The Monster of Creasy's Hollow (Defenders of the Rift Book 1) (4 page)

“
What did it sound like?” he asked Donny,
concern evident on his face.

“
I can’t describe it exactly,” Donny
admitted. “Never heard anything like it before. And I didn’t
say it was a monster, either,” he shot his sister a dirty look.
“All I said was that it. . . .”

“
What did it sound like, Donny?” Chip
interrupted, urgency in his voice.

“
Well, kinda like a grinding of some kind,”
Donny’s face furrowed in thought. “Like metal gears
grinding, mixed with the old steam organ at church. It made the hairs
on my neck tingle. And I think every dog in the Hollow was barking
afterward, too. Sure sounded like it anyway.”

Angie was looking at Chip while Donny spoke, and noticed
how pale Chip grew at the description.

“
What?” she demanded. Donna had stopped
making fun of her brother and was paying attention, and so was Alvin.

“
I. . .I heard the same thing,” Chip told
them hesitantly. “Last night, about eight or so, I guess, when
I was taking the trash out.”

“
Yeah, that’s about right,” Donny
nodded. “We were doing homework.”

“
Are you two making this up?” Donna demanded
suddenly. “Did you get together to make up some kind of lame
story to sucker us in?”

“
No,” Chip replied quietly as Donny just
shook his head. “I even told my dad about it. I don’t
know if he heard it or not, but he went outside to listen. I don’t
know what it was either, Donny, but the hair on my neck and arms
tingled when I heard it.”

The warning bell for the beginning of the school day
rang before anyone else could speak, and the group gathered their
packs and made their way inside. As they split up to go to their
separate classes, their eyes met. By unspoken agreement, the friends
agreed not to speak of this until they had a chance to discuss it
later.

Chip went to class wondering if their attempt to get
Waldo back had went awry somehow. Maybe he should tell his father
what he’d done? Show him the ritual they had used? He’d
probably get into trouble, but at least a grown-up would know what
had been done. His father was pretty smart, and was always messing
with those old books of his. He’d probably know if they had
caused something to go wrong, somehow.

Donny headed to his own class now more sure than ever
that he’d heard a monster. He didn’t connect the possible
monster to their failed attempt to return Waldo to life. Just the
idea that some monster was on the loose around town was exciting.
Donny was too excited about it to be scared, in fact. Why, this could
make Creasy’s Hollow famous!

Donna walked beside her brother, still wondering if the
two stupid boys had made all this up to get attention, or to try and
scare the rest of them. She wouldn’t put it past either of
them, and together there was probably nothing Donny and Chip wouldn’t
at least try to accomplish. Sometimes they were too clever for their
own good.

Alvin was thinking about the two stories, but unlike
Donny, he was also thinking about their little cult experiment the
day before. He was glad he hadn’t heard anything last night,
but that didn’t mean it wasn’t there. He wondered if
there was a connection between the two events. Could they have
unwittingly caused some kind of monster to be made out of poor Waldo?
Just the thought of something so horrible made him want to cry.

Angie was concerned as well. Chip was a joker and had
been all their lives. But he hadn’t been joking this morning,
she was sure of that. She’d watched the blood drain from his
face as Donny described what he’d heard, and Angie knew from
experience that Chip wasn’t that good of an actor. It probably
wasn’t a monster, but whatever the two had heard was real. Or
at least they thought it was.

Despite the group’s thoughts, school work soon
drew their attention away from monsters, occult rituals, or anything
else other than getting through the school day and preparing for the
week-end.

Other problems would just have to wait.

*****

Kat Harold had opened her restaurant at five am., as
usual, and she and her crew began preparing for breakfast.

Kat’s mind was far afield as she went through her
morning routine. So many times she had done these familiar things
that her hands would work from muscle memories alone, so that left
her free to think about the day before.

She wanted to be angry at Chuck for not knowing what had
happened, but this morning realized that wasn’t fair. Chuck
knew more than the rest of them did because he studied more. That
didn’t make him infallible, or an authority. It just made him
their leader.

Chuck’s reminder of why they had started their
little group had also hit home. The group had never done anything
that even bordered on malicious or evil. They had performed rituals
for good health, healing, and for success in business. Not at the
expense of anyone else, either. The small group of friends had no
interest in harming others, or seeing harm caused.

The door bell ringing jarred Kat out of her musings, and
she put on a smile and went to wait on the first customer of the day,
leaving thoughts of summons and spells behind her.

Chuck yawned as he sat down behind his desk and started
getting organized for his day. Friday usually wasn’t too bad on
him, though he did have a business lunch today at twelve.

He had stayed awake into the late hours studying, but
was no closer to an answer than he had been the day before when the
blue energy wave had knocked him from his feet. He wasn’t sure
there was an answer to be found, at least not in the books he
possessed.

This was above him. The event of yesterday afternoon was
like nothing he had ever encountered, and his studying had revealed
nothing that he hadn’t already known, or at least suspected.
There had been real power behind it. A level of power that he and his
small circle were unlikely to be able to match. They just weren’t
that kind of people. Everything they had ever done had been positive
in nature. Yesterday had been anything
but
positive.

Chip’s report of something ‘howling’
last night had not been encouraging, either. While Chuck hadn’t
been able to hear anything like it himself, he had heard what sounded
like every dog in the Hollow up in arms. And dogs, historically,
reacted poorly to things summoned to the Earth from other realms. For
Chuck, that was just another puzzle piece.

The phone ringing jolted him out of that train of
thought. He shook his head to clear it a bit, then answered the
phone, starting his work day. He would have to worry about the rest
later.

*****

Alvin and Valina Thomas were quiet as they began their
work day at the hardware store. Both were thinking about yesterday,
and wondering what had happened. And who was behind it.

They had never intended to get so deeply involved into
this cult type stuff, but both had to agree that their business had
improved since it started. Drawing energy from the Earth to heal, to
be successful, to have a better life had seemed ideal. Still did at
times.

But yesterday had shown them there was always a dark
side to things. And someone had tapped into that darkness yesterday.
There was little doubt of that, according the Chuck. He was the most
knowledgeable of them all, so they didn’t question his
statement. Besides, they had already known that something powerful
had happened.

Normally the two would have been talking back and forth
this time of the day, either with good natured bantering or
discussing business details. But neither was in the mood for such
things this morning, lost in their concerns about what was happening
around them, and how it might affect them before it was over.

The phone began ringing, and as Valina moved to answer,
a contractor arrived to pick-up supplies for a job he was working on.
The couple had to put aside their fears for the moment and
concentrate on business.

*****

Stacey Douglas worked part-time at the Creasy’s
Hollow library three days per week. She also had a home business
doing sewing and crafting other items for people on order. Her work
was purchased local, and over the internet as well, so she was rarely
bored, and her income supplemented Chuck’s nicely. Together
they had made a good home and life, for themselves and their son.

Friday was one of Stacey’s days at the library.
She was pushing a cart of recently returned books through the aisles,
placing them back on the shelves for the next borrower. Doing so
wasn’t particularly mentally challenging, so she had plenty of
time to reflect on the previous days events.

In particular she hadn’t like the tone that the
others had adopted toward her husband. A tone that had bordered on
accusatory when he didn’t have the answers they were looking
for. Chuck wasn’t to blame for what happened anymore than they
were, and to expect him to know exactly who had done something like
that, and why, was ridiculous.

The group had started when Belinda’s first
husband, Donald Craig, had been killed overseas. Support, healing,
stress-relief, that kind of thing. Over time it had grown into a
small coven, if that was even the right word, that worked for the
betterment of themselves in positive ways. Ways that didn’t
include acts against anyone else. Positive results for positive
actions, that was the motto they lived by.

Yesterday someone had crossed that line. Stacey was
positive that no one in their group had done it. They simply didn’t
have the power or the knowledge to do so. Chuck might have the
knowledge, or know where to find it, but was not strong enough,
alone, to perform such a ritual. And even if he was, he wouldn’t
do it. He had always been the most insistent of the group that all
actions had to be positive in nature.

All of that pointed to another group in Creasy’s
Hollow. Or worse, at least to Stacey’s way of thinking, one
very powerful individual. If one person had been able to produce that
kind of energy then it wasn’t just the group that might be at
risk. The entire town might be in danger.

“
Stacey? Can you come help me for a minute?”

Broken from her reverie, Stacey moved to assist her
fellow worker, leaving the cart, and her thoughts about who might be
to blame for the summons behind for now.

*****

Belinda Craig-Johnson went through her day as usual,
delivering orders of Mary Kay cosmetics and Avon products that had
been ordered the week before. She represented a number of companies
as a salesperson, and made a pretty good salary doing it, though it
did require a lot of driving. She also had a website that sold the
same products that added to her income, but not her work load, since
she simply had the company ship directly to the consumer.

Today, however, she was driving, her seats filled with
small colorful bags full of products ordered by the women, and a few
men, of Creasy’s Hollow. Part of the service was such delivery.
And it allowed Belinda to get in on all the gossip, which was an
added plus so far as she was concerned.

Not that she was a busy body or course. Never let it be
said that Belinda Craig-Johnson was nosy. But she saw nothing wrong
with knowing what was going on around her. That’s all.

Today had been an interesting day of gossip, too.
Several people she had spoken to had commented on the blue energy
wave, or power surge as many had been calling it. Others had
commented on a disturbance later that evening that had set
practically every dog in the Hollow to barking and growling. Several
people had apparently heard a wild animal howling as well. Or
growling, depending on who you spoke to about it. The one thing all
of them agreed on was that it had scared the tar out of them, and
made them seek shelter inside right away.

None of that made Belinda feel any better, considering
what she knew. If Chuck had been right, and the spell had been a
summoning, then whatever ‘animal’ people had heard last
night, and upset all the dogs in town, might have been something very
bad indeed. If it was, then those who had heard it had every right to
be afraid.

She tried to shove her worries aside as she arrived at
her next delivery. Thelma’s Beauty Shop was one of her bigger
customers, and there were always plenty of tales circulating among
the women who were there having hair or nails done.

Carrying several packages, Belinda painted a smile on
her face and stepped inside, leaving the problems of yesterday
outside, if only temporarily.

*****

When the dismissal bell rang that afternoon, students
streamed out of the building at a steady rate, heading for whatever
fun or work awaited them for the weekend. The gang wasn’t in
such a hurry today, despite the fact that it was Friday. Instead,
they ambled along together in silence, each lost in their own
thoughts. Angie was the first to break that silence.

“
Okay, what’s everyone thinking, here?”
she demanded. “We’re acting like we’re going to a
funeral or something.”

“
I’m just thinking about last night,”
Chip admitted. “And yesterday,” he added, frowning.
“Trying to make sense of what I heard.”

“
I’m thinking about who I can call about the
Monster of Creasy’s Hollow!” Donny proclaimed, grinning
ear-to-ear. “I’m hoping to get a picture, or at least a
recording of that howling sound to send to someone. Monster hunters
and stuff.”