Here's another sample chapter of my paranormal thriller Chapel Street. Keep checking back for more!
Chapter 9
War Is Declared
Gasping for air and still shaking
with fear, I became a man with a mission upon leaving the mausoleum. I refused
to be manipulated like that again.
Elisabetta Kostek, whoever or
whatever the hell she was, had already taken up too much of my time. I was
going home to delete the photos of her from my camera and hard drive, and then I
would delete her memorial from Resting Place. I didn’t want to be responsible
for anyone else looking into those dark eyes. Especially Teri. She had already
expressed too much interest in Elisabetta after I mentioned her. I was tempted
to call her and reiterate my warning, but I knew I couldn’t. She would think I
was crazy, and that would be the end of our budding friendship.
When I got to my car, I found a
slip of paper under the windshield. I picked it up and read it.
Never come back.
The mourner obviously wrote it. There
was no one else around. But what did he mean?
Was it a threat or a warning? He left
no signature or phone number. I wish I had written down his license plate number.
Anything. He obviously knew something, but he was long gone.
I got into my car and headed out,
passing our family plot along the way. As I did, I caught sight of a guy
standing near the graves. From the familiar hunch of his back, I knew it was
Lenny visiting mom’s grave. I looked ahead again, thinking nothing of it, but
then it struck me: Lenny was dead. He
had never visited mom’s grave because he died before she did. I hit the brakes
and turned back to the grave. Just as I suspected, no one was standing there,
but it was too real to just be my imagination. My eyes went to the nearby
willow tree, which swayed in the light breeze.
“Probably just a shadow,” I said,
reason restored again.
I was tempted to back up to see if
I could repeat the optical illusion again, but I decided against it. I feared
the implications if I was unable to repeat it. It was one thing to have a bad
dream. It was another thing entirely to see your dead brother in broad daylight.
I was now willing to admit that something supernatural was taking place, but I
didn’t want to press the point. I just wanted to get my world back to normal.
While driving home, a great hunger
overcame me, despite just having eaten a full meal with Teri. I ordered a
super-sized Big Mac meal and a cheeseburger at the McDonald’s drive-thru near
my house. The previous afternoon, the pictures of their food made me nauseous. Not
today. I took it as a sign that my new resolve had broken whatever spell the
dark woman had placed on me. I was free.
I ate the cheeseburger on the way
home, but my fries and Big Mac were untouched as I entered my apartment. I
carried the food over to my desk and sat down. I turned the monitor on, fully
expecting to find Elisabetta’s image on the screensaver looking at me. In fact,
I was hoping to see it, but instead, I found a random tombstone photo for one
of the memorials I had created. I used the mouse to dispel the screensaver then
turned my attention to my Big Mac. I took a bite. It tasted great. Putting the
sandwich down, I went to my cemetery folder, where I kept my Resting Place
photos. I knew the Kostek memorial was on the two most recent files: DSC_0591 and DSC_0592. I clicked on the
second one to bring up the close-up of her face. She was still smiling in the
face of digital death.
“Say, bye, bye, bitch,” I said.
While I reached for the mouse again
to do the deed, I took a big gulp from my Coke. As I did, I caught something
out of the corner of my eye. I had just taken a bite out of the Big Mac,
exposing those little onions they used—except they weren’t onions. No. They
were alive and wiggling. I turned to get a better look and realized that they
were maggots. Tiny little maggots, and I had eaten them!
I immediately vomited everything
out over my keyboard, mouse, and monitor. In the process, I spilled the rest of
the Coke, too. I immediately jumped out of my chair and headed for the bathroom.
This wasn’t a paper towel spill. This was a bath towels spill—plural. By the
time I raced back to the desk, there was already a large puddle of Coke and
half-eaten food on the floor. I dealt with the desk first. The electronics in
the keyboard were toast. No question about that. I unplugged it and tossed it
directly into the trash. As I sopped up the sticky liquid and half-eaten food,
I turned to the now drenched Big Mac. Just as I expected, there were no maggots.
It was just another mind game, and I knew who was responsible.
Now I finally put aside my rational
preconceptions and admitted to myself that I was involved in some sort of
supernatural warfare. The hows and the whys and the parameters of the
battlefield were still a mystery to me, but at least I knew the name of the
enemy: Elisabetta Kostek. Everything
started when I took that picture of her. No, I corrected myself. I think it
started when I looked at her. That’s what seemed to trigger it.
Whatever.
It didn’t matter how it started anymore.
I was going to end it.
I dropped the towel and turned my
attention to the mouse. I didn’t need the keyboard to delete those files. When
I touched the mouse, the cursor moved. Good. I moved the cursor to the close-up
file and clicked on it—or should I say I tried
to click on it. Although the mouse still moved the cursor, the right and left
buttons no longer worked.
“Damn it!” I shouted as I unplugged
the mouse and tossed it in the trash.
The monitor turned black, and the
screensaver started. Not surprisingly, I was greeted by the smiling image of
Elisabetta Kostek. Actually, it was
surprising. I set my screensaver to start five minutes after I last used the
computer. This time the screensaver started only a few seconds after I unhooked
the mouse. I took her appearance as a little show of force to prove that she
had the power to manipulate more than just my mind. She could manipulate my
electronics, too. Unless, I thought, I was only imagining seeing her on the
monitor now.
Yikes. What was truly real? There was a lot to consider, but I didn’t
have time to wade into those weeds now. It was time to take offensive action.
“How you doing, Liz?” I asked with
a smile as I turned back to the monitor.
I grabbed my camera and turned it
on. I found her picture on it and turned the view screen around to the monitor.
“Recognize her?” I asked.
I pressed the little trash button
on the camera. A dialogue box came up over Elisabetta’s close-up. Are you sure you want to delete this photo?
“Yes, I do,” I said aloud. Then I
pressed the trash button again. The photograph was gone, and the wider one of
the grave itself appeared in its place. Two quick presses on the trash button
made that photograph disappear as well.
-->
I half-expected to hear a faint
ghostly wail of pain in response, but my actions were greeted by cold silence. Elisabetta
herself even left the monitor. The screensaver replaced her with a photo of my
mother, my father, Lenny, and me taken before my sister Janet was born. A
superstitious person might have taken the photo as a warning that I would soon
be joining them, but I wasn’t spooked. Now that I knew what I was battling, I
expected a quick victory.
Prologue - My Mother
Chapter 1 - RestingPlace.com
Chapter 2 - Elisabetta
Chapter 3 - The Upload
Chapter 4 - The Kobayashi Maru
Chapter 5 - Gina
Chapter 6 - Tombstone Teri
Chapter 7 - The Holy Redeemer Lonely Hearts Club
Chapter 8 - A Mourner
Chapter 9 - War Is Declared
Chapter 10 - The Motorcycle
Chapter 11 - Suspended
Chapter 12 - The Harbor
Chapter 13 - Bad News Betty
Learn more about the book Here.
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