To celebrate the upcoming release of my paranormal mystery novel, By Your Side, I’m sharing random excerpts of the story each week from now until July 22 when the book goes live.
Click here for more info on By Your Side and to pre-order the ebook for $2.99 from Amazon, Kobo, Apple, Nook, or Smashwords.
I hope you enjoy the following scenes from Chapter One – Night at the Zoo
On the opposite side of the zoo, Miranda and Amy made their way to the Reptile House by the light of the lampposts. It was a long one-story brick building with four windows along each side. During their guided tour earlier in the evening, Stanley had promised to keep the place unlocked until their investigation was over. No sooner had Miranda touched the handle of the glass door than her flashlight dimmed for a moment before going dark.
“Mine, too,” Amy said. “And these are new batteries.”
Miranda unclipped the walkie-talkie from her belt. The LCD display was off. She twisted the power knob to no avail. “Check your radio and mini DV.”
After a moment, Amy shook her head. “Same. What the hell? There’s no way everything could shut off at once.” As if on cue, the closest lamppost winked out. “I stand corrected. I don’t scare easy, but this is creepin’ me out.”
It was a popular theory among paranormal investigators that as spirits attempt to manifest, they draw energy from their surroundings. In doing so, they can drain batteries, as well as any heat in the immediate vicinity. Amy shivered as a chill wrapped itself around her. “Oh, my God, Randy, did you feel that? I think we have a cold spot.”
Something flashed in the pale moonlight that crossed the entrance to the reptile house. Amy realized she was alone. “Randy?” She stepped up to the door and pulled the handle. It was cool to the touch, but refused to budge. She cupped her hands around her eyes and pressed her nose to the glass. It was impossible to discern any details inside, save for the reflection of moonlight on various surfaces. A shadow passed in front of a window on the opposite side of the building.
“Randy!” Amy pounded on the door to no avail. She backed away until the air was warmer, and pulled her radio from her belt. It was still dead. She considered making her way back to the security office but couldn’t bear to leave Miranda alone. The question was, how long could Amy bear to be alone?
***
In the blink of an eye, moonlight through the windows brightened into the amber rays of the afternoon sun. Straw crunched beneath her feet. Somewhere behind her, a woman called her name.
Amy? The barn door slid aside, stopped midway, then continued as if requiring great effort to open. The silhouette of a young boy appeared. He held an oil lamp in one hand and in the other, a leather strap that led to the halter of a brown horse, young and sturdy. Except for a white patch between its eyes, it had no other markings.
“Come on, Bluff,” the boy said. As he drew near, Miranda estimated his age at ten, perhaps eleven. “It’s too hot out today. We’ll ride tomorrow.”
Miranda went unnoticed as the boy led the horse past her. He placed the oil lamp atop a wooden barrel and used his free hand to unlock the stall door and swing it open. At that moment, there was a loud thud from the hayloft, startling both boy and horse. Bluff jerked his massive head to one side as if preparing to retreat through the barn doors. The boy stroked the horse along its taut neck, but this only served to aggravate it all the more.
“It’s okay, Bluff. It was nothing. Probably a squirrel or a bird.” He pulled on the strap as hard as he could to turn the horse back toward the stall, but Bluff wouldn’t have it. The horse reared up, yanking the strap from the boy’s grasp and whipping him against the door of the neighboring stall.
The boy shrank away and for a moment, Miranda hoped his fear would keep him frozen in place, allowing the horse to bolt freely from the barn. Instead, the boy charged forward.
“No!” Miranda cringed as Bluff’s left hoof slammed down on the boy’s head, knocking him to the floor in a crumpled heap. The horse then bucked, kicking the barrel with its hind legs. The oil lamp tumbled to the floor, igniting a patch of dry hay. At that, Bluff bolted from the barn, leaving the boy unconscious and helpless against the spreading flames.
Within minutes, the fire had consumed the stall and the boy with it. The entire right side of the barn was soon ablaze. There was nothing Miranda could do. She was merely a spectator in this vision of the past, a dark and immutable event in the land’s history.
On the hayloft, an older boy gazed over the edge on his hands and knees. He appeared to be drowsy and disoriented, as if he’d just awakened from a nap. At the sight of the flames, he pushed himself to his feet and swatted bits of hay from his hair and clothes. The fire had spread beneath the loft, scorching the underside of the wood. He had barely taken two steps toward the ladder when his left leg punched through the floor. His face contorted in agony from the pain of the jagged wood that sliced into his calf and the flames that singed his bare foot and ankle.
Miranda knew he had no chance. He sat back on the floor and pulled his leg up through the hole. He crawled toward the ladder, but the floor could no longer support him and gave way, sending the boy plummeting to his death in the inferno below.
Miranda dropped to her knees and wept, ignoring the fire that raged out of control around her. Above, wood beams cracked and groaned. She threw her arms over her head as the roof collapsed.
When she opened her eyes a moment later, Miranda found herself in the Reptile House once again—along with the two boys. The room was oppressive, as if it still retained the inferno’s heat.
“We didn’t know anyone could see us,” the younger boy said.
His older brother stepped forward. “We’ve been trying to get through to people for a long time, but no one would listen.”
“I’m listening now.” Miranda wiped the sweat from her nose and chin.
“We’re lost. We don’t know how to get home or where our parents are.”
She took their hands. They were cold, but she gripped them and spoke in a soft tone. “You never left. The farm is gone. There’s a zoo here now. You—”
The younger boy’s eyes widened. “What happened to our mom and dad?”
“They moved on.”
“To where?” he demanded.
His brother placed a calming hand on his shoulder. “Please, can you tell us where to find them?”
Miranda nodded, failing in her attempt to hold back tears. Discussions like this were never easy, especially with children. “Yes, I can.”
***
All the lampposts turned on at once.
Amy shot forward on a park bench beside the Reptile House, nearly sending the video camera tumbling from her lap. She caught it and noticed the red glow of the power light. Flipping open the screen, she aimed the camera at the light of the lamppost. It worked, but not for long. The batteries were nearly dead.
“Amy.”
She whirled to find Miranda leaning against the side of the building. “Randy, what happened? You’re drenched in sweat. Are you okay?”
Miranda swallowed hard before finding her voice. “The barn was here. Whole thing burned down. Those boys died right where I’m standing, not back there.” She waved in the direction of the Weeping Willow Garden.
“You had a vision.”
“I need to sit down.”
With some help from Amy, Miranda lowered herself onto the bench. She rocked her head back and closed her eyes. “Hot in there.”
“You were only in there for a few minutes.”
“A few minutes in Hell.”
“There you are.” Eddie emerged from the shadows along the trail. “What happened? We’ve been trying to get you on the rad—whoa, Randy, you okay?”
“Just peachy.”
“She had a vision,” Amy said. “All of our equipment lost power. Even the lampposts went out.”
“No freakin’ way.”
“She’s not lying,” Miranda confirmed. “It’s been a few years since I’ve had a vision that powerful.”
Eddie took a seat at the edge of the bench. “So what did you see?”
Amy sneered at him and shook her head.
“If you feel up to talking about it, that is.”
“Stanley was partly correct,” Miranda said. “Although his location was off. The brothers did die in a barn—”
“—but the barn was here.” Eddie finished. “Right where that Reptile House was built.”
“How did you know?” Amy asked.
“Google.”
Miranda chuckled.
“Seriously, you wanted me to research the history of the area, right?” Eddie said. “I found a website of some local historian and he had all the details of what happened here, so your vision was accurate. Though it sucks that you had to watch some kids die. Oh, and as for the mother, Nellie, she didn’t hang herself from a tree, she died in a nursing home seven years ago at the age of eighty-nine. The father, Leonard, died from a heart attack eleven years before that.”
“Nice work,” Miranda said.
“Maybe we should send two other people back here,” Amy suggested. “Set up video and audio inside the Reptile House. We might catch those speakers turning on by themselves like Stanley said.”
“I’ll stick around,” Eddie patted his jacket pocket. “I got my digital voice recorder in case those dead kids have something to say. Just send someone back with fresh batteries in the video camera.”
“‘Those dead kids?’ You’re so rude.” Amy turned to Miranda. “You feel up to walking back?”
“Absolutely.”
The women started off along the trail toward the security office. Before they were too far away, Miranda turned to ask Eddie if he was sure he’d be all right by himself for a few minutes. It was, after all, against the rules to go anywhere alone. But Eddie was speaking into his voice recorder. This was not unusual. It was common practice to provide a brief introduction, so you know what you’re listening to later when you review the evidence.
What was unusual were the ghosts of the two boys seated on opposite sides of him. They waved at her before vanishing.
“You worried about leaving Eddie alone?” Amy asked.
“Nah. He’ll be fine. There’s nothing to fear in the Reptile House, aside from that albino crocodile that was eyeing me up for its next meal.”
Stay tuned for another excerpt next week!