Kindle Edition
Amazon
William S Chadwick
Category:
Horror
Publisher: createspace
ISBN-10: 1505345413
Type: Fiction
Pages: 192
ISBN-13: 9781505345414
Price: $3.99 (eBook)
Trapped by floodwaters in the storm of his life, Charles Denmore is forced to face his past by a shadowy figure that seems to know him better than he knows himself.
Charles Denmore has been hiding a secret.
On the run from a dark and gruesome past, Charles has been hiding in the most secluded place he could find. But Charles is about to find out the hard way that some things can’t be out-run. Secrets always find a way out.
Caught in a storm and trapped by raging floodwaters with no way to escape, Charles is confronted by a stranger that seems to know more about him than he knows, himself. As the storm worsens, and the floodwaters rise, this mysterious stranger takes him on a tour of his worst nightmares…the memories of all the pain and suffering he once caused others in his former life.
Who is this mysterious stranger, and what does he want from Charles? Does he want money?
…or is he simply trying to drive him over the edge of insanity?
As the floodwaters threaten to destroy his new home, Charles is faced with the question…even if he survives the flood, can he survive coming face to face with his deepest regret…his most painful secret?
Will he survive the worst flood in local history, and manage to hang onto his sanity as well?
…or will he lose it all?
Excerpt
“Trawler!” Grey suit yelled; his booming voice cutting through the thin walls of the shack. “Trawler, I know you’re in there, and I know you’ve got the boy with you!”
Charles cowered down behind Trawler’s ratty old recliner. The pungent odors that came from the worn and grimy fabric were enough to strangle him at times, yet they were familiar smells and there was comfort in them. He was in the shack, and the shack had always comforted him. Charles had spent the last several months there, in the company of Trawler and his friends that came in from time to time. It had become home to him. It was his home…his shelter.
Charles peered over the back of the recliner, his gaze shifting from the heavy wooden door to Trawler sitting in his familiar ladder-back, a camel smoldering between his rough, cracked lips. His eyes were settled on a spot on the floor a few feet in front of him as the smoke of the cigarette curled upwards, mixing with the cold grey of his eyes.
Trawler was deep in thought. “In the deep end,” he called it. He often went there whenever he found himself troubled with something that needed special attention. This was trouble; there was no doubt about it. Trouble just seemed to find the boy, no matter what day of the week it was. Still, there was something about the lad that had seeded his old, crusty heart. Charles had gotten to him, despite the warnings that had gone off in Trawler's head when he saw Charles running from that smoking house.
That was before “the home” had gotten him. Trawler had tried to warn the boy about playing in the park during school hours, but those swings and that giant slide had called to Charles like they do every kid, and he had gone there anyway. It wasn’t long before the cops nabbed him, and figured out where he was from. Trawler didn’t think they ever figured out that the boy had started the fire, but he knew. Sure as he knew what trouble the boy was in with the Stand-up Man, he knew the boy had started the fire that burned his home to the ground…and his adopted parents along with it.
The cops didn’t know, however, or they would have taken him to Juvenile Detention, or maybe to that hospital over on McLaren where they usually took kids that had slipped their cracker. Instead, they took him to the home. Nothing good ever came from that home. It was no surprise to Trawler that the boy didn’t stay there either. Any kid that can run from a burning building and survive on the streets for two months, especially at the age Charles had, wasn't going to stay in the home and put up with that bunch for long.
Charles wasn’t the first kid to run out of the home like the devil was chasing him, and he would doubtless be the last, but he was different somehow. There was something in the kid that Trawler just couldn’t ignore, so he had taken him in. Oh, it was risky at first. There were a lot of people searching for Charles, and they even got the police involved. They weren't really that worried about him though; there were already enough kids running rampant in the city, and one more wasn't going to break them. Trawler knew that things would settle after a bit. The search would stop short of calling in the Feds because the Feds might bring in an investigation. From what Trawler knew of the home, an investigation was the very last thing they needed. The old bat that ran the place would need the paperwork from the police, but that would do well enough. In a few days, she would get another screwed up kid from another screwed up family, and she would screw him up even worse…but her income level would be back up, and that would satisfy her. Then the kid would truly be alone. Trawler had seen it happen before.
This time was different, though Trawler couldn't tell you why. It just was. This time something in him had given way, just a little. Some of the old rust surrounding his crusty heart had flaked off, and the boy had found the soft spot underneath. Lord knows he sure never meant for it to happen, but it did just the same, and now here they were. The boy was hiding in the old recliner that faced away from the door, and Trawler was sitting in his favorite chair, wasting a smoke and trying to ignore that bellowing fool outside. He had half a mind to let him bellow for a while, but it was interrupting the peaceful afternoon nap that he had been enjoying. That is, until the door flew open and the boy had leapt over the back of the chair.
Grey Suit might have done differently, had he caught the boy outside, but he was just a bag of wind outside the shack. He wasn’t coming in. He and Trawler both knew that…and why. He would go away on his own after a while, but if Trawler didn’t give him something to think about, he might be back. Or worse, he might wait for the boy and take him when he left. The boy couldn’t stay in the shack forever; he had to get about his business one way or the other. No Sir. He couldn’t stay in the shack forever. Something had to be done, for the boy’s sake. Trawler simply couldn’t let Grey Suit get hold of him. He had become too attached to the boy to let that happen. He just couldn’t let the boy die like that.
“Trawler, you know this has to be dealt with.” the voice came once again. “You know the Stand-up Man ain’t gonna like this. He ain’t gonna like it one bit.”
There was a moment of silence, as if Grey Suit were letting that truth sink in just a bit…just letting it settle in Trawler’s thinking for a moment.
“You got dealin’s with the Stand-up Man. I know that. You don’t want to hurt that none.”
Charles felt his heart sink to the lower part of his bowels as he saw Trawler’s massive shoulders sag at that last remark. Would Trawler really turn him over to Grey Suit? He thought about that for a moment. He and Trawler had something. He had known it the first time he laid eyes on the gigantic, wooly man. There was something that had just happened when he ran into him that day he ran from the burning house…something good. Still, you didn’t cross with the Stand-up Man. Not if you had any brains, that is.
Trawler had brains. What he lacked in formal education, he more than made up for in street savvy. He had lived in the shack most of his adult life, building it himself from materials which he took from abandoned buildings in the neighborhoods that surrounded the park. Nobody had bothered him about it. A lot of it had to do with the sheer size of the man, but another part was simply the indifference that seemed to settle on the city and its day to day people. There were people that seemed to care from time to time, but once they were actually in office, you never saw them around the park again. No. Nobody bothered Trawler anymore. He had been there for years and he knew who to let in and who to keep out. He knew when to say something, and when to keep his bearded mouth shut. That much was for sure. He had learned a lot of it the hard way. The hard way was about all he knew, but he knew it inside and out.
Charles knew Trawler would have to turn him over.
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