She Watches
Page 1
SHE
Watches
David Kummer
Copyright © 2017 David Kummer
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 1973726475
ISBN-13: 978-1973726470
DEDICATION
I DEDICATE THIS BOOK TO MY FAMILY, ESPECIALLY MY MOM AND DAD. ALSO, TO MY GIRLFRIEND, MY FRIENDS, AND ALL OF YOU, MY FAITHFUL READERS. YOU’VE STUCK AROUND THIS FAR. YOU WON’T BE DISSAPOINTED.
CONTENTS
Chapter 1 Hysteria
Chapter 2 Mania
Chapter 3 Home
Chapter 4 Outage
Chapter 5 Unseen
Chapter 6 Shaded
Chapter 7 Invitation
Chapter 8 First
Chapter 9 Second
Chapter 10 Paranoia
Chapter 11 Steven
Chapter 12 Books
Chapter 13 Diamond
Chapter 14 Maplewood
Chapter 15 Chapter
Chapter 16 Riches
Chapter 17 Dark
Chapter 18 Pattern
Chapter 19 Clues
Chapter 20 Stranger
Chapter 21 Alexander
Chapter 22 Explain
Chapter 23 Final
Chapter 24 Again
Chapter 25 Countdown
Chapter 26 Soon
Chapter 27 Settlers
Chapter 28 Home
Chapter 29 Hardy
Chapter 30 Goodbye
Epilogue
A Letter From The Author
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
If not for the amazing teachers I was blessed to have from an early age, you wouldn’t be reading this book right now, or any other book from me. That’s because without teachers that taught me a love for writing and a passion for reading, there would be no author David Kummer. There would be no She, no My Abigail, no nothing.
There are countless teachers I could name off, but the ones that most stick out to me are Ms. Dixon, Ms. Walker, and Ms. Muldoon. Those were my fourth, fifth, and high school teachers, respectively. Ms. Muldoon taught me for five years, and those were some of my best writing years. Even now, just barely removed from her classes, I can still think back on the many lessons, and put to use all of the different aspects she taught us. If you haven’t taken the time to thank a good teacher, make sure you do. The more we recognize them, the more of them we will get.
Besides teachers, I would like to thank my dad, who always helps edit and format these chunks of paper. He does more than he realizes, and helps with more than he knows. It was because of him that I got into publishing, 2 years ago at the time of writing, and he played a huge part in getting me started. My mother also deserves all the praise in the world, for raising us 9, hectic children, and for putting up with all of my book talk. I’m certain it was annoying, and I’m certain nobody less than Superwoman could have put up with it. I love you, Mom. Sorry I keep killing all the mothers *inside joke, guys*
I also want to thank some of my friends from school, and even more on Facebook, who helped promote and would always listen. When I get in author-mode, it can be one of the more irritating things to deal with. So a special thank-you to my girlfriend, for somehow finding a way to deal with me. Thank you everybody. You don’t know how much it means.
Finally, my thanks and gratitude goes to anybody who inspired and motivates me. If you ever picked up a copy, bought one on Amazon, or even just gave me some encouragement on one of my down days, thank you so much. Being an author isn’t easy, but it’s a heck of a lot easier when you have incredible fans. And you all are fan-tastic. Get it? Alright, anyways.
I hope you enjoy this, the final book about Daniel, about She, and about four kids from Hardy. We’re all a bit like them. We crave adventure, we love our families, and we’d do anything to protect the ones we love. If you have a dream, follow it. You never know where it could lead.
Summary
of She: A Horror Novel
Or buy it here on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/She-Horror-Novel-Watches-Book-ebook/dp/B017QRMNE0
You can go back and read the first book in the series at the link above, available on Amazon. Or, you can read the basics of that first book on the next page, and dive right into the second. It’s up to you!
The entire summary of She: A Horror Novel is below, so spoilers. All of them. This is your last chance to turn back. It only gets darker from here.
Michael is a normal teenage boy who finds himself being followed and watched by a menacing old lady. She seems to have a special interest for his younger sister, Lily, and her best friend, Grace.
Michael’s three friends are also frightened by the sudden appearance of the figure. Brandon, Grace’s older brother, sees her outside the window constantly, and tells the others. Christian and Crystal, twins, are forced to confront the darkness along with their two friends.
After a sleepover where all four of them see her at the time outside, there is a week of calmness. Nothing happens for nearly ten days, but then disaster strikes. Lily and Grace are taken. And while most of the police won’t help them, a certain Detective Daniel Smith gives in to the kid’s pestering and does some research.
What he finds is so disturbing and breathtaking, it changes the rest of his life. There’s a pattern of every 20 years when this same woman comes back to take children. Since the colonization of their small river town, it’s always been the same. And though there is a legend where it all supposedly starter, Detective Smith has his doubts… and fears.
It only gets worse from there. Brandon is taken, and when the cornfield outside of town burns to the ground they find 3 charred crosses. Michael is distraught. The two people he loved most are dead, and another little girl. But then he receives a note.
It’s taunting, and deceptive. The lady baits him and the other two friends out to a stone bridge in the middle of the forest, far away from the buildings and streetlights of their hometown. Against his better judgement, caught up by emotion, he decides to go. Christian and Crystal tag along.
The journey through the woods is terrible and tortuous. Injuries abound, and they finally fight their way to the bridge. On the underbelly, attached to the walls by ropes, are Brandon, Grace, and Lily. Amidst a torrential downpour that threatens to sweep them away in the riverbed, Michael frees all three of them. But then She arrives.
Taking Christian by the throat, she taunts Michael. It’s only the three boys and her under the bridge now. All the others are safely away. As he lunges back to save his friend, She slices Christian’s throat, and walks out from under the bridge as it starts to crumble, boulder-sized rocks falling down.
Michael ensures that Brandon gets out safely, but at a price: Michael is crushed by the falling bridge.
The other four make it to town safely, never to be the same. Crystal hates Brandon, who she blames for Michael’s death. She reveals that she loved the young man, and now that he’s gone…
Brandon is depressed and has nowhere to go to, now that all his friends have left him alone. He grows up with overly-religious parents, a terrible history, and a wary eye to the future…
Lily and Grace die in the hospital. Everybody moves away from the town, which happens every 20 years. And Detective Smith goes to start a new life, with his own family, and make a different path for his life.
Something about that little town of Hardy, though, is irresistible. It follows. It claims. And it draws things back to itself that were never meant to be.
Chapter 1
Hysteria
(2005)
Mary Smith closed the dishwasher, pushing the start button once it locked in place. She wiped her hands on a paper towel, looking around at her kitchen. A small grin spread on her face.
This was a job well done.
“I don’t know why you even like them.” She strolled into the other room, where her husband was on the couch watching a football game. “They aren’t even from around here.”
He glanced up at her from the television, smirking. His body was sprawled out on the couch, eyes half-closed. “I used to live there, remember?”
“You lived in Louisville?”
“No.” Daniel turned back to the screen, where #9 Louisville was behind to UCF. “But I lived in Indiana, pretty close to there.”
She sat down on the tan, fabric couch next to him, wrapping around one of his arms. “You don’t talk about it much. I know you were a policeman, but that’s about all.”
“I was a detective, silly.” He kissed her on the cheek. “And my time there was… pretty darn boring.”
“Nothing like now, of course,” she said, leaning forwards to kiss him on the lips. She put her hand on his chest. “Now it’s very exciting.”
His mouth curved in a sly grin. “It’s certainly- Oh, that was a foul!” He threw his arms up, glaring at the TV with his mouth open. “That’s… Pass interference! Oh my god. Come on!”
She sighed and leaned her head against his chest, listening to his heartbeat. The living room around them was plain and simple, filled with bland colors and old yard-sale furniture. But while Mary was never much of an interior decorator, she knew how to make a home feel homely. In this house, with this man, she felt completely safe. Yard sale couches were cheaper, anyways.
“I bet you were a really good detective,” Mary said. “You seem like that mold of man.”
“I thought you said there was no other guy like me?” he teased.
“Shhh. Stop that. I wanna hear about your time in Indiana. You never told me.”
“There’s really nothing to tell, honey.” Seeing the look on her face, he leaned back into the cushion and sighed. “Okay, okay. What do you wanna know?”
Her face brightened and she perked up. “You said it was boring, but were all your cases? There wasn’t any that were like… exciting? Or dangerous? Murderers or bombs?”
“Most wives don’t want their husbands to be near bombs,” he chuckled.
“Well, obviously you’re here now. The past is just interesting to me. So open up, buttercup.”
He shook his head, grinning. “Pretty much every case was lame. Just small-town stuff. There was one, though, that made some bigger news. It was actually my last case there. Some pretty creepy business. I know there were some kidnapped kids, some lady in the woods who did it all, and a bridge. That’s about it. I don't remember a whole lot.”
“Kidnapped kids? That’s terrible.”
Daniel nodded.
“I can’t imagine that happening to our kid,” she muttered sadly.
“Shhh it never will. I’ll protect us.”
“Could you have protected the kids in that case?”
Daniel opened his mouth to answer, but closed it. “I don’t think so. I was too late. I’ll probably never see anybody from that case again. None of the other detectives, none of the victims.”
“Would you ever go back to Hardy?” his wife asked. “Do you want to?”
“I’m not sure,” Daniel answered. “I mean… a part of me says… I don’t know. Maybe. Next question.”
Mary yawned, covering her mouth. Then she took a minute to think. “How did you catch the old lady?”
“We never did.”
She frowned. “That’s… not good. Maybe she died off since then?”
“That’s the thing. I feel like she couldn’t… or there was something else… Like, the kidnappings would keep happening. It was so bizarre. Every twenty years, these would go on. Never… made sense.”
His eyes fogged over and he started tapping into memories that had been pushed far, far away and buried under many layers and years. Daniel shook his head, trying to erase the ice-cold grip on his mind. In his eyes, he could see her. He shivered. Memories were coming up from the graveyard.
“So, if that was the 90’s…” His wife hummed as she thought. “The next kidnappings would be…”
“Ten years,” Daniel answered.
She got a wistful look in her eye. “I wonder where we’ll be in ten years.”
“Far, far away from her,” he answered.
“Ten years is a long time.”
At that moment, the front door burst open and Cassie rushed in. She ran immediately to Mom and Dad, throwing herself onto the couch. Grandma lumbered in after her, grinning from ear to ear.
All thoughts of the woman and the children were gone, sent far away to a forest somewhere near Hardy. And if they would come back, nobody knew. Thoughts weren’t so bad, though, and memories weren’t threatening. They wouldn’t tear your family from you.
But there were other things in dark forests, and much worse.
<><><> <><> <>
It was #17 Louisville against Rutgers on Friday night, a few weeks later, when Mary was out walking with Cassie. She had taken the 7-year-old out on their familiar path, a walk around the neighborhood. It would take them forty or fifty minutes to return, during which Daniel would make the most of his peace and quiet.
They weren’t due to be back soon, and as he sat in the dark living room with only the TV light he began to feel uneasy. He wasn’t worried about them, out there walking darkened streets. He was frightened for himself.
Since he had opened up about Hardy to his wife, memories seemed to flood his consciousness. They were constant and fresh, with haunting details emerging that he’d forgotten. One of the first things he remembered was what happened at the bridge, or what the children said had happened. In his mind’s eye, he could see when they had found Brandon, Crystal, and the two little girls alone, trudging through the woods.
And then there was the lady herself. He remembered seeing her outside of his office one day, and the terrible joy she seemed to have from kidnapping children. When he roused himself to reality, the game on the screen was almost over and his body was covered in cold sweats.
There was a knock at the door.
Daniel stood up carefully, trying not to make noise. He could imagine pulling back the handle and finding his nightmare standing there. While his heart began to pound and his mind raced to every terrible scenario, he forced his legs to carry him to the door.
Maybe Mary’s home, he told himself, even though that was highly unlikely. It couldn’t have been more than twenty minutes since she left.
He approached the door and grabbed the handle tentatively. Daniel started to loosen his grip and back away, but then there was another firm knock, vibrating his hand. Sweat dripped down his spine and smothered his palms as he reached for the cold knob again.
“She couldn’t have found me here,” he assured himself. “She never could find me. I’m too far. She couldn’t…”
He twisted and pulled back.
The door swept open to reveal an empty porch. His first instinct was to glance at the streetlight across the road, but there was no figure there and no haunting shadow. His porch was clear, as was the yard, and so he stepped back inside. Daniel closed the door quickly, blocking the dark.
Plopping down on the couch again, he watched the game only half-interested. Now there were other things running through his mind, worse ideas and scenarios. Because if the lady had found him here, she could find him anywhere.
Never before had he wished so much that they would have caught her. It would have kept him safe, and his family, and all the people he cared about. If only She was dead, he could have rested easily for the rest of his life.
But a time came to mind when he did wish, just as much, that She was beaten. It was the moment he decided to leave Hardy, to run from the consequences of a terrible case. On that day, he had been at the hospital for hours, observing and doing his best to help. He had seen Brandon, who was crushed and had lost his smile. He saw Crystal, who was in tears and had forgotten all of her love towards anyone. T
he kids glanced at each other. She had seemed to hate her former friend and Brandon didn’t understand why.
That’s when Daniel knew there would be no happy ending. They recovered four kids, but in reality they lost them all. Whoever survived had become shells. So he left the white slab building, and the next day found out that Lily and Grace had died in their hospital beds. There was nothing he could do and so he ran, because that was easier than anything else.
Now he was regretting it.
Daniel focused his mind on the game, trying not to dwell in the past. If he ever went back to Hardy, that would be a time to remember and worry. But that would be at the end of his life, when he was making his last trip. Until that moment, he wanted nothing to do with that place or those people.
The doorknob rattled and turned.
He jumped up from his seat and dashed to the door. As soon as he got up, the door opened. Daniel faced the door, with his lungs pounding and breaths coming in short bursts.
“What?” his wife asked irritably, seeing his face. Her hands were loaded with grocery bags, and Cassie stood beside her carrying one.
“I… um, nothing.”
“Can I get through?” she snapped, pushing her way into the house. “These bags are heavy.”
“I didn’t know you were going shopping,” he mumbled, following her into the kitchen.
“That’s all that we did, sure! I asked if you wanted to come and you said you were gonna watch the game.” She threw the food into the pantry and slammed it shut. “Go get the other bags!”
“I thought you were going on a walk?” he said, trudging towards the front door.
“Well, you thought wrong then. Ugh!” Mary stormed into the living room where Cassie had plopped down on the couch. “Get up to bed. Now.”
“But, Mom-”