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Keith Rommel
Amazon
Keith Rommel
Category:
Action/Thriller
Publisher: Sunbury Press
ISBN-10: 1620062658
Type: Fiction
Pages: 176
Copyright: June 20, 2014
ISBN-13: 9781620062654
Price: $6.99 (eBook)
What would you do if you had to face your sins?
Headaches. Hunger. Pain.
Leo needs something . . . his stomach growls, but it can wait. That’s not hunger he must feed. He has to get to his next high, but without money he knows he can’t buy what he needs to sate the voice inside telling him to get more, get more.
Voices. Visions. Addiction.
No luck asking his father. His mother is in no position to help. After failing to steal the money he desperately needs, Leo must appeal to his dealer, the dangerous and infamous Saint Nick—despite the inevitable beating he’ll take for showing up empty-handed. Still, anything to keep the voices and flashbacks at bay . . .
Demons. Addiction. Death.
Leo soon learns that everything has a price—not just money for drugs, but that every choice he makes has a repercussion. Suddenly caught between a world where he can see the sins of his past and a new consciousness that he doesn’t fully understand, Leo finds himself not only chasing the dragon, but being chased by demons of a whole different kind. He must learn the finality of being past hope—all while reliving his missed opportunities for second chances—and truly come to understand that he is responsible for his own undoing before he runs out of time. After a lifetime of bad choices, this Sinful Man discovers the consequences to his actions and the mortal responsibility of exercising free will.
Excerpt
Chapter 1
THE FOREST
Present day.
“Get away from me!” Leo shouted and sprinted through the dense forest. Night had fallen and the bluish glow from the high moon sliced through breaks in the treetops like brilliant pillars of light. He used the beams to help navigate the unforgiving terrain that whipped past him. Swinging his gaze from left to right, the shadows that raced with him kept perfect pace and intensified his worry.
“What do you want from me?” he shouted. His voice cracked and sounded pathetic.
Picking up speed, he recklessly plowed through the overgrowth and tumbled blindly down an embankment concealed by the gloom. Head over feet he rolled down the steep slope and crashed into a fallen tree at the base of the hill. Coming to a sudden and complete stop, his head snapped back, banging into the wood, his breath forced from his lungs. He saw stars and the twilight spun; his right shoulder throbbed in pain.
Crack!
All around him the unmistakable sound of sticks snapping came from the thick tangle of turbid green, brown, and black. Then the wheeze of many things that breathed heavily, as if they were tired from their run, gathered. A feeling of malevolent peril forced him to focus and made him stand, but his body trembled in protest. Exhausted and gasping for air, he fell again.
“Why are you after me?” he struggled to say, his forehead and nose pressed into the dirt. His mind told him to flee but he couldn’t get his body to cooperate. The beat of his heart slammed inside his chest and threatened to break out of its bone cage.
Then, as if in response to his question, laughter from a hundred different voices boomed all around him and developed into a chorus of malice.
“What is it you want from me?” he whimpered.
Desperate to escape the pack that hunted him, he ignored the headache and stabbing pain in his shoulder and clawed the moist earth. As he pulled his body through wet leaves and rotting woodland, the approaching footfalls from the wicked that closed in on him vibrated the ground.
“Run,” the sinister voices said. The word was a disturbing whisper spoken from dozens of lips that felt as though they were pressed against his ear.
The instinct to survive made Leo forget about his ailments and exhaustion and he got up and scurried through a narrow path carved in the forest. The overgrown vegetation slapped at his legs and face and stung his skin. His lungs burned and the overwhelming desire to stop was overruled by the intense fear of being caught by whatever it was that chased him.
He entered a small clearing and spotted a lopsided wooden shack with no windows that was tucked neatly away in a clump of foliage. He almost ran by it because the vegetation that wrapped its aging shell disguised it well, but at the last minute it had gained his attention. It was as if it had beckoned him.
“Hello?” he said with hope, his eyes bulging and unblinking as if what he saw would disappear if he lost sight of it for even a second.
A puff of smoke that escaped its dilapidated chimney meant someone had to be home and they would provide him with protection from his unyielding pursuers.
“Help!” he thoughtlessly dared to shout and hurried to the crooked door. Trying the handle was fruitless; the lock on the inside jiggled but held.
“Please, help me!” he said and lifted both arms to hit the door. Cringing and groaning from the powerful piercing sensation in his injured shoulder, he used his foot to kick the pathetic door. It was surprisingly tough and he waited impatiently, distracted by his pain and the rustling in the verdure all around him.
“Hurry up!” he screamed, his voice cracking with the strain.
Latches slid away and the door opened a pinch. He stepped forward and suddenly everything around him became eerily quiet as if nothing were ever after him. About chest height, an eye stared back at him and studied him for a moment.
“What do you want?” the scratchy voice of a female said.
“Someone is after me and I’m lost,” he said, exhausted and fraught. “You’ve gotta let me inside!”
He pushed the door but it slammed into something on the inside and stopped, keeping him outside.
“You bang on my door and attempt to bring your troubles into my house? Then you try and force your way inside?”
“Please, you’ve gotta let me in!”
“Go on, scat! I don’t want your troubles becoming my own,” the woman said and slammed the door shut.
The things in the forest came alive again and the hair on the back of his neck stood. Desperate to escape whatever it was that had followed him, he forgot about his pain and beat the door with his fists.
“Open the goddamn door or they’re going to get me!”
The hinges whined and a short plump old woman in a flowery nightgown stepped outside. She held a shotgun and had it trained on Leo’s face.
“Don’t you dare use the Lord’s name in vain around my house, boy.” Her teeth were missing and her lips curled in around the gums.
“I’m sorry,” he said and backed away, raising his hands. “I didn’t mean anything by it. I’m not here to cause you any trouble or disrespect you in any way.” He looked over his shoulder, nervous. “And if you could be so kind to allow me inside, I would hope I could use your phone and call for some help.”
She moved the muzzle of the gun close to his face, closed an eye, and looked down the sight centered between Leo’s eyes. “Don’t you move a muscle, do you understand me? Just because I’m old doesn’t mean I don’t know how to squeeze this trigger here. Believe me, I don’t mind spreading your face all the way into them trees back there.”
“I ain’t gonna move,” Leo said as sweat ran down his face and itched his chin. He wanted to wipe it away but didn’t dare move.
The old lady stood motionless and watched the woodsy perimeter out of the corner of her eye. The darkness and eerie light of the moon collided and cast her wrinkled face in a sinister way. Scrunched and formed into a permanent expression of annoyance, she lifted her chin and sniffed the air.
“Who do you suppose is after you?” she said and eyed him for a moment. Her distrust was easy to see and her pointer finger hugged the trigger.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I didn’t see their faces. But I could hear them and they were all around me.”
“Mmmhmm.”
“Please loosen up your grip around that trigger. I’m not going to do anything and I don’t need you accidentally shooting me.”
She glanced around the tree line with the gun held at the ready.
“Well,” she said, and relaxed some. “I think you’ve lost them. If you want, you can come along inside. You look like you’ve been through hell.” She motioned him along with a subtle shake of the shotgun.
“Thank you,” Leo said, and without delay he moved inside the cabin.
A brick fireplace built into the back wall illuminated the small sized room and revealed details of the old warped plank boards pitted with knots. A cast iron cauldron was suspended over the flames and an oak table with two chairs was positioned approximately five feet away from the fire. Atop the table was a closed worn book twice as thick as the bible, and a long red tassel hung out of the pages.
Immediately to his right was a long, dimly-lit hallway that dead-ended at a closed door. A piece of paper was attached to the door and the ends drooped, helping to conceal a message that was difficult to decipher at this distance. The firelight that played with shadows barely had enough strength to reach that far.
The woman engaged the thick metal deadbolts located slightly above her head and at her ankles. They whined and clicked as they slid into place.
She set the butt of the gun into a dimple on the floor, leaned it against the wall, and looked at Leo.
“Look at you,” she said, and shook her head. “You’re a mess.”
Leo looked at himself. Mud stained his clothes and debris clung to him. Clumps of dirt surrounded his shoes and continued to shed from his garments as his limbs trembled uncontrollably. His head, neck, and shoulder hurt something awful, sending waves of pain deep into his back.
“Sit down before you track that muck you rolled in all over my house,” she said. “Besides, I don’t need you falling over in the middle of my floor. I don’t have the strength to pick you up and you’ve already given me enough work by having to clean this mess up.”
Leo looked behind himself and at the dirt trail. “I’ll clean it,” he said and wobbled.
She reached to assist him but he managed to steady himself.
“I don’t need your help. You can barely stand,” she said. “Now do as I say and go and sit.”
Leo moved to the chair and plopped himself down, sapped of strength. The tremble in his body intensified and his teeth chattered. The old woman watched him for another moment before she shook her head and shuffled into a room to the right of the fireplace. It was dark and he hadn’t noticed it until this moment. It immediately repelled him as if the things that were outside were in there, behind the veil of obscurity, hiding from the firelight and waiting to reach out and drag him into oblivion.
He stood fast and backed away, needing to create more space, unsure how long their arms might be. The old woman reentered the room with a slight bend in her back and a mild limp that made her left foot clop on the floor. She carried a soiled blanket and tossed it at him.
“Sit back down and get a hold of yourself.”
The blanket stunk but he didn’t care. Pulling it over his shoulders, he wrapped it around his body and gave into a powerful shiver. Whether that was from the cold that settled in his bones or the fear from his ordeal, he didn’t know.
“Is that better?” she asked.
“Much.” He nodded. “Thank you.”
He looked around the room and noticed there weren’t any light switches on the walls or light fixtures hanging from the ceiling. There were no windows and nothing decorated the walls. Everything was made of wood and it creaked.
“It has provided me with shelter for a long time.”
“What?” Leo said, her words bringing him back to her.
“You’re looking around as if you’re repulsed by what you see.”
“No, that’s not it, and I’m sorry I gave you that impression. I was just looking around, trying to make sense of where I am and what this place is.”
“It’s my home.”
It may have been her home, but there was a heavy feeling about it. It was hard to describe and something he didn’t want to discuss with the strange old woman for fear of insulting her. “Do you have a phone I can use?”
“Don’t be silly,” she said and laughed.
“If you allow me to use your phone I could be on my way.”
“There is no phone.”
“How do you not have a phone?” He looked around some more. “You’re in the middle of nowhere.”
She flashed a smile. “I am in the middle of somewhere.”
“Where?”
“Right here,” she said and patted the tabletop. “That’s all you need to know right now.”
“I should go. Is there a back door I can use?”
“That’s not a good idea. You’re not thinking clearly. You’re chilled and you suffered trauma. Where do you think you’re going to go in your condition and with them outside?”
She was right. He was hurt and weak and couldn’t argue with her logic.
“Sit down like I told you and keep yourself covered with that blanket. If you think you’re shaking now, wait until your adrenaline rush subsides. You’re going to feel like you’re freezing and I don’t want to hear you complaining about it. Especially if you’re not going to listen to me.”
Leo hesitated.
“Help yourself for once and listen to reason,” she said. “Go on, take a load off and face the fire. It’ll help you get the chill out of your bones.”
“But didn’t you hear anything I said to you?” Leo said. The sense of terror was overwhelming, so why wasn’t she concerned? “People were chasing after me and you’re talking about me sitting in front of a fire to get warm? What do I do about them?” He pointed at the door.
“What do you think you should do?”
“Call for help.”
“Even if I had a phone, there is no one you can call.”
“But there has to be someone,” he protested.
“There isn’t,” she said as cold as the wet that settled into his bones, uncaring and seemingly bothered by his worry.
He looked at the shotgun.
“I want you to think back,” she said. “How did you get in the forest?”
“I don’t know,” he whispered, and sat heavily. “The people outside were relentless and have been chasing me. I couldn’t see where I was going and I tumbled down this hill. I smashed my head and shoulder into a fallen tree.” He tried to lift his arm but awakened the pain in his shoulder. Shrinking in his seat, he writhed.
“Those aren’t people that were chasing after you,” she said.
He stiffened, forgetting about his agony. “What do you mean they aren’t people?”
“It is exactly as I said. They’re not people.”
“But . . . I could hear their footsteps and their voices. How could you say they aren’t people?”
“Ahh, it doesn’t matter.” She pulled at her chin. “I don’t suppose us talking about it will help you right now anyways. I don’t see the sense in getting you all worked up any more than you already are. And as long as you mind yourself, you can stay a while. You’ll be safe for the time being.”
“Safe? In here?” He looked around the room. He settled his worried gaze on the fire and let out a nervous laugh. “This shack is made of wood and all they need to do is burn it down!”
She shook her head and the loose skin on the underside of her chin swayed. “They wouldn’t dare think to do that. We have an understanding.”
“An understanding? Do you know who they are?”
She busied herself with the fire, shifting the logs with a poker. The embers raced up the chimney. “What difference does it make if I know who they are?”
“Because if you do then they might have led me here to you on purpose.”
She rested a moment. “If that were true, then that would mean you were trapped. So I could ask you what the point is in concerning yourself with things you have no control over. You are safe right now, isn’t that enough?”
“I don’t know,” he said, and the voice in his head told him to flee while he still had the chance.
“Besides, this old shack is built like a fortress and it has provided countless others with a safe place to put their heads for a night. You should be thankful, not looking for flaws.”
“I am,” he said but found no comfort in her words. He was consumed with so many questions that he couldn’t organize his thoughts enough to ask them.
“I hope so,” she said and faced him. Her hair was pinned up and was so gray it looked white. The gown she wore was worn, making the fabric sheer in some spots. Her hairy shins made him shrink; although he knew woman grew hair on their legs and underneath their arms, it was alarming to see it. Slippers that were as worn as the gown barely fit her swollen purple feet. Gnarled toes hung over the ends of the slippers and the discolored nails touched the bare wood floors and made a scraping sound.
“None of this makes any sense,” he said and ran stiff fingers through his hair. “I don’t even know what the hell I’m doing here.”
“Have you thought to keep your mouth closed long enough to allow yourself some time to figure it out?”
He shook his head. Silence wasn’t what he needed. “All I can remember is being chased—”
“Yeah, I already know that.” She waved a dismissive hand. “You told me that outside and then you said it again when we got inside. You need to quiet yourself.”
“I can’t. Look,” he said and held out a trembling hand. “Especially not after what I just went through.”
“Maybe I should give you some tea.” She grumbled something to herself that he couldn’t hear. “Yeah, I think the tea will help you relax and get rid of the edge.”
She removed a ladle off of a hook that hung next to the fireplace and shuffled to the cauldron.
“What are the chances that those were wild animals that were after me?” he said.
She looked over her shoulder. “You don’t think I could possibly have an understanding with a pack of wild animals, do you?”
She scooped hot water and carefully filled a mug before she set it down in front of Leo.
“If those aren’t animals, then who are they?” he said.
“You’re not asking the right questions, Leo. I don’t think you mean who, but rather, what,” she said.
A slow, all encompassing sense of panic closed in on him and he needed to get away.
“But don’t be troubled over the details right now. It won’t change a thing and it can wait a while.” She tapped her fingernail on the side of the mug and refocused his waning attention. “Drink up while it’s still warm. You’re still shivering and it’ll help get the chill out of your bones, too.”
He wanted to decline the offer but needed something to help get the chill out. “Thank you,” he said, and the aroma dismissed all of his worries.
“It looks like you’re going to be here for a while so I might as well help you relax. I really can’t take the way you’re so fidgety.”
She returned the ladle to its proper place and nudged the mug towards him. “Come now, drink up. Like the fire, it’ll help you feel better,” she said, and for the first time since his arrival, he saw a gentleness about her.
The aroma of evergreen filled his nose and he wrapped his hands around the warm, steaming mug. It reminded him of the holidays and it opened him to her offering. With a sip, the warmth flowed down his throat and helped reduce his anxiety.
She sat at the table across from him and a pleasant, unwavering grin took over her face.
“How are you feeling?” she said.
“Amazingly better.”
“And to imagine how frightened you were only a short time ago.”
“You’re right,” Leo said. “It is peaceful here and I feel safe.”
“When you first arrived, I could see and feel your fear and your resistance to listen to what I was trying to tell you. I want you to know that you are safe here, but you won’t be allowed to stay too long so use your time wisely.”
“I understand,” Leo said, his face hovered over the warm mug as he sniffed the scent.
“Now let’s get you out of those clothes so I can clean and dry them. When you undress, leave them on the floor where you are. Now go on, I won’t look.”
She turned her back to him. Though she was small and feeble, the stare of someone that had lived a long, tough, and lonely life remained long after she looked away.
He couldn’t look past the fact that she opened her home to him. And because of that, he couldn’t help but respect her wishes of wanting to keep her home clean and giving him fresh clothes to wear. He stood and stripped to his underwear, his filthy clothes stacked in a sloppy heap where he stood. He bent to pick them up.
“That’s a nasty gash you got there,” she said.
Leo dropped the clothes and grabbed the blanket and struggled to cover himself.
“You need to look at it,” she said.
Leo looked at the gash and it was long across his abdomen and trickled blood. The skin was wet and soiled with mud, hiding the details. There was no pain so he shrugged.
“I must’ve gone through a thorn bush or something.” He wrapped his body with the blanket and sat.
“I’ll get these soaking in a tub. I’ll be right back.” She took the clothes away.
A shiver shook Leo’s body and he faced the fire. The consuming feeling of dread began to abate and he was glad to be inside the cabin and in front of the blaze. The heat was comforting and he held his shaking hands out as if to capture the warm air in the palm of his hands.
Dried dirt clung to every inch of his flesh and was wedged underneath his fingernails. Lacerations on his forearms bled, too, and the shoulder that had crashed into the log made him grimace. The crackling hardwood flames told him that the worst was behind him now and that he was going to be all right.
“That should help loosen the grime up,” she said, emerging from the dark room.
Ripped from his reverie, Leo flinched.
She laughed gently. “You scare easily.”
“I’m sorry. I was deep in thought,” he said, and tried to return to the place of tranquility and peace, but her sudden return frightened him so that his heart pounded furiously.
Turning away from the fire and resting his elbows on the table, he rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands. “I was watching the flames dance and it was really captivating. It is amazing how mesmerizing they can be. And you were right. The warmth is invigorating and it has made me feel alive again.”
She sat across from him. “I often hear how people don’t slow down enough to look around and appreciate the smaller details. Those details are what hold the beauty in life,” she said. “It is all around them, but they just don’t care enough to see it. And usually when they do, it’s too late for them.”
Leo turned towards the fire again and raised his hands and lifted his chin. “Well this right here is beautiful and I appreciate it.”
“You should know that your time is done here when the last log burns out,” she said, prompting Leo to look at the small stack of about ten logs.
“I’ve lit many fires in those bricks there, hoping someone would be delivered from the darkness. But I know that isn’t possible and I shouldn’t talk about it.”
As he stared at the fire, the darkness she spoke of kept at bay.
“Leo?” she said and reached her hands across the table, inviting his touch. He placed his hands into hers. Speckled with age spots, her hands were soft and gentle, concealing great strength. He looked into her sad eyes and she stared back at him.
“I wish you knew how strong you were,” she said.
He looked back at the fire, puzzled.
“But you gave in. Why?”
He looked at her and her eyes held onto the question, waiting for an answer he couldn’t give.
“Why do people give up so easily?” she said. “I need to understand that.”
Her gaze bore a hole into his receding comfort but the answers to her questions were far away, masked by the drink.
“What did I give into?” he said and tried to remember. Everything about this moment was a struggle. His memory started at the chase and anything before that was a blank.
She rubbed his hands with a gentle stroke of her thumbs and with a soft voice said, “I want you to die.”
He pulled his hands away, her words like a forceful slap, her touch suddenly cold.
“What did you just say to me?”
She glowered, her expression twisted into something awful. He stood and was uncertain if being locked inside the cabin with this crazy old woman was any better than being outside with the things that chased him.
“Why do those words frighten you so?”
“Because I don’t know why you would say that to me.”
“You really don’t remember, do you?”
He shook his head. “I’d like my clothes back.”
“Oh, honey, you didn’t find this place by accident. The forest. Those things outside. They’re all here for you.”
“I really need to go.”
Scratching sounds on the outside of the cabin walls moved slowly and hinted at ill intent. It silenced his protest and he listened to it pick up in intensity. Someone—something scratched at the door and there was a relentless desire to get at him.
“Is that them?” he said and hid beneath the table.
“I suppose it is.”
“What do they want?”
“You.”
“Why?”
“Sit down with me and face your fears or you can go outside and find out why they’re here for yourself.”
The scratching stopped and Leo looked at the door.
Bang!
The door rattled and Leo recoiled.
“What the hell was that?” he said and scooted away. The intense heat of the flames emanating from the fireplace was like the breath from something evil panting behind him, but he didn’t care. His eyes remained firmly on the door, convinced whoever was there would break through.
“Oh, that?” she said and laughed. She gave the table a gentle pat. “Let them make their noise and let us finish our tea. You’re safe inside the cabin and we can spend a little time getting to know each other. Don’t you think that would be nicer than having to face them?”
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