Dark Realms

by Kristen Middleton

  I shook my head. “No, it left so quickly. I know it wasn’t an animal like the sheriff suggested.”

  “You called the sheriff?”

  “He came over for dinner. He has the hots for my mom.”

  He laughed. “Boy, he works fast.”

  “My mom is already looking at engagement rings.”

  He raised his eyebrows.

  I laughed. “I’m just kidding.”

  “I was going to say...”

  “No, but she certainly likes him. Anyway, he went out and looked around for a while, but figured it was just a raccoon.”

  “But you don’t believe it?”

  “No,” I said. “There wasn’t any fur on the face that I saw.”

  I then explained about the feeling of being watched when we were on the deck and the shadow that flew into the trees. As I went on, his face darkened.

  “What?” I asked.

  “That’s happened to me before, too. I thought I was imagining it and made excuses, thinking it was a large barn owl or something.”

  I could feel the goose bumps traveling up my arms again. “This thing that I saw stood as tall as you. I couldn’t make out what it looked like, but it was something much larger than a bird.”

  “Hopefully, these cameras will pick something up. They have a range of one hundred feet. I’ll make sure some of them are pointing towards the woods, too.”

  When we made it back to the cabin, it was almost five o’clock and my mother was gone.

  “Wow, nice place,” said Duncan.

  “It is. Too bad I’m not enjoying it because I’m so freaked out at night.”

  “I don’t blame you.”

  I showed him around the cabin and then he started unloading the truck.

  “Um, is there a way that you can put a camera near my bedroom balcony?” I asked.

  “Have you seen someone looking through it?” he asked, incredulously.

  “Actually, I thought I saw someone staring at me through the window in my bathroom when I was getting out of the tub.”

  He raised his eyebrows. “He actually saw you naked?”

  My face turned pink. “I think so.”

  Duncan smiled wickedly. “I guess it would be inappropriate for me to say, ‘Lucky man’?”

  My jaw dropped and I smiled. “Uh, yeah!”

  “I’m sorry, I just couldn’t resist.”

  “Right.”

  “I’m sorry, that was uncalled for; a feeble attempt to flirt.”

  “You were trying to flirt with me?”

  His gray eyes burned into mine. “I was. Did it work?”

  I shivered in pleasure. “Well, I…”

  Thankfully, Nathan pulled up in his car at that moment and I was saved from having to answer anything.

  “Hey, guys,” he said, slamming the door.

  “Hi,” said Duncan, walking past him. “Nikki just gave me a tour of the place, so let’s start getting these things set up before it gets dark.”

  “Sounds good,” replied Nathan.

  “Where’s the dry cleaning?” I whispered.

  He smiled sheepishly. “Oh, I must have forgotten it.”

  “You did that on purpose. Thanks,” I said, sarcastically.

  “You’re welcome. Did you guys make out, yet?”

  I punched him in the shoulder.

  Chapter Eleven

  It took a couple of hours to set up all of the cameras. Mom showed up just as we were finishing up.

  “What’s all this?” she asked.

  Nathan explained that we were setting up surveillance to catch a Peeping Tom.

  “I thought we were through with that?” she said. She was wearing dark sunglasses and looked like she was still suffering from her hangover.

  I cleared my throat. “Duncan had someone looking in his windows last night, too, mom. It’s not just us.”

  She raised her eyebrows. “Really?”

  Duncan nodded. “Yeah and it was definitely not an animal.”

  Mom yawned. “Then I hope you catch whoever is doing it. It’s probably some pervert or something.”

  “Or a killer,” I said.

  “What?” she asked, incredulously. She’d obviously heard me but didn’t believe what I was suggesting.

  “Nothing.”

  She yawned again. “Listen, I’m going to lie down for a while. I’m so wiped out.”

  “Do you want me to make dinner?” I asked.

  She grimaced. “Actually, I’ve been nauseated all day. I’m going to eat a couple more crackers and then go right to bed.”

  “Duncan, would you like to dine with us?” asked Nathan as mom trudged up the stairs and into the cabin. “I make a mean frozen pizza.”

  Duncan laughed. “No, I have to head back before my old man starts hounding me again,” he said, raising his cell phone. “He’s already sent me a message, wondering where I am.”

  “Okay, thanks for setting all of this up. I kind of hope we see some action tonight,” said Nathan.

  “Here’s my number,” he said, holding out a business card. “My dad made these for me to give to customers. Call me if something happens.”

  “Will do. Your dad has my number, call me if you catch a prowler.”

  “Okay. Good luck with your new job, Nikki,” said Duncan. “I’ll give you a couple of days before I stop in and harass you.”

  “Thanks.”

  After Duncan left, we walked around the perimeter of the house again to make sure all of the cameras were facing the right way.

  “There’s even one by your balcony to make sure some Romeo doesn’t try and steal you away at night.”

  I snorted. “If someone shows up on my balcony, I’m going to beat them with my bat while I scream bloody murder.”

  He laughed. “That guy has no chance.”

  We went into the kitchen where Nathan made a pizza and then joined me on the couch to watch movies.

  “So what do you think of mom dating Caleb?” I asked.

  “He seems like a good guy.”

  “You don’t think it’s too soon for her?”

  “I think mom is lonely and wants to feel protected. The town’s sheriff sure fits that bill.”

  I shrugged. “I suppose. I’m just worried about her getting hurt.”

  “Nobody can hurt her as much as dad did,” said Nathan. “Sad but true.”

  That was for certain.

  I fell asleep halfway through some horror flick about zombies when several loud thuds from outside woke me up.

  “What was that?” I gasped.

  Nathan stood up and I could tell he was as freaked out as I was. “I don’t know.”

  Something heavy banged against the door, and we both jumped.

  “Oh, my God, Nathan, what’s happening?”

  He ran into the kitchen and came back out carrying the butcher knife.

  “You’re not going out there, are you?” I whispered in horror.

  He swallowed. “I was considering it.”

  More loud bangs and I grabbed the phone. “I’m calling nine-one-one.”

  “Wait, it could be a raccoon or a bear.”

  “A bear; like you’d want to tackle that by yourself, anyway.”

  He nodded. “True. I’m going to open up the blinds and look outside.”

  I followed him over to the window. “Can you see anything?” I asked as he peeked through the gap in the blinds.

  “Shit,” he whispered.

  “What?”

  He turned towards me, his face as white as a ghost. “It’s the cameras. Un… fucking… believable!”

  I looked outside and gasped. Even in the dark I could tell that someone had destroyed all of the surveillance equipment we’d set up.

  We raced upstairs and woke up mom. She called the police, and a half hour later, one of the deputy sheriffs arrived at the house.

  “I don’t know who did this, but they’re gone now,” he said. He was a middle-aged man with a curly black moustache
that he kept touching, which creeped me out.

  Mom let out a long, ragged sigh. “Why would somebody do this?”

  “Oh, I don’t know… so they wouldn’t get caught spying on us?” I muttered sarcastically.

  “Can you check for fingerprints or anything?” asked Nathan.

  He nodded. “Yeah, I put a call in for a couple of our guys to get out here and do that, so try not to touch anything. They should be arriving any minute.”

  “So, where is the sheriff?” I asked.

  “Caleb? Oh, it’s his night off,” replied the deputy. “He won’t be back in until late tomorrow night.”

  Mom nodded. “He mentioned that he was going out of town today with his daughter.”

  “Let me get a statement from you and then I’ll be on my way. There isn’t much we can do without any evidence right now. If we pick up something from the fingerprints, we’ll proceed from there.”

  After everyone was gone, mom dragged herself back to bed but Nathan and I were still spooked and unable to sleep.

  Nathan shook his head. “Duncan is going to be pissed when he finds out what happened. That was thousands of dollars in video equipment this person destroyed.”

  “Let’s call him, it’s only eleven. I’m sure he’s awake.”

  A half hour later Duncan pulled up in his white truck. Our eyes met immediately and I had to admit, I was really glad to see him.

  “Wow,” he said, “This is amazing. I can’t believe someone trashed all of these cameras. Did you see anything?’

  “We heard the crashes but were too freaked out to investigate when it was happening,” I said. “It actually happened pretty quickly.”

  “They must have brought their own ladder,” said Nathan. “I locked up the other one we’d used, earlier.”

  Duncan walked over to one of the trees and smiled proudly. “They missed one. I hid it pretty good. Let’s go see if it recorded anything interesting.”

  Nathan slapped him on the back. “You are the man!”

  Fifteen minutes later, we stared in awe at the video screen.

  “What in the hell?” asked Nathan.

  We watched in disbelief, as two of the other cameras were violently ripped from the house, but there was no sign of whoever was doing it.

  “Ghosts?” I gasped incredulously. “I mean, there’s nobody there!”

  Duncan and Nathan looked at each other, both obviously stunned as well.

  “This is freaking crazy. It doesn’t make sense,” said Nathan.

  We rewound the video and watched it again with the same results. It seemed as if an invisible force had destroyed each of the cameras.

  “Okay, common sense doesn’t explain this at all,” said Duncan. “Maybe it is some kind of poltergeist?”

  “If it is, I’m definitely not staying here any longer,” I said. The thought of the cabin being inhabited by ghosts freaked the crap out of me. I saw the movies Poltergeist and Amityville Horror. I knew when it was time to leave. Not after the ghosts tried killing you, but before.

  “We have to show the sheriff,” said Nathan. “Maybe he can make sense of it.”

  “Sense? A fucking ghost is messing with our minds, Nathan,” I snapped. “You keep trying to make scientific excuses because you don’t want to believe it. Look at the film! You heard the loud bangs! The cameras didn’t just fall from the house by themselves! We’ve got to get the hell out of this town!”

  He raised his hands. “Okay, calm down. You’re right. Something is happening that is beyond any explanation that I can come up with. We’ll show mom tomorrow and still talk to the sheriff. If it is some kind of ghost, we’ll get the cabin… exorcised or something.”

  “Maybe you should talk to the owners of the cabin?” interrupted Duncan. “They might already be aware of these ghosts.”

  “What about your house, Duncan?” I asked. “How do you explain the face in the window or shadows flying into the trees?”

  He smiled wryly. “Maybe the ghost is roaming the town? I don’t know. None of this shit makes sense to me, either.”

  We watched the video one last time and then Duncan turned it off. “I’m going home to check on the cameras I’ve installed there, to see if they’re still in place. I’ll call you if I find anything else odd.”

  “Duncan,” I said. “I’m sorry about the damaged equipment. I wish we could somehow replace it for you.”

  He waved his hand. “Hell, it’s not your fault. If anything, we may have actual proof that ghosts inhabit Shore Lake,” he said with a sinister smile. “We could all become rich and famous.”

  Chapter Twelve

  I woke up around nine-thirty the next morning and noticed that mom was still sleeping.

  “She must be coming down with something,” I said to Nathan, who was outside sweeping up pieces of the broken video equipment.

  He shrugged. “Could be the fresh air.”

  “Maybe. So, did you hear anything from Duncan yet?”

  “Yeah, he said his cameras were fine and there didn’t appear to be anything unusual going on in the videos.”

  “That’s good, I guess. I had a hard time sleeping last night. I felt like something was watching me again.”

  He laughed. “Probably me. I checked up on you a couple of times and you were snoring away.”

  “I do not snore.”

  “How in the hell do you know?”

  I raised my chin. “I just do.”

  He snorted. “Whatever. Anyway, as soon as mom gets up, we’ll show her the video and see what she thinks.”

  Just then, an old red pickup drove up the path and parked next to Nathan’s Mustang.

  “It’s our neighbor. I think mom said her name’s Abigail,” said Nathan.

  “Hello!” said the older woman, getting out of the truck. “I just wanted to stop by and welcome you. Sorry it took me so long.”

  “No problem,” said Nathan. “We should have come over and introduced ourselves.”

  “No worries,” she replied, carrying a large pie pan. “I hope you like strawberry rhubarb pie; I made it fresh, early this morning!”

  “We love it, thank you,” said Nathan as she handed it to him. “Wow, it looks awesome.”

  “My name is Abigail, by the way. I live at the next cabin over.”

  “I’m Nathan and that’s Nikki,” said Nathan.

  “Hi,” I said.

  “Wonderful to meet you both.”

  Abigail looked like she was in her seventies or eighties, had reddish-brown hair and watery green eyes.

  “I’ll be right back,” said Nathan. “I’ll put the pie in the kitchen. Did you want a piece, Abigail?”

  She shook her head and smiled. “No, but thank you. I made it for you folks.”

  “Okay, if you change your mind, let me know,” he called, going into the house.

  “Um, our mother’s not feeling well,” I explained. “Otherwise she’d be out here greeting you, too. I’m sure she’ll be sad that she missed you.”

  She smiled. “That’s all right.”

  “I suppose you saw the police here a couple of times,” I said.

  Her smile fell. “Yes I did notice that.”

  “We found a body the first night we arrived, and last night, someone smashed our video equipment. We’ve been trying to catch the culprit. It’s been pretty crazy.”

  “A body?” she said, her eyes widening. “Was it that young girl they mentioned on the news? Tina Johnson?”

  I nodded. “Yes. They think she drowned and washed up here.”

  “They don’t think it’s… foul play?”

  “Well,” I said. “Personally, I think it is, but nobody else seems to believe it.”

  She leaned forward. “And why do you think it’s foul play?”

  I sighed. “Because we’ve had someone trying to scare us every night since we arrived. Then, the waitress who supposedly killed herself in the woods the other night, Amy? She gave me a warning the same day she died.”


  “What do you mean?”

  “She slipped me a note at Ruth’s, warning me not to go out at night and not to let any strangers into our home.”

  Abigail stared at me for a few seconds and then let out a long sigh. “Nikki, she gave you some good advice. If I were you, I’d stay in and not invite anyone into your cabin. Especially, those you don’t know.”

  My heart began to pound. “So, you think it’s dangerous out here at night?”

  Her eyes grew misty. “I know it is. My husband was killed by something evil,” she said, looking up at towards trees. “There are things in Shore Lake that you don’t know about; things you couldn’t even imagine. In fact, I wanted to come over and warn you myself, before I left town.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked, the hair standing up on the back of my neck.

  Just then, Nathan walked out. “Okay, I couldn’t resist, Abigail; I had a little piece. And let me tell you, it was the best strawberry rhubarb pie I’d ever tasted.”

  She nodded. “Good.”

  Noticing her sudden melancholy, he asked, “Are you okay?”

  “Um, Nathan, Abigail was just telling me it’s dangerous here at night and that her husband was murdered.”

  Nathan’s stared at her in horror. “Your husband was murdered? Do you know who did it?”

  “Vampires,” she stated without hesitation.

  “Excuse me?” choked Nathan.

  Her face darkened. “Shore Lake is infested with vampires.”

  He burst out laughing and clapped his hands. “Okay, very funny, Abigail. Vampires, that’s a good one!”

  The look in her eyes was so serious, it made me start to doubt what was real and what wasn’t.

  “Don’t mock me,” she said. “I’m not joking, young man.”

  The porch door opened up and mom stepped out. She was wearing dark sunglasses and still looked unusually pale.

  “Hey, mom,” said Nathan. “This is Abigail.”

  Mom nodded. “Yes, I remember seeing you fishing the other day. Nice to meet you, Abigail. I’m Anne.”

  “Nice to meet you, too. Say, if you don’t mind my asking, what’s wrong with your neck?”

  The swelling on mom’s neck appeared to be getting worse. She touched it and winced. “I don’t know. I think I was bitten by a couple of mosquitos, or maybe even a spider.”