’ she reminded herself, ‘do not make anything easy’ her hands were bound behind her and she purposefully stumbled and fell stalling for time.
Like her husband, she was physically fit and a good athlete, mentally tough, and even under these circumstances, she refused to be intimidated. She bided her time, waiting for the right opportunity as they made their way through the dark wood. If she did manage to escape, it would be difficult for her captors to follow, or even find her.

The Caledonian forest of southwest Scotland was, after all, her home, and she knew every millimeter of the region, and even bound as she was, she could make it very difficult for her abductors to find her if she managed to get loose.

They moved into a clearing and a voice from one of the captors commanded, “We wait here.”

Rianne thought she recognized the voice, she knew she had heard this man before.

‘Who is this guy?’

She could not understand what these men were wanting with her. Sexual assault had not, as of yet, presented itself and she had not been abused to any life-threatening degree.

‘What do these people want? Who are these people?’

The kidnappers stood curiously quiet, as if waiting for someone or something. The familiar voice ordered, “Light the lantern, it will signal to our guest that we have arrived.”

In a flash of memory Rianne remembered whom the voice belonged to.

“Joel Breland!” She exclaimed.

The shadowy figure turned to her.

“Hmmm” He chuckled. “I am impressed, Rianne.”

His tone dropped as he spoke her name. She could see her chief abductor clearly enough in the lantern light, his face shadowed, long and drawn. She glared at him and she finally snapped.

“What the hell do you want with me? Why are you doing this?”
Rianne had once heard Breland lecture at Manchester College on the structure and nature of theocratic and totalitarian regimes.

“Why?” she implored. “What are you getting out of this?”

Breland frowned and shook his head.

“Pity.” He bemoaned. “It is not going to matter to you what I am going to gain when this is finally over. You will, however, very shortly understand a great deal more than you could have ever imagined.”

From the dark of the night, beyond the lantern light came a chilling reply.

“Indeed she shall.”

A tall shadowy figure slipped into the low light wrapped in a heavy cloak to ward off the cold and the rain. The newcomer’s face was hidden beneath a dark hood. The kidnappers moved away from Rianne and their ‘guest’. A gloved hand extended from the figure reaching for Rianne.

The form spoke again, “It is time for us to go…” She struggled

“No! Let me go…” yet darkness consumed her.

The night forest faded from her reality and consciousness. Oblivion…she fought furiously against her tormentor, yet to no avail. A taunting laughter filled her head. She was suspended within a blackness held by invisible bonds.

She lost all sense of time and reality. Her mouth was open as if she were screaming; yet there was no sound. She was being suffocated by a horror that sought to fetter her mind, chain her body, and cage her soul. Through it all was a mocking laughter that reverberated inside her very being. Rianne bent, but did not break. She fought against this assault with every shred of her own existence, refusing to give herself up, unwilling to give in. Still she could not break the bonds that bound her and still could not utter a sound, not cry out. A freezing cold would wrack her, and then the next instant a stifling heat would choke her. Silent screams to existential extremes of agony and oppression crushed upon her mind, devouring her body.

Tumbling out of control, Rianne disappeared into the Dark.

“…You will be sacrificed…you must die…”



Western Iran, Lake Oramiyeh, AD 2083

Rianne awoke screaming into consciousness. Gasping with terror, and gulping for her breath, she coughed and shook from the trauma of the event. She was no longer in the Caledonian forest but rather in a dark chamber lit by a lonely torch on the wall of stone. The laughter in her head had ceased but a low menacing chuckle was coming from within the room. The chamber was large, oval, with a ceiling that rose into blackness. She was on a small, round dais a few feet off the main floor and was bound to it by a heavy chain, so escape for the moment was not possible.

The chafing chortle ceased and Rianne having regained her senses and composure finally sat up peering into the shadows trying to see who had done this to her and brought her to this strange place. Slowly, a dark form emerged from the edge of the chamber moving into the flickering torchlight. Rianne did not recognize this…person?

A tall pale, strange looking man it was who spoke only one word.

“Excellent.”

Rianne stared at…it.

“What the hell are you?” She flared, “What do you want with me?”

She moved slowly down off the dais continuing to keep her eyes on this man.

She demanded to know, “Why am I here?”

The pale man ceased smiling and stepped to get a better view of his captive.

He spoke in a low, unhurried tone, “Yes, indeed, we chose well. You have more than what we need, yes, you are a fine example of your species, as well.”

Rianne was stumped for a second, “Species? What are you talking about?” She stepped towards him oblivious to the danger he posed to her.

“What the hell are you?”

He stood with his hands held behind him, observing Rianne with a keen interest. She would not let herself to be intimidated by the situation, or the tall, large pale man before her.

He turned and walked around her and calmly explained, “I am to be at the appropriate time, my dear, your executioner. I am the one that will ensure our victory over your kind on the world called Earth.”

He smiled at her, and continued, “you as well as several others are to be the reason for the end of your’ species on this world. It will not be long before most of you are made extinct and the rest enslaved.”

Still smiling at her, he told her his name, “Indeed, the battle has already been joined and for the short time you have left, you may call me Denekon.”

He stepped towards the dais and stated, “It is time for the end to come for your species on this planet. We shall cause you to go extinct, and then take what we need until there is no more. You will be vanquished from this universe as we have done many times on many other worlds. It is our destiny to conquer, rule, and destroy all lesser beings.”

Rianne had no idea what the hell he was talking about. Things being as they were, however, she was beginning to keep an open mind. Other worlds? Populated by what? The moons of Jupiter were as far out as humans had settled and those were corporate mining colonies and not residences, and the Mars colony missions were just getting started. She had to know more.

“So we’re going to be vanquished? How will you do this? What does this have to do with me?”
He continued in the same deliberate low tone.

“You may put it this way: the release of certain types of energies at specific times can produce desired results. Your death at the right time will ensure our victory throughout the entirety of the conflict at once.”

Rianne for the moment sat back on the dais, trying to make sense of what she was hearing.

“You keep talking about a victory as if there were a war going on. Who…what are you?”

Denekon turned and stepped away from her, and replied, “That is not something you need to know. For the short time you have left it would benefit you not at all to know anymore.”

For the time being he left her in the torchlight as he returned to the shadows, saying nothing more.

Rianne sat slowly to the floor leaning back on the dais, fingering the chain that bound her to it, trying to stay focused and alert for any possible chance to get away. For the moment, however, it did not look good for her. She thought of what he had said, humans being made extinct by whatever this thing was. Rianne herself was a link in that process, and apparently they key one. To be thrust into a situation like this without knowing anything about the big picture was maddening for her.

‘Ok, I have to fight to stay alive here.’

She tried to look as least conspicuous as possible while trying to find a way out, and to be ready if the opportunity did, even in the smallest way, present itself.

‘Oh God.’ She thought for the moment and closed her eyes, ‘Colin…’ she thought of her beloved.

Denekon’s voice interrupted her thoughts in her mind, ‘No my dear, there will be no one coming for you’

Rianne flared instantly and was at the end of the reach of the chain, “You bastard! You are going to die!”

At the edge of the dark, she saw him…it, smile, and his eyes gleamed with a demon’s fire, cold and hypnotic. Rianne still would not yield, and stood unwavering, typical British bravery in the face of a mortal threat. Denekon seemed amused at his captive’s defiance.

He spoke again in that deliberate flat tone, “We have faced many foes much more formidable than your species, and quite simply it does not matter what you think.”

Rianne glared back at it.

“You are a fool…”



Caledonian Forest, Scotland AD 2083

‘…I dreamed I stood within the Nemeton, the deep past a flood of memories inundating my mind. I stepped to the edge of the great stone portals and walked out onto the plain into a roaring wind…the passing of the ages. The keening and the moaning of the Lost, I heeded, listening to the wail, as it was feeding my growing rage.

“I stood upon a high rocky crag looking down to an angry sea thundering against the stone face of the cliff that jutted out into the raging ocean. She was beckoning me, the One who holds us all, who gave us life and takes us when we die.
‘Within this realm, this Otherworld, I stood naked against the raging, dark elements, against the Olc Anord. My strength was drawn from the fundamental energy of the Numina, the Prime Source.

“At once, I was covered in a skin of iron armor. On my right arm was a large oval shield, in the grasp of my left hand was a black battle-axe, soon bloodied and covered in gore. In its scabbard was the great sword and beneath my bull-horned steel helm, my amber eyes blazed defiantly, eagerly, for the gathering of the hosts had already begun and coming was a great slaughter of men.

“Eruptions of lightning screamed grandly, wildly through the black storm clouds looming low in the dark tormented skies. Thunder pealed then boomed rolling into the distance and the heavens wailed at the coming tempest, torn by the howling wind that whipped and howled throughout the highland passes.

‘…Echoes of the shouting…
Remnants of the din of battle…
Yet the rains did not come.
I stood before the Tower,
My heavy cloak held by an iron brooch
Warding off the tempest of the storm
The Tower,
The distant memories within…
I know I dream of things long ago;
What someone else, not me,
Has seen…’

Colin burst free from the water gasping for air. He coughed and hacked, then collapsed under a tree. Colin came too and found himself under an old oak within a thick grove through which ran a stream fed by a spring that lie below ground.
He felt for the gash on his neck and forehead and was surprised to find both somehow healed and the pain in his arm and ribs was no longer. ‘How is this possible?’ He took a deep breath and slowly got to his feet and looked around, somewhat puzzled at his surroundings now as what they were just moments ago. There was also that strange dream he had just experienced.

The skies were clear with stars brightly twinkling, the moon placid and bright, and the wind was calm. The storm had ceased.

He muttered, “How long have I been out?”

He peered through the trees to look for the lights of the highway that should not have been far away. There were none that he could see…maybe a power outage due to the storm? He then slowly began to remember, ‘Could I still be dreaming?’

He had lucid dreamed many times before, but this was entirely different; it was real.

“Rianne…” he whispered, “I have to go…”

Then from somewhere within the grove, came a woman’s voice.

“And so you shall…”

Colin looked around to see who had just spoken.

“Hello?”

A presence filled the grove, one most familiar but as if something forgotten. Something he should have recognized. He suddenly staggered and collapsed, convulsing uncontrollably and a torrent of images flashed…faces, places, events poured into his mind. He could not control his own thoughts as they were fused with a torrential pouring in of the thoughts, memories, experiences, and dreams of others in distant times. Realities of those other lives in a chain of human genetic memory and consciousness flooded his mind. Imprints of ancestral memories welling up from the depths of his subconsciousness; images also of things past, the present, and of the future all occurring simultaneously and he saw the War of Species, between humans of Earth and the Triaac World.

“Wh…what…is…ahhh…this…?”

“Master! Call forth your Hounds!” She beckoned.

Colin suddenly saw a future of things, the whole of the War: the stand at Dun Murchadha and Alexander battling for the Jewel; Tedakei and Earth’s hope at the Pass of Thermopylae.

The Enemy…Mandis, Denekon! The voice came again.

“You know who you are, My Companion! My Guardian! My love! Master of the Hunt, you are Lord of the Forest and Skies!” She implored him to engage the Enemy.

“Drive them before you as the dust before the storm!”

Colin, but no longer Colin himself, shouted, “I…AM…I!”

A rage seized Colin/Cernnunos and it exploded upon the grove. Lightning rained down on the ground where he stood as Colin’s existence fused with the energies of the Master of the Hunt, the Lord of the Forests and Skies and Companion and guardian of the Mother Earth. A steady massive stream of pillar lightning fed the transformation, powering the instrument of doom that would fall upon the Enemy now threatening the Earth, and the life of his beloved. Becoming well over eight feet in height, his huge and powerful frame arched upwards and his mighty chest heaved as amber-blue plasma of life energies pulsated and radiated from the Earth into the Master.

He howled in exultation as the energy burned, and his body lifted off the ground. What emerged from the storm was a tall, massively built human form clothed in blackened wolf-hides, crowned with a magnificent bull horned helm. What was left of Colin’s consciousness reeled at the inundation of knowledge and vision beyond the limits of mortal comprehension. Yet all that burned now was vengeance!

Retribution upon the vile creatures that stole the Jewel and the foul thing that now threatened the Goddess: the Earth, and Rianne. The enemy had dared to defile his sacred ground! Within the torrent of the tempest, the Champion of the Earth stood solidly upon the face of the world with arms upraised he bellowed the answer to the challenge issued by the Enemy. Other realms trembled at the gathering of the Hosts in this War between the Triaac and the Earth. At his command, nine huge and vicious hounds appeared to join the Hunt. Abruptly, the storm ceased, and he stood complete and indomitable.
Colin would see the return of Rianne, and to ensure the defeat and death of the Enemy. It was time, for time was short. The Enemy had attacked our world and had been engaged in battle on all fronts, in all times, by the Champions of the Earth. His hounds bayed awaiting his command. Colin silently turned and reached outward pointing towards the Keep holding his beloved thousands of miles away, to Rianne, at Denekon.

Eastwards out of Britain and across the face of Europe once again as it was long ago, the Wild Hunt could be seen by the people of the modern age and they feared and wondered. They saw huge and terrible hounds followed by a giant with burning amber eyes and clothed in wolf skins. Ranging again upon the Earth enraged at the abduction of his companion, to be a sacrifice murdered by the enemy sought to guarantee the victory over the peoples of the Earth. As he viewed all times of the War, the Master closed on his quarry and a storm flowed steadily across Europe towards the East.

Near the enemy’s stronghold on the Earth the hounds moving at incredible speeds and an untiring drive hit the ground for the chase was on. Close behind, the Master directed their course, the apex of the predator species on the Earth. He would engage the Enemy in a death-grip to wrest free from the grasp of the Enemy, his most beloved. Lightning flashed and thunder pealed and rolled into the distance and the people who glimpsed the Wild Hunt marveled at what they saw, a sense of something familiar, of ancient and distant memories. The Lord of the Hunt, beckoned by the threatened Earth, answered the call, to fulfill his role.



Western Iran, Lake Oramiyeh AD 2083

Rianne sat on the altar never letting Denekon out of her sight, not that she had much choice, being chained to the dais. When he taunted her, he would step towards her menacingly, and she would just glare back at him, refusing to yield.

Rianne sensed there was something looming large at the edges of this whole thing, but just could not define those images. Denekon now positioned himself deliberately between Rianne and the lone torch. All she saw of him was a dark silhouette unable to see any facial features. He remaining motionless for sometime, just standing, and staring at her.

She sat chained to the dais, glaring back. Her mind turned, vexed at the reality she was experiencing but could not totally grasp. A realization of her circumstances and knowledge of her part at the center of an event that was occurring at the same time throughout other periods in the human timeline now weighed heavily on her mind. She allowed herself to close her eyes, despite the threat from Denekon. She took a deep breath and let go of the moment, letting her mind release from the fetters of fear.

From another time and place, Anna’s mind saw much of the War of Species and touched Rianne in her thoughts. “Do not fear for he comes for you…
”
Denekon sensed what Rianne was experiencing and moved towards her to break the bond between her and Anna. “You cannot do this…!”

He hissed and reached to grab her. Rianne recoiled, falling away from this creature now fast losing its human guise. He snapped a short, harsh snarl and moved faster than she could react as she fell back to the length of the chain holding her. Just as he had her for the kill, a vicious growl came from behind him. This broke the focus of Denekon on Rianne and he turned to see a massive hound, baiting for the kill. He turned his attention to the hound and stepped towards the hunting dog that backed away luring Denekon away from Rianne.

As he was occupied with the hound, an enormous human figure stepped from out of the void and into the chamber between Rianne and Denekon. Rianne could not believe what she was seeing and stuttered in disbelief.

“Colin…?” His massive frame pulsed and flexed with indomitable power and filled the chamber with his presence.
Glowering at Denekon, the he flashed a killer’s grin. Denekon turned and stepped back, feeling the sheer brute strength of the Master of the Hunt.

From behind the Master, Rianne commanded in a whisper, “Kill it.”

Denekon howled and shed the last vestige of its human form. Standing not quite as tall as the Lord of the Hunt, but was heavy with muscle, Denekon was formidable as he was a god on his own world. With blurred motion they closed on each other. Grappling, striking and tearing, they battled about the chamber as neither held back the massive strength each possessed. They tore through the stone wall of the chamber as if they were paper. The long abandoned castle shuddered as they eventually breached the outer battlements of ancient stone and tumbled off the high walls oblivious to all locked in mortal combat they fell into the water filled moat below.

Their battle boiled to the surface and onto the grounds where they fought. It was the might of the Master in the service of his Goddess that prevailed as Denekon had suffered in the fight from the beginning and he howled, struggling against the might of the Lord of the Hunt. Colin snarled, mocking this alien creature and caught it by the throat and lifted the now weakened and beaten enemy from the ground knowing that it was time for the kill. The foul thing was flailing helplessly, shrieking, trying to get away from a certain death; for the first time in its existence, it knew fear.
It was over.

Colin drove his fist into Denekon’s chest shattering the bone, tendon, and muscle and grabbed and snapped the thing’s spine. The alien convulsed and wrenched violently, as its screams echoed into the distance, then it ceased. Denekon lived no more as Colin flung the broken thing to the ground. Rianne had witnessed it all, as the hounds had released her. Conscious of it or not, she bore a vicious smile.

Back now in the chamber, the Master stood before Rianne and said to her, “Love him, Lady, for no other loves you more…”
Then a brilliant flash of light momentarily blinded her, filled the chamber and then subsided.

The Master and his hounds were gone, and where he had stood was now Colin, naked, wet with sweat, and shaking. Rianne leapt to catch her beloved as he collapsed…