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.
For now, I hope you enjoy the following scenes from Chapter Two – The Boy and the House
It had been two hours since the boy awoke. No one was certain how the seven-year-old with an advanced brain tumor had managed to survive two comas in the past six weeks. The nurses, who had come to adore the sweet, hazel-eyed tot, attributed it to his strength of will or perhaps, a miracle.
Dr. Tammy Schell, the newest and youngest pediatric oncologist at Irvine Cancer Center, was hard-pressed to come up with a better explanation.
Matthew Meade had been admitted nearly eight months ago after being diagnosed with diffuse pontine glioma, an inoperable brain stem tumor. Initial radiation therapy had proved only temporarily successful, but that was expected.
Just before lapsing into his second coma, Matt had suffered from the worst of the symptoms including frequent headaches, vomiting, and loss of motor functions. He’d been unable to chew or swallow food. In short, Matt had been close to death. Bearing all of that in mind made his current condition all the more surprising.
“Matt, your parents are on their way back.” Tammy cupped her hand over his. “How are you feeling?”
“Okay,” he whispered. “But Lori’s in trouble.”
Tammy leaned closer to the bed and pushed a lock of auburn hair behind her ear. “Sorry, who?” This was probably another of his dreams or delusions caused by the tumor.
“I know that Tom Urban died here yesterday.”
“Uh, yes he did. How do you know that? Did you overhear the nurses talking?”
“No.” Matt shook his head, or tried to with what little energy he could muster. “Those two girls told me. They said we need to protect his wife, Lori.”
“Protect her from what? Which girls?”
“The twins. They were standing right where you are.” The boy turned his gaze to the ceiling. “It’s too late. Lori’s coming, but she won’t make it.” The wail of sirens in the distance grew louder as he spoke.
Tammy ignored them at first. Before she moved to this semi-rural town, she had lived and worked in Baltimore and before that, Philadelphia. Such sounds had been daily background noise, no more or less distracting than car horns or street music. Tammy knew the approaching ambulance was headed for the emergency room of Lancaster Hospital across the street. Though she would never admit it, the noise brought a sense of comfort, like being home again.
“She’s here,” Matt said. “But she’s slipping away.”
It was beginning to seem less likely that this was a delusion, which piqued Tammy’s curiosity. She hurried from Matt’s bedside to the window and opened the blinds. Two floors below, a cluster of nurses crossed the glass-enclosed bridge that connected Irvine Cancer Center to Lancaster Hospital. On the street, the ambulance was just coming into view, turning into the driveway toward the emergency room.
“How do you know that’s Lori Urban?”
“The girls told me she was in trouble,” Matt replied. “But the ambulance got there too late.”
“When did they tell you all this?”
“I don’t know… just before you got here.”
“Matt, I checked with the nurses when I arrived. No one’s been in this room since your parents left a few hours ago.”
“It doesn’t matter.” Matt closed his eyes. “She’s gone. Lori’s gone now.”
Tammy paused for a moment before returning to Matt’s bedside. She waited for more information, but he was already drifting off. “Get some rest, I’ll be back soon.”
* * *
“I’m sorry.” Matt awoke with a shiver. It took a few moments for his eyes to focus on the woman standing near the window. “Tammy?”
Her short blonde hair was disheveled and tears streaked her face. It was definitely not Dr. Schell. The woman was taller with a slightly heavier build. Somehow, Matt knew it was Lori Urban.
“Why am I here?” The air grew frigid as she approached Matt’s bed. “Can you help me?”
He tugged at his blanket. “It… it wasn’t your fault.”
“I couldn’t stop. I couldn’t control it.” Lori sobbed. “It was like someone else took over and made me want to die.” She wrapped her arms around herself and massaged them. “I’m so cold.”
Matt wasn’t surprised, considering she was wearing nothing more than a t-shirt and panties. The last time he’d seen a girl so barely dressed, it was a Halloween night. He had snuck into his cousin’s room and hid in her closet wearing a werewolf mask. What he hadn’t expected was that she’d get undressed to change into her costume before opening the closet door. Needless to say, both of them got a good scare that night.
“Tom is waiting for you,” he told her.
“Where?”
“Go to the light. It’s warm there.”
Behind her, a glowing portal appeared, dim at first but it soon washed out the entire wall. Lori made her way toward it. Before stepping through, she glanced over her shoulder and waved. “Thank you.” With that, she was gone. The portal faded.
Matt stared at the wall. “Wow.”
***
The headlights that shone through the kitchen window and glided across the wall startled Elias Gray. As he folded his newspaper and tossed it onto the table, he made a mental note to get curtains. There were still a few such minor furnishings left to complete. Elias had just moved into the house two weeks prior. Since then, he’d been busy arranging far more important matters—such as the visitors arriving at this late hour. It was nearly 3:00 in the morning. Right on time, as usual.
Elias took one last sip of tea and rose from his chair. He glanced out the window into the darkness as headlights approached the house. The pop and rumble of tires over gravel reminded him to call the contractor about having the driveway paved. He started across the kitchen toward the door to the basement stairs. It had been closed and locked a moment ago but was now wide open.
“This again.” The bizarre event had started two days after he moved in. As of yet, Elias had no explanation for it. He dismissed it as he continued down to the basement and unlocked the metal doors that opened to the backyard. He pushed them outward until they stood vertical and locked them in place just as two armed men climbed out of a large, nondescript white van.
The driver, Leland, was the older and shorter of the two. Though only in his late forties, his thinning black hair and sagging, stubbled jowls added years to his appearance. The second man was his nephew, Hagen. Even at twenty-eight, he was referred to as “the kid.” Though he was the tallest of the three men, Hagen’s round, boyish face and unruly blonde hair complemented his often puerile behavior.
Without a word, Elias joined them at the van. Together, they unloaded several framed paintings of various sizes, all wrapped in canvas cloth or bubble wrap. They carried each piece down into the basement and leaned them against a wall.
“Well, that was easy enough,” Hagen said, once all of the cargo was inside.
“There were no heavy wooden crates this time,” Leland added, his voice betraying a slight German accent.
“And there won’t be ever again,” Elias said. “It’s all paintings from here on out. No more marble busts or statues.”
Hagen spun and crept to other side of the basement.
“What’s wrong, kid?” Elias asked. “Looking for something?”
Hagen held up a hand. “I heard what sounded like a woman crying. It was faint, but it got a bit louder while we were talking.”
“I didn’t hear anything,” Leland grumbled.
“Actually, I heard that sound down here a few days ago,” Elias said. “Among some other strange things I couldn’t explain.”
Leland waved a dismissive hand. “You’re both crazy. Whatever it was, it came from outside, a stray cat or something. We should close those doors.”
As if on cue, they slammed shut with a thunderous boom. All three men exchanged startled glances.
“Probably… just the wind,” Leland suggested, although by his tone and expression it was clear he didn’t believe it himself.
“What wind?” His nephew said. “There was barely a breeze out there and those steel doors were propped—”
“Whatever! This is going to be one of our biggest payoffs. We’re near the end now so it’s understandable if we’re a little tense. Just relax.” Leland turned to Elias. “What possessed you to talk to the newspaper about the house, Janos? You’re not supposed to draw attention to yourself.”
“His name is Elias now,” Hagen corrected.
Leland snickered. “Elias, Marcus, Karl, whatever you’re calling yourself this month, whatever you look like today, you were born Janos Skorzeny. We go back thirty years and to me, you will always be Janos.”
Elias placed a reassuring hand on Leland’s shoulder. “And you haven’t changed a bit in all that time, my stoic friend. The newspaper reporter came to my door. I had little choice but to talk to him. I thought if I did, he’d be satisfied and leave me alone. However, I refused to have my picture taken.”
“Wouldn’t have mattered,” Hagen remarked. “How many plastic surgeries have you had in the last ten years? Your barely look like yourself with raised cheekbones and curved-in nose and you’re wearing blue contact lenses to hide your violet eyes. Very clever.”
“That and shaving my head were the easiest parts of the disguise,” Elias smiled. “As for the paper, the article was printed at the bottom of some obscure section of local news. No harm done.”
“What do you have to drink around here?” Leland asked.
“I wouldn’t mind seeing the rest of your cool new house,” Hagen said.
“Alone among the dead.”
All three men turned their gazes to the top of the steps. The door was open and light from the kitchen illuminated the upper half of the staircase.
“Is there someone else here, Janos?”
“No.” Elias shook his head. “But then, you read the article.”
Ever the pragmatist, Leland had never believed anything beyond the perception of his five senses. Which was why, when they heard footsteps in the kitchen above, he pulled his gun.
Hagen did the same and motioned for Elias to remain as he followed Leland up the stairs. When they were three steps from the landing, a shadow passed the doorway. Leland bolted into the kitchen. Seeing no one, he continued into the dining room. As Hagen emerged from the basement, Leland signaled for him to check the back door. It was locked. They made their way through the rest of the house but found no intruders.
“There was someone here,” Hagen insisted later when the three regrouped in the dining room. “We heard the voice. We saw the shadow.”
“Welcome to my world,” Elias said. “That door in the kitchen that leads to the basement opens and closes on its own. I’ve locked it before going to bed only to find it wide open in the morning. I’ve heard the crying in the basement, but this voice up here… that was new. As for the shadow, it could have been caused by passing headlights through a window.”
“This is a nice house you’ve built, Elias,” Hagen said. “But what if it really is haunted?”
“Oh, for Chrissake!” Leland holstered his gun.
“If so, I won’t bother them so long as they don’t bother me, and if it becomes a problem, I’ll deal with it. Keep in mind, Leland and I are from Germany where every place is haunted.”
Check back next week for another eerie excerpt from By Your Side!