Longacre Square, New York 1876
"What a wonderful evening," Rudolph considered as he made his way down the cobblestone road that snaked its way through Longacre Square (future Times Square). His buttoned shoes created a clacking noise as he strolled down the avenue.
Rubbing the end of a handlebar mustache, a smartly dressed man in a derby hat nodded politely as he walked by Rudolph on the sidewalk. "Evening to you, sir."
"Good evening to you," Rudolph replied. Brushing away some ash from the lapel of his buttoned cutaway coat, a ring of smoke from his cigar encircled his black silk hat like a cloudy halo, disturbed only by a passing horse and cart. The young man of thirty kindly tipped his silken cap to a well-dressed couple strolling past. "Evening, sir...evening madam."
"And to you, kind sir," the gentlemen replied in response. The woman smiled courteously.
"Hallooo, Mr. Fentz! Nice night for a stroll, isn't it?" Joseph Trenton slurred from the doorway of the saloon. The drunk watched a giggling prostitute skip by and then returned his attention to the well-dressed man before him. "Did Abigail chase you from the house yet again?"
Rudolph stopped in the street and produced a smile. The action released a mouthful of smoke into the air. "That she did, my dear Mr. Trenton. My darling wife, as we all know, has a deep fondness for me, but an even deeper loathing for my propensity for tobacco."
The intoxicated man chuckled. "It appears she does...well...hiccup...pleasant evenin' to ya, Mr. Fentz, sir! I have business to attend it appears."
"And you the same, Mr. Trenton. You the same," Rudolph said with a tip of his tall hat. He shook his head and turned to watch the drunken man stumble down the street in pursuit of one smiling lady of the night.
A sudden rush of wind suddenly blew the cigar smoke away and nearly toppled his hat.
"Stop, human!"
Grabbing his hat, Rudolph rotated his head and found himself face-to-face with something extremely terrifying. A stout man of medium height had appeared from nowhere and stood before him bearing a nightmarish face beset with two eyes of deep black. It appeared to Rudolph as if someone had plucked the frightful being's eyes from the sockets and replaced them with two lumps of coal. "Pardon," Rudolph said with a nod. He attempted to back away.
"You should not have seen that, human," the creature said with an expressionless, inhuman gaze. It reached inside a very strange looking coat covered in varying splotches of blacks, whites, and grays. "You must be eliminated."
Rudolph quickly jammed the cigar into the monster's face. Generating a sizzling sound and a plume of flickering ash, the cigar exploded upon impact. The burning tobacco elicited a bellowing cry from the dark-eyed man.
Rudolph, known to have been quite the decent boxer in his day, planted a right cross and in sequence, an upper-cut into the creature's chin. It felt to Rudolph as if he had hit a brick wall, nevertheless, his quick reaction seemed to daze the fearful man and sent him stumbling.
As the creature fell backwards, its head encountered a street lamp, rendering it unconscious. It crumpled to the ground and lay motionless in a small pool of filthy water. Rudolph stomped his shoe down on his adversary's crotch to determine the thing's cognizance.
Rudolph, satisfied his would-be assassin was immobilized, searched the body and discovered several strange items. The first appeared to be some sort of odd pocket watch along with an even stranger pistol of unknown manufacture. Rudolph stood with the items in his hand. "I shall take these since it appears you meant me harm this evening, devil. Report back to your master that my allegiance is with his mortal enemy, Jesus Christ, and that his time on this Earth will come in the...wait, what is this?"
Stowing away the pair of curious items in his jacket pockets, Rudolph knelt down and removed an exposed receipt and a business card that read, A.D. Brenon, Provision Dealer. 75 Broad Street, New York.
"Is that who you are? Only a simple businessman? This is the handiwork of Satan, himself. Of this I have no doubt..."
Rudolph noted something beneath the man's coat was beginning to glow and pulse like a lighthouse. The watch in his own jacket pocket startled him as it buzzed in timed reaction. Rudolph removed the device to examine it. The watch vibrated a second time...and then a third.
HOOONNNKKK!!!
Rudolph suddenly discovered he was in the middle of a steady stream of shiny and colorful mechanical beasts unlike anything he had ever seen. His head pounded as waves of nausea wracked his body. The man felt as if the world was spinning.
"Get out of the road, moron!" someone shouted from the belly of one of the speeding machines.
"Watch out!"
HOONNNKKK!!!
"You tryin' to kill yourself!?!!"
Rudolph felt his lucidity waning and began to tumble backwards. His foot slipped from the curb...
"I gotcha!" said a man's voice.
Rudolph felt a pair of arms wrap themselves around his chest. He heard shouts and strange squeals followed by more angry shouts. Then, he was gently eased to a very firm surface. Something soft was inserted below the back of his head.
"You're going to be just fine, Mr. Fentz...absolutely fine."
The Victorian gentleman looked up into the face of his aging savior. "You know my name, sir? I must tell you that I saw a demon...are you then, in fact, an angel?"
The man smiled. "No, Mr. Fentz, I'm just plain 'ol Arthur Raymond and that wasn't a demon. That was a Negexis Agent...Welcome to the Multiverse, Mr. Fentz and welcome to 1950."
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Voynich Shift - Season One (COMPLETED)
Science FictionParker Raymond recently inherited his estranged grandfather's large plantation home in Savannah, Georgia. The Spanish Moss hanging from the estate's large oaks, its massive gardens, and a near endless bank account were, in the end, not what captured...
