Dear Tragedy: A Dark Supernatural Thriller (House of Sand Book 2)

by Michael J Sanford

  “Go fuck yourself,” Jaina said, opening her door and stepping out into the night.

  Jake grunted and exited the SUV as well. Jaina circled around to Jake’s side and thumbed on the flashlight. Jake shook his head. “Not yet. We’d do better not to draw attention to ourselves.”

  Jaina turned the light off.

  Jake motioned for Jaina to follow and quickly jogged across the street. On the other side, he kept close to the line of tall shrubs until they reached the entrance of the motel parking lot. Jake slowly scanned the front of the motel building. He tried to pick out any sign of activity among the wreckage at its core. It was little more than odd mounds of rotted wood and debris atop a bed of ash. The rest of the world may have moved on, but the motel looked much as it had four years ago.

  “Do you think the ash at Paul and Ruthie’s place was…like actually the remains of their daughter and son-in-law?” Jaina whispered.

  “I can’t imagine Aza getting around that quickly, but really, nothing would surprise me. I just want to find Dani. Fuck Aza and whatever she is.”

  “Agreed,” Jaina said.

  Something moved near the space once occupied by room 13. Jake held up a hand and gestured with the flare gun. “Did you see that?”

  “See what?” Jaina asked.

  Jake held his breath, focusing on the spot he could have sworn hid something. Or someone. “This way,” he said, moving once more, this time along the side of the still-intact motel wall.

  He halted their movement at the first door. A stained sign read ‘Lobby.’ The window was broken. Jake leaned forward to look in. It was dark, and growing darker by the second, but Jake was fairly certain the room was empty.

  Then he heard a noise.

  “Shh,” Jake said, though Jaina hadn’t spoken and wasn’t moving.

  He strained his ears. Again, the noise came. Just a short burst of…something. Not a voice or the sound of movement, but…something.

  Again, Jake’s eyes were drawn to room 13.

  Something shifted among the ruinous piles of debris. Jake only sensed it for a moment before it vanished behind a partially crumbled wall. Jake knew that they were likely to run across a vagrant or two, but they typically stuck to the more preserved rooms at the far end of the lot. No one had any reason to be trekking through the remains of room 13.

  Jake took off at a run, staying hunched over and tight to the building, but moving as quickly as he could. The air smelled electric the closer he got. Even four years later, Jake could still remember the smell. The taste of the fire was thick in the air, mixed with the rancidity of burning flesh and hair. No amount of rain or time could wash that away.

  Jake stopped next to what remained of room 10. It was the last of the rooms to still have an intact door, though the walls around it were gone.

  Jaina bumped into the back of him and almost knocked him flat. Jake caught himself on what once might have been an armchair.

  “Listen,” Jake said.

  Jaina looked around and shrugged.

  “I heard someone laughing,” Jake said, gesturing further along his intended path.

  “I don’t hear anything. And it’s getting too dark too see anything, either,” Jaina said.

  There was a lone lamppost in the parking lot that was still operational. It did little but unveil the vaguest of details in Jaina’s face, although she stood nearly on top of Jake. But he knew what he’d seen and he knew what he’d heard.

  “Light?” Jaina asked.

  “Not yet. Here, take my hand. Just a little further. Stay low and stay quiet,” Jake whispered.

  Jake led Jaina toward room 13 much slower than his journey had started. It took time to pick his way through the garbage without making any sound. He wasn’t about to let clumsy footwork cost him a chance of getting his daughter back.

  On the sidewalk in front of room 13, Jake stopped again. Somewhere in the shadows, he heard a voice, maybe two. It was distant, muffled, indistinct, but most certainly voices. Jake strained to see some detail. He could see the edges of various mounds of junk, partial walls, crumbled masonry, but little else. Even that was just what he thought he was looking at.

  “Damn it,” he said quietly. “Jaina, turn the flashlight on, but keep it low. At our feet.”

  A narrow beam of light illuminated Jake’s feet and the surrounding detritus. Jake held his breath, expecting to hear the panicked motions of whoever he was tracking. Nothing came.

  “This way,” Jake said, stepping across what used to be the threshold to room 13.

  The space had been more thoroughly cleaned than that of the rest of the motel, it being a crime scene and all. But while the center—once the bedroom—was reasonable clear of clutter, everything that surrounded it made it feel as though Jake had just stepped into a crater. The air reeked of damp and rot, but Jake kept catching wisps of gasoline. He paused in the middle of the space, Jaina tight at his side, flashlight dancing about their feet.

  “DS Anderson, is that you?” a voice asked just loud enough that Jake caught its direction.

  He turned, grabbed Jaina’s wrist, and forced the flashlight in the direction of the voice. The light shone off a leaning section of wall and pile of roofing. Water dripped from the corners and the wind groaned as it passed the scene, as if Mother Nature was ashamed of such wreckage.

  “Aza?” Jake asked loudly, though it had undoubtedly been her voice.

  “Did you see something again?” Jaina whispered.

  “You didn’t hear that?” Jake asked. “Over there.”

  Jaina let Jake take the flashlight from her, but held on to his arm tightly. Jake searched the area with the flashlight, looking for some proof of what he’d heard. He took a step toward the corner where’d he’d heard Aza taunting him. The ground was thick with ash and rotted wood, plaster, and fabric. Every step felt unstable. Every breath brought a stronger scent of gasoline.

  “Marco,” Aza said.

  This time Jake couldn’t locate the sound. “Polo,” he said, willing to play any child’s game if it meant Dani’s safe return.

  Aza giggled, sounding further away than before. Jake whirled around.

  “Ah, Jesus Christ,” Jaina said as the light caught her full in the face.

  Jake dropped the beam and shushed her. Jaina moved closer to him, chest to chest. Jake could hear her breathing. He held his own breath.

  After a moment of hearing nothing but the drip of fetid water, Jake slowly approached the corner he’d initially been drawn to.

  In the corner, he found the remains of a toilet sticking up through the refuse. One wall of the bathroom was intact, but the rest had completely collapsed, giving an unencumbered view of the overgrown lot behind the motel. Jake remembered it having once been a park, but that was before the fire.

  “Aza,” Jake said. “I know you’re here.”

  He directed the flashlight along the edge of the overgrown thicket a dozen feet beyond the crumbled motel. Something rustled the vines and leaves. Jake kept the flashlight beam on the last place he’d sensed movement.

  “Jake, I don’t think she’s here,” Jaina whispered.

  “Shh!” Jake said, stepping toward the spot of brambles.

  “Colder.” Aza’s voice.

  Jake whirled in the direction he thought he’d heard it. Toward the other end of the motel. Somewhere along the back of the building, something moved. Just a glimpse of a shadow, but movement nonetheless.

  Gripping the flare gun tightly and wielding the flashlight like a lance, Jake charged off in that direction. He kept as quiet as possible, but ran like Death was at his heels. Aza knew he was here, but he hadn’t gotten any inclination of Dani’s whereabouts. He would need to take Aza alive, a dangerous proposition, but a necessary one.

  “Jake!” Jaina shouted from behind him, her voice sounding distant and muffled.

  Somewhere up ahead, Aza called out, “Warmer!” She followed it with a raucous laugh that echoed in the night. Something moved in the
brush at his side, sounding like a beast desperate to keep pace with Jake. He almost looked, but then Aza shouted, “Hot!” and renewed his focus.

  He reached a part of the motel that was largely intact, but the overgrowth behind the building had nearly consumed it. Jake had just a narrow path up against the brick to run.

  “Colder!” Aza shouted as Jake blew by an alleyway.

  He came to a skittering stop and shone the light back the way he’d come. He walked back to the alley and looked down in.

  “Red hot, DS Anderson, you silly fucker,” Aza said.

  Jake could hear her voice clearly now, but still he saw nothing but shadows and refuse. He stepped into the alley, trying to pick out any movement. Garbage was piled up high along both sides, a buried dumpster with only one bare corner to show it still existed.

  Jake kicked an aluminum can and Aza laughed. He spun, thinking it came from behind him. There was a shape looming at the mouth to the alley.

  “Aza!” Jake shouted, bringing the flashlight up to unveil the figure.

  The beam of light hit it, lighting up its surroundings, but doing nothing to change the amorphous nature of the thing that stood watching him. Jake stared incredulously at it, but the more he stared, the more uncertain he grew about what he was looking at.

  “Aza?” Jake asked.

  “Near or far, those of darkness are always together,” Aza said. “In a world constructed of illusions, it is one of few certainties.”

  Jake took a step forward, thinking perhaps her voice was coming from the…thing. “What…what is this? Where’s Dani?”

  “Dad!” Dani’s voice bellowed from directly behind Jake.

  Jake jumped and whirled around, but saw no one. His hands trembled violently as he wielded the flashlight and flare gun, desperate for answers.

  “Dani?” Jake asked the night.

  “We do not choose the darkness, nor does it choose us,” Aza said.

  Jake stiffened, but didn’t turn around. He still thought Dani would step out from behind a pile of garbage. He didn’t want to miss her.

  “Some things simply are,” Aza continued, “remarkably…unremarkable.”

  “Dani!” Jake shouted, trying both to locate her and block out Aza’s prattle.

  “And sometimes,” Dani’s voice said, sounding as if it were right at his ear, “bad things just happen.”

  Jake didn’t have time to turn and look for her. A force struck him in the back and sent him to the filthy pavement. He floundered in the shallow puddles of piss and rainwater, but a weight pressed into the middle of his back, keeping him from moving.

  “Don’t make me shoot you, Jake,” said an out-of-place voice.

  The voice accompanied a combat boot placed just in his periphery, no doubt matching the one grinding into his spine.

  “Let me up,” Jake said, swallowing stale puddle water with each word.

  “Oh, I’m sorry,” DS Grimly said, bearing down even harder. “But I don’t take orders from you anymore.”

  “You don’t understand,” Jake said. He choked and started coughing, but unable to fully expand his chest, it just brought on more agony. “D-Dani!”

  “Put your hands behind your back,” DS Grimly said.

  Jake could feel her crouching down, quickly shifting her foot to dig a knee into his back instead. Jake pressed his hands into the ground and tried to push himself up. Tried to squirm away from DS Grimly—the bitch that stole his job and was trying to prevent him from saving Dani.

  “Son of a bitch!” Jake shouted as DS Grimly rapped him on the back of his head with what felt like the butt of a pistol. “What happened to protocol?”

  Even as Jake’s dark sarcasm returned, his eyes kept looking around the alley as best as he could from his position. Searching for some sign of Dani. Or Aza. Or even the…thing he’d seen.

  “Your hands, Jake,” DS Grimly said.

  “I’m not crazy,” Jake said, not to DS Grimly—fuck her—but to himself. He needed to believe in his own sanity. He couldn’t allow the madness that swirled around Aza and everyone she contacted to cloud his judgment. Too much was at stake.

  “Hands!” DS Grimly shouted.

  Jake squirmed one last time, then allowed his hands to be roughly handcuffed behind his back. “Dani?” he whispered to the ground. “Aza?”

  The alley gave no reply but the never-ending drip-drip-drip of water or piss or blood. Whatever it was. DS Grimly forced him to roll over and then pulled him up into a sitting position. She took a step back and aimed her pistol at his chest. As if Jake had any more fight in him. He knew when he was beaten.

  “Anything you want to explain?” DS Grimly asked.

  Jake surveyed the alley one last time. No shadow. No demon-child. No daughter. He looked at DS Grimly. “You’re not in uniform,” he said.

  DS Grimly glanced down at her attire for just a moment before snapping back to attention. “No games, Jake.”

  “In a million years, I don’t think I could ever get you to understand,” he said. There was movement at the mouth of the alley, behind DS Grimly. Still in the shadows. Unseen, but there. “I know how my actions must seem, and I won’t excuse them. But you have to trust me when I say I had my reasons. I’m not crazy, not like you think.” The something moved again, stepping from the shadows to reveal itself as a stone-eyed woman with a brick in her hand. Jaina, looking a way Jake had never seen before.

  “You assaulted the chief of police, fled in a—” DS Grimly flinched. Jaina was still a few steps away. “Did you… Jake, what did you do with Dani?”

  Jake jolted like someone had stuck him with a cattle prod. “Me? I’m trying to find her, which is more than I can say for you. I may be her only chance.”

  DS Grimly leaned forward, bringing the pistol one step closer to Jake. It’d be an impossible shot to miss at that range. Jake stared past the barrel into her eyes.

  “This is like that case, isn’t it?” DS Grimly asked. “The House of Sand killings? A deranged man kidnaps his own daughter and brings her along on a murder spree. Is that what you’re doing? Some sort of sick re-enactment of the case that got you tossed off the force?”

  “Fuck you, you wily bitch,” Jake said. “There is a special place in Hell for people like you.”

  “Me?!” DS Grimly asked. Then she shook her head and backed up a step, almost colliding with Jaina, who stood with the brick held high over her head. “No, I’m not doing this with you. You’re unhinged, clearly. Whatever this is, it ends now.”

  DS Grimly pulled out her cell phone, but never got a chance to use it before Jaina brought the brick down on the back of her head. DS Grimly crumpled to the ground, landing right in front of Jake with a sound like wet shit hitting wetter pavement.

  “Well, she was right,” Jaina said. “About the ending. Just not about the it.”

  Jake spun and tried to stand, but it was too awkward on the wet pavement with his hands cuffed behind his back. He got halfway up, but then stumbled and nearly fell. Jaina dropped her weapon and caught Jake before he could reach the same end as DS Grimly.

  “Jesus Christ,” Jake said. “What the hell was that?!” He nodded at DS Grimly as if it was unclear what he was talking about.

  Jaina looked down, stared for a moment, and then shrugged. “It’s not like I relished the idea of bashing in the skull of a cop, but if they take you in again, we are fucked. Royally, up the ass with a pipe wrench, fucked.”

  Jake groaned and felt the ground beneath him sway. The sound of dripping water kept increasing in volume. Drip-drip-drip.

  “Just find the keys, would ya?” Jake asked, spinning around to, again, indicate the obvious.

  Jaina dug around in the pockets of DS Grimly’s pants and came up with a simple metal key. She popped the handcuffs off Jake and tossed the key aside. “You’re welcome,” she said.

  Jake massaged his wrists and knelt next to DS Grimly. He leaned forward, close to her face. “She’s breathing,” he said. Then, peering at
her head, said, “Shit, you really hit her. But the bleeding doesn’t look too bad.”

  Jaina scoffed. “Her or us. That was the call. I chose us.”

  Jake wiped his hands on his pants and stood. The air was dank, making his skin crawl. A gust of wind howled past the alley, sounding like the cries of a lost child. “Did you see Dani?” Jake asked. “Or Aza?”

  Jaina shook her head and picked up Jake’s flashlight. With a slap, the light returned. “You left me in the dark. Alone. And still I saved you.”

  “I heard them,” Jake said. “Both of them. I thought I was getting close, but then DS Grimly surprised me.”

  “You’re right, Jaina,” Jaina said loudly. “You are my savior. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

  “Dammit, Jaina,” Jake said. “This is my daughter we’re talking about.”

  Jaina shone the flashlight full in Jake’s face, blinding him. “Hey, asshole. I’m on your side. Stop being a self-centered prick and let me be a part of this.”

  Jake waved his hand at the flashlight, but Jaina stepped out of reach. She dropped the light to highlight DS Grimly. “I would have thought this was clear enough. I’m committed to this, Jake. We’re in this together.”

  Jake stared at Jaina for a long time. He hardly registered what he was seeing. It was simply a grounding point for his senses while he tried to shut out the incessant dripping sound. The smell of mold and blood intensified the more he denied the sound of dripping water. It was lose-lose.

  Jake stuck a finger in his ear and wiggled it. “I think… Shit, maybe Aza’s in my head. You didn’t see or hear anything other than the good detective here?”

  Jaina shook her head. “Place is like a ghost town. And I may be the only one in this alley that isn’t a detective, but even I can see signs that no one’s been here but us. Maybe you got it wrong. About the ash, I mean. Aza’s a psycho-demon-child. No way she’d be so obvious.”

  “Dammit, you’re right,” Jake said. Being with Jaina made him feel sane again. More clear-headed. Whatever he’d thought he’d seen or heard wasn’t real. Couldn’t be real. “There is one more place that’s…well, ashy, that means something to Aza.”