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William S Chadwick.com
Arkansas Authors
Category:
Horror
ISBN-10: 149523892X
Type: Fiction
Pages: 209
Copyright: 2013
ISBN-13: 9781495238925
Price: $3.99 (eBook)
"clean" horror about life after a heart transplant...and the paranormal baggage that came with the new heart.
How far would you go to save someone you love? Would you go beyond the grave?
Someone would, and Seth Jameson is about to meet him.
For most folks, life is somewhat different after a heart transplant. For Seth, it would be a roller-coaster ride careening out of control, revealing secrets about his most trusted friend, a terrifying truth about his own wife, and thrusting him deep into a dark underworld he never knew existed before plunging straight into the heart of Hell, itself.
When Seth’s new world is invaded by dreams of another life, bringing questions he doesn’t dare ask for fear of the answers, he finds himself on the ride of his life; twisting, turning, and flipping upside-down between worlds he never knew existed.
Somewhere in one of those worlds, imprisoned by barbed wire and a snarling beast, a young boy’s fate depends on these worlds coming together in one man’s heart…the heart that gave Seth a second chance at life. Seth must make a decision.
Will he risk that second chance on a total stranger known only in his dreams…a young boy belonging to a bright blue stocking cap with the lime-green fuzzy ball…a young boy named Tommy?
Excerpt
He ran his fingers down the scar in the middle of his chest. That was the hardest part to accept. He could deal with the fact that his muscles weren’t quite as firm as in his younger days, and his skin was a little looser than it used to be. He didn’t even mind the gray hairs speckling the darker hairs across his chest. In fact, the gray around his temples had earned him an occasional appreciative glance from more than one of the younger women around the office. No, he didn’t mind that at all. Dr. Frankenstein’s little addition, however, bothered him a great deal. He didn’t know if he would live long enough to ever get used to that scar.
It itched from time to time, especially when exposed to air like when he changed his clothes or took a shower. He rubbed it gently, almost afraid to put a nail to it and actually scratch. Truthfully it had been several days after the surgery before he had been able to bring himself to touch it at all. Somehow it wasn’t quite so real if he didn’t touch it. Besides, seeing it was bad enough. To him, it was grotesque.
He kept it hidden, even from Sarah. She’d objected, of course. At first she had objected a great deal. He knew it was just her curiosity that kept her constantly badgering him to let her see it, but he still couldn’t do it. He was afraid. It wasn’t rational, he knew; but he was afraid just the same. Would she look at him differently? No. Of course she wouldn’t. Deep down, he knew that. But when you’re a man staring at old age with a scar from a Lon Chaney movie running down the center of your chest, you wonder about things.
You wonder a lot.
So he’d kept it hidden. He let the Doctors see it when they needed to examine him. A few nurses had seen it when they’d insisted on giving him a sponge bath. Other than that, no one had peeked beneath his bandage. Not even his wife. When he got home he changed clothes in the bathroom behind a locked door, and he took to sleeping in a nightshirt. It had taken a little getting used to. He’d slept in the raw most of his life and the nightshirt was a little binding at times, but he got used to it.
You get used to a lot of things, when you have to.
He was still caressing the scar as his thoughts drifted away from him, when he saw something in the mirror. He caught just a glimpse of it. It was just a shimmer, really…sort of like a shift in focus, and only for an instant. But in that instant, he saw something that left him standing rigid and bathed in ice cold sweat. He couldn’t be sure, but it looked like…
No. It was impossible. He was just tired, that’s all. It had been a long and exasperating day, and he was worn out. His mind was playing tricks on him. That’s all it was. It had to be. Still, he couldn’t shake the feeling.
Someone else was staring back at him through that mirror.
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