Dark God's Gift: A Great Uncle's Legacy

By William Hayashi

     Sybil knew setting off for Reno in the middle of the night probably wasn’t the best of ideas, but the daylight-bright lights of Las Vegas left visitors and residents alike with the impression that night never really came to the city out in the middle of the desert.

     She was traveling to Reno to stand up in the wedding of one of her dearest friends from college, and to take some well deserved time off from her teaching and research position as the University of Nevada. Her plan was to leave after the sunset, driving through the cooler night on a trip that would normally take about six hours.

     The traffic was very light on US-95 as Sybil set the cruise control to 70 MPH. The sky was darkening into a deep red before it would fade to blackness. In the gathering gloom of the night, the attractive brunette opened the window, the wind blowing her hair around even though it was pulled back into a ponytail.

     As a full professor at UNLV she was popular with both students and faculty. Her teaching style was friendly but effective. Her gift was the ability to make even the most complex subjects accessible to young, untrained minds.

     Her interest in science, nuclear research in particular could almost be characterized as hereditary. Dr. Sybil Perth was a not-so-distant relative of Dr. Robert Oppenheimer of atomic bomb fame, though she didn’t know of the relationship until her teens when she overheard a conversation between her parents and a visiting uncle. By that time she was already a science and math whiz with an early interest in the science of nuclear fusion, the power of the sun.

     However, she was quite happy to put any thoughts of her research aside, looking forward to a weekend with her friends.

     The sun had been down for an hour as she was driving to the West of the Tonopah Nuclear Test Range. All of a sudden the air around her calmed, then became still even as the car was traveling at 70 MPH.

     The sounds of the Modern Jazz Quartet through the car’s speakers was loud in her ears as the hairs stood up on her exposed arms. Her car was suddenly traveling too smoothly, as if the wheels were no longer rolling down the pavement. Instantly, Sybil couldn’t breathe, she couldn’t move, and she could see a diffused golden glow around the periphery of her vision.

     Just as she was about to panic, fearing suffocation, she was released from the stasis that held her immobile. When she had gathered her senses she found that her car was stationary, parked in what looked like a residential suburb, the kind of street you could literally find anywhere in America. The car’s engine was off, and in the silence she heard the ticking of the engine as the metal cooled.

     Sybil realized that something extraordinary had just happened. Her internal self-examination was thorough, even to the point of admitting that she could be dreaming, unconscious from a possible traffic accident. But Sybil felt entirely normal other than a rapidly beating heart. One thing that she did notice was an almost subliminal glow in the sky, obscuring the stars and the moon. It was almost as if she was inside some huge dome.

     Removing her seatbelt, Sybil reached over the back of the passenger seat and pulled a 50,000 volt hand stunner from the seat’s pocket and put it in her vest pocket. Now reasonably armed, she rolled up the windows and exited the car. Once out in the open she looked around and smelled the air; it was cool and dry. Sybil locked the car door and set out for the nearest home with a single light on in the windows.

     As she walked there was an eerie silence. Sybil pulled her mobile phone from her handbag and saw that there was no cellular signal available, and strangely enough, the clock and calendar read all zeros even though the battery was nearly fully charged.

     Dropping the phone back into her bag, she continued walking toward the lighted house and turned up the sidewalk leading to the door. As she was walking up the sidewalk to the front door, Sybil caught a glimpse through the livingroom curtains and saw something that brought her to a stop in amazement. Through the window she saw what looked like store manikins standing in the middle of the room, like someone had posed them for a department store window display.

     Sybil shook off her surprise and continued to the door, hoping it would be unlocked so she could enter the house and see for herself what was going on.

     Upon reaching the door, she tried the knob and found the door was locked.  As she tried to decide what to do, through the door Sybil heard the faint sound of music coming from inside the house. Confused, she rang the doorbell and heard it ring inside. A moment later a woman opened the door.

     Looking past the woman, Sybil could see a man standing in the middle of the room, looking directly at her.

“May I help you?” the woman asked.

     Sybil was silent, trying to reconcile the difference between what she was seeing through the door and what she observed through the window.

“Excuse me. Is there something wrong? Do you need some sort of help?” the woman asked as the man came to the door.

“Is there a problem?” he asked the woman who had opened the door.

“I’m so sorry,” Sybil began, “I must have had some kind of car trouble. I was driving along, on my way to Reno and somehow I ended up here,” she said, clearly confused.

     The couple’s faces immediately turned to concern as the man said, “Come in, come in. Are you hurt? Should we call an ambulance, Miss?”

     Sybil let the woman guide her to the couch in the livingroom as she looked around trying to spot any sign of the manikins she was convinced she had seen moments before.

“Here, sit down. Adam, get her a glass of water, the poor dear,” sending him into the kitchen as she sat down next to Sybil. “Now let me look at you. Are you injured anywhere?” she said, examining Sybil’s face, her hairline and then looking at her hands, trying to find any sign of injury.

     Adam returned with a glass of water and handed it to Sybil who took it, thanking him before she took a cautious sip. She paused and then took another, trying to calm herself.

“Would you like for me to call for help, ma’am? We can have you taken to the hospital so you can be checked out. If you’ve been in an accident you really should let a doctor look you over,” said Adam concerned.

“No, that won’t be necessary,” Sybil said draining the glass and handing it back to Adam. “Thank you, I feel much better now. My name is Sybil, Sybil Perth. I wasn’t in an accident so much as I don’t know how I got here. Where am I?”

     Sybil caught the quick glance that passed between the two. Then the woman said, “My name is Patricia, this is my husband Adam and you’re in our home.”

“But where is here? I mean what city? I have no recollection of leaving the highway, just some sort of glow outside the car and then I don’t remember how I ended up parked down the street.”

“We’re you overly tired? Or perhaps did you have anything to drink that might have, well, you know...” Adam asked, his voice trailing off.

“Not that I know of. It’s all been so confusing,” Sybil said, with a growing suspicion that all wasn’t what it seemed.

“If you’d like, I can check out your car. See if anything’s wrong with it,” Adam offered as he looked out the window, trying to spot Sybil’s car.

“Do that, dear. Bring it into the driveway if you can get it started. No sense in the poor woman getting a ticket leaving it out on the street overnight.” Patricia turned to Sybil and explained, “Cars aren’t allowed on the street overnight since everyone has a garage these days.” Adam asked for her keys and then went outside.

     Patricia clasped Sybil hand and said in a low, urgent voice, “You must leave here. If your car can drive you must go! Go before the sun comes up. If you don’t, you’ll never get away from here... you’ll be trapped!”
**** 

To be continued....    Go to Part 2           

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