Mist Opportunity

‘On a cold and grey Valentine’s Day, the air seemed to hold its breath, and Colin Holly noticed. With the uneasy atmosphere enveloping him, he forced himself to look at his newspaper and to begin solving the daily cryptic crossword. Starting with the top line, he very soon wished he hadn’t. The meaning implied by the combination of those two resulting words caused desperation to flood through Holly’s body. Now more than ever, he felt the frustration of having no control over his transition into a world where his house was not his own. The arrival of a small, fat chicken, with dark brown fur and the head of an otter, made the welcome announcement that he had already made that transition, enabling him to offer whatever help he could. And… and, he had the name of the Complier…

Some minutes later, televisions across the land were being switched on to the worst news they’d experienced in some time. But all hope was not lost: Cordelia had the solution. What else were libraries for?

Would this answer be enough to halt a comet on a collision course with earth? Perhaps the Pitch-Black Army, rampaging across the country, was an equally worrying problem. The sense of doom was all-pervading and maybe this time their success wasn’t so assured, maybe they would need help, or at least some form of resistance to the events that would surely overwhelm them.

Only time would tell…’

The Foggiest Notion

‘They arrived on the last stroke of midnight, eleven of them, moving as one. Had it been anywhere else they would have been seen, but they weren’t. Their size should have activated earthquake-monitoring stations, but they didn’t, no-one was aware of their presence – yet. Their turn of speed and actions showed they had an intent, a focus, a date with destiny. Colin Holly was an average kind of chap, nondescript, in fact he was practically invisible in his daily routine. He was the sort of person you couldn’t help but fail to notice as you went to the newsagent’s or popped to the local shops. The only thing that really distinguished Holly was his love of crosswords, the more cryptic the better, and a usual day involved the solving of clues and the drinking of instant coffee. Today was no ordinary day, though Holly had no idea what lay ahead – if he’d had he would probably have gone back to bed, or hidden in a cupboard. Blindly sticking to his customary patterns, a creature of habit, he treated the morning like any other, until he suddenly became aware of three things, one of which was a noise, a low rumble in the distance that was gradually getting louder and was starting to make the furniture shake… Meanwhile in Wapping, a young boy woke to the dawn of his third birthday, a day his parents would always remember, or would that be forget?’