A teacher discovers connections between himself and a long-dead serial killer. However, that is nothing compared to the voices he starts hearing inside his head.
Excerpt
He looked at himself in the mirror, and the face he saw appeared tired with dark circles under bloodshot eyes. He wondered at this exhaustion since he could not recall any particularly tiring activity during his day. Of course, there was a four-hour gap of time of which he had no recollection. This fact made him uneasy. However, losing a few hours was not the main source of Glen's unease. The primary thing troubling the teacher was his new desk. He pictured the deep, dark wood with his refection trapped inside. The hood of the roll top creeps slowly open. In his mind, Glen walks slowly toward the desk. He gets closer and hears some creaking sounds from the wood. Another step and he is reaching out to close the hood. His fingers near the brass handle. A few more inches and-- the hood slams shut with a bang.
The sound shook Glen from his vision. It took him a few seconds to realize that he was sitting in his car, another few seconds to realize his car was parked in the middle of an empty parking lot, and another few seconds to realize that the parking lot belonged to Roosevelt High School. Adding to the surprise was that the place was dark. This should have been no surprise since it was 11:14 p.m. Glen looked at his watch in disbelief. It seemed to be working fine. But if it was correct, it would mean that he had been sitting in his car for nearly eight hours.
He opened the door slowly as if hesitant to let the outside world enter his refuge inside the car. Glen stepped uneasily on to the pavement of the parking lot. He almost expected the ground to give way under his foot. The ground remained solid, and Glen stood beside the car. In the quiet night, he could hear the humming of the fluorescent light and moths fluttering wings on the light pole a few feet from him. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. The parking lot was empty aside from Glen and his car. The bushes surrounding the parking lot on three sides were back lit by a full moon and added to the shadows dancing around the dark place.
The thought of going back to the classroom was absent from his mind until a voice from nowhere placed it there with a whisper. “Go open your desk.” The idea made no sense to him, and Glen brushed it aside as just one of those ridiculous thoughts that pop into your head from time to time. Those thoughts like telling your boss what you really think of him or throwing a rock through the church’s huge stain-glassed window were impulses that might very well come to anyone. However, sane people paid no attention to them. Glen certainly counted himself among the sane and paid no attention to this thought. That is, until it was repeated.
The male voice had a slight European accent, “Go open your desk.”
Without giving it a conscious thought, Glen began walking slowly back across the parking lot toward the school. Just before he reached the curb of the sidewalk separating the rough pavement of the parking lot from the smooth sidewalk and lawn of the campus, Glen asked himself just what exactly he was doing. That was certainly a good question. Why was he heading back to his classroom in the middle of the night to look inside of a desk?
Before he could find an answer to that question, Glen found himself surrounded by bright light.
Bloom's Desk
Jeffrey Littorno
Lulu
ISBN: 1257051504
Glen Davis teaches sophomore and junior English at Theodore Roosevelt High School. As Glen begins preparing for the new school year Tim, a janitor at Theodore Roosevelt High School, gives Glen a new roll top desk for his classroom that had been in storage. Shortly after receiving the new roll top desk Glen
begins to experience severe headaches with gaps in consciousness and memory combined with visions and voices. This is more than enough to cause Glen great concern regarding his health. After a visit to his doctor and an ordered MRI Glen is pronounced to be in excellent health.
After doing some research Glen discovers that the desk once belonged to a former teacher at Theodore Roosevelt High School, Robert Bloom. Fifty years earlier Robert Bloom had been arrested for serial killings and was found dead in his jail cell shortly after his arrest. This desk connects Glen to Bloom’s spirit.
Glen realizes that to get his life back he needs to discover the reason for Bloom’s return and work to erase that reason.
Blooms Desk is an engrossing thriller to read. With all of its surprising twists and turns Blooms Desk is sure to keep you turning pages well into the night.
Reviewer: Connie Harris
TCM Reviews
April 15, 2011
Pray for the light. Pray that you last that long. The Long Hour Before Light is a classic collection of Horror tales, re-mastered by Champagne Book Group
