The Bright Eyes (The Soulless Ones Book 1) Read online

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

  Writing this novel has been a remarkable journey unlike any I have undertaken. I have had the greatest fortune of not embarking on this journey alone, though. I have so many people I am grateful to.

  A special thank you to Stacey; for all you do, you are simply the best.

  And to everyone who has read this novel, I say thank you so very much. Your unwavering encouragement and support have been the fuel that has brought me thus far.

  DEDICATION

  To you, Papa!

  You are, and always will be, the greatest ever!

  BEFORE THE BEGINNING

  He described himself as a purveyor purpose and had, therefore, given himself a purpose. An apprentice gone solo, he sought to express his identity in its fullness, especially now that Creation was at the cusp of a new vibrational dance. This go-round, he would not fail. In this existence, he was called The Scribe. So far, there had been order, which was a mere extension of his arch nemesis and mentor, Akasha. How he missed her! He cursed in his mind. All is not lost yet, he thought. He turned his being to the finest vibrational frequency he could summon as he walked across the open cosmoscape, the landscape of Creation. In this state, Creation seemed like a singularity and everything ever manifested was present.

  Satisfied with his research, he returned to his former form. It was impressive how he had been able to shield himself from Akasha all this while. The Scribe managed a smile as he summoned what looked like a transparent, legless desk in front of him. He blew gently over the desk. The past, present, and future took form before him, and he studied them carefully. He conceded, again, at the remarkable order of everything. Creation was, for lack of a better term, a work of pure genius. He picked a few points on the etheric display in front of him and inserted specific anomalies. These anomalies would serve as catalysts for the chain reaction he was going to set in motion, from the Core of Creation to the Edge of Creation. The chaos would be pure, the chaos would be unstoppable, the chaos would be perfect. After all, he was pure, he was unstoppable, he was perfect, and he was also Chaos!

  The Scribe rubbed his proverbial hands in excitement and almost laughed out loud. But he covered his mouth with his hands just in time. The last time he chuckled while in this state, a few realms and dimensions had been reduced to nothingness. Finally, he had his answer! He touched the ‘past’ section of the display that had formed on the desk. It enlarged itself across the entire desk. He zoomed in on a blue realm.

  “This will be the point of entry,” he thought to himself, as he tapped on the etheric display of the image of the blue realm. He then leaned back as a chair appeared to accommodate him. He held out the fingers of his left hand, the hand of the past, and a golden pen formed in between his fingers. At the same time, a golden manuscript appeared and floated in front of him. The pages flipped open to one-fifth of the manuscript. He wrote a few golden glyphs on the page. The heading read The Bright Eyes. He then blew on the page, and the golden glyphs left the page, floated in the cosmoscape and buried themselves into the etheric image of the young, blue realm that had appeared on the desk. The book closed itself. The Scribe smiled at the title of the manuscript. It read The Soulless Ones. The golden manuscript then disappeared along with the pen. The Scribe relaxed further in the chair, closed his eyes and smiled with satisfaction.

  “And now we wait!” The Scribe said to himself.

  CHAPTER ONE: ENTICED

  The plane taxied to a stop at the Dulles International Airport in Virginia. Jake Fellows and his team stretched their muscles after a very long, direct flight from Prague, Czech Republic. It had been an uneventful flight, except Mark Stone, his lead cameraman, had been a whiny prick. The internet-sensation-now-turned-network television stars called themselves ‘Myth Huntsmen.' The members were Duke Wilson, the team’s geek, Sam Cantor and Paul Holleman, both technical assistants, Eva Blades, the team’s muscle, and Mark Willows, co-founder with Jake Fellows.

  The Myth Huntsmen had quickly risen to fame after capturing a strange, gigantic bird in the south section of Mount Kilimanjaro, in the Moshi Tribe region, that bore a strong resemblance to a pterodactyl. It was much smaller than this prehistoric bird, but might have been a baby pterodactyl. Screw Bigfoot and his cousin, the Sasquatch! Talk about attracting international attention! Though scientific and expert analyses were inconclusive regarding this creature being a pterodactyl, the consensus was that the avian specimen was prehistoric, without a doubt. Sometimes, it did pay to follow up on claims from local inhabitants! Three days of waiting for the perfect opportunity, the element of surprise and a massive dose of horse tranquilizers had put the creature to sleep. The fame was instant, the show’s ratings went through the roof, and Myth Huntsmen received a new and sweeter contract.

  A few months after the whirlwind of instant fame had settled, life was back to normal for the team. Blades groaned in protest as Jake slid out of bed. How dare he take his warmth away! Beneath that macho-lioness persona of hers was a cute, feely, touchy kitten. Jake smiled and continued sorting through the mail regardless; business before pleasure. A package caught his attention. He isolated it and dropped the rest of the sofa. The envelope was very dark brown and made of something that looked like paper but did not feel like one. He ripped open the envelope and emptied it on the desk. A thumb drive loosely attached to what Jake wanted to believe was not the dried-out flesh of a living creature, tumbled on the desk.

  Just like his email, his mailbox was full of ‘evidence' of strange sightings from all over the world, ‘and only the Myth Huntsmen could unravel these mysterious and supernatural phenomena.’ Fans! If you let them get in your head, they will make you feel like a superhero; and it could just be as flattering as it could lead to one's fatality. But thank God Duke was on their team. At age fourteen Duke Wilson had remotely hacked into an NSA worker’s computer. FBI agents and SWAT teams were shocked to find a one-hundred-and-fifty-pound teenager perched near his laptop with a victory smile on his face. When asked why he did it, he said he was bored out of his mind. Instead of facing punishment for his federal crime, he was offered a guaranteed position at NSA when he came of age. But Duke had chosen to be a Myth Huntsman, mostly because he ‘valued his freedom.'

  Jake separated the thumb drive from the flesh-looking thing and looked at it quizzically as if studying some alien object. He closed his fist around the thumb drive and foraged through the envelope, expecting to find something else in it. And then, the smell from the package hit his nose. It was faint but distinct. It was a blend of finely polished leather and sun-dried hide, but Jake’s rational mind dove into denial immediately. He opened his fist and stared for a few seconds at the thumb drive resting on his palm, deciding what to do next.

  “Might as well,” he said under his breath.

  He turned on his laptop and inserted the thumb drive. There was a single folder in the drive, and Jake double-clicked on it. The folder opened to reveal a video icon, and Jake double-clicked on it, half expecting a computer virus attack and half expecting anything else.

  “Blades,” he called out a few minutes later, but his throat suddenly felt parched.

  He cleared his throat and gave it another try.

  “Blades!” he called out again.

  “What is your problem, man?” she sounded annoyed.

  “You gotta take a look at this,” he replied.

  “Are you seriously waking me up for another video?” she asked almost angrily.

  “Just get your butt over here and take a look at this!” Jake said.

  The sense of urgency in his voice was all the motivation Blades needed to oblige. She flung the covers from her naked
body and half-trotted, half-walked over to where he perched over his laptop. She hugged him from behind, and he could feel her bosom press against his back.

  “What is it, babe?” she asked, gently stroking his head and kissing his right earlobe.

  “Watch this!” he replied and hit the ‘Play’ icon on the video player.

  After the first minute of the video, she released him from her rear hug and knelt to his right, with her full attention on the laptop monitor. At the fourth minute, she cupped her mouth as if to stifle a scream and tried to say something but stopped short. When the video was over, six minutes, sixteen seconds later, she stared back and forth between the monitor and Jake.

  “Is this… No! It can’t be! Are you…” Blades tried to form coherent phrases without success.

  “Only one way to find out,” Jake replied. “Let’s get cleaned up and have everyone over here,” and for the first time in his career, he hoped that the video was a hoax.

  Duke was just getting ready to take on the world of online gamers when his phone rang. He contemplated ignoring it but decided against the thought. He accepted the call without even looking at the caller ID.

  “Main Man Duke, how may I be of assistance to thee?”

  “It’s Jake! My place, right now! Bring Suzie with you.”

  “Whoa, hold on now partner! What’s going on? Do you realize it’s still 8:10 in the morning and I’m about to take upon these cry-babies?” he said in mock anger.

  “This is serious, man!” Jake replied. “Bring Suzie!”

  “Aight, playa! At least you can let a brotha know what’s going on for starters!”

  When Jake finished with the seven-second synopsis of the situation, Duke was out of the house with Suzie in less than twelve seconds. He shaved forty-nine seconds off his average drive time to Jake’s house. Sam and Paul showed up within an hour. Mark, of course, blamed his lateness on two red-haired, heavily bronzed, fake-busted chicks he had scored at the bar the previous night, but made it a point to notice that Blades’ hair was still wet and wondered aloud at why that was so.

  “Sorry, I'm not as hyped as you are now, Mark!” Blades sneered at him.

  “Could've fooled me, princess,” he replied cheekily. “You can fool anyone in here, but you can't fool me. I can smell sex on a female a mile away and you, my fancy, karate-feisty damsel, must have had some mad pummeling last night. Hm hm hm!!!!” he eyed her from head to toe in mock inspection, with immaculately, bleached white teeth exposed behind a chiseled grin. “Wouldn't you agree, Jake?” he asked, not taking his eyes off Blades.

  “Whatever, Mark,” replied Jake with exasperation. “Could we just get on with why we’re here, please?” he asked, trying to mask his embarrassment with a serious tone of voice.

  “Yes! Right, let’s get on with business,” Mark chimed, “right after I place this hairpin,” he picked up a hair pin from the sofa and calmly walked over to the laptop, “right where we all can see. Say, Jake, since when did you start using hairpins? Or is that where you and sweet pea over here started your jujutsu training last night?” he gestured towards the sofa.

  “I can see how this played out,” he burst out laughing. “You two walked in, your hand brushed against that fine ass of hers and then she gets all ‘mad with rage' tackles you to the sofa but then realizes that y'all's clothes are in the way. So, you two start a fight, who gets to take who's clothes off first and then-”

  “Yeah! I’m sleeping with Jake,” Blades blurted. “Got a problem with that?”

  “Not at all, sweet pea! Not at all.”

  He then turned his attention towards Jake.

  “You broke the rule, bro!” he said coldly.

  “Look, we can talk about this later-” Jake began saying

  “Try another strategy, bro!” Mark was borderline angry.

  Everyone understood the reason for his outburst. Mark and Jake went way back. Mark was the only other person from the original team. It so happened that one of the other team members had left because things had gotten ‘complicated’ with Jake at one time.

  “Look, Eva,” Mark addressed Blades in a monotone. “I ain’t sure if Mr. Open Zipper told you about what happened a while back; about him and someone else on the team getting intimate. Somewhere down the line, things got complicated and emotions got involved. Next thing we know, she’s leaving the team. That’s why we cannot tolerate team members grinding genitals with each other for any reason whatsoever. She was a great team member and we all suffered from her leaving. You’re an even better team member, and I sure as hell don’t wanna be looking for your replacement someday just because Mr. Horny Monk over here couldn’t keep his fly shut. We’re great together beyond our differences. Hope ya understand where I’m coming from. My concern is for nothing else but the team.”

  Duke could care less if the team was having an orgy, Paul was laughing hysterically, and Sam just chuckled now and then. But Blades was not sure how to react to Mark’s behavior. A part of her felt embarrassed to have her business out in the open like that, but at the same time, she was flattered by Mark's genuine and surprise compliments. Sometimes, Mark acted more mature than all of them combined. Behind the sissy stance he took sometimes was a leader who knew when to take charge and keep everyone in line. He had the strength of heart, mind, and soul and when Blades realized that she was having a warm sensation in between her legs just thinking about this, it dawned on her that this could be why the girls were drawn to Mark like moths to a fluorescent lamp. So, all she did was nod and smile.

  “And as for you,” Mark returned to Jake. “I will have words with thee!”

  “Fine! Now let’s watch the video, please,” Jake replied.

  Jake walked to his sixty-inch TV screen and inserted the thumb drive into the USB port behind it. He sat crossed-leg on the carpet as the rest of the team sat on various seats.

  “Hey Sam,” he called out to Sam, twisting himself about his hip and looking over his shoulder at Sam, “toss me the remote, will ya?”

  Sam complied, and Jake selected the folder on the drive. He then selected the video and pressed the ‘Enter’ button on the remote control. The video started playing. He tried to focus on the screen despite Mark glaring icily at him. Mark was pissed and rightly so. The girl he had been sleeping with was Clara. The team was aware, though. Eventually, Clara had become pregnant on the pill and had refused to have an abortion. Unfortunately, Clara had miscarried two months later, and Jake had to admit, to himself, that he received the news with mixed feelings.

  He had fallen in love with Clara, but he was far from ready to be a father. At first, she was not happy being pregnant, but her natural motherly instincts had kicked in. As such, it was the agreement that she should not join the team on expeditions and she was compliant. Her miscarriage had devastated her, though. She sought comfort from Jake, but Jake was no expert in that domain. Months of therapy had helped her deal with the emotional and psychological toll of the miscarriage. Alas, she had left the team and had only found peace about two years later. Finding her replacement had not been easy. The team had then decided to ban fraternization within the team.

  It was night time in the video, and whoever was taking the video was adjusting the settings of the camera to suit the surroundings. The camera zoomed in on a clearing beneath a tree. Based on the voice behind the camera, the team concluded it a man was taking the video. A couple was sitting on a blanket, with a portable lamp that cast a glow around them. Beyond the glow was darkness. The couple looked very young, were naked and seemed to be having a romantic picnic in the middle of the night in the woods. The male appeared to have said something funny because the girl erupted in a loud burst of laughter and said something out loud.

  “Romanian!” interjected Sam a-matter-of-factly.

  Everyone turned around in unison towards him with a look of surprise on their faces. Jake paused the video.

  ‘I used to date a Romanian chick some years ago. Taught me a thing or two. Or three,
” Sam said and burst out laughing, but no one else joined him.

  “I bet,” said Duke. “Okay, let’s get on with the video. At least we may have a location.”

  “Agreed,” Jake said and hit the ‘Play’ button on his remote control.

  The video resumed playing. The female stopped laughing and then slowly walked on all fours towards her male companion. Her partner propped himself on his elbows as if creating an accommodation for her. She stopped just short of his pelvis and started kissing her way up from his knees, groin and then to his chest; the entire time, she let her medium-sized breasts brush against his skin till they settled on his chest. The couple then locked lips.

  “Hmm, didn’t realize you brought us here for a porn flick,” spat Mark with sarcasm and was ignored.

  There was a shriek and the female peeled herself off her companion, crouched behind him and pointed at something in the dark. Another couple walked in from the shadows. The couple held up their hands, to indicate that they came in peace. The second couple appeared to be a little older than the first couple but looked a lot stronger, more toned and more beautiful than the younger couple on the blanket. They too were naked. They appeared to talk to the younger couple for like seventeen seconds or so and the tension seemed to ease a little. But then, the strangest thing happened. The second female walked over to the younger male on the blanket and the second male just stared the younger female, who then rose from the blanket and walked towards him. Both the younger male and female seemed to behave as if they were in a trance.

  The older female straddled the younger male and started kissing him passionately. The older male and younger female locked lips and kissed passionately as well. The entire scene was like a of weird, sinister, erotic routine. The younger couple was consumed in this prelude to a sexual parody and they let go. That was until both the older male and female lifted their heads upwards and their eyes glowed like those of creatures spawned from the pits of hell itself. Jake and Eva had watched the video already, but what followed still made them cringe. Mark and Duke gasped.