Fear Of Darkness A serial novel by Joe Lake

So far: Julie’s husband has had an accident and disappears. At the police station Julie sees two people who have no reflection in the mirror. Next, her husband is back and she notices two marks on her neck after she takes a dream-like excursion through the universe. Then, she meets a social worker who says that she is from five hundred years in the future who gives her a ring to travel in different dimensions. They step into a parallel universe and return. Susan leaves but

warns Julie not to turn the ring as this could be dangerous.)

Julie dreams that she is held prisoner in a far away castle in the sky where the evil overlord has chained her to a rock. The lord’s torturer is about to brand her as property with a hot iron, which he has removed from glowing coals. She feels the iron closer and closer to her bare chest. She tries to free herself with one enormous effort but can’t.

She opens her eyes. She can’t see. She tries to touch her eyes with her right hand but finds that she is restrained on the bed. “Help!” she cries .

“It’s me, John. It’s all for the best. You’ve been making noises and screams in your sleep and after what you’ve said the previous day, I thought it best to restrain you for your own good until you’ve had your medicine.”

“You’ve put a sleep mask on my face. Take it off.”

“All right.” He pulls the mask from her eyes.

“Why would you do this to me? We’ve been married for fifteen years and now you tie me up!”

“There was some peculiar rocking of the van last night and some horrible screeching and something touched my hand as I had it hanging out over the bed and it wasn’t you and what about the oversized ring you wear now? You’ve never had that.”

“Untie me and I’ll tell you. What happened was that I’ve met a woman who is from five-hundred years in the future where everything is run by computers and we are just a projection from a multi-universe next to ours. I don’t understand it myself. Universes are like slices in a loaf of bread and we are just one slice,” she said.

“Poor little Julie,” says John. “I love you so much and I only mean the best for you. I’ll call the ambulance and they’ll take you up to the clinic and they’ll make you forget all about this nonsense, all right?”

“No, no, please untie... come to think of it you don’t have to. I can turn the ring with my other finger. Come and lie next to me and hold me. I’ll take you for the maddest ride you can imagine. All I do is turn the ring, palm downwards and we’ll float free and away.”

“I’ll lie down next to you awhile, Julie, just to make you feel better. Then I’ll call the ambulance.” He took his mobile phone and pressed for the ambulance while he lay close to her.

Julie turned the ring downwards and instantly there was a whooshing sound and the surrounds became indistinct and next they were floating within a dark kind of fog.

(To be continued next month)