The Nelson Files: Episode #1 (5 page)

Woods

September 6, 2015

12:30 a.m.

Zack gripped firmly on the handle of the pure silver bladed dagger. Rage. Rage is all he felt.
It’s going to die. I’ll make sure of that.

“Come on,” Zack yelled. “Come get me. I know you’re out here, you fucker! It’s me you want, right? We’ll I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere. Let’s go. Come get me already. I’m waiting.”

Zack got on guard. A rustling came from all directions--just the wind. Zack continued walking up until he hit a clearing.

“Let’s go,” he yelled. “I have all night. I’ll wait here forever if I have to. You’re going to pay for what you’ve done. Don’t be afraid of me now. It’s just you and me. That’s what you wanted, isn’t it? Come on.”

The atmosphere became calm.
Too
calm for the woods. Crickets stopped communicating with one another, Owls stopped hooting. Forest life seemed to die in a matter of seconds. A rustling came from the brush in front of him. He knew it wasn’t the winds doing this time. It was the hellhound. It could have been a coyote, or raccoon, or squirrel—something.

No. It was the hellhound. No excuses. No reasoning with other options.

Zack prepared himself, holding the dagger in front of him. He wanted to strike first this time. But what he saw was the silhouette of a tall figure. As it emerged and formed into shape, Zack loosened his grip on the dagger. Lance and Nelson. Both holding sawed-off shotguns, each carrying a duffel bag.

“Don’t look so tense, we’re just you’re friendly neighborhood Ghost Busters,” Lance said.

“How’d you two find me?”

“Like we said, we’re good at what we do,” Lance said. “I’m tired of repeating myself.”

“I don’t want your help on this, guys. Just go and let me take care of this on my own.”

“Sorry, we can’t do that,” Nelson said.

Zack threw his arms out. “This thing didn’t kill people important to you. You don’t need to be here.”

Lance whispered to Nelson, loud enough so Zack could hear. “I think the kid’s deaf. He hasn’t listened to a word we said.” Then to Zack, “It’s our
job
, you fucking idiot. We won’t say it again.”

“Okay, whatever. I can handle myself.”

Lance rolled his eyes, trying to control his impulse to just shoot Zack instead.

“Ugh…” Zack shook his head.

“What? What is it?” Nelson said.

A wave of ringing pulsed Zack’s brain. The same ringing that had crippled him at Heather’s. The louder it got, the more painful it became. He dropped the dagger and fell to his knees.

“Shit!” Lance exclaimed. He took a few steps and was then lifted off the ground by an invisible force and launched across the opening, hitting a tree, dropping to a slump. Nelson was shoved back by the same force, falling on his back, banging his head against the ground.

The hellhound materialized out of nowhere, a few yards in front of Zack. Zack groaned in pain, trying to reach for the dagger. The pain overwhelmed his strength and he gave up on reaching for the dagger, grasping at his head.

Lance shook off the cobwebs. He saw Nelson unconscious; Zack nearly in a seizure with the hellhound staring on. Lance crawled over to his sawed-off shotgun, which was loaded with silver rounds. He popped out the two shells, pulled the duffel bag off himself, dug through and pulled out two iron rounds--the rounds used for upper level entities. He loaded the gun, stood up.

“Hey!” he shouted to the hellhound. “Eat this.”

He fired both rounds. The rounds pierced the air and nailed the hellhound in the chest. It flew back several feet. Taking more time to recover this time, Lance was able to load two more iron rounds into the sawed-off. He aimed. The hellhound rose to all fours and, just as Lance pulled the trigger, it vanished. Gone. The bullets flew right through its shimmering body and destroyed the bark of a tree behind it.

Lance rushed over to Nelson, slapping his face to wake him out of his state. “Hey, hey.”

Nelson opened his eyes. “Lance. Why are you slapping me?”

“You missed all the action. Getting old, I see.”

“Oh, shut up.”

Lance held Nelson to his feet. They made their way over to Zack. The pain was gone and Zack remained on his knees, looking into the darkness.

“It’s gone,” he said. “It got away.”

“We’ll find it,” Nelson said. But he had no idea when it’d return. “When we do, we’ll kill it. I can guarantee that.”

“What do I do now?” Zack said to himself.

Nelson offered Zack a hand. “For starters, trust us. We can help you. You just have to be willing to learn from us and be patient--not be reckless and go after something powerful alone.”

Zack accepted the offered hand, being brought to his feet. Zack didn’t speak after that. He turned his head back at the darkness. All he could think about was getting revenge for Heather’s death, and after all this time, his grandmother’s.

TO BE CONTINUED IN EPISODE #2

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Ryan Cecere lives in New Rochelle, New York, and spends his time working and trying to improve as a writer. As a kid he has always been interested in creating stories, whether it'd be writing or acting them out with friends. He started writing in the third grade but distance himself from it as the years went on. By the time he was 18, he got back into writing by writing screenplays as a hobby. At 21, he started writing stories again and published his first work DAY ZERO (which is a novelette prelude to Rayner Electronics’ post-apocalypse zombie series, The Plague) in 2015—a project created with a group of friends.

Scott Lucas was born, raised and currently lives in New Rochelle, New York He is the co-creator of
The Nelson Files
supernatural-thriller series.

NEONWOLF4 is an artist who is very passionate about his work. At a very young age, he picked up a piece of blank paper and a pencil and never put it down. As the years went on he continued to draw original art as well as fan art, improving and self-teaching himself the craft along the way. Currently, he lives in New York and is working on a few comic book series; as well as taking requests from his fans on the side.

RYAN CAN BE FOUND HERE:

Twitter:
www.twitter.com/ryance93

Amazon Author Page:
www.amazon.com/author/ryancecere

SCOTT CAN BE FOUND HERE:

Twitter:
www.twitter.com/scottlucaslive

NEONWOLF4 CAN BE FOUND HERE:

Devianart:
http://bluewolfneon.deviantart.com/

Also written by Ryan Cecere:

DAY ZERO
(The Plague, book 0)

http://amzn.to/1Mw572t

A
special thanks to my editor Julie Hutchings. She really improved sentences and gave great feedback! –Ryan