Kindle Edition
Category:
Fantasy
ISBN-10: 2940046354317
Type: Fiction
ISBN-13: 2940046354317
Price: $2.99 (eBook)
A story of mob mentality and revenge.
Distraught parents George and Sophie seek the help of a woods witch in the birth of their child. When Aradia's efforts fail, she is blamed for the child's death and suffers a horrible death. Things turn truly bizarre when the child awakens, but Aradia’s death cries invoke a curse that destroys Brooks Valley and will haunt lives of those involved for generations to come.
Excerpt
Larry wakes slowly and takes his time to look around and absorb his surroundings. He doesn't know where he is. The room is small and sparsely furnished with a metal bed beside which sits a metal side table, on top of which sits a metal alarm clock. There is a metal green folding chair adjacent to the bed. The floors are shiny green linoleum and a window covered in transparent white curtain panels lets in the only light.
Larry sits up in bed as a nurse walks into the room carrying a tray. A tall, bald taciturn man wearing faded blue jeans, cowboy boots and a tweed sports jacket follows her. Larry sniffs the air as the smell of steak wafts into the room; he looks from the nurse to the cowboy in astonishment. The nurse places the tray on the overbed table and rolls it in front of him. He watches her leave, as the man tries to make himself comfortable in the hard, dented chair. “Prime rib in a hospital?”
“Eat it.” The man says. Larry gives the plate of food a wary glance. “You've been out for three days, you need your strength: eat.”
Larry remains rigid in the metal bed, his hands gripped in tight fists at his side. The man exhales as he clambers out of the chair and walks over to the bed. Larry shrinks away from him as he grabs the steak knife and fork off the tray. He cuts off a bite a chews it noisily. “Not poisoned. Now eat.”
Larry picks up the knife and fork and tastes a bite of the steak. He swallows and begins to eat in earnest. “That's more like it.”
Larry gets through half of the meat before he pauses to take a sip of the boxed apple juice on his tray. He leans against his pillows as he regards the man. “Where am I?”
“A hospital,” the man replies.
“Maybe it was in 1973. Why wasn't I taken to Holy Cross?”
“Because you died in Bethesda.”
“I died?” Larry asks his eyes wide in disbelief.
“A scandalous death. Too scandalous, we had to move fast to have you transferred here to our facility after you were found.
“My death was scandalous?'
“They're reporting every lurid detail in the news; by rote now since the investigation has dried up.”
“Why?”
“Hmm,” The man's smile is thin. “You dad used to do that; interrupt every sentence with a question. Irritated the hell out of me.”
Larry's lips quiver in anger and he speaks through clenched teeth. “Fuck you, Chuck Norris, what do you know about my dad?”
The man removes a black book from his inside lapel pocket and holds it between his hands as he gazes at Larry. “Lawrence Jerome Parks. Son of Dr. Jerome Parks and Vera Doucette, dead these past one hundred years. Your father never knew you existed; Vera gave you up for adoption and died a short time later.”
Larry shoves away the overbed table. “Who are you?”
“My name is Vernon Ibsen. I found Dr. Jerome hanging in his office the morning after the Harvest Fair massacre.” He walks over to the hospital bed and places the book in Larry's hand. “This journal was on this desk.”
Ibsen has his hand on the doorknob when Larry stops him.
“Will I find answers in this, or just more questions?”
“Both, I suspect. I'll be back for you in the morning.”
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