Adam Brodie and the monster from the dark planet

Chapter Two

 Chapter Two

The vision brought about by the passage to the fourth dimension suddenly left Adam. He looked around him, stunned, and feeling like he had woken from a deep sleep.

"What was that?"

"It always happens when you reach the fourth dimension. My dad warned me about it. I'm surprised Jake didn't tell you."

A memory popped into Adam's mind from a forgotten conversation he'd had with Jake.

"He did but at the time I wasn't listening. I never listen to him."

"I saw stars, nebulae. I saw all the way to the centre of the multiverse." She looked at him. "You ok? You look as though you've seen something weird." Then she realised where they were.

Adam could still see that baleful image whose eyes had bored into him. He remembered that fateful night and its horror. Adam told Brigitte.

"And it was no nightmare?" she said, her eyes widening.

"My parents tried to pass it off as one but I know it happened."

"Who would want to hurt you?"

"Somebody wearing armour and red glowing eyes, whoever he is."

"Could be a she," said Brigitte. "I'm not helping am I? Maybe the shock of the fourth dimension just brought back a bad memory?" She shrugged.

Adam thought about this. The vision had scared him but now was fading. His heart began to stop pounding. He shook his head. Maybe Brigitte was right and an old memory had surfaced and scared him. He looked around him at all the strange creatures bound for the Nexus. None of them knew him so who would wish him ill?

He thought back to his home. His family owned a farm, part of their mortal guise. Adam thought about the horses his parents gave riding lessons on, the chestnut filly Trojan that was his favourite. He thought about the green countryside and how, when he wasn't engaged in cosmic duties, his father took him on walks and pointed out the names of the trees and the flowers. Despite not spending a lot of time on his world, his father knew it well.

Adam missed that. He felt a powerful sense of longing for his home and a hole in his life had opened up. Adam felt he did not belong in this place and did not belong at the Nexus. His vision had warned him something evil lurked there. In his imagination Adam smelt the ever present aromatic scent of chlorophyll, particularly on a spring day, particularly after a rainfall. Added to that the sweet smells of the surrounding woodland. He missed it all so much.

The creatures in the star-ship appeared like a rainbow hue of colours, as they moved about, they formed shifting patterns of reds, blues, golds, ochres, violets and greens and yellows. Among these aliens were all colours, tints and shades, and the aliens in motion, some fast, some slow, some stock still, some flying, creeping, waddling, jumping and walking, appeared to Adam like the most awesome of all kaleidoscopes. Adam wondered if any of them felt as he did. His spirits which had recently risen, tumbled again.

Ever sensitive, Brigitte said, "Homesick? Hey we're on an adventure. Think of it, an adventure!"

She stuck out a thumb as an expression of triumph.

Just then what looked like an ordinary boy wearing a T shirt and jeans and sneakers walked by but he had a grotesque orange pumpkin for a head, with a mouth and eyes carved into it. The two children stared after him.