Terry Lockworth

Terry Lockworth was a technician who worked installing fibre-optic cables.

Around November 2008, Terry and his co-worker Johnnie Bates were sent to New York City to take a training course on a new fibre optic system developed by the Americans. The two of them spent many nights on the town before just barely making it to the next day's training classes with hangovers. Nevertheless, the two returned to England certified to install the new fibre optics, which made them popular with their boss and earned them bonuses.

Three months later, Terry married Maria. The two lived in a flat in Boston Manor which Maria's dad had given them a deposit for. By 15 May 2009, three months after their marriage, Maria was pregnant, and Terry fervently hoped the child was a girl. The family's tight financial situation due to their expenses meant Terry frequently worked long hours, which irked Maria, who would usually throw out the spaghetti bolognese she had made Terry when he was late.

On that day, Terry was working with Johnnie at an installation job at the Oracle Hotel in the Western Business District Development just outside of London, having been promised another bonus if they got the job done. The two did a coin flip to see who worked upstairs with the executives and who took the back stairways and service corridors, which Terry lost, sending him to the basement. The complexity of the installation meant Terry had to work late, for which Maria would be fed up with him, but mobile phone signals were blocked inside the hotel. As he approached the end of his work, he hoped he would be home in an hour, and out of the black spot in half that time so he could phone Maria. Terry thought the promised bonus was money in the bank, as he considered the installation of the fibre optics easy compared to the removal of the older copper wires.

Opening the last junction box with a screwdriver, Terry whistled something he had heard on the radio while driving over. Unbeknownst to Terry, the job was secretly being carried out for the Mandragora Helix, an ancient alien power which sought to conquer the Earth, and Terry was expendable to it. As he worked, pulses of the Helix's power began to flow through the fibre optics, but Terry did not notice. Just after he installed the last bit of cabling and was screwing the box shut, the Mandragora energy rushed into him through his screwdriver and disintegrated him, leaving only charred flakes that began to fall to the ground as Terry's screwdriver was only starting to fall away from the screw head. (PROSE: Beautiful Chaos)