"Thank you," she murmured gratefully, shocked by his sudden burst of kindness.
“I figured you might be thirsty and you couldn’t have gotten much down your throat from the position you were in.” Though his tone was kind, not even a trace of emotion showed on his face.
Amber watched as he sauntered casually toward the wall on her right. For the first time, she noticed a reel of garden hose mounted on the wall with a spigot protruding from the cinder blocks beside it. Turning the water on, he grabbed the sprayer attached to the end of the hose, unwinding it as he walked toward her. Placing the nozzle to her mouth, he squeezed the trigger gently. A trickle of water moistened her lips and slid down her throat. After allowing her to drink in this manner for a couple of minutes, George released his grip on the handle and backed away from her. Without warning he suddenly raised the nozzle again and depressed the trigger fully. A cold, hard, stream of water pounded into her face, painfully stinging her eyes and temporarily blinding her. Instinctively, Amber tried to back away and was stopped in her tracks by an excruciating pain in her back. It felt as if a thousand needles had just pierced her flesh. She moved forward again, trying to distance herself from the pain, fighting against the constant stream of liquid pelting her in the face—only to be reined in by the chains. The Rottweiler began to bark excitedly, pulling against its own restraint.
Why is he doing this to me? What does he want? Delirious with terror, Amber couldn't imagine things getting any worse. As if her thoughts had been an unwritten invitation, something cold brushed against her inner thigh and rudely penetrated her. Twisting her body, she tried to forcibly expel the icicle-like object from her vagina, temporarily forgetting about the pain in her back ... only to be reminded once again.
Suddenly the water stopped beating against her face. She shook her head in an attempt to clear the droplets of liquid from her eyes, and tried to move forward to ease the pain in her back. As she did, Amber felt one of his hands grab her right breast. She recoiled from his touch ... only to feel the needle-like pain jabbing at the tender flesh of her posterior once more. Screaming in terror, Amber lunged forward against her bindings. His grip on her tightened, and she felt the object between her legs begin to savagely slide in and out of her. She was overwhelmed with horror and shame, feeling degraded by the violation of her womanhood.
George watched her body language as he continued his assault. Is it my imagination? Is she getting aroused? Was that a moan of pleasure? A vein started to pop out on his forehead. Eyebrows furrowed, his face grew red. Hatred gleamed in his eyes.
The assault of her body suddenly stopped. Anger was etched across his face as he removed the object from her aching and sore vagina. Her stomach lurched when she got a brief glimpse of the beer bottle he held beneath his nose, inhaling deeply through his nostrils.
“Whore!” he screamed. Bringing the bottle up, he viciously smashed it on the side of her head. As his swing followed through, the jagged edges of the broken glass raked across her face. “I’ve wasted enough time with you,” he growled, dropping the remaining shard from his hand. Slowly, he approached the frenzied dog. Patting him on the head affectionately, George released the animal from his leash, but kept a firm hold on the Rottweiler's collar while forcing the giant dog to look at the girl. Before releasing his grip, George pointed and whispered into the animal’s ear, “King—food.” King lunged toward the girl with open jaws, clamping down on a section of her right calf and whipping his head violently from side to side as if she were a chew toy. George turned and left the room as Amber screamed for mercy.
Chapter 2
The bell rang, signifying the end of the school day. The students began to exit Misty Hollows High School, heading toward their busses. Katie Johnson, a tall, well-proportioned, farm girl with dark brown hair and brown eyes, was talking with one of her friends, Julie Evans, as they walked.
“Do you think your parents would mind if I came over today and spent the night?” Julie asked.
“As long as I get my chores done and my homework finished, I don’t think they’ll care.”
“I could always help with your homework, ya know.”
“True. I’ll ask ‘em when I get home and call you.”
“Okay. Talk to ya later then.”
“Bye.”
Turning in opposite directions, they separated and went to their busses. Finding a seat to herself, Katie passed the time with her history book open on her lap. Before she knew it, she was home.
Strolling into the house, she was immediately hit with the smell of pot roast. “Hi, Mom. I’m home,” she yelled toward the kitchen.
“Hi, sweetie. Did you have a good day at school?”
“Yeah. Pretty good,” she replied, setting her books down on the desk in her bedroom. Leaving her room, she stepped into the kitchen, throwing an arm around her mom in a brief hug. “I’m gonna go start my chores, Mom. If you need me for anything, just holler.”
She smiled. “Okay.”
***
Close to an hour had gone by when Katie returned to the kitchen. “I’m done with my chores now, Mom. Can Julie come over and spend the night?”
“What about your homework?”
“Julie was gonna help me with it,” Katie answered.
“I suppose so," her mom remarked after considering the idea for a minute. "Just try not to stay up all night. I know how you girls get when you’re together.”
“Okay. Thanks!”
Unable to restrain her grin, remembering how things were when she was that age, Mrs. Johnson watched her daughter practically run from the room to call her friend.
Katie snatched up the phone from the end table next to the couch. In her elation, she managed to misdial Julie’s phone number a few times before actually getting it right. She couldn't help being excited. Until now, her mom had only allowed Katie's friends over during the day. This was the first time she had permitted a friend to spend the night.
Julie answered on the first ring, almost as if she had been lurking by the phone. “Hello?”
Hardly able to contain her emotion, Katie responded excitedly, “Hey. My mom said it was okay for you to come over and spend the night,” she blurted.
“Cool! I have a surprise I was gonna bring with me.”
“What kind of surprise?” Katie wheedled.
“You’ll just have to wait ‘til I get there to find out, won’t ya?” Julie teased.
“Oh, come on! Give me a hint. Pleeease?”
“All right, all right," Julie conceded. "It’s something I found in an abandoned house near here when I went into it on a dare.”
Katie considered the possibilities for a few moments.
The silence of the phone line was maddening. “Are you still there?” Julie inquired, wondering if the connection had been lost. Phone service wasn't exactly the best out in the country.
“Yeah," Katie replied absently. "I was trying to figure out what it could be, but I'm drawing a blank.”
“Guess yer just gonna have to wait and see then.”
“I guess so," Katie sighed. "How long before you can come over?”
“I can head over now, if that’s okay.”
“It should be all right.”
“See ya in a bit then,” Julie stated cheerfully.
“Okay. Bye.”
Katie hung up the phone and went back to the kitchen to see if her mom needed any help with dinner. When she entered the room, Katie saw her sitting at the table, looking at the newspaper. Mrs. Johnson glanced up as her daughter approached.
“Need any help, Mom?”
“No, but I want to talk to you about something,” she replied, patting the chair beside her.
Sitting down, Katie looked tentatively at her with a raised eyebrow, waiting to hear some sort of speech about rules regarding Julie’s stay. Instead, she watched the expression on her mom’s face change from light-hearted to concerned.
“Do you girls go to the parks at all?” she asked.
>
“Occasionally," Katie answered, caught off guard by the question. "Why? What’s up, Mom?”
“Do you remember me telling you about a girl that disappeared from one of the parks in Toledo a couple of weeks ago?”
“Kind of," Katie replied, suddenly growing nervous.
“Well, it happened again.” Mrs. Johnson pushed the newspaper across the table, making sure the headline was staring her daughter in the face. “I want you girls to be extra careful, all right? I don’t want to be reading about you in the paper like this.” She stabbed the article with her index finger repeatedly to get her point across.
“We will, I promise.” Katie looked down at the newspaper. A picture of a young, blonde-haired woman stared at her from the front page. The little hairs on the back of Katie's neck stood up and goose bumps consumed the flesh on her arms. The woman in the photograph seemed pretty young, maybe twenty years old at the most. Drawn to the story in front of her, even though the picture gave her the creeps, she began to read the article.
Local woman reported missing
Nineteen year old Tina Blackwell was reported missing late last night. Her husband called the police after finding a note she left, stating that she had gone to the park to go jogging. According to the lead investigator in this case, Tina disappeared from the same park that Amber Richards had two weeks prior. The police speculate that the two abductions are somehow linked. Drag marks, found on the gravel jogging path, are the only lead at this time. The police ask that if you have any information concerning Tina's whereabouts, please call the Crime Stoppers hotline.
Mrs. Johnson tapped the newspaper again to get Katie's attention. “I need you to put that up for now and get the table set for dinner.”
“Okay,” Katie responded, as if her mind were a million miles away. Slowly rising from her chair, she moved the newspaper to the counter.
“Are you all right, sweetie?” A pained look creased her face as Mrs. Johnson's eyebrows furrowed in worry.
“I guess so,” Katie mumbled in a daze. Opening the silverware drawer, she began setting the table. Before she returned to the cupboard to get plates, the doorbell rang. Snapping out of the walking coma that she seemed to be in, Katie rushed to the front door.
“Hey, Julie. I didn’t hear you pull into the driveway.” Smiling, she stepped aside so her friend could come in.
“My dad let me borrow his car since he doesn’t have to work tomorrow. That thing is really quiet.” Julie smirked, crossing the threshold.
“I guess so. Well, I was just getting the table ready for dinner. Let me ask my mom if it’s all right for you to join us. Silly me, I forgot to earlier.” Katie blushed.
“Okay.”
Walking to the kitchen with Julie close behind, Katie noticed that her mom had finished setting the table while she was answering the door.
“Mom? Is it all right if Julie joins us for dinner?”
“Sure, sweetie. Can you get an extra place setting out for her?”
“Okay. Thanks, Mom.”
“Thanks, Mrs. Johnson,” Julie added, smiling.
“When you’re done, yell out the back door to your dad and brother. Let them know that dinner’s ready,” she instructed.
After setting a place for Julie, Katie went to the back door and yelled, “Dad … Matt, dinner!”
A couple of minutes later, the men came inside and washed their hands.
“Dinner smells really good, Mom,” Matt commented as he sat down.
While they ate, everyone talked about the interesting events of the day, though in the country there wasn't normally much to speak of. Not that conversation was a priority when a good roast was on the table. Once they had finished eating, the girls helped Mrs. Johnson clear the table and wash the dishes.
Now that dinner's aftermath had been taken care of, Katie turned to leave the kitchen. “I’m gonna help Julie bring her stuff in from the car and get started on homework, Mom,” she commented over her shoulder.
“All right, sweetie. You girls try not to stay up too late, though,” Mrs. Johnson chided with a knowing grin.
“We won’t,” they replied in unison, causing them to burst out in laughter. They didn’t manage to get their mirth under control until the two of them had all of Julie’s things inside and the bedroom door was shut. Sitting down on the bed beside each other, Katie began to bounce excitedly, nearly knocking Julie to the floor in the process.
“So, what’s this big surprise you’ve been keeping from me?” Katie inquired.
A sly grin creased Julie’s features. Crossing the room to where her stuff lay in a pile on the floor, she began to rummage through her things as if she didn't truly know where the object was that she was looking for. After a dramatic pause, Julie pulled a thin, rectangular wooden box from the heap and brought it back to the bed.
“I’ve never actually used it before, but I think it will be easy enough to figure out. After all, these things are utilized in the movies,” Julie commented as she sat down on the mattress, holding the unopened box on her lap.
Katie began bouncing on the bed again, hardly able to contain her curiosity. “Come on! Quit teasing! What is it?”
Slowly opening the box, she caught a glimpse of Katie peeking over her shoulder. Inside the tattered carton lay a Ouija board, its message indicator resting on top of it.
“Cooool!” Katie gasped in mock awe. “I’ve never seen anything like it before. Is it a game? How do you play it?”
Offering a brief explanation of what the Ouija was and what it was supposed to do, Julie paused, carefully searching her memory to make sure she wasn't leaving anything out.
“Let me get this straight," Katie interrupted. "You can actually talk to dead people with that thing?”
“Supposedly.” Julie shrugged.
“Creepy! Can we get it out and try it?” Katie requested.
“I don’t see why not, but we should probably wait until later.”
“Why?” Katie's shoulders slumped in disappointment.
“So we can get our homework done first, silly!”
“I thought I was supposed to be the sensible one,” Katie commented sarcastically, raising a comically high eyebrow.
With a grin, Julie closed the box, stood up, and crossed the room, setting the Ouija on Katie’s desk. Removing her history book, a pen, and her homework folder from her backpack, she returned to the bed and sat down while Katie retrieved her own schoolwork.
Distractedly, they began working on their history paper together. Neither of them spoke much while they exchanged notes, but Julie kept catching Katie glancing toward the Ouija on her desk. Julie did her best to keep a straight face, despite the chuckle that was forming in her throat.
A grueling hour later, they finally finished their homework and quickly put their things away. Walking over to the desk, Julie grabbed the box and returned to the bed. Katie stared with apprehensive wonder, almost like she expected something to suddenly jump out at her when Julie pulled the Ouija out of its container and placed it on the bed. As Julie sat the message indicator gently on to the center of the board, Katie cringed as if she had expected something to happen right away. Simultaneously, it seemed like every hair on her body suddenly stiffened, causing a nervous chuckle to bubble up from her throat.
“What’s wrong?” Julie asked.
“I feel like a porcupine,” Katie admitted, pointing at the hair on her arms.
With a casual smirk, Julie instructed Katie to sit facing her on the bed in such a way that the Ouija could be placed between them, resting on their knees.
“Any questions before we start?” Julie implored.
“Umm ... Can we contact anyone we want?”
“Sort of. We can try to contact someone specific, but it doesn’t always work that way. At least, not from what I’ve seen and heard.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, even when you want to talk to someone in particular, it's entirely possible that a stronger entity
will emerge, pushing other ghosts out of the way so it can talk instead. Other times, a specific spirit attaches itself to a Ouija and refuses to let any others be contacted through the board,” Julie explained.
“Sounds kinda spooky if ya ask me,” Katie remarked nervously.
“Oh, one more thing. Spirits like to lie. They don’t all do it, but if we happen to get a mischievous one that wants to pretend it’s someone it’s not, at least you're prepared.”
“So, now what are we supposed to do?” Katie inquired.
“Put your fingers lightly on the message indicator. Like this,” Julie instructed when she saw the confusion on Katie's face. “Now we need to figure out who we want to try contacting and push everything else from our minds.”
“Like a relative or something?”
“It can be anyone, not just a relative, as long as the person is dead.”
Katie sighed. “Umm ... I can’t think of anyone off the top of my head.”
“I had a cousin that died in a car accident. We could try contacting him,” Julie offered after a moment of thought.
“What’s his name?”
“Keith Underhill.”
“Okay.” Katie cleared her mind of everything except his name. It was all she could focus on since she had never met Julie's cousin and had no idea what he looked like.
“We wish to contact the spirit of Keith Underhill,” Julie intoned softly. “Are you here, Keith?”
They stared at the message indicator intently, waiting to see if anything would happen. When nothing did, Julie repeated her question. Holding their breath in silence, the indicator remained unmoving. Julie opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted by a loud knock on the door, causing both girls to jump. The Ouija flew off their knees and landed upside down on the bed.
“Katie?”
The girls quickly scrambled to get the Ouija and its box out of view, sliding it under the bed. “Yeah,” Katie answered.
Desolace Omnibus Edition Page 2