Ben Joseph

By Matt Foot

Ben Joseph, Who is he?

Well, yesterday he was no one

that anyone knew really. Right now,

this minute, today, he is scaring the living

daylights out of me and everyone I know around me.

How far does this go and how is he doing what he is doing?

I want some answers pronto and nobody, and I mean nobody,

has a clue as to the who, what, when, where and the how.

Not quite correct, we know the when and the where; its right here, now!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley
• Release date: Sep 28, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463733240

Matt Foot

Matt is from Christchurch, New Zealand. A proud father, keen fisherman, avid gardener and yogi, Matt enjoys the outdoors, especially when he gets to combine his love of fishing with jet boating. Having been a house builder for thirty-three years, writing is something that he has been wanting to give some attention, and this is his first piece of work.

Book preview

About the author

Matt is from Christchurch, New Zealand. A proud father, keen fisherman, avid gardener and yogi, Matt enjoys the outdoors, especially when he gets to combine his love of fishing with jet boating.

Having been a house builder for thirty-three years, writing is something that he has been wanting to give some attention, and this is his first piece of work.

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Dedication

To my son, Simon. Long may this earth be enjoyed by you

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Matt F oot

Published by Austin Macauley at Smashwords

Copyright 2018 B EN- J OSEPH

The right of B EN- J OSEPH to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the

Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All Rights Reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with the written permission of the publisher, or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended). Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

A CIP catalogue record for Matt F oot

available from the British Library.

www.austinmacauley.com

ISBN 9781788781749 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781788781756 (Hardback)

ISBN 9781788781763 (E-Book)

First Published in 2018

Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd™

CGC-33-01, 25 Canada Square

Canary Wharf, London E14 5LQ

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Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge both my sisters, Robyn and Helen, for their loving and ongoing support. To Sandra Scholz and Cheryl Skinner for your support and feedback in this entire process. Without these four wonderful women in my life, this work may well have never happened.

To Tim Allan and Graeme Roberts, my work colleagues, coffee buddies and friends, thank you for your absolute support through this journey.

Finally, to Liz Waugh, University of Canterbury, Psychology department, your guidance, professional knowledge, encouragement and support, helped see me through the mist and into the sunshine. I will always be grateful for the skills you taught me. You are an amazing professional, and I appreciate having a clean and clear mind. Thank you.

To the boys, Dean, Don, Hamish, Rob and Stef, thanks for being who you are and encouraging me along the way. Let’s keep jet boating and fishing. Stay safe

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Chapter One

‘What the fuck!’

I change the channel. ‘What the fuck!’

I change the channel again.

‘You’ve got to be shitting me, what the fuck is going on?’

I change the channel again and again and again, every channel has the same thing. Some guy just looking at me. Well, not looking at me exactly but looking out from the screen.

‘This is madness.’ I keep flicking the channels. Every single channel, the same guy just looking into the room. My mind jumps to a prank. I look around the room expecting to see someone I know smiling at me or my girl, Ginge, giggling at me, but there is nobody else around. I start feeling just a little freaked out thinking that what I’m seeing is not normal or usual.

Hey Ginge, I yell out to my wife, Ginge! What? comes the reply from the bedroom. Check this out.

What? she repeats.

Come look at this on the tele.

I’m not interested in some rubbish you’ve found on YouTube, babe.

I’m not looking at YouTube. There is something really freaky going on with the tele.

O blah-blah, comes the reply. What are you doing? I call out. Reading a magazine.

Well, turn the tele on, and check the picture. I’m reading! There is a knock at the door. Come in, I yell out.

The door opens, and Dan, our neighbour, walks in looking at his phone. Have you seen what’s going on?

I haven’t checked my phone. I pick mine up. ‘Bloody hell!’

As soon as I open the phone, here is this guy on the phone as well. Nothing else works on the phone. I look at Dan, Have you checked out the tele?

He walks through to the lounge, That’s the same as what’s happening on my tele as well. Hey Ginge, check ya phone.

This will get her going, I say to Dan.

What the…! What have you done to my phone? Nothing, babe, nothing at all. Dan’s here, and his phone is the same, and so is mine. Ginge comes running out from the bedroom. This is why I yelled out to you just before to check the tele, look at that.

Ginge comes round to where she can see the screen, What the hell have you guys done to my phone?

I know, babe, ‘what the hell’ is right, and no, we haven’t done anything to your phone. I was just watching some surfing on Sky, and the screen suddenly flipped to this dude looking out.

We all just sit while there is stunned silence for what seems like ages but in reality must only be a couple of minutes. We just sit and look at the screen. This guy is a normal-enough-looking guy, white fella, looks like he is about thirtyish or there about. Dark hair, blue eyes, nothing glaringly obvious about him that would make you point him out of a crowd. Certainly not ugly but not handsome either.

Just an average-looking bloke.

Ginge starts saying, O my God, over and over.

Jeez, Ginge, do you really think that God has anything to do with this, and anyway, you don’t even believe in God, but I do agree this sure is some freaky shit.

I can’t even find out who else is affected by this because I can’t call anyone. Dan suggests flicking on the computer.

Good idea, Dan.

I walk over and push the start button, Fuck me! He’s on there as well! I look at Ginge and Dan; I can see the look of worry starting to spread on Ginge’s face. It’s the same look as when there has been an earthquake, or there is news of a large bush fire on the tele threatening people’s homes. She’s just looking straight at me, and eerily, almost like she is looking straight through me.

What do we do? she asks openly to the room.

Dan finally looks up from his phone, There is nothing that I can get this to do. I have turned it off and started it again, and as soon as I open it, he’s there.

I look back to the tele a bit closer now in order to study this guy. It’s definitely a live stream from what I can make out. He blinks regularly enough and isn’t standing perfectly still. It’s not like this is a photo of someone been posted on the screen. He is just standing there looking, looking straight into the room. He reminds me of a really good painting that seems to be looking right at you, no matter where you are in the room. I wonder if it is a loop, and it’s the same bit of footage playing over and over. For a second I go back to the prank idea. I voice it to Dan, What do you think, Dan? Is this a prank?

Well, it’s a bloody good one if it is, he replies. Suddenly, we all look at the screen, he has rubbed his eye, well that puts paid to the loop theory. I do think to myself though, I will keep an eye on this to make sure to see if he rubs his eye again to try and prove my loop theory, and then I get a little giggle inside at my own pun: ‘Keep an eye on this.’ I think of sharing my stupid little pun and decide better of it

as I can see that Ginge is not happy, and she doesn’t appreciate inappropriately timed jokes. I have had many a slap on the arm for such indiscretions in the past.

I ask, Have you spoken to anyone else in the street? No, is the reply.

Like on a command of three, we all get up and head to the door. Outside it’s a beautiful, warm, sunny weekend afternoon, everything seems to be normal. Birds chirping, wind blowing lightly. Across the street, though, there is a group of our neighbours, all huddled around someone’s phone.

I yell out to them, You guys all got the bloke on the tele? Yep, comes the reply, and the phones and the computer and all of the landlines are dead, and the radio stations are all quiet, someone else calls out.

I hadn’t even thought about the landlines or radio. We don’t have a landline, only Wi-Fi, and as for the radio, I wouldn’t have even thought about that.

What do you think it is?

I ask as by now, the three of us are all within talking distance. I can see by the look of the faces of some of the group that there is actually quite a bit of concern going on.

Aliens! says one of the kids, with a big grin on his face. The aliens have come and landed, and they are taking over, he says with a real look of mischievousness on his face. He starts running round, making blipping noises and pretending that he is driving an alien craft.

Go inside, and check your sister, he gets told.

By now, there is a group of about twenty of us from the neighbourhood standing in the drive of our neighbour across the street.

Well, this sure as hell isn’t the prank that I thought it might have been. Well, it doesn’t seem like a prank anymore, and if it is, I think that someone is going to get right in the shit for doing this, I start talking to Dan as if to try and make verbal sense of what is going on in my head. ‘Yeah like this is going to make any more sense out loud than it is trying to internalise it,’ I think to myself.

Who do you think this bloke is? I ask out loud to Dan but also to everyone else standing with us.

I’d google image search his arse if I could get on to the internet, Dan replies.

I see one of the guys standing there, and I know he’s a cop, clearly his day off as he is in his shorts and tee-shirt, holding a beer.

What do you make of this? I ask him.

One of the other guys asks, Does the car still work? Is this some type of electromagnetic pulse or something?

No, someone replies, If it was a pulse, none of our phones would be working.

Suddenly, the car next to me kicks into life and instantly stops again, Yep, car’s fine, says the bloke getting back out again.

Isn’t it weird how he just keeps standing there, just looking. It’s like he can see all of us and everything out here and is just viewing what’s going on, is the comment from one of the ladies.

I wonder if this is just here in our town or if it goes further, is a question posed out loud by one of the other ladies.

I’m so worried about my mum, says another lady. What do you think we should do?

The policeman pipes up and, in an authoritative tone like the cops are taught to do, says, "Everyone remain calm, there will be a perfectly logical answer to all of this. If you are concerned about your loved ones, go and see them, drive carefully as there is likely to be a lot of traffic on the road because if this is over the whole city, then there will be a lot of