Gigantic Beasts Must Fall

CHAPTER 1 What a find Gareth was a conscientious guy who often found himself holding the ‘short straw’ as he progressed through life. At just under twenty-eight years old, he was quite a normal lad, fairly attractive and quite fit and able, but for some reason, he never seemed to have any luck in anything he did. Life up north was pretty grim and the fact that he’d recently moved back into his parents’ house didn’t help by any means, as he hated living there. With full-blown arguments with his mother happening on an almost daily basis nowadays, life was a nightmare, and it was all primarily down to the fact that his parents, especially his mother always tried to impose far too many bullshit rules and regulations on him, which just added to the stress of everyday life. His mum always seemed to be on his case about something or other, and his dad never stood up for him at all, partly because he was always so drunk, so living under their roof was just a horrendous experience for him. Thinking about it, part of the problem was his job; there was a hell of a lot of unemployment in the area, meaning that he simply had to take whatever he could get, and he hated his job with a vengeance. For the past year or so he had worked full time in a double glazing sales office, with another six idiotic people with whom he had seemingly nothing in common whatsoever. Although he made an effort every day to get along with everyone, it was a significant challenge just to turn up at work, knowing that his colleagues all had such bad manners, were really rude, arrogant and disrespectful, and the fact they were all in such a small office at the front of a large workshop just made matters a lot worse. On top of that, he also had a long commute every day, only got paid a minimum wage, and there was absolutely nothing in his job that warranted any form of enthusiasm or excitement. He often thought to himself that sitting in a darkened room with a bag over his head would probably be a damn sight more exciting. The only thing that kept him going was the fact that he daydreamed so much, often allowing his mind to wander anywhere and everywhere, keeping him sane throughout the day. It didn’t help that his boss was a complete jerk either; she would regularly come into the office throughout the day to bark orders and bully all the staff. She was so aggressive to everyone that he often dreamt of doing her some real damage… if only he lived in his dream world. He knew that constant bullying wasn’t acceptable on any level, knowing that these aggressive feelings would more than likely be felt by anyone if placed in such similar circumstances. As the months rolled past and time dwindled away, life turned a dull colour of grey and really began to drag its heels. It was so uninteresting in every form that he soon realised that something had to change, or something was going to break, simple as that. One night down the pub, his friend tried to persuade him to move to another part of the country, somewhere down south, where there were better jobs, better prospects and, most importantly, better weather. Gareth didn’t take much notice of this free advice at first, but as the days passed with both his really crappy job and a seemingly constant barrage of abuse from his current girlfriend, amongst others, the memories of what his friend had suggested kept playing on his mind over and over again. Over time, the thoughts of change gradually gained momentum, especially when times were really tough. His long-standing girlfriend at the time, Michelle, was a really beautiful girl, but unfortunately she seemed to be missing a significant amount of brain cells, as whenever anything went wrong, or she was having a bad day, she bullied and chastised him, blaming him for everything that was wrong in the world in a really nasty and unusually spiteful way. Even though they had been together for many years, since the end of their school days, she had turned out to be a completely horrible person at times, which he found quite hard to take. They had fallen in love years ago, but recently her whole persona had changed, blaming everything on him all the time. It was just too much. Luckily, they had not got close enough to ‘tie the knot’ thankfully, but after seven years of bitching at each other, the time had come to definitely part ways. Now that their relationship had finished, Gareth no longer felt anything towards Michelle, as her negative approach to life had forced his decision to end it all between them. If anything, it had the opposite effect, as their split had actually helped push him into making the right decision for himself, albeit a little reluctantly. Once they had mutually finalised everything, and finally moved out of their horrible little apartment, Gareth temporarily moved back in with his parents. He then had to suffer them both and their miserable existence until the ball started to roll towards the next big decision in his life. When the time came, he gladly made the decision with little resistance or hesitation, deciding to move out of his parents’ house and out of the area once and for all. Once decided, an immediate sense of relief flooded his body just at the mere thought of freedom, and he seriously had to think about what he wanted in life. He sat down one day and carefully thought long and hard about everything, until he finally achieved some clarity on all his problems. He thought about his ruined love life, which had also failed miserably, as well as the one constant in his life, his good friends that all lived in the area, to which he had been loyal since his school days. If he was going to move away, then he’d be leaving every friend he ever had, so this decision alone needed some serious consideration, because if he was to make a fresh start, he would be doing it all alone. He thought long and hard in his bedroom one day and it soon dawned on him that in reality, the only times he actually saw his mates nowadays was when he was getting pissed down the pub, which he could do pretty much anywhere. He knew that he’d probably get to meet a whole new group of friends wherever he moved, but it still nevertheless worried him a little, knowing that he wouldn’t have any of his friends around, or anyone to turn to. His thoughts then turned to his car loan from five or six years earlier which was still always looming in the background. He could really do with paying it off, so he knew that he needed a job with better prospects and certainly better pay, and sooner rather than later, as he couldn’t go on forever paying off the seemingly never-ending loan. With a new direction at heart, as the weeks went by, Gareth constantly searched the internet, especially the employment agencies, signing up with numerous companies in the London area; his basic criteria were that he wanted to work as quickly as possible and for as much money as possible, and hoped that he’d be able to persuade someone to take him on, hoping that a small amount of arrogance attached to his CV and attitude might actually help him out. It was only a matter of time before he started to get various call-backs and long distance interviews. Finally, success, as within only a couple of weeks he had been offered a full-time position and all his plans were all coming together, as he was to move to just south of the River Thames, to a nice clean neighbourhood, where he had found a small flat which seemed really quite reasonably priced. With his position confirmed, his start-date acknowledged and his flat rental agreement all now secured, he finally felt a huge amount of relief and excitement, as his new career path and change of life drew ever closer. With much anxiety, thoughts and feelings about whether he was doing was the right thing or not subtly ringing around his head, he went for it and soon moved away from the cold, bleak Yorkshire town, down to the city of London. The day arrived when he left the house for the last time. He felt great on his way to the station, and was filled with an air of excitement and a little apprehension, but to his dismay, his parents couldn’t be bothered to even say goodbye properly. His mother just mumbled something at him, snarling and looking as miserable as she could, clearly cursing him under her breath. She looked a sight for sore eyes as she stood there, cigarette hanging out her mouth, just staring at him disrespectfully. He then looked at his dad for some form of acknowledgment, but he simply didn’t bother saying anything at all; instead he just aggressively stared at him as he left the building feeling extremely angry and annoyed. Although this was a little upsetting, he walked out of the house stronger and more confident, knowing that he was leaving that horrible place and that crappy way of life all behind; a subtle smile then appeared on his face which just grew bigger and bigger the further he walked towards the station, realising that he had no reason to ever come back. After a long journey, followed by another long and exhausting tube ride, he finally got to his new flat. With a huge smile on his face, he opened the door for the first time; he stood there for a few minutes looking around at the spotlessly clean and airy room, before he flopped down onto the big, luxurious couch in the lounge. He wiggled around a bit, before turning onto his back, staring up at the ceiling; he smiled and felt a huge sense of worth, as he laid back and rested for a while, after his long journey. The flat felt and looked really white and clean, something that he wasn’t used to; it filled him with an overwhelming feeling of success, knowing that for once, he had definitely made the right decision for himself. After a few weeks of his new beginnings, the gloss had somewhat worn off, as he now had to deal with the everyday traumas of daily life, but either way, it was still no comparison to before. He was certain now that he had made the right decision, as his quality of life was so much better, almost incomparable. As the weeks passed, he quickly made plenty of new friends, who unlike his old mates, always seemed happy and content every time he met up with them, something he had never really encountered before. Their happiness and positive attitudes quickly rubbed off on him as he started his new life in the city. His job had also worked out quite well; it was only basic stuff, but it was interesting and almost at the point of being enjoyable. He was in a much larger office than before, which was bright and airy, with another twelve people who all seemed quite pleasant and supportive towards him. He couldn’t quite say that he would wake up eager and excited to go to work every day, but it really was a close call, so all in all, everything had really worked out for him. Gareth was a normal and intelligent guy. He had a very creative streak embedded into his personality which helped him immensely when it came to making new friends, which all in all he found quite easy. Having a massive new city to explore was also a fantastic bonus; the museums and art galleries were a real treat, and as the city were alive at any given time, day or night. He loved his new urban life, using any excuse to go out exploring. He soon discovered plenty of new and exciting places by just by walking endlessly, but having numerous guides and magazines at his disposal also made his adventures really exciting and quite fascinating at times. It was the complete opposite of his home town up North, where the biggest attraction of the year was an old Punch and Judy show that came to town, a show that still used the original 1940’s puppets, even though they were clearly very old and past their sell-by dates. As such, every weekend, when he had some free time, he liked nothing more than to go walking and see where he’d end up. As he now had so much variety available and a seemingly endless number of places to explore, he loved to stroll around the shops, but more so the many weird and wonderful markets. He also had all the tourist attractions which he’d never visited, the River Thames and especially the renowned South Bank area, knowing that there was always something going on down there whatever time you visited. This weekend he wanted to do something new, so after a few discussions with the guys at work, a friend had suggested a huge market, knowing that he liked that kind of thing. He was told that it started up by Notting Hill Gate and ran pretty much the whole length of Portobello Road, down towards Ladbroke Grove tube station and around the Westbourne Park area. He could feel his interest growing as his friend told him over coffee about all the wonderful market stalls and strange shops that he’d find there, so come Saturday morning, he was up bright and early ready for his day ahead. He managed to leave just before 9 am in the morning, heading off towards Notting Hill Gate tube station, which would then allow him to walk the whole stretch of the market, starting at the very top. He eventually arrived at the beginning of the market stalls and the little retail units selling all kinds of strange and peculiar things. He liked the unusual and bizarre, so the deeper he ventured into the market, the more he seemed to discover. The downside now was that there was simply too much choice, as he wanted to buy everything. So before he had left his flat in the morning, he decided to set himself a few goals, knowing that he’d probably end up feeling that way, if it did turn out to be as good as his friend had said. Now that he had his own flat, he decided that he was only shopping for a centre piece of sorts, something that he could show off and something that would instantly provoke a conversation or two when he was to have friends round. He didn’t know what to look for, in actual fact he didn’t have a clue as to what he wanted, as he just thought that he’d know when he found it. He decided to put a budget of £150 aside for the item, so as soon as he entered the market, he searched everywhere, leaving no stone unturned; the stranger the shop seemed to be, the more it enticed him in. There was so much stuff that he loved, he found it really hard to contain himself, but nothing really grabbed him by the balls, so to speak, so he continued on for many hours. There were so many things that were nearly right, but he couldn’t quite find that one thing that would instantly spark a reaction, so he kept on looking everywhere, until approximately two and a half hours after he started he found an odd little shop, selling mostly goods from Asia, or so he thought. When he went in, he walked straight into a cloud of strongly scented incense smoke that seemed to envelope him as he entered. The exterior of the shop made it look small and dark, but when he entered, he soon found lots of different rooms heading off in various different directions, all seemingly at different levels, as the building was on a hill. The shop was warm and comforting, with soft Indian raga music playing in the background and only a young girl standing by the till area, smiling at everyone as they shopped. Most of the shop’s inventory seemed to be themed around various Asian gods, such as Ganesh and Buddha, with hundreds of statues and pictures in every corner. With a large colourful collection of cotton clothing on display, most of the floor space was taken up by endless piles of carpets it was all beautiful stuff, but so far it wasn’t really his sort of thing. As he moved from room to room, he found the incense smoke seemed to collect in certain places, making it really quite intense in places, walking into a thick cloud of it, which almost choked him. He quickly moved on and into another room which was again full of similar stuff, just with added batiks and paintings on the walls. The shop was now becoming more claustrophobic, primarily due to the fact that there were so many things also now hanging from the ceiling space; light fixtures, lanterns, fake plant pots, ornate wooden carvings of birds and wind chimes. As Gareth slowly moved around the store, he noticed that the beautiful young Asian girl behind the till kept smiling at him from the counter; she watched everyone as they milled about, and allowed them to do what they wanted, with a permanent smile transfixed upon her face. It was only when he entered the final room that something of interest made itself known to him. He had found a large area of racking that sat alongside a wall covered in African and Asian masks, precariously situated amongst a couple of large piles of carpets. The racking contained a mixture of stuff, from small intricate carvings through to bigger yet clearly cheaper models and statues made of resin. As the racking descended, the larger items were located near its’ base, although there didn’t seem to be any order, as everything was placed on the shelves in random formation. It was when Gareth found himself looking at the items at the base of the racking that he first noticed the corner of a box sticking out between two bags containing lots of coloured hessian sacks, and what looked like thin rolls of plastic sheeting. He squatted down to take a closer look, and saw a couple of strange silhouetted pictures on one side of the box, which grabbed his attention and were enough for him to investigate further. He then eagerly spent the next few minutes desperately trying to extract the box from its location, moving all the sacks and rolls out onto the floor, until he finally freed up enough space for the box to finally make its way out, presenting itself to him in full view.