Footsteps: Austerley & Kirkgordon Origins 1

By G R Jordan

"I swear if I see Austerley again, I'll kill him myself. The man's a lunatic, and he wants putting down for the good of society - and his own good for that matter."

A retired protection operative, Kirkgordon's only mistake was to seek a little of the excitement his previous life had offered. Leaving his family behind, he joins Professor Austerley beneath a New England graveyard and fights horrors he could never have dreamed of. But while he seeks to extract his client from the madness, the Professor shows a hunger for things unholy, an insatiable appetite that chills Kirkgordon to the core.

"Footsteps" is the prelude to "Crescendo!", the first story in the Austerley & Kirkgordon series, and relates the tale of their first bizarre meeting from the perspective of a compromised Kirkgordon. Drawing on the Lovecraftian lore, this short tale introduces the reader to the conflicted pair, one desperately seeking the wonder of darker things, and the other, horrified by the wild chaos he has become involved in.

• Language: English
• Publisher: G R Jordan
• Release date: Oct 9, 2015
• ISBN: 9780993436956

G R Jordan

GR Jordan is a self-published author who finally decided at forty that in order to have an enjoyable lifestyle, his creative beast within would have to be unleashed. His books mirror that conflict in life where acts of decency contend with self-promotion, goodness stares in horror at evil and kindness blind-sides us when we are at our worst. Corrupting our world with his parade of wondrous and horrific characters, he highlights everyday tensions with fresh eyes whilst taking his methodical, intelligent mainstays on a roller-coaster ride of dilemmas, all the while suffering the banter of their provocative sidekicks.A graduate of Loughborough University where he masqueraded as a chemical engineer but ultimately played American football, GR Jordan worked at changing the shape of cereal flakes and pulled a pallet truck for a living. Watching vegetables freeze at -40C was another career highlight and he was also one of the Scottish Highlands blind air traffic controllers. Having flirted with most places in the UK, he is now based in the Isle of Lewis in Scotland where his free time is spent between raising a young family with his wife, writing, figuring out how to work a loom and caring for a small flock of chickens. Luckily his writing is influenced by his varied work and life experience as the chickens have not been the poetical inspiration he had hoped for!

Book preview

G R Jordan

Footsteps

Austerley & Kirkgordon Origins #1

First published by Carpetless Publishing in 2015

Copyright © G R Jordan, 2018

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

G R Jordan asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

G R Jordan has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet Websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book and on its cover are trade names, service marks, trademarks and registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publishers and the book are not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. None of the companies referenced within the book have endorsed the book.

Second edition

ISBN: Epub: 978-1-912153-25-1 Mobi: 978-1-912153-26-8

Editing by Roma Gray

Illustration by J Caleb Clarke

This book was professionally typeset on Reedsy

Find out more at reedsy.com

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Dedicated to Al, look what you got me into!

Contents

Prologue

Meeting the Professor

Scrabbling in the Dark

A Little Night Excursion

Miskatonic University

Something's Coming up the Stairs

Battling Blind

Epilogue

Acknowledgements

A Small Request

About the Author

Also by G R Jordan

1

Prologue

I swear if I see Austerley again, I’ll kill him myself. The man’s a lunatic, and he needs to be put down for the good of society.

The cop waved his open hands, gesturing for the patient to calm down. Before entering the room, the cop had been warned not to excite the man or lead him onto strange or unusual subjects. When he had asked what sort of a request that was meant to be, he had been told that the man was delusional and constantly on his nerves.

Oh well,