Shadows of Eternity: The Children of the Owls (Frost and Flame Book 2)

by Rick Kueber

  SHADOWS OF ETERNITY

  THE CHILDREN OF THE OWLS REVISED EDITION

  FROST AND FLAME TRILOGY BOOK 2

  BY RICK KUEBER STELLIUM BOOKS

  Grant Park, Illinois Shadows of Eternity: The Children of the Owls

  is the second book of the Frost & Flame Trilogy

  of fictional books by Rick Kueber.

  These books are, however, based on true events.

  www.stelliumbooks.com

  Copyright 2015 © Rick Kueber

  All rights reserved

  Manufactured in the United States

  ISBN: 978-0692482452 Second edition

  Dedication

  For my son Daniel, who has inspired me to be the best person I can be, and has taught me the true meaning of unconditional love. I will always be with you and will always watch over you. You are the greatest miracle I have ever experienced. I love you, and I thank you, for being you. Dad

  i

  Special Thanks to: Sanela Leila Kubiak – Cover Photography. P.E.Kubiak – Cover Photo Effects

  Special Thanks to our Cover Girl : Ayane Rayne Kubiak

  ii Shadows of Eternity

  Shadows of Eternity is a novel based on actual events and investigations which includes some fictional elements. Though some of the locations and names have been changed, most remain accurate. The team members of Evansville Vanderburgh Paranormal Investigations, and Psychic/Mediums- Theo Kostaridis and Rick Hayes are portrayed as themselves, and a short bio on each has been included

  Rick Hayes-..........................................................pg. 273

  Jennifer Kirsch-................................................... pg. 275

  Katie Collins-....................................................... pg. 277

  Theo Kostaridis- …...............................................pg. 279

  Rick Kueber-………………..................................pg. 285

  Glossary of terms and equipment.......................pg. 280

  iii

  Special thanks to the following people involved in this project: Barb Heerdink, Christian Russel, Del Heerdink, Sterling young, Fred Sammet, Linda Sammet, Karen Daugherty, Tabitha Linton,

  Amanda Gish-Morris, Sterling Young, Jordan Beck and Robby Denton

  Photography credits: Evansville Historical Society, Barb

  Heerdink, Jenn Kirsh, Katie Collins, T.J. Kueber, Sanela Kubiak

  CHAPTER INDEX

  Foreword: pg. vii

  Prologue: pg. xii

  1) FINDING ME pg. 1

  2) AT FIRST GLANCE pg. 13

  3) SHADOWS OF THE PAST pg. 23

  4) A RUSH OF SOULS pg. 37

  5) OUT OF THE ASHES pg. 47

  6) VOICES OF THE DEAD pg. 57

  7) GATHERING FORCES pg. 69

  8) HISTORY IN THE FOG pg. 81

  9) SPIRITS IN A MIRROR pg. 89

  10) A BURNING QUESTION pg. 103

  11) A CHILL IN THE AIR pg. 121

  12) A TIME TO BELIEVE pg. 133

  13) CIRCLE OF FRIENDS pg. 151

  14) WORLDS APART pg. 161

  15) OUT OF MANY, ONE pg. 171

  16) AN INTRODUCTION TO THE PAST pg. 193

  v

  17) YOU ARE NOT ALONE pg. 207

  18) A TIME TO HEAL pg. 223

  19) SUMMONING pg. 239

  20) A FAREWELL OF SORTS pg. 247

  21) HOLIDAY GATHERINGS pg. 259 Epilogue: pg. 269

  Foreword

  Parts of this foreword are repeated from book one of the series, but other parts contain previously untold information:

  I’ve always been one of those people who never grew out of the “why” phase of childhood. If I didn’t know the answer I would find it in books or the wisdom of those I trusted. Maybe that's why I have been fascinated with science as far back as I can remember, and still am to this day. If I could have been anything growing up, I would have chosen to be a scientific researcher. What could have possibly been more rewarding than answering a question for the first time in history? Life sciences were always my favorite, but now I find myself researching just the opposite, and as puzzling as it may be, it is exponentially more rewarding.

  My life changed when I was in my late twenties while I was at work in a very rural setting. I was outside of a small furniture factory, working up on a ladder when I heard a sound that reminded me of an approaching helicopter. Suddenly it felt as if I had been hit in the ear by a flying baseball. What had actually happened was that I had been stung by a hornet and the venom was dangerously close to my brain. I came down off of the ladder and as I passed my coworker, he asked if

  vii everything was alright. I explained what happened and then went inside to splash some water on my face. On my way out of the factory, everything began to bleach out and become the brightest white I could imagine. I found my way along the wall until I made it back outside, and I heard my coworker saying I looked bad. I began to itch all over, and still could barely see anything.

  He helped me into the work truck and sped off towards the emergency room nearly twenty minutes away. The entire way there, a voice in my head kept telling me to let go and just go to sleep. When we arrived, a team of nurses pushed a gurney next to the open truck door, and I climbed out of the truck and sat up on the gurney while they rushed me into the E.R. doors. I wasn't sure what the rush was, but I went along for the ride. Shortly after entering the E.R. my memory failed me.

  I woke up in the hospital room, and my buddy from work smiled rubbing his forehead. He said 'I thought we lost you' which confused me. According to him, he thought I stopped breathing for a period of time on the way to the hospital. I argued that I wasn't in that bad of shape, or I wouldn't have been able to get on the gurney and ride it into the E.R., to which he responded, 'four nurses picked you up and laid you on that cart.' I repressed that memory for years, but the more I thought about it, the more I began to realize that what I happened was most likely what is labeled an 'out of body experience'.

  Then a few years later at the young age of thirty one, when my first child was born my life was changed again. A cotton topped little boy who reminded me of myself more and more every day. Fourteen months later, there was another life

  viii altering event. It was 2001 and I still didn’t have a cell phone. It wasn’t that unusual to not have one, but they were becoming more commonplace and I was behind the times.

  Arriving back home after spending the afternoon of my birthday at the orchard, I found a distressing message on the answering machine. It was from my sister-in-law. The voice on the recording was shaky and obviously crying. My brother was in the hospital and he had a stroke. I was asked to come as soon as I got this message.

  Part of me was in shock and another part of me was in disbelief. There was something in my gut that made me gather myself together and head to the hospital. Without going into too much detail, let me put it as simple as I can. My brother had a massive stroke on my birthday, and for the next two days, the whole family and many friends lived at the hospital in the intensive care unit until he died on October the first.

  Over the course of a few years, I had nearly died, seen the birth of my son and the deaths of far too many family members and good friends. My faith was shaken and I found myself asking once again, “Why?”

  It was at this same time that the home that we lived in had some unexplained things happening. The house never made me feel uncomfortable, but I must admit there were many times, at night especially, that it just seemed a bit ‘creepy’.

  Nothing phenomenal ever hap
pened there to my knowledge. There would be the odd sounds from the attic or basement that I attributed to an animal getting inside, or old pipes…you know, the normal weird noises an older house makes at night, but occasionally there were things like a set of keys left on the coffee table would come up missing, only to be found on the same coffee table later that day, or a door being closed and a few minutes later being open again when no one had been in that part of the house. One example that is burned into my memory is the sound of a shrill scream as I lay in bed trying to go to sleep. I had always told myself that it came from outside, but if it truly did, the screaming woman must have been right outside my bedroom window.

  It wasn’t until years later after living in two other homes that I saw a show on paranormal activity, and how different electronic devices were used to capture what was labeled as ‘evidence of a haunting’, that I thought back on how I would have loved to have known about this when we lived at the troubled house. Why couldn’t I do just what they were doing on TV? I began going to my public library and studying every book I could find that surrounded the supernatural and paranormal.

  Eventually, I searched for the lead paranormal investigator on the web and soon became friends with him. We chatted online, sent emails back and forth, and even exchanged numbers. During our friendship, he encouraged me to begin investigating the paranormal if I had the desire to do so, and had even given me a few pointers.

  It took a few months, but I purchased a few pieces of equipment that I had seen on the show, a Mel-meter, a digital recorder and a K-II meter. I already owned a couple of digital cameras and a video camera. While I excitedly waited for my new online order to arrive, I began to build a website and used social media to begin letting people know I was a paranormal researcher. My first real investigation came before the website was up, but after my order had arrived.

  x The location was teeming with paranormal activity on several different levels and it is where I met Jennifer Kirsch. The house she lived in was quite haunted, and Jenn had a prior knowledge of the paranormal as well. She became the first member of my team. I could go into details about that investigation as well as several nights when we captured some incredible audio and video evidence at her home, but that is another book in itself. We have been through an assortment of team members who never worked out for one reason or another, but Jenn was the first and remains the lead investigator to this day. A few years later we picked up a young woman named Katie Collins, and she is also still with the team. This unlikely trio became the team that is now commonly known as Evansville Vanderburgh Paranormal Investigations.

  Prologue:

  The team of Evansville Vanderburgh Paranormal had just finished up an incredible case. We had been confronted by a mysterious haunting and through several investigations, and many personal experiences, we were eternally changed and enlightened. My team had impressed me with their historical researching skills as well as their relentless search for the truth.

  What began as an investigation of either a very malevolent spirit or a demonic haunting, ended quite differently. Our investigation spanned several weeks and a couple of states. It was during this investigation that we discovered that the evil presence was actually a negative energy that had attached itself to the spirit of a child.

  This poor child, a young girl by the name of Ashley Sue, was burned as a witch at the young age of nine. The negative energy had twisted her over a very lonely century. My team and those who were touched by her were 'shown' her story in bits and pieces. Those bits often included very real dreams and visions of being burned to death. These memories are something we live with every day and will remember for the rest of our lives. Though she eventually found her eternal peace, this young spirit often visited our team in both private settings and during other investigations. The burning girl befriended us, and Ash, as we called her, became a vital part of more than one of our cases.

  xii

  Chapter 1 Finding Me

  The celebration of Katie's pregnancy announcement, and the gathering to celebrate the success of our last investigation, was slowly winding down. At nearly 11pm Theo, Katie, Jenn, and I were finally saying our good-byes to Dr. Em and her family. Our typical, late night chatter bounced back and forth between us as we headed to our cars. “Buzz”. My phone vibrated again. Pulling it from my jeans pocket, I glanced at the screen to see what this latest notification was. The EVP website had forwarded another email and this time the subject line simply stated, 'please respond'.

  “Now what?” Jenn asked as she unlocked her car door. “Another request from the website… Looks like we may have our choice of investigations coming up.” I smiled. Katie stopped short of her car, almost as if the news caused her heart to sink. “Hey guys, if this is another one like Ash, I'm gonna have to sit this one out.”

  “Of course.” I said trying to hide my disappointment. “Is everything alright?” “Yeah, it's just now that I know I'm pregnant, I don't think it’s a good idea to expose myself to that kind of evil... not to mention the mental trauma we all went through.” Her own disappointment was apparent in the solemn tone of her voice. “I just don't want to do anything to put my baby in any danger.”

  “You're right.” Jenn said regretfully. Theo broke into the conversation. “If it isn't malicious and you want to take part in the upcoming investigations, I can do a blessing and help you with protection on several different levels. I think that's a good idea for any future investigations... probably for everyone.”

  “Yep.” I had to agree, “We should have asked for your help with the last one earlier than we did, and yeah... we should make it a habit of doing some form of protection before we begin any investigations, or even interviewing anyone.”

  After our last investigation, and our experiences with Ashley, and the shadow demon that plagued her, I was rethinking the seriousness of what we did as a team. It wasn't anything to take lightly, and we had all seen and experienced things we would never forget, though I am sure we all desperately wished we could.

  “Hey...” Katie blurted out from the other end of the driveway, standing beside her car. “It's kinda weird standing out here talking about this stuff... I mean... maybe we should meet up someplace more private, but not tonight.”

  “You're right, as usual.” I felt awkward thinking that Dr. Em's neighbors might overhear us, if any of them were still awake. “Let's call it a night. I'll take a look at the emails tomorrow and I'll let you all know if they're anything that needs our attention.” I opened the door to my car and before getting in, I waved to my team mates and friends, “Good night guys. Great job...” I hesitated, because I knew how cheesy it was going to sound, but I continued, “I'm proud of each of you and I'm proud of the team.” the darkness hid the blushing, but I could feel the heat rising in my cheeks.

  “Thanks for making this group a real team.” Katie said as she slid into her truck and started the motor with a growl. “Yeah, and thanks for having me help you with that investigation. It was incredible!” Theo added with his typical smile that made his eyes all but disappear.

  “You're welcome pal, but really... you may not be with us for every part of every investigation, but you are just as much a part of this team as any of us.” And with that, I believe, his eyes disappeared completely as his smile grew even wider.

  “Thanks, that means a lot.” He waved, and climbed into his silver blue Subaru. Then, sticking his head out of the open window as he drove away, shouted over the hum of the motor, “Let me know about the emails too. I'd be glad to help out with anything you need.”

  “Will do.” I shouted back. “See ya later.” After passing out her inevitable hugs to all, Jenn had slipped out with Katie, so once again I was the last to leave. I stood in the driveway contemplating the investigation we had just finished and the horrors of the burning girl, Ashley Sue, which we all had been subjected to. I could not help but wonder if we would ever experience an entity with powers that extreme again. I wondered if I even
ever wanted to… probably not, on both counts.

  I pulled out of Dr. Em's driveway and headed out into the night. It was a short drive from the doc's suburban house to the more rural setting of my apartment a few miles away. Though the radio played loudly on one of my favorite 80's stations, I hardly noticed the music. My head was still filled with countless memories of our adventures at the doc's old family farm, mixed with curiosities about what our next investigation might entail.

  As the surrounding darkness of the countryside whizzed by, giving way to only the road ahead, I daydreamed. This was my typical nature. I loved to fantasize about everything from the possibilities of future investigations to winning the lottery.

  Not a car on the road, I gazed ahead and focused only enough to keep my car from drifting off and into the ditch. In the blurred focus of my vision, I could see the white flashes of the lines on the road, and dots of bugs and moths that flew too close to my headlights, and on occasion, a mailbox, shrub or tree. The sound of my little convertible sports car grew louder, echoing, as I passed by the same cornfield I had passed a thousand times on my way home.

  The flashing green of the wide leaves on the seemingly never ending rows of corn stalks gave me something else to be distracted by. The warm, wet spring we had experienced here in the Ohio Valley had given the crops a great head start. The old saying 'knee high by the fourth of July' was now more like knee high by mid-May. This field had always done well, but this year, it was already nearly four feet high. As I neared the end of the field something caught my eye. Stepping to the edge of the corn row was a small girl, dressed in white. Her long blonde hair fluttered in the breeze as I drove by, and her stare caught my attention... the burning stare of her fiery eyes.

  In the split second that I saw her eyes, and spun my head as I passed, I also jerked the steering wheel. The front tires screeched as the rear end of the car slid across the lane to the left. My car spun wildly out of control and as I tried to correct it, I over corrected. The car bounced off of the road, and my head hit the driver's side window. With a thwap-thwap-thwap of corn stalks against the front and side of the car my foot pressed hard against the brake pedal. In a cloud of dust and flying shards of green stalks, my car came to rest nearly fifteen feet into the field. I tried to gather my senses, but it was no use. I only had one thought on my mind... there was only one possibility that I could believe. AHSLEY! Dear God! It was Ash! I was sure of it.