The strength returned to my hands and my mind. “Okay, okay. I’ll show you where I threw it and you can go get it.”
“Alright, but we will go get it.” He walked backward to a storage room just behind him and grabbed a couple of flashlights. “Get up.” He shoved the end of the shovel in my back and pushed me through the barn doors.
“I threw it over there.” I pointed to a clump of trees and we walked away from the barn. Each of us had a flashlight and as we walked, I slid my hand into my pocket with Mort’s trace, the stone cool like mine.
Leaning over I shuffled my feet in the leaves and dirt. “It should be somewhere around here,” The beam of light caught a solid branch on the ground about five feet away. I made my way toward it and stopped for a second. Mort stood at least ten feet away, and I’d only have a couple seconds before he reached me. My vision had not yet returned in my left eye, and my ears rang with pain, but I had to do something before he realized I had taken him on a wild goose chase.
“I think I found it!” I dropped my flashlight, picked up the branch, and waited for the sound of his footsteps. His footsteps fell closer. I waited.
He came up behind me and I stood up and swung the branch with all my power. The solid connection made a hollow sound as it took us off our feet. The force splintered the branch in my hand as I came to rest on my ass and Mort landed flat on his back.
I stood up and rushed over to grab my flashlight. The light gleamed down revealing a huge dent in the center of his forehead, his eyes unfocused yet staring upward into the darkness. The skin had split in the center of the depression, and I nearly vomited as blood bubbled from it. Lowering my head to his chest, I found a faint heartbeat. He took fast but shallow breaths. Something tugged at my conscience as I knelt over him, blood gurgling from his broken skull. I knew what he had had in store for me, but a part of me wanted to rest his trace in his hand and save his life.
I grabbed my trace from his pocket before pulling his trace from mine. I studied it between my thumb and forefinger, thinking of my mother and father. What would they have done? My mind twisted as to what I should do. Mort had been a good friend, or so I thought, up to that point, but he’d also planned to kill me tonight. Time stood still as I pondered my situation.
My parents raised me to be forgiving of others, but that was before someone had killed them, murdered by a person who had no regard for the worth of their lives. In my mind, Mort had condoned the actions of his brother by not acting sooner. He was as much responsible for their deaths as Mallen. I could have let him die, and no one would know except the man behind the mirror.
Mort’s throat gurgled, and I reached to put the stone in his hand. My conscience couldn’t carry another life taken by my hands.
A wind swept through the trees, and the air became metallic and hot, turning foul as the unmistakable tinny taste coated my tongue. Mort’s eyes filled with fear for the first time. One of his pupils was dilated from the blow and the other had fallen out of center. He mouthed the words “I’m sorry” while the unmistakable shriek of the Somnibus raced in from the distance.
One of them rushed toward me but stopped just short of striking me in the chest. I fell back, and Mort’s trace fell from my hand, landing next to his body. The Somnibus hung in the air before it darted away and joined the others as they circled in the dark sky above us. Their wispy cloaks trailed behind them as they tightened their circle, floating like whispers spoken into the air, their shadowy tendrils in tow. I squeezed my eyes shut and opened them again in hopes that they were just a part of my imagination. They continued to swirl in the darkness above.
The group gradually descended upon us, and their circle tightened further. They continued, lower to the ground and closer to Mort. A glimmer of life flashed in his eyes as the tendrils reached out and fully engulfed him. The swirling shadow rose from the ground, dragging Mort’s body with it.
His feet and arms dangled from the shadowy vortex as it rose into the sky. Just as his hands left the ground, his fingers reached for the trace that had landed next to him. The dust swirled, and I shielded my remaining good eye with my arm.
The wind died and I lowered my arm. The Somnibus, and Mort, were gone. Leaves swirled in their wake, leaving no evidence that they had even been there. The tainted air dissipated, and the concerted shrieking faded into the night sky before the air became still.
I made my way back to where Mort had been lying. My head tipped to find nothing but a clear night sky full of country stars. The ground where the Somnibus had taken Mort from sat empty. Not only was all evidence of Mort gone, but so was his trace.
END OF BOOK I
Read an excerpt from Book II on the following pages
AN EXCERPT FROM THE SOMNIBUS: BOOK II-THE SIX STONES
-Chapter 1-
I bought a new bed when I replaced the death stained carpet in my bedroom. I wanted to remember the happy times in the house from my childhood, the days when my parents were still alive, and did my best to erase the bad memories from days spent there with Mort. Lying down, I fell asleep the minute my head hit the pillow.
My eyes fluttered open and I stood in an unfamiliar room. A stark white, domed ceiling towered over the expansive space and colorless walls rose from a cold marble floor. The box from the vault sat on a metal table in front of me, a symbol stamped on the lid.
Unlocked, I removed the latch and lifted the lid. Inside, six stone traces sat arranged in a pattern. Mine was in the middle and one of the other stones resembled the one Mort and Mallen shared, but I didn’t recognize the other four. Each of the outer stones had a hole in the center. Reaching into the box, the mark on my hand emitted an emerald glow, painting the inside of the box a brilliant green.
Before I touched any of the stones, they began to vibrate and hum in rhythm. Pulling my hand from the box, I watched while they arranged themselves into an odd pattern. My trace remained in the center as the others migrated toward the middle, and the outer edges of my oval trace darkened to a deeper shade of green as they drew closer. The stones paused before reaching the center and then snapped into place against my center stone. The deep green mark in the middle of my trace became black, spinning like a mini vortex.
The others stones continued to vibrate and hum with an almost inaudible tune; I felt the sound more than heard it. My trace stopped swirling and I again reached into the box. The green glow illuminated the inside of the container and the entire shape spun in the center. I jerked my hand out while the stones spun as one complete unit.
A focused beam of white light burned through the air to the ceiling. Stepping back, I tilted my head up while light poured onto the ceiling, spilling a puddle-like reflective image onto the white dome. Images churned in the reflection while I tried to make sense of them. The light’s intensity grew, and as I held my arm up to shield my eyes my palm again lit up in a green brilliance. The emerald color mixed with the pure white of the light to give clarity to the imagery on the ceiling.
The picture showed what appeared to be some type of island, the sky a dreary gray with fog and haze smothering the light, allowing only a fraction to show through. The scale of the images was unclear; I might have been a hundred feet or a hundred miles above the trees. An ebony and charcoal landscape stretched in every direction when a bright flash lit up the center of the image. Within seconds, Somnibus fled from the trees in every direction, not one or two, but thousands. Their shadowy figures rolled in waves, streams of Somnibus bleeding from the center, flowing endlessly into the black and dusty area surrounding the trees before disappearing out of the edge of the projected image. The flow of shadows slowed before the scene went still.
My neighbor’s barking dog woke me up from the confusing, yet strangely clear dream at two in the morning. The mutt had a habit of waking up and barking when Tom came home from work in the middle of the night.
I rolled over and wrapped the pillow around my ears before finally falling asleep after the barking slowed and eventually
stopped.
A sliver of light sliced its way through the blinds in my room and I sat up in bed recalling the vivid details of the previous night’s dream.
What scared the Somnibus from the trees? What frightened them? The Somnibus had fled when Mort had shown up for the first time. He had appeared as an orb of white light, and all but one took off, leaving only my attacker. Was Mort still alive and somehow trying to tell me something? The Somnibus had taken Mort and I never found his trace, the one that gave him immortality.
The box at the bank had a habit of tugging at my curiosity, and it weighed heavily on my mind after the dream. I threw on some clothes and headed to the bank, determined to find out what was inside.
-Chapter 2-
A young blonde girl stood next to Barnes’ desk holding a stack of folders in her arms and she looked up when I walked into the lobby. Her blue eyes held mine for a moment. My heart skipped a beat while a smile played at the corners of her mouth before she turned and walked away. Barnes stood from behind his computer screen and shook my hand.
“Michael, how have you been?”
“Good. I need to grab something from the vault.”
“Sure, Michael. You need help getting down there?”
“No thanks. I think I remember the way.” I walked down the hallway to the entrance of the labyrinth below the bank.
Hissing open, the sealed door to the vault gave way to reveal the box sitting in the room right where I’d left it, the lock still intact. I hadn’t noticed before, but the lid had an odd emblem on the top, some sort of diagram. It reminded me of the way a child night sketch a house, a square drawn with a tiny triangle set on top for the roof. I lifted the box from the floor, surprised by the effort required to lift such a small container. After putting my key in the door and tucking the box under my arm, I headed back to the lobby. Before I entered the elevator, I noticed a door I didn’t remember seeing during my last visit.
EMPLOYEES ONLY
Something pulled at me, urging me to peek inside the room. After checking over each shoulder, I stepped inside and the door snapped shut behind me.
My fingers searched for a light switch on the wall. I flicked it up and the lights flashed on. My pulse raced when my eyes followed the towering walls to the top. A domed white ceiling sat overhead. The pure white walls magnified the light, creating a cold, sterile environment. Sitting in the middle of the room, the table from my dream sat empty. I walked over to the table to find a small key lying in the center.
My ears pounded when I set the box on the table and picked up the key. My hand trembled while I put it in the lock and the shackle released, my chest hammering with anticipation.
Lifting the lid, I noticed the contents from my dream sat in the box, well almost. Three unfamiliar stones, each one with a hole bored through the center, were in the container. I reached into my pocket and pulled out my trace. I rolled it between my fingers, contemplating if I should set it in the middle of the box. Curiosity screamed for me to do it but my rational side held me back, for a moment.
Ignoring my brain, I reached in and set my trace in the middle of the box. Something sucked it from my fingertips, like metal drawn to a magnet, and it clunked to the center. I stepped back, but remained close enough to peer in over the sides. The stones hummed and shivered in their corners. The center of my stone swirled, and the stones in the corners moved, inching their way towards my trace. My head pulsing, the stones slid towards the middle and I waited for the light to burst from the box, but the stones paused just short of connecting with the center trace.
The middle of my trace remained motionless, but the other traces snapped back to the positions from where they began. That’s it? Disappointed, I grabbed my trace from the container. After closing and locking the box, I stuck it under my arm and put the key into my pocket. Taking one last look behind me, I headed to the door and clicked the lights off before leaving the spacious room. As I stepped into the hallway, Barnes came around the corner. He quickly closed the distance between us and stopped just short of my face.
“What were you doing in there?” His face twisted into a scowl and his forehead wrinkled all the way across. Planting his feet shoulder-width apart, he crossed his arms.
“I got lost for a second and I...”
Barnes cut me off. “This room is private.” He poked his plump index finger into my chest. “If you go in there again, I’ll have you arrested,”
My ears heated instantly, like those of a kid being busted thumbing through his dad’s magazines. But Barnes had crossed the line.
I leaned into is face. “You lay a finger on me again, you’ll regret it. Understand?”
He stepped back, cleared his throat, and straightened his wire-framed glasses.
“Fine, Barnes. I was just leaving anyway.”
Barnes took a step back. “You’re free to go.”
“I know I am.” I widened my shoulders, bumping him when I passed. “It’s just a big empty room anyway.” I strode down the corridor and into the elevator.
My days of standing down were done.
READ THE REST OF BOOK II HERE
FROM THE AUTHOR
Thank you so much for taking the time to read my work. I know how valuable free time is, and I am honored that you have chosen to spend some of yours reading my book.
Works by Craig McGray
Novellas
The Somnibus: Book I
Finding the Mark
The Somnibus: Book II
The Six Stones
The Somnibus: The Complete Edition
Short Stories
This Little Piggy
Madeline
Visit the link for more books by Craig McGray HERE
The Somnibus: Book I - Finding the Mark (A Paranormal Thriller) Page 9