by J. Thorn
“This is screwed up.”
You’re the screwed-up one, Jack.
Charlie pounded some six-penny nails into the sheet rock. Once the piece was tacked in place, he slipped his hammer into the sheath on his tool belt. He ran his tape measure to the ceiling. One more sheet and they’d be in the hall. And that was fine with Charlie, because this room was giving him the creeps, even with the quartz work lamps blazing hot enough to spike his eyeballs.
“Give me a hand here,” Charlie said. Jack didn’t answer.
Charlie turned. Dust swirled in the glow of their lamp. Jack stood in the center of the room, the light throwing his stooped silhouette onto the unfinished gray wall. Jack’s hair was white from the gypsum. He was staring at the floor.
“Ain’t got time for this.” Charlie’s hangover pulsed through his sore thumb like a truck barreling through a garden hose. “We got to get it taped and sanded. Painters will be in by Friday, and nobody can mess up a subcontract like a painter. I want to get my check and be gone, else it’ll be ‘Fix this’ and ‘Patch that’ till hell freezes over.”
Jack continued staring at the floor. “You can cover it up, but it’ll still be there.”
Charlie shivered, even though sweat trickled down his back, the dust making a paste on his skin. He and Jack had hung a bedroom once for the widow of an ex-cop. The cop had blown his head off with a twelve-gauge, got brains and slime and blood all over the wall. All in the wall, because the studs, insulation, and siding had been pocked with dried meat. They’d slapped three-quarter-inch sheet rock over it, taped and troweled the cracks, but that smell of death had been just as strong as before.
You can cover it up, but it’ll still be there.
That’s what the cop’s widow had said.
“What the hell, Jack, it’s coffee break.” Charlie’s throat was dry from the dust. He had a couple of fingers of Jim Beam resting in the bottom of his thermos, just waiting for ten-thirty.
“Nobody’s been in here, have they?” Jack said.
“Nobody but us chickens.” A crew was hanging some windows upstairs in the building’s west wing, but they were so far away that Charlie only heard an occasional shouted cussword or dropped tool.
“Then how did that get there?” Jack pointed to the floor.
Charlie’s tape measure slid into its box, rattling like a metallic snake.
Don’t look, Charlie ordered himself. Damn you, don’t look.
Because he’d seen plenty enough funny stuff in the two days they’d been hanging this section of the basement. Little movements out of the corner of his eye. Sometimes he’d turn to catch them, but there’d be nothing but the softly spinning dust. That wasn’t so bad, he could chalk that up to the swimming eyes that came from hoisting a few too many.
Except he’d heard those rumors about the kids. What had happened here, and why the building’s new owners were so desperate to give it a facelift and move it on the market. To make it go away.
Charlie swallowed, the dust like gravel going down.
Jack said, “You’re in such a pissy mood today I didn’t figure you for jokes.”
“I ain’t joking today, I’m working. You ought to be, too.”
Jack looked up at Charlie. Jack’s tongue was set between his teeth as if he were thinking hard. Usually, Jack couldn’t get lost in thought if you gave him a Chinese map with nothing but left turns.
“You didn’t do it, did you?” Jack asked, then turned and stared at the floor again.
“All right, goddamn it.” Charlie’s voice bounced off the flat, empty walls and the echo slapped his eardrums. He set down the sheet rock and stomped over to Jack. “Now what the hell is it I didn’t do?”
Jack pointed.
Charlie looked at the floor. His balls shrank and his heart took an accounting of a lifetime of cigarette smoke.
You can cover it up, but it’ll still be there.
Whatever happened here still lived in the walls, just like at that suicide cop’s house. Charlie’s hands shook, and he knew the two fingers in the thermos wouldn’t be nearly enough. He’d be knocking off early today, calling the contractor and playing sick from the safety of his apartment couch.
Maybe if he drank enough, he wouldn’t be sick anymore. Maybe he’d drink himself sane.
The floor was covered in a fine silt of dust, marked by their footprints.
Among them, scrawled so that the concrete floor showed cleanly, was a single word:
Free.
THE END
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About the author:
We made it. Thank you for bringing these dreams to life in your imagination, making them real. I hope you will write a review to share your journey through the book, because another traveler might want to find the path.
I’m the international bestselling author of more than 30 books, including the After series, The Home, The Red Church, Liquid Fear, The Harvest, Speed Dating with the Dead, and many more. My books and their translations have hit the Kindle Top 100 in five different countries.
I collaborated with bestselling author J.R. Rain on Cursed, The Vampire Club, Bad Blood, and Ghost College. I’ve also written the children’s books If I Were Your Monster, Too Many Witches, Ida Claire, and Duncan the Punkin, and created the graphic novels Dirt and Grave Conditions. Connect with me on Facebook, Goodreads, Twitter, my blog, or my website.
I am really an organic gardener, but don’t tell anyone, because they think I am a writer and occasional survivalist nutjob.
Sign up for my newsletter for new releases, free books, and giveaways: http://eepurl.com/tOE89
Talk to me [email protected] or visit me at Haunted Computer. If you enjoyed this book, please tell your friends and give another Nicholson title a try. What doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger, and what does kill you is probably lurking in my next book. Read on for more.
Read these other thrillers because it beats than going back to reality:
AFTER: THE SHOCK
By Scott Nicholson
A massive solar storm wipes out the earth’s technological infrastructure and kills billions. As the survivors struggle to adapt, they discover some among them have…change. The first book in the After series.
Learn more about it at Haunted Computer or view it at Amazon US or Amazon UK.
AFTER #2: THE ECHO
By Scott Nicholson
Six weeks after a massive solar storm wipes out billions, a small group of survivors must face a future that may have no room for them. A group of mutants called “Zapheads” are evolving to replace humans at the top of the food chain.
See it for Kindle at Amazon US or Amazon UK.
THE HOME
By Scott Nicholson
Experiments at a group home for troubled children lead to paranormal activity—and the ghosts are from the home’s past as an insane asylum. In development as a feature film.
Learn more about The Home or view it on Amazon US or Amazon UK.
MEAT CAMP
By Scott Nicholson & J.T. Warren
In a desperate attempt to save their land from tax foreclosure, Delphus Fraley and his daughter open a camp for at-risk kids, with the goal of building character through experience in the Appalachian Mountain outdoors.
But a strange infection contaminating the camp’s mess hall soon triggers a violent rampage. As the isolated camp turns into a bloodbath, camp counselor Jenny Usher first fights to save the children, and then finds she must fight to save herself.
Because this infection doesn’t just kill, it brings the dead back to life…
Adapted from Scott Nicholson’s original horror screenplay.
View it at Amazon US or Amazon UK.
CREATIVE SPIRIT
By Scott Nicholson
After parapsychologist Anna Galloway is diagnosed with metastatic cancer, she has a recurring dream in which she sees her own ghost. The setting of her dream is the historic Korban
Manor, which is now an artist’s retreat in the remote Appalachian Mountains.
Sculptor Mason Jackson has come to Korban Manor to make a final, all-or-nothing attempt at success before giving up his dreams. When he becomes obsessed with carving Ephram Korban’s form out of wood, he questions his motivation but is swept up in a creative frenzy unlike any he has ever known.
The manor itself has secrets, with fires that blaze constantly in the hearths, portraits of Korban in every room, and deceptive mirrors on the walls. With an October blue moon looming, both the living and the dead learn the true power of their dreams.
Learn more about the paranormal thriller Creative Spirit or view it at Amazon US or Amazon UK
Do you like movies? View the screenplay adaptation at Amazon US or Amazon UK
DISINTEGRATION
By Scott Nicholson
When a mysterious fire destroys his home and kills his young daughter, Jacob Wells is pulled into a downward spiral that draws him ever closer to the past he thought was dead and buried.
Now his twin brother Joshua is back in town, seeking to settle old scores and claim his half of the Wells birthright. As Jacob and Joshua return to the twisted roles they adopted at the hands of cruel, demanding parents, they wage a war of pride, wealth, and passion.
But the lines of identity are blurred, because Joshua and Jacob share much more than blood. And the childhood games have become deadly serious.
Learn more about the psychological thriller Disintegration or view it at Amazon or Amazon UK
THE RED CHURCH
Book I in the Sheriff Littlefield Series
By Scott Nicholson
For 13-year-old Ronnie Day, life is full of problems: Mom and Dad have separated, his brother Tim is a constant pest, Melanie Ward either loves him or hates him, and Jesus Christ won't stay in his heart. Plus he has to walk past the red church every day, where the Bell Monster hides with its wings and claws and livers for eyes. But the biggest problem is that Archer McFall is the new preacher at the church, and Mom wants Ronnie to attend midnight services with her.
Sheriff Frank Littlefield hates the red church for a different reason. His little brother died in a freak accident at the church twenty years ago, and now Frank is starting to see his brother's ghost.
The Days, the Littlefields, and the McFalls are descendants of the original families that settled the rural Appalachian community. Those old families share a secret of betrayal and guilt, and McFall wants his congregation to prove its faith. Because he believes he is the Second Son of God, and that the cleansing of sin must be done in blood.
"Sacrifice is the currency of God," McFall preaches, and unless Frank and Ronnie stop him, everybody pays.
Learn more about the real haunted church that inspired The Red Church or view it for Kindle at Amazon or Amazon UK
DRUMMER BOY
Book II in the Sheriff Littlefield Series
By Scott Nicholson
On an Appalachian Mountain ridge, three boys hear the rattling of a snare drum deep inside a cave known as "The Jangling Hole," and the wind carries a whispered name.
It's the eve of a Civil War re-enactment, and the town of Titusville is preparing to host a staged battle. The weekend warriors aren’t aware they will soon be fighting an elusive army. A troop of Civil War deserters, trapped in the Hole by a long-ago avalanche, is rising from a long slumber, and the war is far from over.
And one misfit kid is all that stands between the town and a sinister evil force…
Learn more about Drummer Boy and the Appalachian legend that inspired the novel or view it at Amazon or Amazon UK
THE SKULL RING
By Scott Nicholson
Julia Stone will remember, even if it kills her.
With the help of a therapist, Julia is piecing together childhood memories of the night her father vanished. When Julia finds a silver ring that bears the name "Judas Stone," the past comes creeping back. Someone is leaving strange messages inside her house, even though the door is locked. The local handyman offers help, but he has his own shadowy past. And the cop who investigated her father's disappearance has followed her to the small mountain town of Elkwood.
Now Julia has a head full of memories, but she doesn't know which are real. Julia's therapist is playing games. The handyman is trying to save her, in more ways than one. And a sinister cult is closing in, claiming ownership of Julia's body and soul . . . .
Learn more about The Skull Ring and False Recovered Memory Syndrome or view it at Amazon or Amazon UK
Do you like movies? View the screenplay adaptation at Amazon US or Amazon UK
SPEED DATING WITH THE DEAD
By Scott Nicholson
A paranormal conference at the most haunted hotel in the Southern Appalachian mountains…a man’s promise to his late wife that he’d summon her spirit…a daughter whose imagination goes to dark places…and demonic evil lurking in the remote hotel’s basement, just waiting to be awoken.
Learn more about Speed Dating with the Dead and the 2008 paranormal conference and inn that inspired the novel or view it at Amazon or Amazon UK
KISS ME OR DIE
By Scott Nicholson
Richard Coldiron’s first and last novel follows his metafictional journey through a troubled childhood, where he meets his invisible friend, his other invisible friend...and then some who aren’t so friendly.
Richard keeps his cool despite the voices in his head, but he’s about to get a new tenant: the Insider, a malevolent soul-hopping spirit that may or may not be born from Richard’s nightmares and demands a co-writing credit and a little bit of foot-kissing dark worship.
Now Richard doesn’t know which voice to trust. The book’s been rejected 117 times. The people he loves keep turning up dead. And here comes the woman of his dreams.
Learn more about Kiss Me or Die and the six people in Richard Coldiron’s head or view it at Amazon or Amazon UK
LIQUID FEAR
By Scott Nicholson
When Roland Doyle wakes up with a dead woman in his motel room, the only clue is a mysterious vial of pills bearing the label “Take one every 4 hrs or else.”
Ten years before, six people were involved in a secret pharmaceutical trial that left one of them murdered and five unable to remember what happened. Now the experiment is continuing, as Dr. Sebastian Briggs wants to finish his research into fear response and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Only by taking the mysterious pills can the survivors stave off the creeping phobias and madness that threaten to consume them. But the pills have an unexpected side effect—the survivors start remembering the terrible acts they perpetrated a decade ago. They are lured back to the Monkey House, the remote facility where the original trials took place, and Briggs has prepared it for their arrival.
Now they are trapped, they each have only one pill left, and cracks are forming in their civilized veneer. After the pills are gone, there’s only one option. “Or else.”
Read about it at Haunted Computer or view it at Amazon US or Amazon UK
CHRONIC FEAR
By Scott Nicholson
Chronic Fear is the second installment of the chilling Fear series, which began with the harrowing Liquid Fear. The story picks up one year after the notorious Monkey House trials, from which the tiny handful of survivors have scattered in the wind. For while the unwitting human guinea pigs are still alive, the experimental drugs to which they were subjected continue to wreak havoc on their emotional stability. World-renowned neurobiologist Dr. Alexis Morgan knows first-hand the horrors of the sadistic experiment: her husband, Mark, was one its victims. As a result, he is plagued by unpredictable bouts of rage and paranoia. Dr. Morgan’s research into the drug leads her to suspect presidential candidate and U. S. Senator Daniel Burchfield of plotting to gain control of the drug for his own purposes, a power play that is sure to result in countless casualties unless she and three Monkey House survivors can outwit the shadowy figures behind the conspiracy—
if they don’t lose their own sanity first.
Read the first chapter at Haunted Computer or view it at Amazon US or Amazon UK
OCTOBER GIRLS
By Scott Nicholson
Crystal doesn’t want to be a trailer-trash witch like Momma. Her best friend Bone is only too happy to escape the afterlife and help Crystal break the rules.
Then a young movie maker comes to Parson’s Ford, and he has a very special project in mind: a horror movie starring a real ghost. The movie is rolling, the creatures are stirring, and the brainwashed teenagers are ready to welcome a new star from the other side of the grave.
Learn more about the paranormal fantasy October Girls or view it for Kindle at Amazon or Amazon UK
CURSED
By J.R. Rain and Scott Nicholson
Albert Shipway is an ordinary guy, an insurance negotiator who likes booze and women and never having to say he’s sorry.
And he thinks this is just another day, another lunch, another order of kung pao chicken. Little does he know that he’s about to meet a little old lady who knows his greatest fear. A little old lady who knows what’s hiding in his heart.
In just a matter of minutes, Albert’s life turns upside down and he enters a world where magic and evil lurk beneath the fabric of Southern California. And all his choices have brewed a perfect storm of broken hearts, broken promises, shattered families, and a couple of tiny problems. Namely, killer mice and a baby.
Albert Shipway is finally getting a chance to right some wrongs. That is, if it's not too late.
Learn more about the urban fantasy Cursed or view it for Kindle at Amazon or Amazon UK
GHOST COLLEGE
By Scott Nicholson & J.R. Rain
First in a new series featuring paranormal investigators Ellen and Monty Drew. Ellen claims to possess a sixth sense but Monty, a former P.I., only believes what he can see. She views their work as a sacred mission while Monty just wants a happy wife and a paycheck.
