Devil's Nightmare: Premonitions (Devil's Nightmare, Book 2)

by Robert Pruneda

  He lifted the body, held it in his arms, and gazed at the darkness of the sky. Raindrops slapped his face as he sought forgiveness before tossing the body into the grave. Heavy rain quickly turned the grave into a muddy pit, while Aaron covered the body. As soon as he filled the hole, he fell to his knees and wept.

  †

  Aaron woke from his nightmare ten minutes after three in the morning. Maria breathed softly next to him with one arm tucked underneath her pillow. Aaron ran his hand over his face and sat at the edge of his bed for several minutes before heading to Cody’s bedroom. He flipped the light switch, stared at the empty bed for a few seconds, and retrieved Cody’s Bible from the top dresser drawer. He flipped the book open and sat on the bed.

  “’Trust in the Lord with all your heart,’” he read in the third chapter of Proverbs, “’and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.’”

  Aaron exhaled through his nose and dropped the Bible in the trashcan next to the desk. He went to the kitchen and prepared a pot of coffee. While it brewed, he stared out the window and saw something moving in the shadows. Or maybe it was just a reflection. He switched off the kitchen light to get a better look. Nothing.

  Aaron grabbed his pistol and flashlight and went outside. He was certain someone had been standing in the darkness before he’d turned off the light in the kitchen. He searched the perimeter of the house and shined the flashlight beam out into the field, but didn’t find anything unusual. It had probably been nothing. Just his mind producing phantom images from the light reflecting off the window.

  Maria was standing near the coffee machine when he went back inside. “What were you doing out there?” She glanced at the gun.

  “Thought I saw something.” He set the gun and flashlight on the counter. “It was nothing, though. I guess I’m being overly cautious.”

  “It was probably one of those coyotes,” Maria suggested, as she poured herself a cup of coffee. “Are you still planning on going to San Antonio today?”

  “Yeah,” Aaron yawned. He opened one of the cabinets and grabbed his coffee mug. “You sure you don’t want to come?”

  “I think I’ll stay here with Samantha.” Maria sat at the kitchen table and sipped her coffee. “How are you doing with all of this?”

  “As well as anyone in my situation, I guess.” Aaron poured his coffee and joined his wife at the table. He yawned again.

  “Still not sleeping well?”

  “Not really. I’m okay, though.”

  Aaron and Maria discussed Cody’s dilemma while drinking their first cup of coffee of the morning. They moved outside with a refill, and sat on the swing and watched the sun highlight the cirrus clouds in brilliant shades of orange and yellow.

  “Something you don’t get in the city.” Maria swung her arm around Aaron and rested her head on his shoulder. “It’s going to be okay. You just have to trust in the Lord with all your heart.”

  Aaron took in a deep breath and ran his hand through Maria’s hair. He kissed her forehead and told her he loved her. Trusting in God was the furthest thing from his mind, but he respected his wife’s faith. She prayed a lot and truly believed God was the answer to their problems. The flaw with her theory was that the all-powerful and loving God she prayed to never seemed to hear Aaron’s prayers. If God had listened to his prayers, the answers must have always been no. Aaron had prayed daily for his father’s safety, but apparently God hadn’t listened or even cared, because someone still shot and killed him during a traffic stop on I-35 in Austin.

  †

  Samantha stepped outside with a basket full of gardening tools. She hadn’t been in school all week due to the temporary closure of Lee Hauser Middle School, for obvious reasons. Classes would resume again on Monday, but as far as she was concerned, it was still too soon. She couldn’t imagine how anything could go back to normal after someone had been murdered there, chopped into pieces, from what she’d heard, just like Randy Cunningham. Peter had been a total jackass, and she hated the thing he’d done to Cody, but no one deserved to die like that. The whole thing scared her, even more than that monster she and her mother had seen when Aaron was in Austin trying to help Cody stop that curse thing. Who or what was killing all those people in Lost Maples? Was it because of Cody? Or was there a maniac psycho creep running around town, chopping people up for no reason?

  According to that stupid sixth-grader that saw Peter get whacked, Cody did it, but that was hogwash, because he was on his way to jail in San Antonio. That was another crazy thing Samantha couldn’t wrap her head around. Why was he getting blamed for so much stuff that any sane person would know he couldn’t have done? And how long would it be before that kid opened his big fat mouth and began spreading rumors around school? She’d probably get labeled as “that girl whose brother killed Peter Slavic.”

  “Ugh!” she grunted, as she pulled some weeds from her garden. “I could strangle that kid.”

  How much more crap was Cody going to have to go through? She felt sorry for him. He was a pain-in-the-butt sometimes, but she still loved him and wished all of the bad things would go away.

  Her mom and Aaron had moved them to Lost Maples for a better life, to start over, but it had been worse in Lost Maples than it ever had been in Austin. At least for her, anyway. She’d been happy there. And Austin had malls where she could hang out with her friends! What did Lost Maples have? Maple Hills Park… where a guy had gotten eaten by an alligator (or maybe that monster she saw) and a boy had been chopped up like firewood. She wanted to go back to Austin so bad. She hated it in Lost Maples.

  Gardening was supposed to help keep her mind off the bad things, but it wasn’t helping. While she harvested a batch of carrots, something rustled in the bushes nearby. She froze and squeezed the handle of her gardening spade. She held it forward, fearful eyes focused on the bushes. She relaxed and smiled when a rabbit hopped out of the bushes. It had white fur with black spots all over it and was one of the cutest things she’d ever seen.

  She held out a small carrot and jiggled it a little. “You hungry, little fella?”

  The rabbit twitched its nose and crawled towards her, while she wiggled the carrot in front of it. The rabbit hopped a couple of feet and stopped. It focused on the carrot, but wouldn’t take it.

  “I’m not going to hurt you.” Samantha eased herself closer to the rabbit. “Mom would probably kill me for giving you our carrots, but it’ll be our little secret.”

  As if understanding, the rabbit hopped towards her, snatched the carrot with its mouth, and chewed.

  Samantha grinned. “There you go.” She sat on the ground and watched the rabbit eat the carrot. She stroked its soft fur and fed it another vegetable, before picking it up and holding it in her arms. She played with the rabbit for half an hour, then returned to her gardening duties. She expected the rabbit to hop away, but it stayed nearby while she harvested more vegetables. It managed to steal another carrot while she wasn’t looking.

  “Samantha!” her mother called from the porch. “Lunch is ready!”

  She gathered her tools and glanced at the rabbit eating its stolen carrot. “You little rascal, you!” She giggled, and carried the rabbit in one arm and the basket of vegetables with the other. She left the tools in the garden. She could pick them up after lunch.

  As soon as she entered the house, Samantha showed her mother the rabbit. “Look what I found!”

  “Oh, I don’t think so, Sam.” Maria shook her index finger at her daughter. “You’re not keeping it.”

  “Oh, come on, Mom! Would you rather it be out in the wild, stealing our vegetables? Please?”

  Her mother shook her head and smiled. She was caving. Excellent!

  “It is kind of cute.” She took the rabbit from Samantha’s arms and held it close to her chest, rubbing its soft fur with her chin. “I won’t promise anything, but if you can convince Aaron, then you can keep it.”

  Samantha t
hanked her mother several times, and clapped her hands together. “I love you, Mom. I promise to take good care of it.”

  “Don’t get too excited yet, Sam. We still need to check with Aaron. But for now, you need to put it in a box. It’s not running loose around the house.”

  “Okay. I’m on it!” She thanked her mother again and rushed out to the garage in search of a suitable temporary house for her rabbit.

  †

  Can I keep it? Pleeeeeease?

  Aaron tapped on the image included in the text message, enlarging it. Samantha had the white and black-spotted rabbit tucked close to her cheek with a big smile. Aaron shook his head and grinned. He sent a message back, giving her permission to keep the fluffy rodent, but reminding her they needed to get it checked out by a vet.

  Samantha’s reply came within seconds: Thank U! Thank U! Thank U! I luv U! xoxo :-)

  Aaron laughed as an officer escorted Cody into the visitor’s room at the Bexar County Juvenile Detention Center.

  Cody sat across from Aaron. “What’s so funny?”

  “Sam found a rabbit while she was working in the garden.” He showed Cody the photo that Samantha had sent him. “What do you think?”

  “Is she keeping it as a pet?”

  “That’s what she asked.”

  “And what did you say?”

  “I said she could, as long we got it checked out first.”

  “Lovely.” Cody’s voice was full of sarcasm.

  Aaron set his phone on the table. “So, how are you doing?”

  “How do you think I’m doing? I had a better time at Saint Hedwig. I can’t stand it here.”

  Aaron leaned forward and rested his arms on the table. “I’m going to try and get you out of here. I just need some time.”

  “To do what? I still don’t have a lawyer, since Maria freaked out on the last one.”

  While Aaron was investigating Peter Slavic’s murder, Maria had spoken with the attorney Sheriff Donovan had recommended. That attorney had presented a plea agreement, which, if accepted by the district attorney and the judge, would imprison Cody until his eighteenth birthday. He would then spend another ten years on parole, which would also require him to wear an ankle bracelet to monitor his whereabouts at all times.

  “It was a crappy deal, Cody. You’re innocent.”

  “No, I’m not.” He lowered his head. “They’re all dead because of me. And I confessed to doing it.” He sat back in his chair and cut his eyes over to another juvenile visiting with family on the other side of the room. “Maybe we should do it.”

  “The plea deal? Absolutely not.” Aaron glanced over at the Hispanic teen that Cody was looking at. “I know you didn’t do those things.”

  Cody jerked his eyes back at Aaron. “How do you know that?”

  “Because someone killed Peter on Wednesday… And you were with me when it happened.”

  “I already knew that.” Cody focused his attention on the other boy again. “I saw it happen.”

  “In a premonition.”

  “No, when it happened. I saw it all. ” He made eye contact with Aaron. His eyes were moist. “I hated what he did to me, but… I didn’t want him to die, but I killed him.”

  Aaron squeezed Cody’s forearm. “It wasn’t you, Cody.”

  “I don’t know what to do,” he whimpered. “I know it’s not me… but it is me, and I don’t know how to stop it.”

  The ikiryō. That’s what Donald Luther had called the demonic manifestation. It sounded insane, but after Jonathan Estrada’s witness account of what happened at school, and Cody’s statement of seeing Peter Slavic’s murder, how could he deny it? It was real.

  Aaron moved his chair and sat close to Cody. “It wasn’t you, okay?” He put his arm on Cody’s shoulder. “I understand now, but you need to believe it wasn’t your fault. It was mine.” He pressed his hand against his chest. “I did this. Not you. I’m the one who screwed up.”

  Cody’s chin quivered. His eyes were filled with despair. “But I’m the one that started it all in Austin. It was me, and I’m being punished for it.”

  “That wasn’t your fault, Cody. You’ve got to stop blaming yourself for that.”

  “I just want it to stop.” He lowered his head. “That’s why I wanted to kill myself.”

  Aaron sighed and squeezed Cody’s shoulder. He pulled him close and lowered his voice. “And that’s exactly why I’m not giving up on you.”

  “Why is this happening to me?” Cody said through choked tears.

  “I wish I had the answer for that, but I promise I’m going to get you out of here. And we’re going to stop this thing… together.” Aaron lifted Cody’s chin and stared into his eyes. “You trust me?”

  Cody sniffled and rubbed his index finger and thumb over his eyes and blinked. He nodded.

  “Good. You hang in there, and don’t worry about a thing, okay?” Cody sighed and nodded again. “Everything is going to be fine.” Aaron stood. “I promise.”

  Cody got up and wrapped his arms around Aaron. He held a long embrace and shed silent tears. “Tell Sam and Maria that I love them, okay?”

  “Yeah, of course I will,” Aaron promised, while returning the embrace. “You’ll see them soon when I get you out of here.”

  †

  Aaron got back home from San Antonio a quarter to six in the evening. Samantha was playing with her pet rabbit in the front yard, when he parked the Mercedes in front of the house.

  “Hey, Sam!” he yelled out from the car. “I’ve got something for you.”

  Samantha carried the rabbit to the car. “What did you get me?”

  “Not for you.” He popped the trunk. “For Bugs Bunny.”

  Samantha peeked inside the trunk. “You got him a cage! And his name is Lucky.”

  “Go put Lucky in his box, so you can help me put this cage together.”

  Maria stepped out of the house and walked towards them.

  “Hey, Mom!” Samantha yelled. “Could you put Lucky in the box for me? Aaron got him a cage. We’re going to go put it together right now.”

  Aaron pulled the wire panels out of the trunk and set them on the ground. “There’s a bag of rabbit food in the back seat, too. And some bedding.”

  “Who’s that?” Maria nodded towards the tree canopy entrance of the long driveway.

  Aaron turned around. A black Crown Victoria rolled towards them. “I don’t…” Then he noticed the red and blue emergency lights in the front grill. “Son of a…” He tossed the bag of bedding out of the car. “That there is the FBI.” He turned to Samantha. “Go inside with your mother. We’ll put the cage together after I talk to those goons in suits.”

  Samantha smiled and went inside with Maria. As the sedan got closer, Aaron recognized the driver. It was the FBI agent from the press conference, Agent Paul Kelson. He hadn’t seen the passenger before, though. Agent Kelson got out of the vehicle and showed Aaron his badge.

  “Can I help you?”

  “Special Agent Paul Kelson.” The agent jerked a thumb towards the passenger getting out of the car. “That’s my partner, Agent Terrance Stone. We haven’t officially met, so—”

  “So you came all the way out here for a social call on a Saturday evening?”

  “Not exactly, Lieutenant.” Agent Kelson slipped his badge back in his jacket and glanced towards the field. “We wanted to ask you a few questions about the recent deaths in Lost Maples.”

  “And take a look at the location where you discovered Daniel Corbin’s remains,” Agent Stone added.

  “Maybe you should visit the ME instead. All you’re going to find out there is a bunch of dirt and grass.”

  Agent Stone smirked. “The Sheriff wasn’t kidding about you, was he?”

  “If you’re referring to my dislike of federal suits, then yeah, no joke.” Aaron crossed his arms over his chest. “Why don’t you cut to the chase and tell me what you’re really doing here?”

  The two agents glanced at each oth
er. Agent Stone handed Aaron a couple of photographs. “You recognize these two individuals?”

  He immediately recognized the faces and handed the photos back. “Agent Hirsch is one of your colleagues. I think the woman is his partner. I only spoke to Hirsch, though.”

  “And when was that?”

  Aaron’s stomach tightened. “Why don’t you ask him?”

  “Just answer the question.”

  “When I was at Brackenridge Hospital in Austin.”

  Agent Kelson jotted some notes in a little black notepad. “And you haven’t seen him since?”

  “No. Is there a point with this questioning? Because last time I checked, the FBI was supposed to be assisting me with my investigation, not the other way around.”

  “And you’re certain you’ve never spoken to Agent Kramer at all,” Agent Kelson asked, ignoring Aaron’s statement.

  “Who?”

  “The woman in the photo. Agent Hirsch’s partner.”

  “Yes,” Aaron said. “Now are you going to—”

  “Are you sure about that?” Agent Kelson flipped through his notepad. “Because, I think you’re lying to us. We know they were both in Lost Maples as recently as—”

  “You know, I really don’t care what you think.” Aaron stepped over to the FBI agents’ vehicle and opened the door. “So, why don’t you get back in your car and head back home. Unless, of course, you’re ready to discuss what the FBI is doing to help us nail the sick bastard that’s dicing up people in my town. Otherwise, you can kiss my ass.” Aaron pointed at Agent Kelson. “And you can write that in your little book, too.”

  “All right.” Agent Kelson closed his notepad. “Let’s discuss that. We’ll start with why you’re hiding Cody Sumner in San Antonio on bogus misdemeanor assault charges.”