Gertrude leaned in and whispered to her friend Cindy. “Rumor is that Scott owed Jack money for drugs and Jack tried to get Scott to pay him.” Gertrude nodded at what she herself had said, as if to confirm it was true.
“Pfft,” Cindy replied as she knew better. She worked with Miriam enough to know Scott didn’t do drugs. “Scott’s a good man, as good as they come. I call bullshit on that.”
Shelley busied herself collecting payment from the old couple and clearing the table, collecting the dirty dishes into her plastic tub and wiping down the table. Shelley and the couple exchanged pleasantries as they readied themselves to leave.
“What the hell is that supposed to be?” Cindy uttered in a loud voice.
Many of the patrons turned to look at Cindy, who sat by the large windows in the front of the restaurant. Gertrude and Cindy were both looking outside; their eyes glued to whatever had captured their attention.
“What the hell is what?” Shelley asked as she turned to look in the direction they were staring.
In the middle of the street there strode a barefoot brown skinned woman who wore what Shelley would later assume to be a Halloween costume. A long, ornate-flowing brown robe adorned with beads, hundreds of black feathers, and small things that looked like little sticks or small bones decorated her slim and tall figure. Large gold hooped earrings were combined with little bones, beads, and feathers in her hair as well. The woman carried a gnarled, old wooden walking stick as she strode barefoot down the middle of the street, examining her surroundings with what looked to be utter fascination and curiosity.
“Meh,” Doctor Kingsley said, who was looking through the window at the woman from where he sat at the counter. “You people need to leave this island more often. There’s a whole world out there,” he added as he went back to sipping the rest of his coffee.
“Cindy!” Shelley said. “I didn’t think you, of all people wou…” Shelley stopped in mid-sentence when she saw what Cindy saw.
“That!” Cindy blurted, pointing outside. “What the fuck is that?”
Following the woman down the street were critters and animals the likes of which made this scene even stranger. There were little grey mice, brown filthy rats and cats of various colors and sizes following the woman as if she was the Pied Piper of Hamelin himself. Even stranger still were the snakes that slithered alongside them while crows swooped in, landing on nearby perches of all sorts to watch as she and her animal followers walked past them. Crows took flight and others replaced them swooping in and leaving just as fast. Coming up the rear of the small parade of sorts was one lone wolf who strode with caution, glancing all around at his surroundings.
“What the fuck is that?” Cindy asked again, as people gathered around her to peer outside, a few with phones to record the strangest sight many of them had ever laid eyes on. Thunder rumbled in the distance as the wind picked up, sending small vortexes of dust tumbling up and down the street, in front of the bizarre woman and the animals that followed behind her. Just as she passed the windows of the Old Mill, the skies blackened, and heavy rain poured down from the storm clouds above. The rains would fall heavy, but not as heavy as the worries of the residents of Oakwood Island soon to come.
THE END
Author’s Note
Assuming you’re reading this book after having read Oakwood Island, then by now you know how this book began, with three short stories written by Angella Cormier. Eventually, we started collaborating to expand those three short stories into Oakwood Island.
We like to think about those three little short stories like crisp white snowballs rolling down the side of a generous slope. The next thing we knew, those little snowballs were gathering speed and growing in size. Soon we knew we simply had to return to the mystical island as things were brewing, still. Although those snowballs had grown exponentially, there was still a long way to get to the bottom of this imaginary hill. And even now, as you finished reading this second volume, those snowballs are still rolling, gathering speed and growing in size.
What does that mean? It means, dear reader, that we will get back to you soon with a third volume in the Oakwood Island series.
About the Authors
Angella Cormier grew up in Saint Antoine, a small town in south east New Brunswick, Canada. This is where her love of reading and writing was born. Her curious nature about everything mysterious and paranormal helped carve the inspiration for her current passion of writing horror and mystery stories. She is also a published poet, balancing out her writing to express herself in these two very opposing genres. Angella is a mother of two boys as well as an established freelancer in graphic design. Previous titles include Dark Tales for Dark Nights published in 2013 (written under Angella Jacob), Oakwood Island, and A Maiden’s Perspective: A collection of thoughts, reflections and poetry published in 2015. For more information, please visit: www.MysteriousInk.ca
Pierre C Arseneault, is the youngest of eleven children and grew up in the small town of Rogersville, New Brunswick, Canada. He fulfilled a childhood goal in 2004 and became a published cartoonist. His first published work of fiction was in 2013; a collection of short stories called Dark Tales for Dark Nights; written in collaboration with Angella Cormier. This was followed up by Sleepless Nights, a collection of short stories published in 2014, and Oakwood Island. His first non-horror novel, Poplar Falls: The Death of Charlie Baker was published in 2019. Pierre currently lives in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada.
Thank you for taking the time to read our book. We hope you had as much fun reading it as we did writing it. Indie writers (like us) love it when our readers and fans leave us reviews. It doesn’t take much time, just a star rating and a couple of lines is all it takes. We’ll make it easy for you, just click on the link below.
Oakwood Island: The Awakening on Goodreads
If you want to stay in touch with us, learn about mundane things we do, or just don’t want to miss the next release you can follow us online.
Facebook
Or check out our author website where we post updates about new projects, information about our books, and articles we’ve written.
Mysterious Ink
The Awakening Page 20