“There was nobody in that basement but you, Sam,” Meg said.
“But—”
“Nobody,” John said.
I closed my hot wet eyes, knowing that it was useless. They were probably right. I was sick and it had all been some terrible hallucination. “The house?” I said.
“We let it burn,” John said with satisfaction. “All the way to the ground. Never even called the fire department.”
“And good riddance to it,” Meg added with a shudder of revulsion.
“Carlisle?”
John’s expression was one I could not pigeonhole. It might have been fear or anger or relief. Or all of the above. To this day I’m not sure. “No one’s seen him since before the place burned.”
I started to speak, but John stopped me. “He wasn’t in the house, Sam. Any more than he was in the car that day with Linda and Sean. You can get those notions out of your head right now. After the fire went out they combed every inch of that place. You were the only living thing in there.”
What about dead things? I wondered, but did not voice the thought. How could they ever understand that I’d been living with dead things all those months? “How did the fire start?” I said instead.
John and Meg both looked uncomfortable.
“You did it, Sam, and we thank God you finally found the courage to torch that place. Meg and I took care of the evidence. It’s been listed as an accident. They think that old monster of a heating system blew up. Never did like that thing much. Something about it always gave me the creeps, if you want the truth.”
I swallowed thickly and stared at John. “Yeah, me too,” I said.
*
It took me years to get past the events of that summer. How could one man go so utterly beyond reason that he didn’t even notice his family had slipped beyond his grasp?
Eventually I healed, physically at least, and in time I got my rhythm back and began writing again. The rest you know. I became a big success, translating grief into art. John has since passed on. Meg still lives in the same place in town. I haven’t seen her in years. I never told anyone about what really happened here that summer, and as far as I know, neither did they. The secret died with John. And now I have to make sure it dies with Meg.
Now, as I stand here on this worn old path staring down into a watery abyss, things are starting to become a little clearer in my mind. You see, I had an ulterior motive for coming back here after all these years. I wanted to feel the place out, see if I could handle my emotions. And to tell you the truth, I think I’m going to be okay. Lately I’ve been thinking seriously about building a new house over the old foundation. Perhaps I’ll open an inn. I’ll call it Farnham House. Why change the name? The old sign is still out on the gate. Who knows, maybe I’ll even get the Hulk up and running again. So, I guess I should be getting back to town. My wife and son are waiting for me at the hotel there.
I know they’re anxious to hear what I’ve decided.
Wonder if Carlisle is still around?
THE END
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As a special bonus I have included Episode 1, the first two chapters of my new novel, Song of Ariel, the third book in the Blue Light Series. Hope you enjoy.
SONG OF ARIEL
FROM THE THIRD BOOK IN THE BLUE LIGHT SERIES
PART 1:
THE OUTBREAK
“And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?” —William Butler Yeats
PROLOGUE
Burbank, Texas 11:59 pm, July 3rd.
The moment of the arrival.
Leroy Parks solemnly locked the door of the quick stop precisely at midnight. Tonight traffic on the boulevard was uncharacteristically light. The quick stop sat next to Interstate 90 on the edge of the dusty desert town of Burbank, Texas USA, halfway between nothing and nowhere. Business was bad, worse than Leroy had ever seen. Gas and diesel prices were at an all-time high and though he knew folks had to fill up, he suspected some were stretching what they had in their tanks for as long as possible. All night long, over on the highway, trucks and cars droned past without stopping. Ah, well, he thought bitterly, life sucks then you die.
The only place along the strip with any real activity was across the boulevard at the Dunes Diner. People had to eat. That was the truth. And tonight the Dunes looked like it had more than its share of hungry patrons.
Leroy worked for the man. His quick stop was part of a chain, just one of a little million of them scattered all over the southwest, and although he was the manager, his salary was low, benefits were barely adequate, and it was a struggle getting by. The only light at the end of the tunnel was Wendy. He’d go home and crawl in bed with her, feel the warmth of her body as she spooned her buttocks against him, and he would dream about the two of them escaping to some tropical island where they would both live happily ever after.
But by the time Leroy made it across the lot to his pickup truck all thoughts of Wendy and happily-ever-after had fled from his mind.
The Night Wind had begun to blow …
… Leroy took a few robust whiffs of it, liked its flavor, and decided not to go home after all. Instead he decided to go across the street to the diner and murder some people. He wound his pickup truck dangerously across four lanes of traffic, taking out fences and guardrails as he did so. Horns blared and tires howled as oncoming vehicles desperately tried to avoid colliding with him. Leroy barely noticed. He brought the nearly ruined truck to a spitting, shuddering halt directly in front of the diner’s front door, noticing without any real interest that everywhere people seemed to be engaged in some sort of conflict. Over by the phone booth two men were feeding each other knuckle sandwiches. In front of the exit two women were rolling around on the tarmac, pulling hair and screeching like banshees. There were more skirmishes in the back lot and several people had rammed their cars into other vehicles. One of them looked pretty bad. A man with blood on his face hung from an open window of a smashed vehicle while his wife stood by screaming for help. And beneath the lighted awning, in full view of everyone, a man’s head came apart like it had contained an explosive charge. Leroy barely gave all of this carnage a second glance. He was a man with a mission. He grabbed his .357 magnum from the holster strapped beneath the seat, spun the cylinder and strode determinedly into the diner. Wow, was Fred Weir, the diner’s owner, going to be surprised to see him. The son of a bitch would never make eyes at Wendy again. That was the truth.
CHAPTER 1
Somewhere in the northern Maine wilderness, 8:30 am July, 5th.
Two days after the arrival.
“I’m going out there,” Doug told Annie. “I need to see what’s happening.” They were standing on the front porch of their small wilderness cabin staring across the clearing to the dark woods beyond as Ariel, their four year old daughter, stood at their feet clutching “Cabby” her tattered old Cabbage Patch doll—the one Rick Jennings had brought her when she was a year old—tightly to her bosom.
“Nothing’s happening,” Annie said. “The noise stopped two days ago.”
Doug nodded thoughtfully. “My point exactly. Just about the time those guys paid us that visit.”
“So you don’t think it’s just coincidence?” Annie said.
Doug shook his head. “Something’s wrong and I need to find out what. I’ve waited long enough, maybe too long.”
Annie hugged her arms to her body and glanced down at Ariel. “I don’t want you to go, Doug. I almost lost you once. I can’t go through that again.”
Doug took Annie in his arms. He knew exactly what she was talking about. It had been a terrible time in their lives. There were moments when he believed he’d never see her again. There were moments when he believed Ariel would never be born. But so much had happened since. He looked down at the child
and his heart swelled with love. She had made a believer out of him.
“You know I have to do this,” he said.
Annie pushed away a little petulantly. Her face had deepened from fear to something worse, but she didn’t say anything, only looked at him.
“We knew it couldn’t last,” he said. “We’ve gone over this how many times? We knew that eventually we’d have to resort to plan B.”
“But we’re not actually sure anything’s wrong yet, are we?” There was a slight tone of hope in Annie’s voice.
Doug kissed Annie on the nose. “Nope,” he said trying to sound upbeat but not really feeling it. “But I need to make sure. What happened two nights ago has really been bugging me.”
“But they went away.”
“Yes, they went away. That’s what bothers me. It makes no sense. They walked right through the outer perimeter but stayed well back from the inner one. Why do you think that is, Annie? It’s almost like they were aware of the inner one … but hadn’t yet gotten an update on the new one.” He paused letting what he’d just said sink in.
“So, how do you think they knew?”
“I’m not saying they did. I’m just speculating. It seems fishy, that’s all. Think about it. If they got that close, and it’s the first time they’ve been here, then why did they go away? There has to be a reason.”
Annie shivered. “So you’re saying it might not be the first time they’ve been out there? That maybe they’ve been … watching us? Maybe they’re just waiting for the right … moment?”
Doug did not reply. Annie had pretty much summed up his thoughts in a nutshell. He sat down and began determinedly lacing his boots. Afterward he went to the rack and took down his rifle, slung it over his shoulder, picked his two way radio up off the table, clipped it to his belt. “I just turned off the sensors,” he said. “I’ll key you when I get out beyond them. Turn them back on until you hear from me.”
Annie nodded. Normally they turned the sensors off during the day, but since the incident the other night they’d been keeping both perimeters on twenty-four/seven.
“You know what to do if I …” He didn’t finish the sentence because of course Annie knew exactly what to do and he didn’t want to say it in front of Ariel. If you lose contact with me and I don’t come back within a “reasonable” time frame, get yourself and Ariel up to the ice caves and wait.
Wait for what? Annie was thinking but she didn’t say it. Wait for Rick to come and save us, or wait for something else entirely? If I have to keep waiting I think I might go crazy.
Annie also knew the rest of what she was supposed to do: If anyone with harmful intent comes within range and I’m not around, then it’s up to you to blow the perimeter. If that doesn’t work and they somehow still get through, then set the cabin to blow and get Ariel up to the caves as fast as possible.
This was the part that was hardest for Annie to accept. For the past four years the cabin had been their home, their lives, their only sanctuary. And she was supposed to just blow it up and destroy the only home—the only life—Ariel had ever known. Annie picked Ariel up and put on a brave face. Doug took them both in his arms in an extended bear hug. Ariel clutched Cabby as if her life depended on it.
“I love you, Papa,” Ariel said, kissing him on the cheek. “Cabby loves you too.”
“Me too, Sunshine. You take care of your mother, okay?”
“I always will.”
Together Annie and Ariel watched Doug cross the small clearing and disappear into the forest beyond.
“Papa’s gone,” Ariel said, pointing after her father.
Annie shivered at Ariel’s prophetic pronouncement.
“Only for a short while, Ariel,” Annie said. “He’ll be back.”
“Maybe not this time,” Ariel said, and a chill crawled the length of Annie’s spine.
Out beyond the cabin, Doug assumed stealth mode, moving as quickly and as quietly as possible through the harsh environment that surrounded his world. He was careful not to use the same track he’d used last time or the time before that. In the four years since coming here he’d gotten very good at navigating his way through this rough and unforgiving land. He’d learned how to move without leaving a trail, how to track animals for food, and he’d become equally adept at locating errant humans who’d wandered too close to the compound for comfort. For several miles around the perimeter of the cabin he and Rick Jennings had installed motion detectors, and closer in, security cameras. Over the past four years a handful of hunters, hikers and just plain nosy had wandered into their space. Doug and Annie had always informed these interlopers, in the politest way possible, that this was private property and that they were not welcome here.
Suspicious, and increasingly uncomfortable with their situation, Doug had installed a new series of sensors out beyond the original perimeter. And just like that, it had been breached. It made him wonder how long they had been out there, out of sight, but so damned close. And if it was true, if they were out there watching them, what the hell were they waiting for? They knew Ariel was safe here. It’s the only thing that made any sense. She was being nurtured by loving parents. She was too young to be of any use to them now. No, they would wait. And they would watch. And when they felt the time was right they would pounce.
The thought made Doug’s blood run cold.
Two nights ago, when the outer perimeter detectors had gone off, Doug sat on the porch the remainder of that long night with his rifle across his lap and his finger on the inner perimeter detonator while Annie and Ariel slept soundly, unaware that anything was amiss. When dawn broke and all was quiet Doug struck off and found a series of fresh human tracks less than a quarter mile from the encampment. There were three separate sets of them, and on closer inspection he discovered that they’d been made with military-style combat boots. He followed them in a three hundred and sixty degree circumnavigation of the cabin. They had not ventured closer than the original quarter mile perimeter, as though they were aware of these limitations.
The unsettling thought had been eating at Doug ever since, that perhaps the feds had known where they were from the beginning. Jennings still worked as a law enforcement officer in Portland, and of course the feds had suspected from the beginning that he’d had something to do with Doug’s and Annie’s disappearance. Despite Rick’s assurances Doug often wondered how hard it would be for them to learn what they needed to know. Rick made regular but infrequent trips carrying supplies into Parker Pond with his float plane. The feds weren’t stupid.
Doug followed the trail until it disappeared in a small clearing at the foot of Stonewall Mountain five miles to the east. In the grass there he’d detected two long, straight indents that could only have been made by helicopter skids.
His heart sank. Coincidentally, or perhaps not so coincidental, it was the same day the noise had stopped. To Doug it felt like the world had taken a deep breath and was holding it. His instincts told him that something in the world had gone horribly awry. Something more than the fact that they’d been found. He wasn’t sure what it was, but long ago he’d learned to trust his instincts. Surely their time here in the wilderness had come to an end and they needed to move on. After all they had been through, after all they’d fought for and sacrificed, they would never be safe no matter how far they ran. The thought depressed Doug. He was tired of running. Even more, he was tired of hiding.
The only light at the end of their long, dark tunnel was Ariel. In the years since her birth, she had become his and Annie’s entire world. She was the most amazing child they’d ever known. He was aware that all parents thought that about their own children; it was natural, a built in mechanism that caused you to love and protect your own above all others. But Ariel was different. She had an aura about her that could not be denied. Almost four years had passed since her birth and she was talking like a child more than three times her age. Her IQ was off the charts. She was asking questions no child her age had a right to ask. Sh
e was intensely interested in all things scientific, from how Earth and its amazing array of living species happened, to the stars and planets in the night sky, wondering if there were others like us out there.
Rick had been flying books in for her and she had been devouring them like sustenance. Even so, her curiosity never waned. Doug and Annie had answered all her questions to the best of their abilities, but there was so much they didn’t know. College and life experience had given them a reasonable amount of knowledge in many areas, but coming up with accurate answers to some of Ariel’s amazing questions frustrated them both. And how much harder would the questions become as she grew older? They understood one thing clearly: there would come a time in the very near future when Ariel would need to draw on the wisdom of those much more learned than her parents.
The thought simultaneously scared Doug to death and gave him an intense sense of pride. How could he be the father of such an amazing child? How could he ever let her go? Sometimes late at night he’d come awake with a terrible fear inside him, growing, filling him up, until he was unsure if he had the strength to fight it. That’s when he’d get out of bed and sit for a long time watching Annie and Ariel sleep. An overwhelming love would replace the fear when he realized what a gift they were. He had to be strong. They depended on him for survival and he would do anything to ensure their safety.
Even as he dreaded what the future was certain to hold, he knew deep in his heart that he would someday have to set Ariel free. Then who would protect her? There were those out there in the world who knew about her. They’d been aware of her since long before her birth, or even her conception. Some wanted to use her, some wanted to worship her, and some desperately wanted her gone from this Earth. If she survived she would become a great prophet, she would inspire millions, and perhaps be the one with enough power and knowledge to lead humans up out of the cradle of their own civilization to the stars. Doug and Annie both knew there were those who would go to any length to control that power.
The Haunting of Sam Cabot (A Supernatural Thriller) Page 14