At last, they spilled into a small clearing. At first it seemed like an ordinary place one would find deep in the heart of the forest, with swelling nature, overgrown grass, and towering oaks that twisted and intertwined close to one another. A few steps in, Lacey’s eyes centered on what at first had appeared to be a thick patch of woods. Then she realized it was a small shack of some sort, where a little house sat in the middle of the woods.
Grass the height of a tall man bundled with ivy and moss, crawling up the shack and almost trying to swallow it whole. The three of them inched closer to the shack, all exchanging weary looks.
“Is this the shack?” Lacey demanded, although by Bennett’s wide-eyed stare she already knew the answer.
“It’s the one, alright,” he admitted. “It was originally owned by the Haas family, who had resided on this property before the Davidsons,” the seasoned policeman replied. “Like I said, the Davidsons used it during their mining days.”
Lacey remembered the recent discovery that the daughter of the Haas descendents had married a Davidson, thus passing the property to her husband’s wealth.
“Well, no matter who it belonged to in the past, there’s no way anyone could be living here now,” William added.
“The recent downpour has increased the plant growth,” Bennett noticed, looking at the overgrown ivy draping the structure.
Lacey stood in front of the shack. ”We need to go inside.”
“In there?” William asked flabbergasted. “This thing is a safety hazard. It could crumble on us at any second.”
Lacey crossed her arms and gave him an undeterred look. “It’s lasted this long." She then gazed at Bennett. “What do you think, Lieutenant?”
Bennett rubbed the back of his neck, then turned to his side and spat. “I agree. Let’s go inside."
Lacey smiled, hoping the man was finally coming around to help her unravel the mystery shrouding Raven Hills. “Two against one,” she chanted, looking at William. “Looks like we’re going in."
They all felt around the shack, hoping to find some sort of door that would grant them access. It didn’t take long for William to locate what appeared to be a brass doorknob crudely attached to the weathered wooden door.
There was no lock in place, so they simply twisted the knob and pushed the door open. They were greeted by nothing but darkness. They took a few steps in, careful on where they walked. There were no windows and no source of light in there, minus the feeble sunlight that now trickled in from the open door.
“It’s a mess in here,” William groaned as he stepped in a pile of goods he could not—and would not—identify. “What is this place?”
Lacey narrowed her eyes, trying to pierce through the darkness. William was right. A putrid scent filled the air, and everywhere they stepped there was rubble, mounds of dirt, and slick liquid everywhere. She looked up at the walls, first at the one to her left. The dim lighting showed ivy coiling up the wood panels even on the interior, and she followed as it trailed throughout the shack.
Herg gaze fell on a shadow plastered against the north wall.
She gasped, the figure of a man coming alive with a groan. Lacey shrieked, catching Bennett’s and William’s attention.
The shadowed man let out another cry, this time filling the shack with painful energy. “La-Lacey?”
“Brian?” Lacey cried, and ran over to the man.
Examining him closely, she took in the man’s features. He was skinny—a lot thinner he had been before—and his piercing blue eyes were now darkened by shadow and fatigue. She could barely recognize her coworker as she cradled him in her arms. Chains rattled and she found two of them wrapped around Brian’s wrists and tethering him to the wall.
“It’s okay,” she murmured, trying to restrain a scream of agony. “We’re here now. It’s going to be alright.”
Bennett and William stood by Lacey, both looking at Brian with deep concern.
“We have to get him out of here,” Lacey urged.
“This isn’t like Mary Sue’s chain,” William argued, looking at the restraint around Brian’s wrists. “And there are no pliers or tools here to help us cut it.”
“We need to figure something out!” Lacey cried, her mind starting to unravel. “We…”
But her words were cut off by an ominous shadow entering the shack. It was as if someone had turned off the sun and obscured the world from all warmth and brightness. They all turned around to look at the door, while Brian slowly picked his head upward to follow their gazes.
“What in the world is that?” William asked, his voice quivering.
“Sir…or…ma’am, put your hands up,” Bennett shouted, his deep voice authoritative. His hand reached for the pistol in his holster.
“How do we know it’s a…person?” Lacey mumbled, her wide-eyed stare taking in the sight in front of them.
Standing at the threshold of the door, a tall, black form hovered about twenty feet away from where they stood. It had beady red eyes, and its shapeless body lingered like a nightmare that stays even after one awakens.
“I warn you,” Lieutenant Bennett continued, as he unlatched the holster and began pulling out his gun.
But the monster opened its mouth, revealing a gaping white void with tiny sharp teeth. It shrieked, its voice a shrill and devastating sound that soaked the shack and threatened to burst their eardrums. Lacey covered her ears, the painful shriek slicing at her nerves like a razor.
The figure contorted and waved, all the while crying out and snarling.
“What in the hell is that thing?” William cursed, his hands cradling his head.
“It’s…it’s…”Brian moaned, his head dropping down onto his chest as he dangled.
Lacey tried to help him by wrapping her arms around him, but found the monster’s shriek to be too agonizing.
“Brian, it’s o-okay…” she tried to say, her own voice lost in the void of the shattering scream.
The monster stopped its scream, but continued to snarl at the foursome.
“Dein blut wird mich befreien!” it suddenly cried out in German.
Lacey’s hands dropped to her side. Another German phrase she couldn’t understand. But what she could understand, and started to realize with panic, was that the creature now advanced toward them.
“What do we do now?” William cried out.
Bennett pointed the gun at the monstrous being.
“No use—it can’t be killed like that,” Brian said through a labored breath.
Lacey bent closer to him, desperate for a way out. “What do we do, Brian? Do you know what it is?”
He looked into her eyes, and even in the dark shadows she could read his terrified expression. “It’s a demon, Lacey.”
“A demon?” she questioned, sensing the demon’s shadow getting closer.
Brian nodded. “Ich lebe in ihr,” he muttered.
She blinked fast, her brain firing with a familiar memory of that phrase. “I live inside her.”
“Yes,” Brian said. “The demon is Julie. It lives inside of her and now it’s trying to escape. To take either you or me.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
The demon screeched, its black monstrous figure inches away from the four of them. Being so close to it, Lacey sensed its evil presence like a blanket clinging over her and melting inside her bones. The stench it emanated was vile and strong, and the red glaring eyes were cold and menacing.
She still couldn’t believe Brian’s words. The demon was Julie, Mary Sue Collins’ fake daughter. More troubling was his statement that it was trying to escape. Escape where or into who? Did this mean this monster was responsible for decades-long atrocities, like Libby Kline’s descent into madness, or Allison’s death? There were still too many questions, however. Why did both Libby and Allison seem to have an odd relationship with Joann Derby? What did she have to do in all this?
Her thoughts were interrupted by the loud bang of Bennett’s gun firing a bullet. She ye
lled and then heard Bennett curse. “It went right through it, damn it,” the man cussed, clearly rattled by this unbelievable event.
The demon unleashed what sounded like an evil, mocking laugh and closed the space between itself and the group. Lacey watched her life flash in her mind’s reel, like a sad movie now coming to the end. She had so many hopes and dreams, all about to evaporate. She had wanted to become a journalist, a damn good one. But now, a story that should have exposed a little all-American town in Connecticut, a simple place she didn’t even want to travel to in the first place, had sealed her fate. To think she had accepted this job in Raven Hills because Mister Pert had offered her a nice chunk of money to make a small dent in her student debt. What good was the money now when she was about to lose her life?
She squeezed her eyes shut, as Brian’s hand found its way into hers. He gave her a little squeeze, and she realized he had mustered whatever strength was left in his body to give her one last encouragement. A tear slid down her cheek, as she readied herself for the demon to attack them.
But moments went by, and although the demon screeched higher, as if something had angered it, Lacey didn’t feel anything assault her. She opened one eye, slowly, afraid of what she would find.
She gasped when she caught sight of Ginny standing at the door of the shack, a beam of light shooting from her and cutting through the demon.
“Ginny!” Lacey cried out.
The girl stood at the threshold of the door, her pale face stern and her big brown eyes directed at the demon. The light emanating from her small frame sent the demon against the wall, where it contorted and twisted in pain.
“Who is that?” Bennett called out.
“Virginia Kyle,” Lacey answered him and she smiled at the little girl. “Come on, we need to get out of here. William, help me with Brian.”
With Ginny still emanating a light beam at the demon, which was now screeching even louder, William went to work.
He picked up a rock sitting nearby and instead of trying to cut loose the chains, he went directly to work on the small iron bolts attached to the wall. He pummeled the rock against them a few times, knowing the demon wouldn’t be restrained for long. On the third try, the rock struck hard and loosened the bolts enough to release the chains from the walls. He smiled in triumph, thankful the bolts had been rusty and easy to break.
“Let’s go,” William cried, and took Brian under one arm. Bennett took the man’s other side, and they ran with Ginny and Lacey outside of the shack.
Ginny led the way, fast and hovering through the woods like a swift fog. With Brian’s weakened state, it was hard to keep up. Lacey kept looking behind them to ensure the demon wouldn’t follow.
“Virginia Kyle?” Bennett asked Lacey, shock sitting in his eyes. “The murdered girl?”
Lacey nodded. “You’re finally seeing her because you’re starting to believe.”
Lacey could tell he still had many questions, but there was no time for that. They needed to get Brian—and themselves—out of the Davidson woods before they got murdered.
With painful steps and hearts stuck in their throats, they managed to reach the edge of the woods, where Bennett’s police car waited. Ginny was nowhere in sight now.
They carefully helped Brian in the backseat, then William joined Bennett up front. Lacey hurried inside the vehicle, sitting next to Brian. She gazed at him, half relieved at finding him alive, and half horrified at his state. In the bright light, away from the shadows of the prison shack, she took in his gaunt appearance, red rimmed eyes, and the several wounds all over his exposed skin. She felt like exploding in tears, imagining the terrible torture he’d suffered at the hands of the demon.
A demon.
She thought about the insanity of it all. It had been hard to process the discovery of Ginny, a real ghost, but now facing a demon seemed more like a nightmare than reality.
She placed a hand on Brian’s. “We will get this monster, Brian. I promise you.”
He turned his head, weak and pale, and managed a small smile before he passed out.
Bennett remained quiet the entire drive back to town. William, usually quick to point out the crushing insanity of the situation at hand, remained wordless as well. Lacey thought about everything she’d just discovered.
The demon inhabited Julie Collins. Brian had explained the demon was trying to escape her body. For decades, this demon had tormented the sleepy town of Raven Hills, and for years they’d let it happen without too much of a fuss.
Like thousands of puzzle pieces slowly fitting together, she trailed back to her initial hunch about the Davidson Forest and how she’d been right. The place harbored a terrible evil.
A lightbulb turned on and cast light on more pieces of the puzzle. The Davidsons had married into the Haas family. Morgan Haas and Jonathan Davidson had one daughter, Jane. The same Jane who had been found missing the same night Ginny had been murdered in her home.
Diddie’s words echoed in Lacey’s mind. The Haas family had been one of the early settlers from Germany, putting Raven Hills on the map when making a fortune in the coal mine industry. She remembered the Davidson name carved into the axe she’d found in Mary Sue’s shed, but why was it there? Did it have a connection to the demon’s German words? Lacey’s pulse quickened, the realization coming to the surface at astounding speed.
“I need to go to the library,” Lacey suddenly announced.
“What, you have some overdue books you must return in the middle of this crisis?” Bennett asked, giving Lacey a bewildered look through the rearview mirror.
William sighed, having too much experience with Lacey’s sudden urges to head over to the library to collect—or steal—information. “Of course she doesn’t.”
“Let’s take Brian to the hospital first. He needs medical help.” Lacey bit her lip, planning her next move. “Then, I need to check out a book.”
William glanced at her from over his shoulder, brows arched high. “Check out?”
She rolled her eyes. “Or take. Whatever.”
“What book are you talking about?” Bennett asked.
“The oldest artifact in Raven Hills that belonged to the early settlers: The Haas book,” Lacey announced.
She thought of the book resting in the glass case, preserved and revered. “I think it’s about to give us all the answers we seek.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Lacey and Brian were left alone in the hospital room, only the sound of the heart monitoring machine and the faint chatter from the nurses’ desk lingering between them.
Brian retained the same pallor and bruises, but with some intravenous fluids and antibiotics, he would get back on his feet in no time. The doctor stressed he needed to rest as much as possible, the shock of the recent events being something he’d recover from slowly. He was lucky, Lacey thought. She wondered if she hadn’t found him that day, if he would have survived at all.
After being prodded and poked, he finally rested in a hospital bed comfortably. As comfortably as anyone could considering the terrible ordeal he had gone through the past few weeks. His eyes grew heavy with each passing second, but he refused to sleep yet. Lacey watched him with concern as she sat near the bed.
“Thank you,” he finally spoke, his blue eyes finding Lacey.
“Don’t mention it,” she countered with a smile. A few moments of awkward silence passed. She knew she needed to let him rest, but there were questions simmering in her mind that needed to come to the surface, especially if she were to find a solution to the demon.
“We got ourselves in a really nasty situation, didn’t we?” Brian joked, forcing a smile. “I hope Pert gives us a bonus or something.”
Lacey rolled her eyes. “Not sure if I even want to be a journalist anymore.”
Brian shifted in the bed, wincing as his bones protested. “What do you mean? Now, that’s not the Lacey Shaw I know.”
She chuckled. “You don’t really know me at all.”
He raised an eyebrow. “We all know you.”
“What does that mean?”
“The entire staff at Crestwater Press knows of the young, eager girl trying to make a name for herself. You have drive and grit, and everyone has noticed.” He gave her a wink.
“Everyone except Pert,” she replied, annoyance laced in her voice.
“I’m sorry he got you into this mess,” Brian apologized, his tone low and full of guilt. “I should’ve told him of my discoveries in Raven Hills over the phone, but I worried Diddie may listen in. Maybe he wouldn’t have sent you here if…”
“I doubt it,” Lacey chimed in. “Pert cares more about stories than the sacrifice one must make to get one.”
“Still, I wish you hadn’t been sent here.”
She smiled. “If I hadn’t, you would have been dead soon.”
He smirked. “You got a point.”
Lacey’s expression turned more serious and she scooted her chair closer to his bed.
“Brian, I know this isn’t the right time, and that you need to recover, but I need you to tell me everything you found out.”
He tried to pull himself up straighter on the bed, his body protesting at the subtle movements.
“I found out about the demon living in Julie a few weeks ago.”
“How?” Lacey asked, her leather journal already in hand, open on a clean page, and pen scribbling.
“I began interviewing everyone in town,” Brian began. “As I’m sure you have too.”
Lacey nodded. “Yes. That’s how I found out about the murders, New Hope Church burned down by a group of delinquents, Joann found as an orphaned child….”
“Libby Kline? The boy working at the Derbys’ shop?” he double checked.
“Check and check,” Lacey confirmed.
Raven Hills- Unraveling Evil Page 15
