The Soul Gate

By Matt Jones

Joe Harvey is a smart guy, he knows facts and figures. What he has always had a problem with, is people. As a socially stunted individual, whose brain regularly overrules his heart, how will he cope when he has no choice but to interact with the very essence of others? When a power as old as mankind itself needs a way to reach its true destination, it will force him to experience the lives and deaths of those around him, even if it tears him apart. With the champions of ultimate good and ultimate evil on their trail, Joe, his girl Courtney and good friend Sara must discover a realm long hidden in order to save Joe from being destroyed by a power not meant for your average mortal.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jan 30, 2017
• ISBN: 9781326933036

Matt Jones

Matt Jones is a professor and Head of Department of Computer Science, Swansea University. His research work focuses on human-centered computing with particular emphasis on mobile and ubiquitous computing and resource-constrained communities in regions such as India and South Africa. His work in these contexts has been recognized by an IBM Faculty Award and, from 2014, by a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award. Matt has had many active collaborations and interactions with industry, NGO and Governmental stakeholders including Microsoft Research, Nokia Research and IBM Research. In his spare time he tries to live life face-on with his energetic family, and enjoys nothing more than an exhilarating early morning cycle ride to the glorious beaches of the Gower.

Book preview

The Soul Gate

The Soul Gate

Matt Jones

Other titles by Matt Jones:

Movie B

Screenwriter Cole Burton had a simple plan to cure his writer's block. Take a drive into the American woodland and find inspiration. He could never have envisioned finding tragedy, hybrid monsters, questions of fate, a computer hacking dancer and a military experiment gone awry. When his road trip leads him into chaos, Cole must deal with his own demons to rid the world of creatures designed to annihilate.

An action filled horror love story.

The Fuller Children Chronicles - The Otherworld Children

A collection of interlinked stories inspired by and in loving memory of Ceri, Sam, Becca and Charlie Fuller. Join the kids as they embark on wonderful adventures that take them to a magical realm they never knew existed but have always been a part of.

And another title by his Dad:

Poems What I Wrote (Sam Jones)

A fantastic collection of poetry inspired by a life in The Forest of Dean and its various inhabitants. Amusing, inspirational, thought-provoking, nostalgic, and heart-breakingly magnificent.

All titles are available as paperbacks and ebooks

Copyright © Matt Jones 2017

All rights reserved.

ISBN 978-1-326-93303-6

Dedication

For my family and for all of those who have moved on to realms as yet unknown to us.

Introduction

The Soul Gate concept came from a simple reaction. I, like many others I’m sure, get a shiver run up my spine sometimes. I’ve noticed that it happens when I see dead things or when I enter a graveyard. I began wondering why and the story went from there. Granted, I don’t really believe that the cause of this reaction is as contained within this book but hey, we don’t know the reasons for everything…

Chapter 1

The colour blue has long been associated with a feeling of depression, the feeling that things in life just aren’t as they should be. We say it with a down beat in our voices as our unhappiness is relayed to others, ‘I am blue.’ These feelings can be because of what’s going on in our lives but sometimes they are there within us and we don’t know why. They are just there, as if the universe is unbalanced and wants us to know it.

As Courtney White stares up into the seemingly endless darkening sky, the deep blue speckled almost artistically by the early evening stars, she’s feeling an emotion the polar opposite to depressed. Courtney White is in love, and has been for fourteen of her twenty-five years. The man that makes her feel this way is next to her in the luscious green grass of the field, sharing the same view. However, he sees things quite differently. She is open to flights of fancy, always has been, in fact she collects frequent flyer miles. She often finds herself enjoying art that her boyfriend doesn’t ‘get’ but he has always been her unbreakable tether to the ground, ensuring her flights don’t see her drifting aimlessly into space. Granted, his social awkwardness has been a small issue on occasion and it’s difficult to daydream when your supposed accomplice on such endeavours struggles with romanticism. However, what Joe Harvey lacks in imagination, he more than makes up with in heart, kindness and knowledge. At twenty-six he has just one year’s additional experience on the planet but by applying his academic talent throughout education, he holds an extra decade’s worth of analytical and technical knowledge. She kicks his ass in pop culture though.

It’s this preference of intellect over physique that means he’s not as healthy as he’d like and although not overweight, he feels things wobble when Court tickles him awake. He always chooses the Information Superhighway over jogging on a real road. His well-groomed facial hair and regular trips to the unisex salon fulfils his desire for order in his appearance. He envies his girl in many ways, one of which is how she manages to keep her athletic figure despite the amount of cake she consumes every now and again.

She reaches for his hand and holds it as she speaks,

You know, Van Gogh once wrote that ‘we take death to reach a star’. Do you think that maybe, somewhere in the universe, on one of those dots of light is Heaven? A place we go when we die? He feels her hand tighten around his as he takes a breath to reply. He knows it means that he should think before answering and not blurt out what he instinctively would have. She doesn’t want the facts; he’s learnt that the hard way. His brain circles from absurdity to what he knows and back again. Damn.

Nope.

Her grip loosens and she sits up, We still gotta work on that mind of yours Harvey.

He replies with a slight sadness in his tone, Agreed. Sorry Court but those lights are stars. They are balls of gas burning far, far away and the thought of our disembodied consciousness surviving there, just doesn’t work.

For you, it doesn’t work for you. She stands and pulls him to his feet, her long blonde hair teasing his face.

There are more things in Heaven and Earth than are told of in your philosophy Joseph.

Marlowe? he asks.

Shakespeare, she corrects.

What’s the difference?

Courtney laughs and hugs her man. I love you Joe Harvey but I’m sure that somewhere between that big heart and that bigger brain, a wire has come loose. Maybe it’s true that romance just can’t be learnt.

Wait a minute, I did buy you flowers.

She nods, That you did, that you did. However, it was Valentine’s Day and it was as much about self-preservation as it was an act of emotion. They both smile. Come on Romeo, we better motor if we are going get back to meet Tan and Rich.

Motor? Why motor? he asks.

Sure, like, ‘I better motor if I’m gonna make it to that funeral.’ As in Heathers, as in Winona at her best? The blank look on his face is enough. How do you not remember great films but you remember the speed of light? He opens the passenger door of his Civic and she hops in with a Southern Belle curtsey, Well thank y’all.

Door closed, he utters to himself with a smile, 6000 miles per second. Courtney’s voice is muted as she calls to him from the interior.

You just said it to yourself didn’t you?

Yep, she knows her man in ways that he will never be able to comprehend and vice versa. They work, they understand that knowing their collective weaknesses is one of their biggest strengths as a loving, dedicated couple.

You’re good, he tells her as he slides into the driver’s seat. Her laugh lights his world as it always does. They kiss and time stops.

The Toyota Corolla that hurtles along the A48 is physically just twenty miles from Courtney White and Joseph Harvey. In terms of the emotional location within the vehicle, it could not be further away. Behind the wheel is Tania Reeves, Courtney White’s best friend since representing the County together at hockey through secondary school. Courtney had taken on a confidante role for Tan when her father left her and her mother to pursue a life in a newer house and with a newer woman. Tan’s black hair and innocent eyes seemed to appeal to some of the worst men and although those eyes were as blue as a summer’s sky, they could not see what was sometimes so obvious to others.

Slouched in the seat to her left is one such man. A man she has failed to see the flaws in for the past six months, the biggest of which had been evident the night before. The darkening sky turns black and the first of many raindrops fall onto the car. By the time she can bring herself to look at him the rain beats at the car like tiny, frustrated fists. He takes her glance as the first sign of her giving in.

How long are you going to keep up the silent treatment Tan? It’s getting real old real fast. She fires him a ‘die you bastard’ look and he changes his tone to faux remorse. I hate myself Tanny, I do. I’m trying to change and I think I am, slowly. What can I do?

It’s too soon for him to try and turn this around, she can’t accept it. You could drop fucking dead. His patience for being treated as the bad guy again has gone and his natural instinct to claim innocence has returned with force.

You’re being a real bitch about this y’know. I can do what I want and I can talk to whoever I want and I don’t need your written permission believe it or not. The words hurt her and he knows they do, it’s all part of the game. He waits for her outburst