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

  “So, your answer is to give her drugs?”

  “It works, okay? And it’s safe.”

  “Not according to what I’ve read.”

  “On what? Facebook?”

  “All right, fine.” Aaron locked the door to his office and asked if Cody was awake.

  “He’s already in bed. He didn’t finish his dinner, either.”

  “Did he say anything?”

  “Just that he wasn’t hungry.”

  Aaron grinned. “You didn’t make meatloaf again, did you?”

  “Ha, ha. It’s not that bad.”

  “I’m just teasing you, honey.” He waved at the night dispatcher as he walked down the hall past her office. “You know I absolutely love your meatloaf.”

  Maria laughed. “Now you’re flat out lying. At least I’m here to make dinner for the kids while you’re out playing Perry Mason all night.”

  “I know. I’m sorry about that. I just—”

  “You don’t have to explain.”

  “Thanks. I’ll see you in a bit… after I take care of that little drug run for you.”

  “Goodbye, Aaron.”

  He laughed and gave his wife a few rapid kisses over the phone. “Love you.”

  “Love you, too.”

  Aaron slipped the phone in his pocket and noticed a white envelope tucked underneath one of the windshield wipers of his cruiser. It had his name written on it in big block letters. He scanned the nearby area, removed a portable flashlight from his utility belt, and shined the beam around the envelope. He was slow and methodical as he lifted the windshield wiper to retrieve it. He held the edges with the tips of his fingers and folded the envelope open with a pen.

  Inside the envelope, he found a key similar in shape and size to a standard house key. He creased his brow and bit his lower lip. He still didn’t know what to make of the first key. Now someone had left him another one. Was it some sort of a game? Or was it something else? He looked around again. It was quiet in downtown Lost Maples. But he could sense he wasn’t alone out there.

  He got inside his cruiser and tossed the envelope inside the glove compartment. For a brief second he thought he saw someone in his rearview mirror and quickly turned around. He turned on the overhead light, but the backseat was empty.

  “Get a grip on yourself, Aaron,” he said, and started the car.

  †

  Aaron’s wandering mind kept him awake. He thought about everything Don had said about Cody and the devil’s nightmare curse. He’d warned that the pentacle key would unlock more evil than Aaron could ever imagine. Now he had two mystery keys, both with absent locks. The first key had ties to Saint Hedwig Youth Home, but he didn’t have the faintest idea of what it unlocked. Don suggested it would lead to more death and chaos. Of course, it would, because that’s what all bat-shit crazy cult members talked about. More end-of-the-world bullshit.

  Aaron drifted off to sleep while thinking about the latest turn of events. Bloody images of Mr. Garner’s horse flashed through his mind. He could hear the high-pitched shrieks of the horse crying out in pain while he watched the chimera tear into its flesh. The massive beast held the muscular horse down with its front paws, its claws buried deep into the equine’s hide. It struggled to get up, kicking its hind legs and neighing in agony until the animal finally ceased to move, its lifeblood pooling on the ground it rested on.

  Aaron stood behind the horse and watched the savage attack. The chimera tore chunks of flesh and innards out as it bit into its victim’s belly. It ignored Aaron’s presence until it finished its meal. Three sets of glowing amber eyes stared back at him. The creature growled and showed its huge fanglike teeth from the lion mouth, and long, sharp teeth from the dragon. The ram head snorted, while the cobra-headed tail hovered over the chimera’s body. They stared at each other, man and beast, until a gunshot startled them both.

  Aaron then found himself transported into a house that looked out into a field. Several muzzle flashes lit up in the distance, but he couldn’t hear the gunfire. All he could hear was the howling wind and rain beating against the window and metal roof. Flashes of lightning brightened the field where someone pointed a rifle at a large creature in front of him. Aaron knew exactly what it was, even though all he could see was the shadowy silhouette of the beast. The person with the rifle fired two more shots. Streaks of lightning scattered across the sky and revealed a man running towards the house. The next blast of lightning displayed nothing but an empty field.

  Several bangs on the front door preceded the frantic shouts of the man, who was desperate to enter. “Billy! Open the door!”

  Aaron was now standing outside in the yard, as if switching from different camera views in a movie. Only it wasn’t a movie, it was a nightmare that he couldn’t wake himself from. A nightmare that kept him frozen in place, unable to help Andrew Garner as he pounded on the front door with the flat of his fist.

  “Billy!” He yelled, looking behind him, panic in his eyes. “Open the door!”

  A clatter of thunderous explosions in the clouds drowned out his screams. Razor sharp claws tore into his back. The chimera’s dragon head bit into the man’s right leg and jerked him backwards. He fell onto his chest and split his forehead from the heavy impact on the wooden porch. A trail of blood followed a path away from the front door, which opened seconds too late.

  Ten-year-old Billy Garner stood in the doorway while the chimera tore into his father’s body only a few yards away.

  “Daddy!” the boy cried in hysteria. He grabbed his father’s rifle, cocked it and pointed the weapon at the creature. The empty gun clicked several times.

  Billy fell to his knees in defeat while the dragon bit off the head of his father. The dragon tilted its head back and swallowed. Billy wept as the contour of his father’s cranium moved down the reptilian neck. The lion paws pulled Andrew Garner’s rib cage apart with its claws, exposing the man’s heart and lungs. The ram turned its attention back to the house and cried out in a high-pitched bleat. This got the attention of the dragon and lion heads. The chimera stared at the crying boy. Billy lowered his head and held his father’s empty rifle in trembling hands.

  The dragon head slanted slightly to the left, as if contemplating what to do with the son of its latest meal. Billy whimpered and stared into the creature’s eyes. The lion emitted a deep grumble while the dragon snorted. It then sucked in a large gulp of air and exhaled a cone of fire.

  †

  Aaron and Maria woke up to the sound of Cody’s screams. They darted out of bed and rushed towards his bedroom. They found him tucked in the back corner with his arms wrapped around his legs.

  He was shaking and drenched in sweat. Maria knelt beside him and ran a hand through his hair. “We’re here, Cody. We’re here.”

  “I can’t live like this anymore,” he said through choking sobs.

  “Oh, sweetie,” Maria said, while rubbing a hand on Cody’s back. “Everything is going to be okay.”

  “No, it’s not. It’s never going to end.” He looked up at Aaron. “My nightmares are getting worse.”

  Maria turned to Aaron. “We should take him to the hos—”

  “No!” Cody protested. “No more doctors. No more shrinks. It doesn’t do any good.”

  Samantha stepped in the room. “What’s going on?”

  “He just had a nightmare, Sam,” Maria said. “Go back to your room.”

  Samantha eased back towards the hallway with wide and worried eyes. She and Cody made eye contact before she returned to her bedroom.

  Aaron picked up a black leather-bound Bible from Cody’s lampstand. Maria had given it to Cody for his thirteenth birthday, but Aaron had never seen him crack it open. It did give him an idea, one that he couldn’t believe had crossed his mind. “Maybe we should…” He tightened his stomach. “… pray.”

  Maria and Cody responded with sequential cocked heads and raised eyebrows. After the initial shock of Aaron’s suggestion, Cody nodded.

&nbs
p; “Okay, um…” Aaron scratched behind his ear. “Maria, would you do the honors?”

  She wrapped an arm around Cody and bowed her head. Aaron remained standing and studied Cody’s eyes while Maria started the prayer. Aaron took in a deep breath and exhaled an uncomfortable sigh while staring at the floor as his wife asked for God’s protection. She prayed that the Heavenly Father would help Cody sleep without the recurring nightmares. She requested guidance in order to get past their trials and tribulations. She ended her prayer with an expression of her love for Jesus Christ and her heartfelt thanks for shedding His blood on the cross to pay for their sins.

  “In Jesus’ precious name we pray… Amen.”

  She hugged Cody, pulled his head to her shoulder, and kissed him on the forehead. “Everything is going to be okay. We just need to trust in God.”

  Trust in God. That was something Aaron had always had a hard time doing. Both of his parents had died when he was a child. Some cowardly creep had murdered his father in cold blood during a routine traffic stop. His mother had taken her own life six months later, leaving him with grandparents that felt he was too much of a burden to take care of. He spent the rest of his childhood living at Saint Hedwig Youth Home, even though his social worker had promised he would only have to live there for a few months. Lies. That’s all they’d been. And God had let it all happen to him.

  He’d also seen too many people close to him lose painful battles with cancer. Christian friends would always tell him to have faith in God and His healing power. “We’re praying for you,” they would say. “He is Jehovah Rapha,” others would say. “He is the God of Healing.” Then, when the people they’d prayed for died anyway, they would act as if God had actually answered their prayers, as if death was a good thing. “God took away the pain and suffering,” they would claim. “It must have been God’s will.”

  Maybe he was just a faithless sinner and didn’t deserve a positive response from the Almighty. At least, that’s how he often felt. Prayer was more of a formality, a way to make people feel good about themselves and give them hope. When the outcome was good, they could give praise to God. He had no intention of expecting any type of divine intervention, but Maria was a woman of faith, and Aaron respected that. It was the only reason he had suggested the long-distance celestial communication in the first place.

  “You okay, honey?” Maria asked him.

  Aaron glanced at his wife and then at Cody. He didn’t have to say anything. Maria plainly knew he was not okay. Without another word, Aaron left the room and headed to the kitchen. It was a quarter to four in the morning, so going back to bed was pointless. He wouldn’t be able to fall back to sleep anyway. He made a pot of coffee and flipped on the television in the living room. Infomercials about Sham-Wow, the Magic Bullet, and the Total Gym would have to suffice for entertainment until it was time to report back to work. Chuck Norris and Christi Brinkley almost convinced him to pick up the phone and place an order, but he resisted and did more channel surfing. He stopped on the local broadcast channel where a reporter announced breaking news about a large fire at a ranch on County Road 402.

  Maria sat on the couch next to Aaron with a mug of coffee in her hand. It wasn’t until five minutes into the report that Aaron realized what he was looking at. The blazing inferno was at the Garner ranch. Flames engulfed the home, along with a barn and two vehicles.

  “You have a phone call,” Cody said, holding the phone over Aaron’s shoulder. “It’s Sheriff Donovan.”

  †

  Heavy streams of water shot into Andrew Garner’s house and barn as Lost Maples firefighters tried to control the blaze. A journalist from the Lost Maples Record snapped photos with his digital camera while a reporter from the local television station pointed to the fiery scene behind her while she narrated the event for viewers watching at home.

  Emergency vehicles were scattered around the area with their strobe lights pulsating and reflecting off the windows and clear coat paint. Sheriff Donovan waved a couple of reporters off and approached Aaron when he arrived at the scene. The reporters followed with persistence and continued to fire a barrage of questions. Aaron and the Sheriff crossed a guarded barricade to lose the journalists, only answering them with “no comment” before escaping out of earshot.

  Neither of the two family vehicles underneath a nearby carport had escaped the fire. Fearing the worst, Sheriff Donovan shared his assumption that the family had been unable to get out of the burning house. Aaron nodded in acknowledgement, but he didn’t voice his own opinion.

  Sergeant Henderson arrived at the scene while Aaron and Sheriff Donovan spoke with the fire chief. Firefighters yelled out warnings that the barn would collapse, and within seconds of the prediction, the structure’s frame snapped and fell into a pile of charred rubble, creating sparks and a flaming dust cloud. The house managed to remain standing, but after nearly two hours of fighting the blaze, there wasn’t much left of the Garners’ home.

  Firefighters spent another ninety minutes sifting through rubble. They found two bodies, one inside the house and another underneath the debris in the barn. The intense heat from the fire had burned off much of their flesh, leaving only scorched bone and slivers of meat on their skulls. The body found underneath the barn wreckage appeared to be that of a child… Billy Garner, Aaron thought. The other body was more than likely the boy’s mother.

  “Goodness, this smell is horrible,” Sergeant Henderson said. He held a handkerchief over his nose and mouth. “I only see two bodies.”

  Sheriff Donovan glanced back toward the destroyed vehicles underneath the carport. “I was thinking the same.”

  “You think he did this?” Henderson asked.

  “Who? Andy Garner? I doubt it.”

  Aaron walked over to a patch of blackened grass in front of the house. He knelt and studied the ground where he had seen the chimera attack Mr. Garner in his dream.

  “What is it?” the Sheriff asked. “Find something?”

  “No, but…” Aaron stood and headed towards the field. In his dream, Mr. Garner had fired several shots at the chimera, and as he’d expected, he found several bullet casings. Aaron lifted them out of the grass with a pen and bagged them for further examination.

  “Looks like Mr. Garner shot at something,” Henderson said. “Probably whatever killed his horse.” At that statement, he focused his attention on the stable, which the fire had spared. “I didn’t see any horses in there.”

  “And?” Aaron said while labeling the evidence bag.

  “Well, I was thinking maybe Mr. Garner took off with his horse.” Aaron glanced at him. “That’s not what happened.”

  “And what makes you so sure?” He jerked his thumb towards the carport. “Both of his vehicles are there and his only other horse is missing. There’s also the lack of his body in the—”

  “Trust me, he didn’t do this.” Aaron put his pen away and handed Henderson the evidence bag. “Besides, what motive would he have to kill his wife and kid?”

  Henderson shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe he went all Amityville Horror on them. Devil told him to do it. Heck, he probably killed his horse and didn’t even realize it.”

  Aaron let out a subtle laugh. “You need to lay off the horror channel, Scott.”

  “Well, what’s your theory? If you’re so—”

  “Over here!”

  They turned around in the direction of the cry. Several emergency workers rushed towards the forest behind the small horse stable. The crowd hovered over something just inside the tree line. Aaron brushed through the small crowd to see what they were looking at.

  Henderson knelt to get a closer look at the remains of a human torso. “You think it’s him?”

  “That’s Andy all right,” the Sheriff stated. He pointed to a small tattoo of an angel holding a cross on the right side of the neck an inch below the decapitation.

  “You certain?” Henderson asked.

  “Positive.”

  Aaron squeez
ed Henderson’s shoulder. “Well, I guess that rules out your whole Ronald DeFeo theory.”

  “Hey, it really happened,” he defended. “It’s not like you’ve had any plausible theories about what’s been going on around here.”

  Aaron glared at his subordinate. “Keep it up, smart ass, and I’ll put you on patrol with Dilbecky.”

  Henderson laughed at the suggestion. Aaron didn’t smile.

  “Wait, you weren’t being serious, were you?”

  “Ladies,” Sheriff Donovan said, stepping between them. “Can we stay focused? We obviously got ourselves a big cat or somethin’ out in these woods. But what I’m more worried about is this here fire that killed Andy’s wife and boy.”

  “The fact that we’ve now seen two chewed up bodies in less than a couple of weeks doesn’t concern you?” Henderson asked.

  “And a horse,” Aaron added.

  “Of course it does, but we ain’t in the business of wrangling wild animals. We’ll leave that up to the folks at Parks and Wildlife. I want to know what caused this here fire.”

  “Which is the fire department’s job,” Aaron pointed out. “So, what do you want us to do?”

  “You and Henderson can go process that body, fer starters. Get the lab to compare them wounds with Doug Travers’.”

  “Should I call the game warden?” Aaron said, and gave the Sheriff a sideways glance. “Tell them to look for a big alligator in the woods?”

  “Can it, Sanders. I don’t want to hear it.” He returned to his vehicle and yelled back, “You just worry ‘bout getting Andy’s body processed. I reckon we might have a big kitty cat after all.”

  “And a dragon,” Aaron mumbled. “And a ram. And—”

  “What’s that you said?”

  “Nothing. We’re on it.”

  †

  A reflection from the woods across the field from Andrew Garner’s ranch got Aaron’s attention as he opened the driver’s side door of his cruiser. He stared in that direction for a minute. He could barely make out the silhouette of someone standing behind a patch of bushes.