Night Terrors

by Mark Lukens

  She ran back to the fire that was consuming one wall and beginning to spread to another. The smoke was thick, but a lot of the smoke was pouring out of the sliding glass door which was still wide open. Katie sprayed the extinguisher all over the wall, dousing a lot of the flames, but not all of them.

  Woods helped the cop up to a sitting position. He was coming back around and Woods handed him his gun back. Tara helped Woods get the officer to his feet.

  They heard the sirens in the distance getting closer and closer.

  10.

  The fire fighters had the fire out in minutes and the cops and paramedics had Jeremy’s body strapped down and handcuffed to a gurney while several police officers watched with their guns ready. But it didn’t look like Jeremy was going to fight back anymore.

  Another crew of paramedics worked on Mike who was still in the garage. He had come back to consciousness, but he needed some medical attention and they loaded him onto a stretcher bound for a different ambulance.

  Woods, Tara, and Aunt Katie huddled together, breathing in the fresh air, letting the charred smell of the smoke leave their lungs with each breath.

  Lorie was at Mike’s side as they wheeled him into the ambulance. But she had to let his hand go. She promised him that she would meet him at the hospital. Then she hurried over to Tara as the back doors of the ambulance closed and the vehicle took off across the grass towards the dirt driveway that ran through the woods.

  “I don’t know what to say,” Lorie said as she stared at Tara. “Thank you so much.”

  Tara just nodded and she couldn’t help crying. “It’s my fault he was here in the first place,” she said through choked sobs.

  Lorie held on to her. “It’s not your fault. Don’t make excuses for that sick monster.”

  Tara’s vision was blurry with tears as she held on to Lorie. She watched as the paramedics wheeled Jeremy to the other ambulance.

  Jeremy stared right at Tara. He smiled – and then he winked at her. One white eye winking in his charred face. The Shadow Man. The Monster from her nightmares all these years.

  It was finally over.

  Tara felt her skin crawl and she forced herself to look away from him.

  Lorie let Tara go. She was crying, too. She wiped at her eyes.

  A plain squad car roared down the dirt driveway passing the ambulances as they left. The car skidded to a stop on the grass and Detective Perry jumped out and ran towards Lorie.

  “Uncle Ronald! How did you know?”

  He grabbed Lorie and bear-hugged her. “I’m sorry I doubted Tara,” he whispered into her ear. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”

  Lorie broke down into sobs and let her uncle hold her.

  After a moment, they let go of each other and walked over to Woods, Tara, and Aunt Katie.

  “Can you give me a ride to the hospital?” Lorie asked her uncle.

  Perry nodded, but then he turned his ice blue eyes on Woods. “You know I’m going to have to arrest you for impersonating an FBI agent.”

  Woods nodded – he understood.

  “Isn’t there some other way?” Lorie begged her uncle.

  “I’ll do my best to vouch for him,” Perry said as he stared at Woods. “But the arrest can wait until tomorrow. Go on and give your statements to the sheriff, and I hope to see you tomorrow afternoon at the station.”

  Woods nodded. “Thank you. I’ll be there.”

  Perry and Lorie walked back to his car, Perry with his arm around his niece.

  Tara watched them walk away, and then she looked at Woods. “Will you stay the night with us?”

  Woods smiled at Aunt Katie, and then at Tara. “Of course.”

  EPILOGUE

  1.

  Woods spent the night with Tara and her aunt in Tara’s apartment. He and Tara slept in the same bed and talked until three o’clock in the morning. Woods wanted to try a relationship and Tara was willing as long as Woods could cope with her night terrors. He pulled her close to him and kissed her. He promised he could deal with anything just to be with her.

  As promised, Woods turned himself over to Detective Perry the next day. Tara hugged him before Perry snapped a pair of handcuffs on him and led him away.

  Woods did three months in the county jail while his court case pended. Tara visited him as much as she was allowed. When he went to court, he got time served from Judge Whalen because of Detective Perry’s influence.

  Aunt Katie went back to Boston, but she only stayed long enough to pack. She moved back down to Tampa to be closer to Tara, and she rented an apartment not too far away from Tara’s home. Tara spent a lot of time with her aunt, and less and less time with Lorie. Lorie and Mike grew closer together, but Lorie always kept in touch at least twice a week.

  Jeremy had been indicted on several murder charges, but his case hadn’t even started yet. He’d been in the prison infirmary the whole time on suicide watch. His burns were healing slowly, but he would be scarred for life.

  The case was already a media circus as more and more details of satanic rituals leaked out to the press. And it was only going to get worse once it went to court. Tara and Woods knew they had a lot of time on the stand and meetings with lawyers in their future. Tara wished she could put the whole thing behind her and move on with her life, but she wanted to do everything she could to make sure that Jeremy was either executed for his crimes, or at least spent the rest of his life behind walls where he couldn’t hurt anyone anymore.

  2.

  As soon as Woods was released from jail, he moved in with Tara. He already had a job lined up and he promised he would to take care of her.

  “We’ll take care of each other,” Tara told him.

  A week after Woods moved in, he and Tara lay in bed watching the news, cuddled up close to each other, and of course the news reporters were talking about the case. The bedroom was dark; the only light came from the TV. They had shared a bottle of wine earlier with a dinner that Tara had prepared. They were full, slightly buzzed, and relaxed. Comfortable.

  Tara felt safe beside Woods, safer than she ever had in her whole life. She’d had a few nightmares over the last few months, but nothing too bad. The dark presence that had suffocated her for much of her life was still there sometimes, Jeremy could still get to her that way, even from jail, but she no longer feared him finding her.

  She felt good.

  She felt safe.

  She closed her eyes and went to sleep.

  3.

  Hours later Tara woke up in her bathtub with a drawing tablet on her lap and a pencil clenched in one hand. Woods shook her awake.

  “Are you okay?” he asked.

  Tara nodded and glanced down at the drawing on the tablet. She handed the tablet to Woods.

  He looked at the sketch of a pretty woman.

  “I saw that woman in my dreams,” Tara whispered. “She’s going to be murdered soon. We have to help her.”

  Woods helped Tara out of the bathtub and held her close to him for a few moments until she stopped shaking.

  Tara stared into the darkness of the hallway over Woods’ shoulder.

  It was happening again, she thought, but at least this time she could do something to help.

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  This is a work of fiction and many locales in this story are completely made-up. For those of you who might be familiar with the areas of Hillsborough and Pasco Counties in Florida, you might have noticed that I took a few minor geographical liberties while writing this story.

  Thank you so much for purchasing my book, and I hope you enjoyed it. I would really appreciate any feedback you might have. Please feel free to leave a review. I read all reviews and they are more helpful than you might realize.

  I have more novels that I’m writing at this moment and they should be available very soon. They include: The Superhuman Gene and Devil’s Island and a collection of four novellas. I hope you’ll keep an eye out for these.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

&n
bsp; Mark Lukens is an author and screenwriter. He grew up in Daytona Beach, Florida, but after many travels and adventures, he settled back down in Florida, near Tampa Bay, with his wonderful and supportive wife, his son, and a stray cat they adopted. He is the author of: Ancient Enemy, Descendants of Magic, The Summoning, Ghost Town, and A Dark Collection: 12 Scary Stories.

  Please feel free to comment or ask any questions at MarkLukensBooks@yahoo.com and he can be found on Facebook at MarkLukensBooks, and on Twitter @MarkLukensBooks.

  Please feel free to leave a review – I would love to hear from you!