Shadow Spectrum

Chapter 1 - Monster in the Box

Let's start by introducing you to the third person in this crucial trifecta which will play out further down the story. She was a graduate and scholar in Mythology and Occult studies at Cloverton University, Essex, United Kingdom. Twenty six years old, Penelope Godfrey, or "Penny" for short. She had spent most of her life in the safe comforts of the university studying and researching with hardly any time for a social life.

The occult studies was her life. A true prodigy in her field, the university hired her immediately after her graduation. She had an undeniable passion to learn the sacred rituals of the past and the many lore passed on from generation to generation.

A recent excavation in Eastern Europe has unearthed a monastery buried in rubble. Many of the recovered relics had been brought back to Cloverton University for study. Since the arrival of the new relics, Penny hardly left her studio except for use of the restroom, shower, and sleep if she chose to sleep outside of her office studio. Many of her colleagues have gone and returned throughout the day only to find Penny still glued to the artifacts.

"Penny, you need to leave work at some point," one colleague advised her. "I mean really, you can't stay buried here forever."

Penny replied with a distracted tone, "Well, these old relics won't study themselves."

"They've been here a long time, trust me when I say they'll still be here," her colleagues insisted. "It's the weekend, our life and the future are beyond these halls."

Yet, she didn't respond. All they saw was the back of her blondish brown hair in a ponytail as she was so immersed in her research. Soon she was left alone in the studio. Her emerald green eyes piercing through her eyeglasses then onto to her magnifying glass, her gentle brush on the surface of the relics, such work is the closest sense of intimacy she's ever felt. This truly was the only life she'd ever known not once suspecting that soon her world was going to be turned upside down.

Penny had been working hard examining the many relics. The one she focused on the most was a strange box of unusual origins. The markings surrounding it had various markings, as well as melted wax that sealed the box shut.  She had yet to fully analyze the meaning of the markings, but the person funding this research had explicit instructions to open to box and discover the contents inside.

"Okay, Penny, whatever's inside could be the find of the century," she thought. Her fingers reached out to touch the lid and then stopped for a moment. "But what if the markings are a warning? Then again do these stories of curses ever come true? Bugger! Here goes nothing."

She used a knife to break the wax seal and then lifted the lid, but before she could even see what was inside she suddenly felt dizzy. Her vision became a daze as her eyes rolled back causing her to collapse on her desk passing out.

Her mind entered a state of dreams with fragmented visions of a strange ritual. She was in the center of a masked crowd watching her in a strange gown, she had on ancient silk revealing much of her body. She couldn't understand the words being spoken, but a strange chant rang in her head as the crowd repeated over and over. Until a brief flash of a silhouetted man with horns appeared before her.

She then woke up suddenly looking around her surroundings in a confused state while fixing her eyeglasses. As her eyes began to focus in, she saw two men standing on the other side of her desk staring at her. That's where we come in. I'm there standing to her left in a dark suit tailored to fit, charcoal grey with a matching waistcoat under my blazer.

If you're wondering how my personal features look, well I'll you. My hair is black combed in a faux-hawk style, golden brown eyes, with a 5 O'clock shadow on my face. You can say the lack of sleep was my normal expression, but I don't care. I'm here to be professional, not to make a fashion statement.