Dear Tragedy: A Dark Supernatural Thriller (House of Sand Book 2)

by Michael J Sanford

  “Her family’s house,” Jaina said.

  “Uh huh.”

  “What about her?” Jaina asked, dancing the light of the flashlight over DS Grimly’s body.

  Jake ran a hand through his hair. It was greasier than normal. “Well, we can’t leave her here. Soon as she comes to, she’ll be gunning for us again.”

  “And?”

  Jake bent down and retrieved DS Grimly’s pistol. He stuffed it into his waistband, immediately feeling more in control than he had in a while. Next, he grabbed DS Grimly’s ankles. “Just give me a hand and trust me.”

  Jaina set the flashlight on DS Grimly’s chest and grabbed her arms. “You know I trust you. Now what about the other way around?”

  “And…up,” Jake said, and they hoisted DS Grimly off the ground. “I do trust you, Jae. And if I didn’t show that before, I’m sorry. I got to hand it to you, though, this is one helluva gesture.”

  After that, they worked in silence as they stumbled over debris, carrying the unconscious and bleeding body of one of Seaside City’s finest detectives back to her vehicle. It took a bit of looking, but using DS Grimly’s key fob, they managed to locate her oversized SUV not far from where Jake had parked his stolen vehicle.

  With a grunt and a curse, Jake forced DS Grimly into the back seat and climbed into the driver’s seat. Jaina circled around and climbed into the passenger seat. She wiped sweat from her forehead and sighed deeply.

  “She’s pretty heavy for a skinny bitch,” Jaina said.

  “Like moving a dead body,” Jake said.

  Jaina laughed and looked in the back seat. “Nah, I think she’s still alive.”

  A police radio installed in the dashboard crackled and said, “Possible one seventy-one in progress, Seaside City General Hospital. All available unites respond. Again, possible one seventy-one at Seaside City General. All units respond.”

  “Seaside City General…” Jaina said. “That’s where Peter is… What’s a one seventy-one?”

  Jake had already started the car, his instincts shooting electricity through his body. A good cop didn’t believe in coincidences. He peeled out and accelerated. “A code one seventy-one is a hostage situation.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Two hours ago.

  Aza slammed shut the umbilical doors and repositioned the branches that were held to them by the metal handles. For good measure, she kicked some ashy dirt onto the set of steel doors as well. It was unnecessary, but there wasn’t any reason not to do it.

  “Better safe than sorry,” Aza said.

  “This used to be your home, huh?” Dani asked, slowly spinning in place.

  “Home wouldn’t be the right word,” Aza said. “But, yeah, I used to live here.”

  There was little left of the two-story building her parents had bought when Aza had been younger. Just half a chimney and most of the back wall remained. The rest was a mix of crumbled and burned belongings. House and home. Things that used to matter. Aza’s grandparents owned the land and what remained of the house, and Aza had seen to it that her grandfather left it just as it had been. It hadn’t taken long for the weeds and grasses to reclaim what had once been theirs. It was a veritable jungle now. A plot surrounded by towering pines, consumed by ash and weeds. A fitting ending.

  “This way,” Aza said. “I told the cab company to pick us up on the corner.”

  “What about your neighbors?” Dani asked as they stepped onto the dirt road and began walking.

  The nearest house was hardly visible, even from the road, on the other side of trees and untamed vegetation. “No one lives there anymore. After… Well, they moved away when I was eight. Grandfather says they left after my parents died.”

  “I thought you killed your parents,” Dani said.

  Aza turned and smiled at her reluctant companion. The dark thing seemed to walk at Dani’s side—if it could do such a thing. The thing didn’t appear to be influencing Dani any longer, but still Dani walked with Aza. Even without supernatural means, perhaps there could be a future for the pair. Or trio, if you counted the…thing.

  “What’s so funny?” Dani asked.

  Aza shook her head. “Oh, nothing.” She looked again at the thing of nothingness and smiled.

  Dani followed Aza’s gaze. “What is that thing anyway?” she asked.

  Aza’s feet hit each other and she almost fell. “What?”

  Dani grabbed Aza by the arm to steady her. “Like a big shadow or a storm cloud. That…thing.”

  “Is that what it looks like to you?” Aza asked.

  Dani shrugged. “It keeps changing, but I like it.”

  Aza didn’t know what else to say on the matter.

  Dani jostled Aza and frowned. “If I wanted to run away, I would,” she said. “I could.”

  Aza bristled and pulled her arm away. She didn’t like the way Dani was walking, tall and defiant. Like she was the one in charge.

  “And I could kill you if I wanted,” Aza said.

  “I know,” Dani said. After a long pause, she said, “What I’m trying to say is I’m sorry for freaking out back there. I just… I don’t like being trapped. Or feeling trapped. And everything has been so crazy lately.”

  “It’s…okay,” Aza said, trying desperately to read the situation. Dani’s face was blank, giving nothing away. She wasn’t talking as manically as she usually did, either.

  “You’re batshit crazy, but you’re my only friend,” Dani said. “I mean, we are friends, right?”

  “Of course we are,” Aza said, grabbing Dani’s hand, as much to reassure her as to prevent her from running off. “And I’m sorry for being…well, batshit crazy.”

  “It’s the thing, isn’t it?” Dani said, gesturing in the general direction of their amorphous companion.

  “No, I’ve pretty much always been like this. When I was little, I remember making a kid in my class give me his lunch money almost every day, just by staring really hard at him. And it felt…really good. I actually forgot I even did that… Ha! Maybe I’ve been special the whole time. Powerful. Anyway, it was different with my father. More…real, I guess. But, with you, it’s— Oh, our taxi’s already here. Come on, we have lots to do.”

  Hand in hand, Aza and Dani ran to the taxi idling at the corner. The driver made a strange face as they approached, but Aza leaned through the open driver’s side window and looked into the man’s soul, deep enough to render him mute and malleable to her will. With Dani and the thing at her side, it was almost too easy. Though it felt just as good.

  They had a long ride ahead of them, but the time passed quickly as Aza and Dani shared stories of their short pasts; Dani bemoaning the bullies and monsters of her world and Aza bragging about the things she’d made others do. Aza still couldn’t read Dani like she could near everyone else. It was different with Dani. Sure, Aza had conjured some sort of control over the girl on a couple different occasions, but it wasn’t like making the taxi driver shut his mouth and drive across the county for free. There was something deeper to Dani. Some part of her that allowed Aza to seize control from time to time. Perhaps they were more alike than Aza had first thought. Although, there was still their dark guardian angel to consider. Aza couldn’t see the thing in the cab, but she could still feel its presence, deliciously dark and mysterious. It would protect Aza, she knew, and maybe even watch over Dani as well. For just as Dani had confided that she had no one else in life to call a friend, Aza had to admit—inwardly at least—that she was just as alone as well.

  “Here we are,” the driver said, slamming the car into park.

  Night had well and truly fallen during the trip, and the side street Aza had directed the driver to was devoid of any streetlights. There was a distant hum of nighttime traffic on a nearby street, but theirs was abandoned, filled with more rats and refuse than intelligent life.

  Dani and Aza climbed out of the taxi on the same side and simultaneously took a deep breath of night air. It was filled with the scent of e
xhaust and cheap food, but the coolness of it was enriching. Aza felt like she was breathing in the darkness itself.

  “That’ll be a hundred and ninety dollars,” the driver said, fracturing the moment.

  Aza sighed and rapped on the passenger side window until the driver lowered it. Then she leaned in, looked him full in the face and said, “Be a doll and go fuck yourself.”

  Dani suppressed a laugh. The driver nodded astutely. “Yes, ma’am,” he said.

  Aza barely got her head out of the window before the driver pulled back out onto the road and sped off, no doubt with only one hand on the wheel.

  “This way,” Aza said.

  Across the street and down an alley, Aza and Dani arrived at a small alcove behind a towering white building, full of lights and a smell like death. A pair of dumpsters sat next to a small metal door, but the general area was clean swept.

  “Ugh,” Dani said. “What is that smell? Where are we?”

  The metal door popped open and an older woman stepped into the alcove, hand cupped around a lighter and the cigarette hanging from her too-red lips.

  “That’s what dying smells like. The boring kind anyway,” Aza said, eyes trained on the unfortunate woman who had yet to notice she wasn’t alone. “And this is Seaside City General Hospital. I’m surprised you don’t remember the stench.”

  Aza stepped forward, out of the shadows, and headed straight for the nurse leaning against one of the dumpsters. The nurse jerked her head up and squinted at them.

  “Wait. This is where Peter is,” Dani said. “What are we doing here?”

  “Hello?” the nurse asked.

  “You obviously already know,” Aza said. “So I don’t see the need to spell it out.”

  “But…”

  “What are you girls doing back here?” the nurse asked.

  “He’s unfinished business,” Aza said, now standing right in front of the nurse, but still looking at the pouting Dani. “You’ll understand soon. You just have to trust me. That’s what friends do. Besides, it was you who said you wanted to kill someone.”

  “I’m sorry, what?” the nurse asked.

  Aza waved a hand in front of her face to displace the cigarette smoke and turned to directly face Dani. Dani scowled and crossed her arms.

  “You can’t find another before finishing what you started,” Aza said.

  “Didn’t we kill that other nurse though? That was after Peter,” Dani said.

  “Is this some sort of joke?” the nurse asked.

  Aza held up a hand in the nurse’s direction. “Yes, but do you really want Peter to suffer? His life is pretty much over now anyway. Thanks to you.”

  “Isn’t that what you want?” Dani asked. “To torture people?”

  “Exactly.”

  “Hey, I’m talking to you,” the nurse said, grabbing Aza’s shoulder hard enough that Aza cried out.

  “Hey!” Dani shouted. “Leave her alone, you bitch!” Dani shoved the nurse. Hard.

  While most would say that Aza was small for her age, they’d say the opposite of Dani. The nurse hit the ground with a resounding smack.

  “Wow,” Aza said. “She didn’t drop her cigarette. Now that’s commitment.”

  The nurse, dazed, tried to sit up, but Dani and Aza flanked her, both leveraging a foot against a shoulder to keep the woman pinned.

  “You’re welcome,” Dani said.

  The nurse grunted and tried to move, but there was nowhere to go, so she just wiggled in place. “For what?” Aza asked.

  “I just saved your life.”

  “What? From her?” Aza asked, pointing down. “She couldn’t kill me if she tried. Impossible. Don’t be so melodramatic.”

  “Well, whatever. You cried like she hurt you. And I stood up for you. So…”

  Aza straightened up. Dani’s logic was maddening, but that didn’t mean it didn’t make sense. “You’re right,” Aza said. “You did stand up for me. It’s just…”

  Dani eyed Aza severely.

  “…Thank you,” Aza said. Then after a brief pause, added, “friend.”

  “What. What is this?” the nurse said, seemingly regaining the sense Dani had knocked from her.

  Aza sighed and moved her foot from the nurse’s shoulder only to replace it with a knee. “I really had hoped for someone else to come out first. Anyone but another nurse.”

  “You don’t like nurses?” Dani asked.

  Aza watched as the nurse’s eyes flicked back and forth between her juvenile captives. It brought a thin smile to Aza’s lips. The air reeked of soiled linens and commercial cleaners all trying to mask the pungent odor of decay. It sickened Aza just as it would anyone else, but knowing what it meant caused her stomach to flutter. She imagined it was what other children felt on Christmas morning.

  “I like nurses just fine,” Aza said. “But I already killed one nurse. Now, another. They’re going to think I have some sort of sick obsession with nurses. And I don’t.”

  “We,” Dani said.

  “Whatever,” Aza said. Then, cocking her head to side and staring deep into the nurse’s eyes, she said, “But I suppose it just had to be you. Needed your cigarette, I guess. I’m sure you hear all the time about how those things will kill you. But I guarantee you never thought it’d go like this.”

  “Enough is enough,” the nurse said. “This isn’t funny. Let me up. I don’t have any money, so just let me go.”

  “Do you want money, Dani?” Aza asked.

  Dani shook her head. “Nope. But I would like lips like hers. My mom forbid me to wear makeup. Aren’t they pretty, Tragedy?”

  Aza shuddered with pleasure at hearing the name. “It’s just lipstick,” Aza said.

  “It’s in my purse,” the nurse said, nodding toward the nearest dumpster. “You can have it. Now, come on, you’re just kids. You don’t want to do this.”

  Dani dropped her knee into the nurse’s arm, mirroring Aza, and reached out for the small purse. She rifled through it and pulled out a tube of lipstick. “Jackpot!” she shouted, already uncapping and twisting the base.

  “It looks…really nice, dear,” the nurse said.

  Dani finished applying the too-red lipstick and pocketed the tube. She smacked her lips and looked at Aza. “What do you think?”

  “Too red,” Aza said. “Like cartoon blood. Fake.”

  Dani pouted. “You’re just jealous.”

  “I think you look beautiful,” the nurse said.

  “Fuck off,” Aza and Dani said in unison.

  They looked at each other, smiled, and then broke out laughing, swept up in the serendipitous moment. Only when the nurse renewed her physical struggle did Aza snap back to the moment, breaking off her laughter.

  “To fight destiny is to spit in the face of truth,” Aza said.

  “To bark at desire is to deny your existence,” Dani said.

  “What the fuck does that mean?” Aza asked, looking at her.

  Dani pouted her fake, cartoon, too-red lips. “I was just trying to help. Speed things up. It’s cold out here.”

  “Fuck. Fine,” Aza said. She placed her hands around the nurse’s neck. Dani let out a shrill giggle and did the same. Their hands overlapped and held the wide-eyed nurse still. She opened her mouth, likely to plead, but Aza gave a quick and forceful squeeze.

  “No time for chit-chat,” Aza said. “We’re in a bit of a rush. Long story short, my name is Tragedy, and we’re going to kill you.”

  “Tragedy!” Dani shouted, leaning into the woman.

  “Really?” Aza asked.

  “Shit,” Dani said. “Lighten up. I’m trying. I thought that’s what you’d want.”

  “It…It is. Fine, whatever.”

  The nurse made the beginning noise of what could have been a word, but it morphed quickly into a gurgle, and then into silence.

  After several minutes, Aza and Dani stood up, leaving behind a lifeless corpse.

  Aza flexed her good hand. Strangling someone was much t
oo difficult for her liking, but it seemed to thrill Dani. It was also less conspicuous than arson, though not nearly as exhilarating, but Aza found herself caring how Dani felt. And Dani wanted to strangle the nurse. Aza knew that because they were joined. Whether it was through the dark presence or something less spectacular, she couldn’t be sure, but it was there all the same. And it mattered.

  Dani stretched out her arms and spun in a circle. When she stopped, she was grinning.

  “I’m like you now,” Dani said.

  Aza looked Dani up and down as if evaluating her. Truly, she was looking for some sign of the dark thing. Their angel of death. For a moment, Aza thought she caught a glimpse of it in Dani’s eyes, but then it was gone and all that was left was an oversized twelve-year-old girl with obnoxiously applied, too-red lipstick.

  “You know what?” Aza asked. “You do look pretty.”

  “Really?” Dani asked, beaming.

  “Sure. Now let us go and embrace my—our destiny.”

  Aza stooped, picked up the nurse’s ID badge, and used it to unlock the door. She held the door open and gestured for Dani to enter.

  “Into the bowels of Hell with you,” Aza said. “And ever deeper will we go.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Monday 12:00 a.m.

  Even as weary as Jake was, and even though he’d almost fallen asleep numerous times on the long drive back to Seaside City, hearing and seeing the sirens squeezed a last bit of adrenaline into his body. He glanced at the dashboard clock as he turned the vehicle onto a side street. It shouldn’t have been so late.

  “Jesus Christ,” he said as he slowed DS Grimly’s SUV down to a crawl and parked along the curb, near a broken bus bench.

  “All that smoke…” Jaina said, having just jolted awake.

  DS Grimly moaned and stirred in the back seat. She’d been out the entire ride, to Jake’s surprise. He had toyed with the idea of dumping her out on the way, but that would have required stopping long enough to do so.

  “It looks like only part of the hospital is on fire,” Jake said.

  “Wha…” DS Grimly said. Jake could see her slowly sit up in the back seat through the rearview mirror.