The Trilogy of the Void
The Complete Boxed Set
By Peter Meredith
Copyright 2015 Peter Meredith
Kindle Edition
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Fictional works by Peter Meredith:
A Perfect America
The Sacrificial Daughter
The Apocalypse Crusade War of the Undead Day One
The Horror of the Shade Trilogy of the Void 1
An Illusion of Hell Trilogy of the Void 2
Hell Blade Trilogy of the Void 3
The Punished
Sprite
The Feylands: A Hidden Lands Novel
The Sun King: A Hidden Lands Novel
The Sun Queen: A Hidden Lands Novel
The Apocalypse: The Undead World Novel 1
The Apocalypse Survivors: The Undead World Novel 2
The Apocalypse Outcasts: The Undead World Novel 3
The Apocalypse Fugitives: The Undead World Novel 4
The Apocalypse Renegades: The Undead World Novel 5
Pen(Novella)
A Sliver of Perfection (Novella)
The Haunting At Red Feathers(Short Story)
The Haunting On Colonel's Row(Short Story)
The Drawer(Short Story)
The Eyes in the Storm(Short Story)
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
Invictus,
William Ernest Henley, 1875
The Horror of the Shade
Chapter 1
The Row-Adrina
June 15, 1959
1
When Adrina woke that morning with sweat chilling her pillow and her heart making sporadic, spastic thumps in her chest, she knew it would be bad. Even before she sat up the anxiety was on her. It seemed almost as if a cloud of fear hung in the air making it difficult for her to find her breath.
She puttered around the kitchen of her small apartment, waiting for it to happen. There was nothing else for her to do but wait. What would happen, would happen. There was no avoiding it. And she wouldn't even try. If she did, it would only make things worse.
Her growing anxiety made her feel she had to pee frequently, and she found herself sitting on the toilet for half the morning, staring blankly at the tile pattern of the floor. It was all very neat and straight.
Adrina called in sick to work. She was on the cleaning staff for a swanky New York hotel and knew she'd be useless that day. It was better if she were alone, fewer people would get hurt.
"You know that won't matter a bit!" she scolded herself. No, it wouldn't matter, but she knew this wasn't about the hotel, or any of the service staff she worked with. This was far more personal.
With her nails long bitten down to nubs, she began to pace. To the window, to the door, to the bathroom. With each trip to the window, she would peek out hesitantly, afraid of what she might see. Always the same dull view.
On one of her many trips to the bathroom, she gazed for some time at the tired, scared face in the mirror. She had been pretty once, but that had been many years before, and at 68, her black hair had long been replaced by grey. Now that was being replaced too, and a smattering of white hairs stood out from the rest. Looking at them, a sigh that was almost a death rattle escaped her—she didn't notice.
With each trip to the door, she walked almost tiptoe across the carpet, listening for any sound in the hall. She thought about scooting a chair over to the door, so she could look out through the peephole, but she knew she would look ridiculous. In her youth she stood five feet tall, but she had been shrinking steadily for twenty years and the peephole was all but useless to her now.
The day dragged on, and it was not until after dinner that it finally came. There was a loud knock on the door and Adrina clutched her hands to her scrawny chest; she wasn't expecting anyone. Except that she was. In her heart, she knew that hiding in her apartment wouldn't stop what had to happen. She was about to open the door and there'd be someone standing there and she would know. She would know something that she couldn't possibly know.
Today it would be about death, there was no question. Maybe one terrible death, maybe more, perhaps a lot more. It had always been this way when she was this keyed up. Someone was going to die.
"Let it be me, let it be me," she repeated to herself as she walked down the little hall. Adrina thought she was ready for death however, in this she was terribly wrong. She paused at the door, afraid of what was to come, but the sound of another, more insistent knock, made her face her fears and turn the knob.
"Hello, Mother." Adrina's son Tomas stood in the doorway. He looked terrible; never in her life had she seen someone with eyes so bloodshot. He had great dark circles under them that were swollen and puffy. Clearly he had not slept in a long time, and the dark circles made his sallow skin appear sickly yellow. His normally neat black hair stood out uncombed and his face was unshaven...
Facing away from Adrina, Tomas knelt on the hardwood floor of a barren room. It was a room she had never seen before. The wood flooring was glossy and looked polished, and was spotless, without a trace of dirt or dust. Adrina stood behind her kneeling son, holding a heavy, heavy gun in her right hand. It felt like she must have just pulled it out of a freezer; it was almost painfully cold. Her vision focused on the back of Tomas' head; his hair was just beginning to show a few grey hairs.
Emotionless she nudged the barrel up against his head and pulled the trigger. It was loud and a spike of pain shot through both ears, she didn't care—she seemed beyond caring. The bullet blasted out of her son's face, spraying the room with blood and gore. About the edges, her vision clouded and tunneled, so that only when he toppled over onto a girl, did Adrina realize the walls were a harsh stark white.
Tomas' blood stood out brightly against the white. It trickled down...down, slowly down. Adrina's eyes followed the blood until it slid to the flooring where it gathered with more blood in a pool. Tomas sprawled face down over the body of a girl who was pale as death. His blood pooled around her and steam rose from it.
..."Hello, Tomas," her voice was a hollow whisper. The nervousness was gone and in its place was only stunned disbelief.
"I need your help badly," Tomas said desperately. He walked in uninvited and began to pace the room, frantically. He seemed to be looking for the right words. "Mother, I..." he stopped in midsentence, his eyes on the carpet as his mind worked.
The images of the future spun around in her mind. The cold, cold gun; the blood flying; the pale girl wearing what looked to be a long pillowcase. It had to be wrong!
It's never wrong.
Her mind went over the vision a second time. Tomas had been kneeling and facing away, it could have been someone e
lse. It had to be someone else.
He's wearing the same shirt, a voice inside her said. It'll be today.
"I don't think I c-can hel-hel-help you that way," Adrina stammered, her voice still with only the strength of a whisper.
He looked at her sharply. "What way? What do you know?" he demanded and this question focused her quickly. She couldn't tell him of her vision, no matter what. How this could get worse, she didn't know, but it would be, if she tried in any way to avert his fate. Somehow it would be worse.
"I, I, I don't have any money for you, if that's what you want." It was all she could think of to say. It was a poor cover up and Tomas saw through it.
"Why would I want money? Don't play stupid with me, Mother! I know you have a gift...powers...or clairvoyance or something. That's the reason why I'm here." He was angry and stared hard at her. In a moment however, his exhaustion doused the anger and his shoulders slumped. "You know things you shouldn't. You see the future, right? I've known since I was a kid," he added quietly.
"You call it a gift?" Adrina's voice became strident. "It's not a gift, it's..."
"You can tell me in the car," Tomas said cutting her off. He gripped her shoulders with both of his hands and gave her a slight shake. "I need you to come with me. You'll come, right? It's Emily." His red eyes looked suddenly very sad, his face drooping in misery. "She needs you... your kind of help."
Adrina didn't think she would be much help to Emily. In the vision, the body on the floor had to be her granddaughter and Adrina was sure she was dead at that point. She'd been so pale that Adrina hadn't even recognized her, and she wondered again how this could get any worse.
She drew in a long breath. "I'll come and I'll do what I can, but...but, I won't, I can't..." There was no way she could kill her own son. How was she supposed to help? She didn't even know what she was supposed to do, other than pull a trigger. Her mind started to replay the vision and she shook her head, hard.
"Good. Do you need anything to...to...you know, bring anything?" he asked. Adrina was confused and thought Tomas meant luggage.
"Where are we going?" The image of the heavy gun had never left her, its grip had been like ice. "Is it cold there? Should I bring a coat?"
"We're going to my base on Governors Island," he paused, thinking. "It will be cold, yes, you'll need a coat. Bring your heaviest coat and your...do you need anything to, you know..." He looked at her expectantly, his red eyes darting about her face. "You know, to cast a spell or something"
"A spell?" she cried. First with the vision and now with Tomas talking spells, Adrina suddenly worried that Tomas might have gone insane. He certainly looked it. She also realized with dawning horror how this could get worse. If she interfered in some way, even by accident, he might go on a rampage, killing who knows how many others. "No. No I don't think I'll need a spell," she said calmly with a forced smile.
Her abrupt mood change caused Tomas' brows to come down in consternation. "Mother, listen to me. Something has happened to Emily. I don't know what exactly." He paused blinking repeatedly, trying to hold back tears. "I think maybe... she might be possessed by a..." he looked away from Adrina now, shaking his head back and forth slowly as if he couldn't believe what he was saying. "By a demon I think," he finished in a whisper.
He wasn't crazy and worse he was telling the truth. Adrina knew it. For the second time in ten minutes, she knew. Goose bumps broke out down her arms and back and she shivered momentarily. There was a demon. How was this possible?
"It's important you tell me everything you know," she said.
"Everything? Ok, ok, well, there've been weird things going on in that house for a while. Really, since we first moved in. Small things, like the furnace wouldn't stay lit and things would go missing and sometimes there are odd sounds in the house. Like that. But...but it was the other day, Friday? What day is today?" he asked her.
"Monday dear," she replied calmly. Her voice was calm but her body was beginning to shake. It started in her arms and hands, but soon even her chest felt like it was vibrating. She went to the couch and sat down.
Tomas blinked a few times and then rubbed at his eyes. Adrina could imagine how gritty they must feel. "Lord, it was Friday night. That long." He sighed, a deep tired sigh. "Emily had a friend spending the night, and I guess something happened."
His mouth hung open and he shook his head in bewilderment. "I don't know what. I was in bed with Mary, when I heard a scream. It was a scream like someone was scared to death...and...and...and it was coming from the attic where Emily's room is. I was up and running out of my room when I heard racing footsteps on the backstairs. I stopped. I figured the girls were going to come tell me about a mouse or spider or something. However, it was Emily's friend. She sped down the stairs right past the second floor landing and down the next set of stairs in a blur."
"I went to the landing and was about to call down when I felt the cold coming from the attic. It was like winter up there. I was shirtless, because it had been a warm night, but the cold made me start to shiver. I went up the stairs and everything was dark, so I turned on the hall light at the top, and... and." He stopped talking. Adrina saw that he too was shaking. His eyes were large and far away, seeing whatever it was in the attic. "And the hall is only about fifteen feet long. And Emily's room is on the far right. And there are a couple of other rooms and...and...and."
"And what was in Emily's room?" Adrina prompted him.
"I went to her doorway and there she was lying on the floor and it looked like she was on fire, you see?" He turned to his mother, nodding his head to get her to agree with him.
Adrina was horrified at the thought of her granddaughter on fire. "Why was it so cold if she was on fire?"
Tomas shook his head. "I thought she was on fire, so I ran to her, thinking to smother the flames, but there were none, there was only smoke. I was just putting my hands out to grab her when I touched it." He had his hands out in imitation of himself, they were shaking badly, and for the first time Adrina noticed that he had a bandage on his left hand. He balled them up and held them to his chest. "I screamed. I know I screamed. It was the coldest thing and...and...the deadest." His eyes were far away again. He started to weep. "It sucked on my hand. It was dead, it wanted me."
Adrina watched him cry, feeling bewildered. She didn't know what he meant by his last sentence and she was sure she didn't want to. Her arms reached out for him and he cried against her for several minutes. When he had settled somewhat she said, "What happened next, I need to know."
He blubbered again but this time savagely, "I am such a coward! I almost ran away and left Emily. I had fallen over when...when I touched it. If I hadn't I would have ran, I know it."
A dreadful thought occurred to Adrina. "Did you get her away from it?"
"Yes." The exhaustion was back, sucking the energy out of him and with it came an uncaring attitude. "It was like smoke that seemed to start about a foot over her. It was over her...her...her chest. So, I sort of crept to her feet and pulled her to me. I was so scared. I just picked her up and ran."
Adrina slid closer to her son. "You did everything you could. No one could have done better."
"But what do I do now?" His red eyes looked into her black ones. "How do I save her?"
"Save her? I thought you said you grabbed her and ran."
"I did, I did, but she hasn't woken up... she's in some sort of coma. It's the demon! Emily is freezing cold to touch. They have these electric blankets on her constantly, but she doesn't get warm. And when you touch her..." He paused, his fingers in the air touching something that wasn't there. "You feel the heat pull out of you, like she is sucking it from you somehow."
Adrina's head overflowed with too much unwanted information. She felt like throwing it up or crying it out. She wanted to make some tea, then go to bed and stay there where it was safe. Instead, she spoke the words that she would later regret, "I'll go with you, and I'll do what I can. I fear it won't be much." Besides k
illing her son, she didn't know how she was going to be any help at all.
2
The trip from Queens through the city was actually slower in the car than if they had taken the subway. Traffic had them crawling along and Adrina had nothing to do, but stare out the window as anxiety built up in her. Every few seconds, her hand would wrap itself around the ice-cold grip of an imaginary gun. The gun would be loud. Would it wake the neighbors? Would the police be called? Did she care? She decided that she didn't. She was on her way to kill her son, how could she care about anything else?
There was just one part of the trip when the anxiety left her mind.
It occurred during the short ferryboat ride from the southern tip of Manhattan to the Army base on Governors Island. She got out of the car and stood looking out at the beautiful view while the last light of day was setting just to the side of the Statue of Liberty, which looked toy-like with the distance. The other view, down the length of the boat, was of New York City, brightly lit just for her enjoyment or so it seemed.
The lights made the city look alive and inviting and she wished momentarily that she was young again, and that her worries would just flit out of her and drift out to sea. Adrina breathed in the sea air and felt joy at the weather, which was perfect, just the right shade of warmth. She wanted it to last, but the ride was short and Tomas honked his horn in a hurry to be killed.
The day had been one of the longest in her life, however now that the end was drawing near, time sped up with a dizzying pace. In what felt like seconds they had docked and so quickly after they neared the church to collect the priest. Right away Adrina knew he was not going to attempt a real exorcism.
Tomas pulled up to the little white church and hopped out without killing the engine. "Are you all ready?" he asked the priest, who stood outside.
She felt it then. It came in little bursts: Tomas had pressured the priest into doing an exorcism. The priest didn't really believe in demons or Hell for that matter; the priest would go through the motions and perform Last Rites but in Latin and wouldn't do the needless exorcism; he would then go home and have some strawberry ice cream and watch the late news.
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