The Whitney Powers Paranormal Adventure 3 Book Bundle

by Jason Paul Rice

  Bo made it to about five feet from the door when two wooden chairs flew end over end and exploded against the door. Bo tried to watch the witch ghosts over his left shoulder and get to the door. He turned sideways and slithered toward the exit.

  The shiny glass knob started to turn and the door opened inward. Three full-figured women with green skin entered the courtroom. The ghosts seemed to be incensed as they trashed more chairs and furniture.

  Whitney recognized Helga, Pelga and Melga, the witches from back home.

  Pelga said, “I told you these bitches wouldn’t like the green paint.”

  “What are you doing here?” Whitney asked.

  Melga spoke over the hissing moans of the three ghosts and the whirling wind. “We came to help. Remember when we promised we would help in the future if we could. Well, here we are. These three bitches over there are just the beginning of a long parade.”

  Bo said, “You’ve got to be kidding.”

  Helga spoke in calming tones. “Not to worry, my human friends. We will take these spirits away from you. The three of us will draw them outside so they leave you two alone.”

  Pelga went back to the door and opened it. She looked back and yelled, “Hey Whitney, you got any smokes this time?”

  Whitney shook her head. She would have smiled except for the extreme circumstance. Her human witch friends exited through the front door and left it open. The three ghosts conspired in the strange language in a huddle before floating out the open door.

  Whitney ran over and shut the door. She walked back to the middle of the room and collapsed next the defendant’s desk. Air rushed in and out of her heaving lungs as she breathed through her nose. Her mouth was dry and she cracked open a can of Coca Cola.

  She hoped that sound wouldn’t arouse any more ghosts. Bo came over and lay down next to her. The caffeine didn’t do much for her mental and physical exhaustion. The past week had taken Whitney beyond the limit. She just wanted to cry but instead she fell asleep.

  A sharp ringing sound woke her up and she slid over to the green duffle bag to get the phone. She rubbed her eyes to make the answer button come into focus, pressed it, and put it up to her face.

  “Hello.”

  The voice said, “You cheated. I should kill him right now, you know.”

  “For what?” an exacerbated Whitney asked.

  The man sounded high-strung. “You brought other people into the house. I never said you could bring other people into Hanging House. You cheated and now I’m going to kill your worthless husband.”

  “You never said that nobody could come into the house. You sound like a little baby right now, you know that.” Whitney had heard enough from this guy.

  The kidnapper retorted, “Baby? Baby? I’ll show you how a baby reacts when I finally let you see your husband. Only he’ll be in a body bag. Call me a baby. At least I am a man of my word. Your friends are waiting for you outside by the apple tree.”

  Whitney jumped up and woke Bo up as she started to gather up all the stuff they had brought with them. She ran to the front door and twisted the knob. The harsh sunlight seeped in as the door opened and Whitney ran outside with hope in her heart.

  She turned left and stared at an apple tree with nobody anywhere around it. Her hope plummeted and she heard a faint chuckling coming from the phone that she still clutched in her hand.

  “You sick bastard,” Whitney said into the mouthpiece of the phone.

  The man said, “You are close. Go back and regroup with your friends and wait for the final call.”

  He hung up.

  Final call? Does that mean that this nonsense is finally going to come to a stop?

  Bo asked, “What’s going on?”

  “That guy’s being a stupid joker again. Playing with my emotions. Let’s go back to the motel.”

  They walked back to the car and Whitney slipped on a patch of mud. She strained her knee and tried to slowly bend it back and forth to work out the pain.

  “Are you alright?” Bo asked.

  She stretched her knee a few more times and said, “Yeah, let’s go. This place gives me the wilies.”

  They hustled back to the car and raced out of Dankstone. The two best friends rode to the motel in silence and got out of the car. Whitney walked up to the room and flung open the door to catch a nice visual of Darominius pleasuring himself.

  She turned away and screamed, “Come on, dude. What has gotten into you?”

  The dragon shifter hurriedly put his robe on and tried to conceal his excitement.

  He lowered his head. “Once you awaken something that has been asleep for a long time, that entity wants to live it up, so to speak.”

  “I can see. You’re dunking that tadpole anywhere you can.”

  Bo objected, “Hey.”

  Whitney put her hands up. “No offense.”

  “Alright, whatever,” Bo said and collapsed onto the bed.

  “Hey Darominius, do you know the witches Helga, Melga and Pelga?”

  The shifter smiled. “I do know them, yes.”

  “You didn’t bang them too did you?”

  He chuckled. “No, nothing like that. We are mutual friends with our spirit friends, the friendlier spirit friends, that is. They are three great women, I can tell you.”

  “Yeah, they helped us out bigtime,” she said referring to herself and Bo, who was snoring on the bed.

  Darominius said, “That’s great. Perhaps all this will be over soon.”

  “How are you feeling? Is your body okay after being tossed into that tree trunk a couple of times?”

  Darominius said, “Don’t worry about me, young lady. I am strong like bull once again.”

  Whitney laughed. It was the first genuine laugh she had let out since Trent had been kidnapped. It felt good to finally have a small release.

  She asked, “So when we went back in time, was that your family?”

  He sat up straight in the chair and his eyes were glossy. “Some of them, yes. I’d rather not bring up anything depressing. Let’s talk about your family. They are a lovely bunch.”

  “They are and I feel awful for lying to them even though it hasn’t been that long. I keep thinking I’ve been lying to them for over a month until I realize that we have only been here for about a week. I can’t keep just texting back that I can’t talk now. They still think that I am on the honeymoon.”

  Darominius shook his head. “Sorry. I was trying to give you something good to think about.”

  “No, it’s alright. So, what are you going to do if we get Tara back and you have to choose between the two?” Whitney asked, pointing to Bo.

  He had a smirk on his face. “Why should I have to choose? They both seemed to have a good time with me.”

  “Not sure that’s going to work out for you, buddy. Lots of guys try that these days and I don’t think it usually ends very well. If I were you, I would probably try to figure out if you like one of them.”

  He said, “I’m not sure it really matters much at all. I am always going to need to help other people so I can’t have a standard relationship anyway.”

  Whitney climbed up on the bed with Bo and continued her conversation with Darominius until her eyes became too heavy to hold open.

  The ringing phone awakened her from a refreshing slumber.

  Before she could say anything, the man said, “It’s show time.”

  11

  “It’s time for your final adventure,” said the creepy voice on the phone.

  “Oh great, what’ll it be this time?”

  The man said, “Sarcasm, huh. This will be the easiest one yet. You get to go to Dreamland.”

  “What does that even mean?”

  The kidnapper said, “You will find out soon enough. My great heist is just around the corner and you might die trying to save your stupid friends. If not, you will be in another world when I strike. What a happy day. This time it will be you and you alone. You can’t bring any of your friends along
. It’s all on you whether they will live or die. I know what I would bet on.”

  He hung up and conflicting emotions ran through Whitney’s body. She was excited to finally have a chance to see and save her friends but scared about what exactly that would entail. Bo and Darominius had woken up as Whitney was talking on the phone and the two groggy men started to get dressed.

  “What’s the word, hummingbird?” Bo asked and yawned.

  “So he says this is the final mission. I need to go alone to see if I can save Trent and Tara.”

  Bo asked, “What is it this time?”

  “I still don’t really know. Something about a Dreamland but I don’t know what that even means.”

  Darominius said, “I wish we could have been more help along this ride, but you have shown great strength and willpower during this terrible time.”

  Whitney felt like she was going to be sick again and tried to concentrate on making the belly pains go away. She hadn’t really been eating much due to the morbid setting.

  “Apparently this is my journey. I appreciate everything you guys have done and I still feel awful about Tara.”

  Bo said, “Stop beating yourself up about that. Darominius has told me that this will only make you stronger for your future missions.”

  “What future missions? There is no future without Trent.” Tears streamed down Whitney’s dry cheeks and neck and collected on her collarbone.

  The two men moved in and sandwiched Whitney with a hug. She felt at peace for a moment with her two friends’ show of love.

  Darominius said, “You know, we could take this to the bed if you want.”

  Whitney wriggled her way out of the two men’s grip. “Eeewww. You really are an animal.”

  She glanced at Darominius, who had a wide grin on his face. He said, “Just kidding, damn. I’m just trying to make you smile and forget about this nonsense for a minute. Jokes aren’t my strong suit.”

  Whitney smiled and her jaw felt weird. “That actually was pretty funny. And I don’t want you two talking about me when I’m not around. Have sex with each other, that’s fine, just keep my name out of your mouths.”

  Bo said, “Oh please, what else are we supposed to talk about when you are gone for extended periods of time. D doesn’t have a phone that he can play on and the service around here sucks anyway.”

  “Did you just call him D?”

  Bo answered, “Yep. I cut out four syllables and made it sound a lot more badass and time appropriate. Don’t get me wrong, if we were in ancient Greece or Rome, Darominius makes perfect sense but not in the twenty-first century.”

  “How do you feel about this?” Whitney asked Darominius.

  The shifter shrugged his shoulders. “Doesn’t matter to me, really. I’ve recently been called buddy and it didn’t bother me.”

  She smiled. “Well then, buddy. I guess it would save some time when trying to get your attention. D it is then.”

  Darominius said, “You can still use my real name every occasionally, so that I don’t forget where I’ve come from. That’s very important to me.”

  “Of course. I wouldn’t mind going back and visiting that world with you again. Have you ever thought about going back and altering what happened?”

  Darominius paused for a few moments. “Sure I have. But what drastic effects would that carry? This world as we know it could be gone. It could be a great heap of ashes. A scorched earth unable to sustain life. Keeping a line of living dragons would be great unless they unleashed a great fury and eliminated all the people on earth.”

  “Couldn’t you just go back and change the past again?”

  Bo said, “Alright I think I know, but what are you guys talking about? Is this about Whitney going with you to get her special power?” He directed the last question at Darominius.

  The shifter replied, “Yes. She got to see some of my family and friends during the time that we visited. To answer your question Whitney, maybe. Most of the things I do are backed in science and mathematics. These matters can be proven in a very exact way and replicated without worry of varied results. However, there are some things like time travel that are propelled by unexplainable properties that always work and aren’t steeped in science.”

  Bo asked, “So what does that mean?”

  Darominius said, “I was just about to get to that. What that means is we don’t know if this process can be replicated forever. There might be one time when we try to do time travel and it just doesn’t work. It could be the same process that has worked one thousand times before and it just magically stops.”

  “So how many things do you do that could stop happening at any time?”

  Darominius rolled his head from side to side, stretching out his long neck, which cracked several times, causing Whitney to clench her teeth at the sound.

  The shifter said, “There are a few. Most is backed in strong facts and mathematics.”

  The phone rang and Whitney opened the front pocket on her camouflaged backpack. She grabbed the black object and pressed the answer button.

  “Hello.”

  The kidnapper said, “You sound happy. Well, happier. I don’t like it. Are you ready?”

  “I guess. What do I need to do?”

  The man said, “You just need to go to school now. You don’t need any supplies, there are plenty in Dreamland. Get in your car and drive into Dankstone and park in the same exact spot that you did last time. Wait for me to call.”

  She hung up the phone and set it down on the desk. She took a deep breath but it couldn’t calm her nervous energy.

  “That was the call.” Whitney started to gather her purse and wondered what she should take with her.

  Bo said, “Good luck. I wish I could go with you.”

  “No you don’t and I don’t blame you for it.”

  Bo breathed a sigh of relief. “You’re totally right. I never want to go back into that place again. That was some spooky ass shit there.”

  She grabbed the phone and her keys from the desk and walked to the door. “Alright, hopefully I will be back very soon. Wish me luck.”

  Darominius said, “Good luck, Whitney Powers, you will be just fine.”

  Bo shrugged his shoulders. “Give em hell? Does that get you fired up?”

  “Sure, thanks. And don’t worry, I’ll knock on the door when I come back.”

  Bo smiled and said, “Thanks. That might be in your best interest.”

  Whitney opened the door and the heat hit her before she could step outside. She went to the car and drove to the same spot in Dankstone.

  The heaviness of the air surrounded Whitney again and put the uncomfortable pressure on her. Her breathing became labored and the irregular heartbeats started up like they had every time she had entered Dankstone.

  She wiped a sheen of sweat from her left forearm and wondered if she should have worn long sleeves for protection. She had worn her hoodie for most of the previous tasks, despite the summer heat. She kept looking at the phone to see if she had missed the kidnapper’s call, but nothing came up on the screen.

  She paced back and forth along the dirt road covered with different sized rocks. The phone rang and Whitney pried it from the pocket of her tight jeans.

  “Hello.”

  The voice said, “Turn right and walk.”

  Whitney faced the woods and marched ahead. The kidnapper led her with directions for about an hour. She kept moving downhill toward the Dankstone valley. When she reached the edge of the forest, she saw that an old, abandoned town sat in the valley.

  There were a few small building and rows of houses on either side of a concrete road. The image looked like a time capsule from the sixties or seventies. She walked past the tree line and into a green field of grass with blades up to her calves.

  She kept moving toward the tiny town and the kidnapper directed her toward a red brick building that appeared to have been abandoned before it was finished. One side of the school was completely open to the elemen
ts without an outer wall.

  Weather had ravaged the once-vibrant bricks into a pale red shade. The kidnapper’s directions led her up to the front door, and he hung up the phone.

  The same voice came from an intercom next to the door.

  “So glad to see that you have made it. Now, the adventure really begins. Come inside and go up to the third floor and listen for more directions. I would offer the elevator, but it seems to be broken right now.”

  She made it to the third floor and waited.

  The voice came over the intercom again. “Turn left and walk down the hallway.”

  Whitney passed unfinished schoolrooms on her way. She could hear a faint beeping that grew louder as she kept walking. She didn’t need the kidnapper to tell her which room to enter as she followed the sound and dipped into an open door on her right.

  She started crying instantly. She barely looked at the young man lying in the hospital bed with blinking and beeping machines connected to him. She barely looked at her friend, Tara, whose pale blue, lifeless body would have convinced most people that she was dead.

  She focused on the man she loved. Her husband’s skin had gone whiter than an albino with hints of green and blue. His eyes were sunken back into his head, bloodshot and glazed with a dark shade of yellow. He looked dead.

  Tara and Trent sat on chairs next to each other and both their right hands were holding the forearm of the young man in the coma. She couldn’t stop the tears and went over to touch her husband. As she neared him, the voice came out of nowhere.

  “Don’t touch. If you do, you might kill him. You see, they are already in the game.”

  “The game?” Whitney asked.

  The voice said, “Yes, and what a fun game it is. Allow me to explain the rules. You are going to need to enter the Dreamland like your friends to have a chance to save them. All you need to do is put your hand around Robbie’s other forearm like your friends have done and you will be transported to Dreamland. If you get lost from the telepad when you enter this world, you may never come back.”

  The voice crackled for a few moments and then became clear again. “It looks like your friends are having a gay old time in there. They can come out at any time, but it seems like they choose to stay in there. If you pull either of those bodies away from Robbie, they will die. Probably best if you don’t touch them at all. I am off to mastermind the greatest heist ever attempted. Looks like you have a pretty big decision to make. I’ll leave you alone.”