From Beyond Belief

Paul Charles

Description

Gillian thought she had been abducted by aliens. Even her husband thought she was insane. The world was never the same again.

Sujets

• Science fiction

Informations

• Publié par: Seaview
• Date de parution: 05 mai 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780954187569
• Langue: English

Extrait

FROM BEYOND BELIEF
 
 
 
 
 
This is a work of fiction. Allincidents, dialogue, and all characters are products of theauthor’s imagination. Any resemblance to any persons living or deadis entirely coincidental.
 
 
Published by Cybelle & Lyme,London, England
Copyright Paul Charles 2002,2012
This edition published April2012
 
ISBN 9780954187569
Set in Garamond
 
Paul Charles asserts the moral rightto
be identified as the author of thiswork
 
All rights reserved. No part of thispublication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, ortransmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior writtenpermission of the publishers.
 
Acknowledgements
 
To my great surprise, From BeyondBelief never went away. There are usually only two reasons for atenth anniversary edition: vanity and money. Maybe they both hadroles in this continuing saga, but the reason uppermost in my mindis closure. There were a lot of things we could have done better,and after ten years the available technology is such that a trueeBook is now possible. This is the edition we would have publishedin 2002 if we had the knowledge, the experience and the currentgeneration of eReaders. I need to extend a particular thanks thistime to Calista Taylor who designed the anniversary cover for thisedition of From Beyond Belief.
As before, thank you to those who areclosest to me: my parents, Ian and Sandra, and my brother Phill forall of his hard work on this book. Without these people there wouldbe no novel. Without my best and closest friend, Becky, there wouldnot only be no novel but probably no author either. Becky hasalways been there to pick up the pieces, so thank you darling and Ihope you think it was worth it. Postscript: Becky and I got marriedin Las Vegas in 2009. In 2011 our daughter Isis arrived.
 
Paul Charles
High Wycombe, England
April 2012
 
 
 
 
 
 
FOR ISIS RHIANNON
 
Chapter One
 
Gillian Flynn sat on the bed in thecorner of her room at the Oak House psychiatric clinic. She didn’tacknowledge her husband’s presence at first. The room was lit onlyby a dim lamp on the bedside table so she could stare out of thewindow at the blackness beyond. She liked to watch the stars. Hehad found her like this many times, just staring.
Gillian changed the subject again.“Work, Peter. Is work okay still?”
Peter Flynn replied immediatelybecause he had an answer in his stock. “Great, yes. We were showinga new computer to a customer today.” She hadn’t lifted her gazefrom the window since he arrived. What was she thinking when shestared out there? “Five minutes into the demonstration the main boxshorted out and blew a chip through the front of the case. Burieditself in the wall behind the customer’s head. He didn’t orderanything.” It had happened but months ago, when Flynn wasn’t livingoff their savings.
Gillian giggled again but recoveredquickly. “I hope they don’t get him. They didn’t get him, did they?He’ll be okay? Will he? Are you okay, Pete?” Flynn let thequestions pound into him. She crawled along the bed toward thewindow. “Leave us alone! We were fine, okay?”
Flynn tried to pull her back but shefought, her fists thrashing the air. “Come on, honey,” he said.“Relax. You’re okay in here.”
She settled uneasily. “I worry foryou, Pete. I worry. Nobody’s safe.”
“Do you want to go to sleepyet?”
”I’ll stay up and keepwatch.”
“As you wish. I’ll be in trouble if Istay any longer, won’t I?” The pretense that there were scheduledvisiting hours somehow made it easier to leave. “Sleep well.” As hestood, Flynn helped her up so he could hug her properly. He watchedas the tears began and her confused eyes locked into a stare thatsearched for trouble before it found her. He was always surprisedhow well Gillian looked. She didn’t look like she had spent thelast four months in this room. Only her eyes betrayed theemptiness. When they cleared, she would sometimes sound like herreal self, fooling him into thinking that she would eventuallyrecover, despite the pessimism of her doctors.
“ Let me close thecurtains,” said Flynn. “You’re safe here.”
“No!” She leapt onto the bed again andcrawled toward the window, her face distorted in terror. This timehe couldn’t stop the screaming and he couldn’t pull her back farenough to stop her beating on the toughened glass.
“Gilly!”
She lost her balance, reached out forsupport, and knocked the lamp off the table, plunging the room intodarkness. He pulled her back and reached for the panic button,driving it into the wall as Gillian scrambled again toward thewindow. Now he was in the way and she was on top of him. Her elbowconnected with his mouth as he tried to grab her hands.
“You bastards!” she screamed as shemoved away from him, pulled by invisible hands. A light went on.Flynn rolled off the bed, glad that the nurses had arrived soquickly. The bed was surrounded by staff, each working to restrainhis wife. He touched a finger to his lower lip and found it bloody.Gillian struggled, kicking out. She connected with a doctor whostaggered backwards. The screaming was intense. It echoed aroundthe room and made his ears ring. Flynn stepped aside as anotherdoctor arrived.
The team had managed to fastenrestraints to Gillian’s wrists, pinning her hands to the bed, butdespite their number they still struggled to control her legs. Anurse pinned her shoulder down while another prepared a syringe.Flynn collected his jacket and turned to leave. He had seen toomuch already.
Flynn retraced his steps through theclinic. He moved through the corridor that led into the foyer andshoved open the front door without slowing. The wind grabbed at hishair and penetrated his jacket. He stuck his hands deep into hispockets and hunched forward to keep warm. Dust blew across the widerose beds. Punished by the dry summer, they were now emptyingthemselves across the parking lot. Flynn reached his car andtumbled in.
He waited, shivering, glad of thecomfort. Feeling guilty for leaving Gillian, he slumped forwardonto the steering wheel. An orange glow from the lights outsideilluminated the intricate patterns of the walnut dashboard. Flynnpulled his tie off roughly, resenting the charade it was a part of.Instead of going to work he would sit alone and consider thecontradictory ideas of Gillian’s doctors. Each of them had lookedfor some deeper meaning behind the claims she had made in herhypnosis sessions. The more they looked, the more tenuous theirconclusions became. Each used different words but the gist was thesame. “Gillian really is too confused to rely on, Mr. Flynn.” Theiradvice was easy to follow at first because it didn’t occur to himthat she may have the clearest view of all. She had nevercontradicted herself, and the details always matched what she hadsaid before.
With nothing else to do, he had readeverything he could find. He found that many other people, perhapsthousands, told similar stories. How could Gillian have so much incommon with them if her story was a symptom of herbreakdown?
Flynn looked down at the magazine onthe passenger seat. As he picked it up, it fell open to a dog-earedpage. Though he had read the article several times in the last fewdays, he glanced over it once again. It described a conference thatwould take place tomorrow. He turned over to the program of events.He had drawn a red circle around the name of the presenterscheduled for 11:30. The name had become familiar to him in recentmonths as he read her books full of cases like Gillian’s. Thearticle described the presenter, Carrie Ann Wright, as a “renownedUfologist and writer specializing in cases involvingabduction.”
 
Chapter Two
 
There were seats for maybe fivehundred people in the conference hall, and it was full. Smallclusters of people seated themselves awkwardly in the aislesbetween the tiered rows. Flynn was surprised by the number of otherpeople who thought Carrie Ann Wright had something to say that wasworth listening to.
“The final question, then,” said theslim Ufologist as she rested her hands on the edges of the lectern,“is why, despite all the evidence, do so few believe in the realityof abduction? I suggest that simply asking is asking too much. Ifwe can find alternative evidence—evidence that science and themedia find acceptable and believable—then we can at last get thehelp for abductees they deserve.”
Applause rippled through the audience;a few people stood. Carrie stepped back and smiledself-consciously. She looked nothing like the fuzzy black-and-whitephotos on the back covers of her books. She had been prepped andposed for an academic look: straight, plain dark hair and a paleface. Instead, her hair was a bright amber, complemented bycolorful cheeks. She collected her notes and made her way acrossthe platform to the right. Flynn followed her at a distance alongthe corridor outside. After passing through a few doors anddescending a wide staircase, he guessed she was following signs tothe canteen.
When Flynn arrived, Carrie was payingfor coffee and a slice of dark chocolate gateau. He was surprisedto find the canteen so empty at midday. Apart from the two of them,there was only a man dressed in a pale suit. He sat by the window,three empty coffee cups arranged around him. He looked up towardthe counter, and Flynn adjusted his gaze to the rippling Thames.The welcome sunlight glinted off the water and the shiny tabletopsinside.
Flynn walked over to the beveragecounter. “Just coffee, please.” As they had for Carrie, the staffserved in silence. He had to read the amount off the tillhimself.
He turned away and was immediatelydisappointed. Carrie was sitting with the man by the window. Flynnchose a table nearer the counter and toward the back wall so hecould see if the man left. He started rummaging through a wickerbasket of sugar, sweeteners, and cream in front of him. He emptieda sachet of sugar into his co