The Visitor

Chapter 1 - Spiders

This is a pretty hard story to tell... I can't promise you it'll be easy to stomach. It gets pretty weird at times.

Halo, I've been in the police for almost twenty years and I have two...pretty insane children. I think I'm used to weirdness by now.

If you're sure... Don't say I didn't warn you. It all started, as I said before, in 2245...

***

Halloween night, 2245.

The house party at Shikari Rain's mansion was the event of the year. It would definitely go down in history, for more reasons than just the obvious. It was the kind of occasion where a mere ten minutes after starting, after getting everyone comfortable, after the majority of the teenagers in the house had settled down into party mode, the rave was in full swing. Kids were dancing, singing along to their favourite tunes blasting from the DJ's stand, eating their favourite food which was being served by the newest, most fabulous robot waiters that anyone could afford.

The Rain mansion was large, it was grand and it was the sort of house everyone dreamt of, but no one could ever have. It had seven entertainment rooms, the most impressive of those being the ballroom, where the party was taking place. It had a large golden chandelier, which a tall, fourteen year old golden boy was swinging on. It had a stage, where the DJ's booth was set up, a dance floor surrounded by forty-five ornate tables which accommodated more than two hundred guests. The high-tech robot waiters wafted in and out of the room, taking orders from the touch screen monitors on the tables. It was the best graduation house party to ever take place in the sleepy town of Ravanskroft, London, England. And a sleepy town it was indeed, aside from the scattering of clubs, restaurants, fraternity and sorority houses, all as safe and new as they should have been.

The town itself was old, standing tall and proud since the early 2100s, when the builder of the town, Sir Francis Ravanskroft, decided he wanted a part of London to remain old fashioned like it used to be in the days of our ancestors, instead of being as modern as the rest of the city of London was planned to be.

But that night the usually old fashioned, run-down town was wide awake. The mostly-all-eighteen year olds of Ravanskroft Community Sixth Form College had graduated, and had been parading the streets all night, finally coming to stay and party harder at the Rain household, the most lavish household in the district, next to the Goldsward household.

It was no secret that the Rain family was rich, although how a single father looking after his daughter alone had managed to come up with the money was definitely a mystery to all but a select few. The Rains had a long, dark history of mystery and crime, a history yet to be discovered by any outside of the family themselves.

But as interesting as their family story is, it was the party that was really the issue at hand by this point. Arti Goldsward, more commonly known as Golden Boy, jumped down from swinging on the chandelier, landing squarely in the middle of the dance floor, where his sister and two best friends, Kiara Goldsward, Shikari Rain and Jake Clayton, were dancing in a group. They all danced together, Arti break-dancing on the ground, spinning so fast Kiara looked like she was ready to throw up. When he finally finished and stood up, earning a huge cheer from the crowd which had gathered around him, Shikari took Arti's hand and led him elsewhere, so that they could dance together, and talk together privately, as they'd been meaning to do all night. Of course, the rest of the room was in gossip mode, starting rumours about the not-so-responsible host of the party, and the extremely good looking fourteen year old.

Although only fourteen, Arti Goldsward was highly intelligent, starting sixth form the following year, two years ahead of everyone else, extremely popular, the fantasy of all girls and the envy of all boys. It was because of how unique he was. He had choppy, permanently windswept golden hair, golden eyes, golden skin, and truly earned the name "golden boy". Some found him intimidating, as tall and good looking as he was, but most loved him. Although he never seemed to get on with people his own age. He was always more mature, more serious than the average kid his age, and always more intelligent. He was truly golden, in every way possible. But he was calm, kind, childish when he wanted to be, sweet and so considerate. He was a true gentleman, and the perfect little boy.