by Dani Lamia
“Dude!” she called, watching as Holgrave took the right, fishtailing the back end of the Mercedes around it. The tires kicked fans of dirt into the air as they went.
“Sorray!”
Holgrave reached the main road and braked hard. Quickly looking right and left, he urged the car to the right, toward the main highway out of town. The tires, wet with dirt, spun the filth away until they screeched hotly against pavement. Holgrave let off the accelerator once it reached highway speed.
“Are you all right?” he asked once he found the interstate on-ramp.
“Yeah,” she answered between breaths.
The pair remained silent for a long time, just driving west at speeds beyond the limit, but not so much as to gather attention from the police.
The hours passed with little conversation. Phoebe drifted to an uneven and light sleep. When she awoke, the sun was in her eyes. It was after five in the evening.
“Where are we?” she asked and rubbed her eyes.
“Almost into Chicago,” he said.
A few more moments passed before she asked, “What do we do now?” It was something that had been on her mind since they hurried out of White Lake. She was a most unexpected passenger, and she knew not whether Holgrave regarded her as a burden or as a welcomed guest in his life. She swallowed as she waited upon his answer.
“I don’t know,” he said glumly, looking over at her. “Pizza?”
Phoebe’s worry fell away in an instant, and she burst out laughing. Holgrave joined in as he angled the Mercedes to the exit ramp leading downtown.
***
The raven perched on the porch of 666 Gable Way, biding its time. Perhaps contemplating his next meal. With the sun having marked the passing of most of the day, it leaped from the porch rail and settled upon the dirt road. It pecked at a worm and walked eastward, casually, lazily, until its gait lengthened into a stride.
Ahead, the carriage house lay, and its doors, unlatched, were swung open at the behest of a stiff breeze. Their hinges creaked and popped, but the doors did spread.
The form of the raven fell away in a dark cloud and stretched vertically, carried forward by legs that lengthened. Its steps became heavy footfalls as it approached the maroon Coupe De Ville.
The old Cadillac’s engine turned over, clumsily at first, but with a feathering of the accelerator, its idle smoothed into a gentle rumble.
The raven was no more, and a hand settled upon the old car’s door handle. Panas slid behind the wheel and sat a moment before bringing his legs in and pulling the door shut. He concentrated on his path, the road to take him away from the place he hoped one day to return to.
The Coupe De Ville rolled out of the carriage house and along Gable Way. Without pausing, the car turned right onto the blacktopped road heading out of town.
***
Dani Lamia Collection
(Elevated Horror and Supernatural Thrillers)
ISBN: 978-1-933769-70-7
In a world where dreams and reality overlap, when a dream world stalker begins killing her tormentors, a bullied high schooler must stop The Raven’s deadly attacks on her behalf.
ISBN: 978-1-933769-68-4
When an idealistic priest learns, in the confessional, that a psychopath is murdering locals, he must find a way to stop her, without giving up everything he believes in.
ISBN: 978-1-933769-64-6
When the spirit of a vampire is unleashed during a séance, a resident finds herself growing more youthful even as her friends rapidly age. She must find a way to stop the process before everyone she loves is dead.
ISBN: 978-1-933769-60-8
When a struggling film director chooses a haunted bed and breakfast for the location of his next film, the darkness within him turns the otherwise peaceful spirits into a nightmarish reckoning for him and his crew.
ISBN: 978-1-64630-004-4
In a world of wealth and power, siblings feuding over the estate of their recently deceased father are sent on a scavenger hunt with the family fortune as the prize. But things turn deadly as long-buried secrets are revealed and it becomes clear that only the winner will survive.
