Tales of Chills and Thrills: The Mystery Thriller Horror Box Set (7 Mystery Thriller Horror Novels) (132 page)

“Have you sought help?” He was extremely focused.

“I’m whining.”

“So whine,” he said, reassuring me that he wanted me to vent.

“No, I do not want to complain… and yet can’t pass on an opportunity to do so. But, ya’ know I’m alive and married to the greatest woman on the planet,” I crowed with a broad grin.

“Second best.” He cleared his throat and smiled.

“Oh yeah, I forgot about Mrs. Weatherman/Physicist, the lovely Mrs. Timmins.”

“Yeah. But don’t misunderstand, yours ain’t that shabby, my man.” He smiled, full of himself. “Tell me what I can do to help you?” He was serious again.

“I don’t know,” I said with a sigh. “Do you think that there is something going on with the planet that could be causing this? I mean, like sunspots or the solar wind? Maybe a shift in the magnetic field?”

“Hey, anything is possible but I somehow don’t think that if any of that was going on that could effect just you and leave the rest of the world alone,” he said.

“Don’t be so sure.”

“What’s that mean?”

“There are others experiencing this. I know for sure of one other, at least.” I said with all of the authority I could muster.

“Who else?” He was quite curious.

“My shrink,” I said without thinking. “But you know, we’d best keep that just between us,” I cautioned, because I didn’t want to compromise the rapport I had with Keough. I felt that I needed his support desperately until I could get through this storm.

“Can you tell me what else it is that is going on? I mean, come on; whatever this is, looks like it is scaring the shit out of you. Is there more?” he asked.

“When I was dead I met an old high school teacher of mine who sent me back to my body, but before I go back he tells me to be cautious of someone who will want to know something about a name which I will know, and should not tell this person. Then, I have these vivid dreams where I meet a kid named Joe who claims to be my uncle and wants to tell me something that he can only tell me… then, on to seeing people who aren’t really there, but somehow tie into my near death experience.” I ran all this off as he looked at me incredulously.

“If you come up with anything… I mean
anything
, that you feel scientifically could be causing some aberrations please get that to me immediately.”

“You got that,” he assured. “But, I have never known anybody who has had a near death experience, and lived to tell about it. What’s it like on the other side? What happens to you?” he asked.

“Hey Mister Science, you aren’t supposed to believe that near deaths aren’t anything more than hallucinations.”

“Really…” he said with a strange look on his face. “Now don’t you be so sure.”

“Don’t tell me you’ve had one too?” I leaned across the table inviting him to say more.

“I’m not and I didn’t,” he said as he backed into his chair.

“Then, what are you talking about?”

“We’ll talk… but not now,” he said. There was a knowing tone in his voice and it struck a chord with me but I couldn’t take it anywhere from there. At least at that moment.

* * *

We went on with the article I was writing and I got several great quotes before we wound up our visit. We hugged each other goodbye and planned on another get together in the near future.

As I walked through the parking garage on my way back to my car I noticed a dog following me. I wondered why a dog would be in a parking garage alone, and then I saw the dog more closely. I automatically called “Terri! Terri, come here girl!” I called to her and as she began wagging her tail in response, a car came barreling around a turn, sending her scurrying. When the car passed, she was nowhere to be found. I whistled for her but got no reaction. She looked exactly like my old dog Terri and I wasn’t dreaming when I saw her wagging response to my calling her name.

Funny, why would a dog be here in a parking garage like that? I was concerned and then realized that I had to get the idea that the dog was my beloved pet, Terri, out of my head. That notion was crazy on a good day, and total insanity on a bad one.

I found my car and climbed in. I sure love my SUV… no matter what kind of a carbon foot print it leaves. It wasn’t so bad on gas and I could haul all kinds of things almost anywhere. I threw her into reverse and started backing out of my space when I saw the dog again. Driving slowly toward her I tried to keep her from being spooked and taking off again.

I stopped and got out of the car and she posed with her front legs down, seeming to dare me to try to catch her. Terri used to do this… but this
couldn’t
be Terri… no way.

She then started looking at something behind me that seemed to unsettle her. I turned around but saw no one.

When I turned back there was no sign of her, so I reluctantly got back in the vehicle and drove off.

CHAPTER SIX

“What is at the end of the universe? Can the universe be endless? Can you conceive of there being no end to something? How can that be?” I was awakened by a voice in the night. I could only hear the voice but could not see who was saying it. I couldn’t even tell if it was the voice of a man or a woman.

I jumped out of my sleep, startling my wife.

“The name… the name,” I heard the voice say, even in my wakened state.

“Did you hear that?” I said as Kate rubbed her eyes.

“Hear what?” she asked sleepily.

“Shit, Honey; that voice… the one I just heard,” I said, slightly annoyed.

“I can’t say that I do, when I don’t.” She came back sensing my annoyance.

“I’m sorry, Kate. I don’t mean to be an asshole. It’s frustrating because I’m hearing a voice that starts out in a dream and then follows me through to my awakened state. But you didn’t hear it and that tells me that I’m probably imagining it or on some plane that is halfway between.” I was looking for sympathy while trying to understand what was going on.

“Between what, Baby?” She said, now with her usual loving tone.

“Between here and there… reality and fantasy… sanity and lunacy.”

I got up and went to the bathroom and on my way back to bed I passed the window closest to my side of the bed and saw something that made me look out. There in a patch of moonlight in the yard, near the back fence stood a young boy looking up at me. It was “Uncle Joe.” Even in the darkness I could feel his eyes on me and I knew he could feel mine on him.

I didn’t say anything to my wife who by now had fallen back fast asleep and I didn’t want to discuss this with her as I would have had to explain Uncle Joe being in the yard in the middle of the night. She probably wouldn’t have been able to see him anyway.

I ran down the stairs and out into the yard where I came face to face with the kid who claimed to be my uncle. “Why are you here?” I asked him. “What is it you
want
from me?”

“I want to help you find out the name. So that you don’t say it, by accident” he replied looking up at me with a serious expression on his face.

“What name are you talking about? Who are you talking about?!” I asked someone who probably didn’t exist.

He didn’t answer me but remained standing there, watching me.

“Where did you come from and why did you wait until now to show up in my life?” I demanded — again realizing I was probably speaking with a figment of my imagination.

“I am from the other side. I live there with many people who once lived here on this side.” he said.

“The other side of what?” I asked. “Who do you live with? Do they take care of you? You’re just a kid.” I was rambling.

“Take care of me… take care of me, in what way?” he asked.

I realized he was not talking like a child but more as an adult. It was hard to keep the conversation on track with the realization of this, yet I went on with, “Who is there? Do you have angels around? Have you seen God?”

“No, none of us has seen Him. We live on a level that is right above this one but far below the level of God or even the one where the angels live.”

“Why do you believe that God has a name?” I asked him.

“Because they told me He does. Doesn’t everyone have a name?”

“They… who?” I asked.

“I don’t know.” He answered sadly, his eyes cast downward, “I don’t know. But everyone there wants to call on Him but none of us know His name. They think that if we knew it that would give us a way to talk with Him. To see God.”

“It’s funny… I’ve always thought that His name was, God,” I said with somewhat of a chuckle.

“No, they say that His name has a vibration that is a sound which will create an energy that will open a door to Him.” This boy sounded wise beyond his apparent years.

“Doesn’t prayer do that?” I asked.

“It opens doors but His name will open the one that is absolute, and let us stand in His presence,” he assured.

“I don’t believe that you are real and that I am having this conversation with anyone but myself,” I blurted from out of nowhere. “Give me something,” I demanded.

“What?”

“Give me something, anything you have on you so that I can know that you aren’t a hallucination after you’ve gone… give me something.” I raised my voice to a loud whisper.

“I can’t do that. Not now,” he said without emotion.

“That’s exactly what I thought you would say,” I said, with a little edge of contempt in my voice.

“Look… I am here with you, in your life at this time, because when you died, a door between our worlds opened for you and the dead. It happens that you are one of the few, in all time, who actually said the true name of God, accidentally. That moment caused a ripple throughout all that is which was recognized but for some reason not heard by anyone, not even the high angels.” Joe paused a moment to give me time to catch up. “The fallen one knows what this means more than anyone other than the Lord God Himself, and wants to use you as his key to unlock the door that separates him from the Creator. Beware my nephew, for you stand in the middle of a great conflict, and there is great danger and also greater deception.” He stared at me meaningfully, then continued.

“I have to leave soon and I don’t know if they will let me come back again, but please believe me, you are now the focus of great evil and face something you have never known before,” Joe warned.

“Great evil? Something I have never known before? I still don’t understand what all this means and who you are talking about.” I looked at him with frustration as I found myself waving my arms around.

“Hey wait a minute, you’re not leaving yet. You have to finish this,” I said quickly.

“I can’t… they are calling me. I have to go.” He turned around and started running; he disappeared into the darkness not acknowledging
my plea.

* * *

I went back toward the house but before entering I paused to see if “Uncle Joe” was still there, but he wasn’t.

My head was spinning and I now absolutely believed that something was going on that dealt with the land of the dead and the land of the living and I was right in the middle. Furthermore, it was becoming apparent that the land of the dead was probably another dimension of existence, somehow, somewhere.

* * *

I went back into the house stopping in the doorway to look back to where Joe had been standing almost wishing I would see him there again. Seeing nothing but darkness, I closed the door and headed up the stairs to the bedroom where my wife lay sound asleep thinking to myself that I might be developing a family attachment to a phantom. I got back into bed with my mind wide awake in a very tired body. Sleep eluded me for awhile, but when it finally did come I fell into a dream full of ringing phones from eras long past. They were reminiscent of my early teen years and the hours I spent in the phone booths at the local pharmacy talking with my girlfriend; I had privacy there, unlike one phone at home which was situated in the living room right next to my father’s favorite chair. Someone called my name on the phone in the dream. That was the last thing I could remember upon awakening.

* * *

Getting out of bed was laborious, having not had a complete night’s rest. I went downstairs in my pajamas and bathrobe and out to get the paper in the driveway. As I started back to the house I saw my seventy five year old neighbor, Conley, walking my way across the lawn. He flagged me down saying, “Hey, neighbor. How are you this fine morning?”

“Still sleepy,” I replied.

“I’m not surprised,” he said sort of sarcastically.

“What do you mean?”

“You woke me last night when you were out in your back yard,” he said while watching me intently.

Thinking he must have thought me crazy out there bantering into thin air I felt a bit embarrassed and as I started to explain he cut me off with a question.

“Who is that kid and what was he doing in your yard in the middle of the night?”

“You
saw
him?” I was stunned.

“Of course I did; and I heard him talking but it sounded like he was a little off center,” he said. “You weren’t making much sense either, Teller. Now don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop but the night being so quiet and all, it isn’t hard to hear things clearly that you might not during the day.”

“He’s just a troubled kid, Conley, who needed to talk with someone,” I said.

“His parents must be heavy sleepers for him to be able to get out the house without them knowing.” He went on, “You know when I was a kid, my old man would be up checking on me if I got up to go to the can.”

I started walking back to the house as I said, “Yeah they probably are heavy sleepers. Sorry I disturbed your sleep. See ya’ later.”

“That’s okay, I just thought it weird for a kid that young to be out that late.”

So sometimes these phantoms might be visible to other people. This was somewhat heartening. Then I remembered that Conley had been in a coma after he had a stroke about a year ago. They weren’t too optimistic about his chances for recovery but one day after almost three months he awoke from his coma and seemed back to normal. Maybe there was a connection… He certainly looked spry and in good health during our conversation.