The Shepherd – Hefted (Prologue & Chapter 1)

Prologue Where had it gone wrong? How had Straker escaped from his captors? As Mason hunched there on the greasy oil-stained concrete floor, yet another question burned into his mind. Where was Straker now? If he was out there, alive, he should have emerged. Unless…… Hope flared in Mason’s breast. There might still be a chance.   Chapter 1 – Monday am   ‘No, I’m sorry. We can’t take you.’…

7th May 2011
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The Shepherd – Lamb to the Slaughter (Chapters 12 & 13)

1st May 2011

Chapter 12   No alarm, no watch, no sound, but John Shepherd, lying there hands behind his head whilst contemplating the ceiling of his small cell, knew it was time to get up. Not a prison cell; he had complete freedom to go wherever he wanted. No, this small space was a sanctuary, his safe haven, the one place where he was protected from the unknown figure that taunted his…

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The Room

1st May 2011

It’s a bland room, with walls in an indefinable hue of palest mauve, or perhaps it’s taupe. I was never very good at colours. Either way it fades into the distance, one of those shades that seems to draw back the more you stare at it. They probably paid some psychologist to tell them what colour to use, something restful they would have said; we want something calming and soothing….

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Garbage

Tags: atheism, religious references   Garbage. That was all that was left now. We’d picked over the scraps, sent anything of any useable size back to HQ for analysis, cleared the site, written the interim reports. But there had been very little to retrieve. Disintegrating alien craft tend to be fairly destructive and this was not just one exploding UFO. There were several of them. It was a miracle that…

1st May 2011
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The Shepherd – Lamb to the Slaughter (Chapters 10 & 11)

14th April 2011

Warning/Tags: Major Character Death, Death Chapter 10 Mason closed his eyes, but whatever he did, the images were still there, the sounds echoing in his mind despite everything he did. Tired beyond belief he struggled to find some rest, some comfortable position, his pillow hot and lumpy, the duvet too weighty. His head ached with weariness but his restless mind was in mayhem, the memories of his deeds still taunting…

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The Shepherd – Lamb to the Slaughter (Chapters 8 & 9)

1st April 2011

Chapter 8 ‘Paul. Sit down. Please.’ ‘What happened Alec? What the hell happened?’ Paul Foster stopped his angry pacing and turned to face the other man standing there in the office. ‘I don’t know. I wish I did, Paul. Here,’ Alec Freeman handed a glass to the young man who perched himself reluctantly on the corner seat, ‘you need this.’ Foster looked up, eyes drawn and bewildered. ‘Not Ed. It…

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The Shepherd – Lamb to the Slaughter (Chapters 6 & 7)

21st March 2011

Chapter 6 The unfamiliar noise outside was enough to waken him, and for one moment, as he crossed the barrier between sleep and wakefulness he had a tantalizing snatch of memory, too vague, too transitory to do more than make him gasp with unrecalled and unremembered fear. It was hard to breathe with the tightness, the panic that crushed his heart within him. Struggling for air he froze, terrified, unable…

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The Shepherd – Lamb to the Slaughter (Chapters 4 & 5)

14th March 2011

  Chapter 4 Bloody hell. What time was it? She reached out for the phone. Did no one understand the meaning of ‘off duty’? Her mobile buzzed again, insisting on an answer. The project worker would continue to pester her with voicemail messages, texts, and calls until she answered. ‘Yes’ she grunted, surrendering to the demands of the small despot now gripped in her hand. Damn the person who invented…

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The Shepherd – Lamb to the Slaughter (Chapters 2 & 3)

7th March 2011

Tags: violence, disemboweling, death   Chapter 2 The underground car park was deserted. Only Straker’s car and one other parked in random places between the concrete pillars. Dim lights flickered behind wire brackets, glinting on random puddles of water that had dripped from rainsoaked vehicles. Other liquids also marked the oil-streaked and begrimed surface of the roadway. Darker, more ominous puddles, reflecting the gloomy light in their thickening crimson patterns….

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