Prologue
The time anomaly opened quietly, with a nary a hum or any other sound. Only its chromatically white light illuminated the dark, watery depths of the place, in which it opened, only several round, animal eyes were able to observe it... and then it became too late to flee, as several shapes, standing dark and indistinctive against the time anomaly's background, slipped in through it...
Nick Cutter and Claudia Brown were a pair of very happy people. They were also a pair of very satisfied people for the obvious reasons, and currently they were profoundly relaxing, enjoying a bottle of wine between the two of them. It was a very nice, romantic evening, complete with a soft pitter-patter of rain on the roof... actually, it was raining for quite a while, for several weeks now, but it was England, cold, damp, foggy and rainy weather were the norm here, so Nick and Claudia didn't mind.
The relatively quiet, but prominent sound of a key, turning in the lock, was another matter entirely. "Helen," Nick muttered through clenched teeth. "She dares?"
Abruptly, Nick got up – over some protests of Claudia – and opened the door. Sure enough, Helen was here, with her keys – Nick had never had time to change the locks on their doors – in one hand, and a fat folder under the other arm. There was also another, much bigger person, standing half-obscured in the evening's gloom behind her, so Nick decided to tone his aggression somewhat, and settled to merely ask crossly:
"What do you want?"
"To give you your birthday gift early – it's the evening of the 25th, remember?" Helen lightly replied, seemingly unshaken by Nick's less than friendly greeting.
Nick froze. "Today was twenty-fifth? But my birthday is... tomorrow," he turned around and raced deep inside their house.
Claudia turned and faced Helen with a half-bemused and half-confused look. "What's that all about?" she asked, as the other woman sat down on an armchair, looking rather smug. "I mean, Nick never mentioned that it's going to be his birthday-"
"That's because Nick hates them – his mother, the original Mrs. Cutter – is coming to visit him... I mean the two of you."
Claudia blinked. The fact that Nick had family other than Helen wasn't all that surprising, the fact that he never mentioned them before... kind of was. Plus, the idea of meeting her potential mother-in-law for the first time... was rather daunting. "So," Claudia asked carefully, "what's so bad about her?"
"What you really need to now, is that she and Nick got nothing in common – Nick takes after his father instead," Helen shook her head, looking quite serious for once. "Other than that... I think I will have to let Nick explain it to you instead. Oh and here's my gift for tomorrow – our divorce papers."
"Divorce papers?" Claudia blinked. "I thought that Nick was widowed, I mean-"
"Nick can be slow and reliable," Helen shrugged. "That has plenty of good sides, but it also means that he is slow to get started – especially if it something that he doesn't want to do in the first place. Anyways-" she grimaced and blinked, as Nick re-emerged from the bathroom, more confused and flustered than before.
"Excuse me," Nick turned to Claudia, "but as we pack up and go someplace else, we also need to call a plumber – the water in the sink is coming straight back up, the pipes must be clogged or something."
Before Claudia could answer, there was a knock on the door. Instinctively, Helen – as the one closest to it – opened it. Stephen and Connor rushed right in. "Nick," Connor gushed, "your birthday's tomorrow, your mother's coming!"
To be continued...
