Sinister Entity (40 page)

He laughed. “Surprisingly, my boss is letting me come back. I think he likes the way I arrange the B vitamin shelf. Skill like that is hard to find. I told him I’d be back tomorrow. I’m going to take the Amtrak to the city.”

“At least let me pay for the train ticket.”

He waved her off. “Don’t worry, it cost less than the gas to drive home anyway.”

Eddie kissed the back of her bruised, swollen hand and walked to the door.
 

“Call me when you get back. Remember, I’ve been inside your head now. I’ll know if you try to give me the brush off.”

She laughed, rolling her eyes.
 

“And I do believe you have some more visitors. Take care of yourself, Jessica. You know, despite everything, I’m really glad I found you.”

“I’m glad you did, too. Thank my father for me next time you talk to him, okay?”

And maybe you could connect him to me like you did with Christopher Harlan’s EB,
she wanted to add. It physically hurt to hope there was a chance she could talk to her father again. There would be time.
 

Eddie nodded, and was gone.
 

To her surprise, she was sad to see him go.
Maybe this one-girl show needs a partner,
she thought.
That is, if the show goes on at all.
 

She yelped with surprise when Aunt Eve and Liam swooped into the room, toting balloons, flowers and a host of other gifts. Eve put her arms around her and pulled her tightly to her chest. Even Liam managed to hold her hand and give her a kiss on the cheek.
 

“I swear, you’re trying to put me in an early grave,” Eve said, kissing her forehead and nose.
 

“It’s not intentional, I swear,” she said.
 

“Hey, you look like a before picture for Proactiv,” Liam joked. It felt good to laugh and she didn’t threaten to beat him for making fun of her.
 

“I should have never let you come here,” Eve said, smoothing out Jessica’s blanket.
 

“I’m a grown woman, and I would have come anyway,” Jessica said. “There was no way of knowing it would get like this.”

Eve gave her a look that said,
you of all people know how bad it can get
.

Jessica changed the subject. “Now that you’re here, did you pack your bags so we can go on that trip to Maine?”

“Not a chance. You’re coming home the second they discharge you. And your ghost hunting is suspended until further notice, you hear?”

She knew Eve was expecting resistance. Hell, it was what Jessica did best, but she only nodded and said, “I could use the rest. I have some required reading I have to do for the next semester. It’ll be good to get caught up.”

Later that night, Eve sent Liam to the hospital café to get some coffee. She had informed the hospital staff that they were not leaving after visiting hours and a nurse had brought a pillow and blanket for her and her son. As she tried to make the plush vinyl chairs a little more comfortable, she said, “I met Eddie this morning. I figured I’d let him say his goodbye first. You didn’t tell me he was so handsome.”

“Oh boy,” Jessica said with a sigh.
 

“Seriously, that boy seems to care for you. I don’t pretend to know what the two of you got mixed up in, but I have a strong feeling that you needed each other to get through it. You’d be doing yourself a favor by keeping him around, that is, if I can talk some sense into you both to behave like normal people your age and leave the ghosts to the movies.”

Jessica pulled her blanket up to her chest and settled onto her side.
 

“You never know,” she said. “Stranger things have happened.”

She closed her eyes, and slept.
 

About the Author

Hunter Shea is the author of the novels
Forest of Shadows
,
Evil Eternal
,
Swamp Monster Massacre
and
Sinister Entity
. His stories have appeared in numerous magazines, including
Dark Moon Digest
,
Morpheus Tales
and the
Cemetery Dance
anthology,
Shocklines: Fresh Voices in Terror
. His obsession with all things horrific has led him to real life exploration of the paranormal, interviews with exorcists and other things that would keep most people awake with the lights on. He is also half of the Monster Men video podcast, a fun look at the world of horror. You can read about his latest travails and communicate with him at
www.huntershea.com
, on Twitter
@HunterShea1
, Facebook fan page at Hunter Shea or the Monster Men 13 channel on YouTube.
 

Look for these titles by Hunter Shea

Now Available:

Forest of Shadows

Evil Eternal

Swamp Monster Massacre

The dead still hate!

Forest of Shadows

© 2011 Hunter Shea

John Backman specializes in inexplicable phenomena. The weirder the better. So when he gets a letter from a terrified man describing an old log home with odd whisperings, shadows that come alive, and rooms that disappear, he can’t resist the call. But the violence only escalates as soon as John arrives in the remote Alaskan village of Shida. Something dreadful happened there. Something monstrous. The shadows are closing in…and they’re out for blood.

Enjoy the following excerpt for
Forest of Shadows:

They screamed.
 

And impossible as it seemed, George Bolster was grateful for his family’s unbridled cries of terror as they masked the other unearthly sounds that ghosted their every move.
 

Whump. Whump. Whump.

The steady beat of an unseen giant’s footsteps up the stairs.
 

“Into the bedroom, now!” George shouted at his panicked wife and sons. They scrabbled into the room at the end of the hall while the floor quaked beneath their feet. Once inside, George slammed the door shut and braced his back against its oak frame. His sons, Cory and Matt, clung to Sharon’s sides, their eyes wide and terrified, darting around the room, looking for death in benign shadows.
 

“Sharon, push the dresser over.”

Stifling a sob that made her entire body shudder, she reluctantly pulled away from the boys and ran over to the large dresser. George grunted as the unseen force in the hallway pounded against the door.
 

“Hurry!”

Matt leapt to his mother’s side to help push the heavy piece of furniture across the floor and against the bedroom door. Cory, who was only six and barely forty pounds, could only curl up into a corner and whimper. A clap of thunder made the entire house quake and they all shrieked in unison. George still pressed his weight against the door while Sharon and Matt gathered as much bulk as they could find and piled it as high and as fast as they could on top of the dresser.
 

The door shook as it was rammed again and again, so hard that the arch above the doorway began to crack. It wouldn’t be long before the entire wall would collapse and then where could they go?

A deep thrumming emanated from beyond the door, a sonorous hum that was not so much heard as it was felt. It hurt like hell. They felt it vibrate their chest walls, disrupt the hammering rhythm of their hearts. It crept up their spines and exploded in their skulls, threatening to liquefy their brains.
 

So they screamed. Fighting fire with fire. The pile of debris stashed against the door shook as the pounding on the door continued. Staggering on jellied knees, George peered out the sole window into the moon-bathed woods outside. It was only a drop of twenty feet or so. Maybe, if he jumped first, he could catch them one at a time and they could run into the woods. But it was so damn cold, well below zero, and they didn’t have a coat between them. Could they possibly navigate their way through the snow-steeped forest to their nearest neighbor a mile away?
 

Suddenly, everything stopped. The pain ceased and they all dropped to their knees. What sounded like a thousand tiny claws ticked across the hardwood floor of the hallway, retreating to the other end and descending the staircase that lead to the living room below.
 

George shook his head and went back to the window.

“Is it gone, Daddy?” Cory whispered.

“I don’t know. Everyone stay quiet.”

He kept his eyes on the faintly illuminated yard and his ears tuned for any sounds within the house. Matt and Cory muffled their cries into their mother’s breast.
 

“What are you thinking?” Sharon mouthed.

George pointed out the window and used two fingers to simulate running. It was their only chance.
 

“George, we’ll freeze to death.”

One look from her husband ended any protest. Gently pulling the boys from her sides, she went over to the dresser and found two blankets, several pairs of sport socks and one wool hat. She worked in silence, wrapping the boys in the blankets and putting an extra pair of socks on their shoeless feet. Cory, being the youngest and frailest, got the hat.
 

George gathered his family by the window.

“I’m going to jump into the snow out there. Matt, I want you to go next, then Cory, then Mom. Once we’re all out, I want you to stick close and run as fast as you can. We’re going to try to make it to Glenn’s house.”

“But that’s really far and it’s so dark out,” Matt protested.
 

George hugged him and felt close to tears. “I know, little man, I know. But we have to get out of here, and Glenn’s house is the closest to us.”

“Maybe it’s gone away,” Cory said. They all looked towards the door. The entire house had been silent for almost five minutes now.
 

Sharon placed a hand on her husband’s shoulder. “It might not be a bad idea to wait a while and see.”

George wanted nothing more than to run like hell from his house. Freezing to death was a welcome option to the thing downstairs.
 

“I’m not sure—”

The floor exploded just five feet from where they sat as the assault recommenced, this time from below. A fist-sized hole opened up between the splintered wood. A maniacal rush of thrashing and clawing blasted from the fresh portal as the floor shook from repeated efforts to widen the gap.
 

“Everyone up!”

George threw the window up hard, shattering the glass. Without a moment’s hesitation, he jumped out into the cold night. He landed in a three-foot pile of snow that cushioned his fall. His right leg throbbed a little and his lungs hurt as he sucked in his first draft of frigid air.
 

“Okay, Matt, jump!” he shouted.
 

Sharon plucked her youngest son and aimed him into his father’s waiting arms. George caught him and they both fell back into the snow. He was back on his feet by the time Cory had himself perched on the windowsill. Cory looked back at his mother, afraid to leave her alone, even if it was only for a moment.
 

“Go, Cory. I’ll be right behind you.”

The opening in the floor grew wider as more shards of wood shot out of the hole like lava from a volcano. Cory sprang into the air and almost sailed past his father. After a quick tumble in the freezing snow, George was back up and waiting for Sharon.
 

Heavy moaning filled the room. Sharon lost control of her bladder. Something was trying to find purchase on the jagged edges of the hole. Something huge, black and evil.
 

“Sharon! Come on!” George and the boys were shouting to her from the yard. Momentarily mesmerized by creeping fear, she turned back to the window and placed a foot on the sill.
 

As she prepared to jump, a trio of shadows stretched from the trees like a sentient ink spill and engulfed her family. One second they were there, calling for her to jump, and the next instant they were gone as the shadows retreated back into the forest.

“Nooooooo!”

She never noticed the presence behind her.
 

Sinister Entity

Hunter Shea

How can you escape the ghost of yourself?

The Leigh family is terrified. They’ve been haunted by the ghostly image of their young daughter, Selena. But how can that be, when Selena is alive and well, and as frightened as her parents? With nowhere else to turn, the Leighs place their hopes in Jessica Backman, who has dedicated her life to investigating paranormal activity. Accompanied by a new partner who claims to be able to speak to the dead, Jessica will soon encounter an entity that scares even her. And a terror far worse than she imagined.