Headline 2
The many disappearances that occur throughout the year often become ominous and dreadful in the snows of winter. The prospect of finding a body half frozen, killed of exposure is a very real threat for those members of the public services who search for the missing at all times of year. But sometimes the drifts present a far more confusing and mysterious puzzle for the investigators.
Such was the case last December in the town of Clydebank, a suburb of Glasgow, Scotland. An exceptionally heavy blizzard during the night left many unable to leave their homes when morning arrived. The Seward family awoke to find their fifteen year old daughter missing, apparently having run away in the night.
In the virgin snow a clear path was visible from their door and onto the High Park, a local recreational area notable for its complete lack of any cover. Its position at the crest of a hill had aided her departure, as the wind had kept the drifts far shallower than elsewhere in the town, averaging about six inches deep, compared to the two or three feet in other areas.
Since such behaviour was so unnatural for the girl, the father immediately tele-phoned the police who responded straight away, They promptly cordoned off the area and turned the West Thomson Street and the park into a crime scene. Apart from the investigators the only tracks on the entire hill were those of the girl. Hers led from the house directly to the highest point of the park where they were lost in a circle eight feet in diameter which was apparently untouched by the snow.
Her body is yet to be found, and no other clues were discovered, nor explanations how a girl could seemingly disappear into thin air.
The Agate Lamp Within Thy Hand
Since his mother's death a month ago, William Levett lived alone in the house of his adolescence. Though years had passed since laughter last filled the halls, the recent silence was especially cutting, and as he walked from room to room there was a continuing echo of his memories. His sister Caroline arrived that afternoon, with her husband Eli, and sensing the abject melancholy that had taken her brother, she had stayed.
After a silent dinner, Caroline retired to her old bedroom, while William went up to his study and worked late into the night. Tiring about half-past three, he went downstairs to fetch himself a drink before sleep. In the blackness at the bottom of the stairs a green light flickered from the drawing room. The colour was not unusual in the house, since William's father had purchased a pair of antique lamps of highly polished silver with distinct emerald green glass bowls. Yet William was certain he had extinguished it before he had gone upstairs.
From the doorway, William saw Caroline standing before the lamp on the mantlepiece. She was wearing her nightclothes, a long white gown that hung close to her body.
'Caroline, my dear?' spoke William as he approached, 'what are you doing awake at this hour?' She turned, her face in silhouette, edged in a brilliant shimmering aura, and kissed William wholly and passionately on the lips. At first he resisted, but he felt her hands holding him tight, and gave in, falling against her body. He closed his eyes for a moment and felt her warmth leave him. Opening his eyes he found himself alone in the room.
Taking the lamp he went upstairs and looked in on her bedroom. The door stuck for a moment but he forced it open, the room was untouched, the bed was made, and a thin dust had settled on all surfaces. He searched the whole house and found no sign of her anywhere. Her coat was not in the hall, in the dining room his plate was empty but hers was still full.
With the lamp lighting his path he went to his car and started towards her home, desperate to know where she was, desperately hoping to hold onto his sanity. A red light ahead caused him to slow, but as it became overpowered in green he accelerated into the junction, crashing into another car head-on.
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The windscreen was shattered with pieces everywhere reflecting into his eyes. The cars had joined so utterly that there was no visible join where one ended and the other began. The crumpled bonnet was an umbilical line from driver to driver. He crawled out and found the body of the other driver, a woman. He picked her up and studied her features. Her shallow breathing whispered against his face. She clung to life with lessening determinacy. Unable to support her any longer she fell towards him and he kissed her apologetically.
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Eli came out to the site directly from the Arrivals lounge. The detective had been selective with his details, only that there was a crash and his brother-in-law was believed to have been killed. Dawn was breaking, rendering the spotlights over the cars pointless. Walking over to them his shoes stuck to the tarmac. The bodies of the two drivers were on the ground, covered loosely by a single white sheet. The Medical Examiner pulled it back.
'Well Mr. Reed, is this your brother-in-law?' Tears fell to the ground and mixed with the blood. 'We've not been able to identify the woman yet either.'
'I can.' Eli murmured 'She's my wife.'
From the Afternoon edition of the London Evening Times, 10th May 2010.
CONFUSION AS DEAD MEN SHARE IDENTITY
London Metropolitan Police were presented with a mystery today as two individuals who died in unrelated incidents appeared to have been uncannily similar to one another.
A man who fell under a train at South Kensington station this morning seems to have been found with the same identity documents as another man who jumped to his death from the Canary Wharf office complex at one thirty in the afternoon. Witnesses report that the men were both white males of about thirty years of age wearing white shirts and grey trousers, with horn-rimmed glasses and light brown hair. Neither were seen to have been acting oddly before the incidents, nor do they have left any means to have got to the locations of their deaths.
Further to the eyewitness reports that the two were the same person, the Evening Times can exclusively reveal that pathologists found identical personal effects on both men. These consisted of a travelcard dated to August of 1996, thirteen pounds and fifty two pence in cash, and a photo ID card for the Chelmsford Temporal Physics Science Laboratory.
Initial reports had both men named as a junior-level physicist who worked for the Chelmsford based lab in the mid-nineties, but who has not been known to public records since. These statements were rescinded following the realisation that press were being told that the same man had died twice.
The Temporal Physics lab closed, embroiled in scandal, in 1997 after a government investigation proved a whistle-blower’s report of widespread bypassing of industry imposed safety measures. This occurred in the wake of a series of high profile accidents, including one where the technician named earlier today as both dead men, was first reported to have died, though no body was found at the time.
The lab had been working on theories of dimensional manipulation, gaining massive funding by claiming to have developed a low cost method of instantaneous transportation that required only upscaling to become universally applicable. No other laboratory has since been able to replicate early successful experiments. Some observers at the time stated the closure of the lab to be a step-backward akin to mankind forcibly forgetting writing.
At the time the Evening Times went to press neither Scotland Yard, ex-Chelmsford based scientists, or the family of the named man were willing to issue new comments. The Times will stay on the story and hopes to have new developments to report before the West End final edition this evening.
Later editions of the London Evening Times had no trace of any new developments or reprints of this story.