On a dreadful night, a creature is running through the forest, out of fear. It makes it’s way to the main road, but was met a light, so bright it made it froze like a deer.
It stood still and was curious what it was, and then suddenly a car drives it over, deliberately. It reverses and drives over it again and once more forward until it finally came to a stop.
The creature moans in pain as the driver, Quade Phoenix, 21, Aka Kal Blade, steps out a custom 1965 mustang with reinforced bars around it. He walks calmly towards the creature and shoots a tranquilizer at it. The creature struggles to make a getaway as he grabs it by the neck and drags it to the car, opens the boot and throws it in there. Quade enters the car, adjusts his rear-view mirror, makes a u-turn and drives back to his town, Newfound valley.
The next morning, at an undisclosed residence, an alarm clock goes off and was immediately snoozed as the resident, Lauren Stone, 20, was already awake and getting ready for her new job.
She walked down the stairs in her casual suit towards the lounge, where boxes were piled on top of each other. She searched for her files and backpack along with her equipment, while in a hurry to leave. She drinks her left over cup of coffee and walks out the door.
On her way to the library, she gazed at her new environment, kids playing in the school park, old people sitting on side benches enjoying their time playing chess, a place she's going to have to get used to, as this will be her new home for a long while.
She arrives at her destination and enters the town library. There she finds an old lady, Ms. Walters, waiting by the main desk. Lauren introduces herself, a student archaeologist and librarian. Ms Walters welcomes and shows her around. She gets comfortable in her new office and was already put to work, managing paperwork based on old folklore. This is not what she imagined it would be like but she begins to work regardless.
At a closed down antique shop, there's a backdoor leading to an underground bunker.
There, Quade is sleeping peacefully before his dream start to show someone in particular, a women walking in a black dress across a field. He tried to get closer to see who it was but his sleep was cut short when his alarm clock goes off. He gets off his bed and walks down the hallway past his vehicles and down the stairs towards his work desk.
He removes a handful of meat from the fridge, for the creature and some juice for himself. Next to him, is a cage containing the creature, a class 3 sub-specie from it's not so distant family, vampires, covered with a blanket. He throws the meat in there and the creature goes ham.
He sits down and goes through his dairy, bored out of his mind until he notices the date, the 21st of June.
“Shit, so it’s today.” he said as he scrolls through his computer.
Documents show up of a private residence and it’s previous owners along with a police investigation case. Quade opens a drawer and brings out a box which he removes a blade, with ancient drawings written all over it and stores it in his back-strap. He grabs his keys, gets in his car and drives off to the library.
He arrives there, walks to the main desk, and has a brief social conversation with Ms. Walters. He then asks for any records from the 1970’s which she showed him to the backroom, where stacks of shelves with boxes are, containing years and years of information that was not digitized yet.
“well, yelp.Better get to reading then” he said.
Ms. Walters replied, “Good luck!”.
He walks down the isle, following the years, reading through old articles and news papers. Couple of boxes later, he finally found the page, ‘Murder in Home, Father of two, poisoned his children.’, an article about a man who killed his children, then killed himself, was deemed insane at the same residence.
House was sold off to newcomers but locals were convinced witches moved into that house, cursed it, and moved out. Those who inhabit in it will suffer indefinite death as new residents were found dead every ten years on the 21st of June. House was abandoned since early 2000’s.
Quade takes the article with him, and goes to the main desk. He sees Lauren, packing books onto the shelf. They briefly look at each other before he moved on.
He asked Ms. Walters about the new employee, where he learns a few things about her. She offered to introduce her to him but Quade denied and left.
He drove to the police station, hoping to get some ID on the murderer & and the missing wife. He walks in, and immediately exchanges insults to one of the officers, for fun. Not a lot happens in the public, so police are not that active. All they can do is wait around, do paperwork and eat donuts.
One good officer, Sergeant Baker, 45, is Quade’s go-to for police assistance. An old friend of his predecessor, Henri Nolan, who is not around anymore.
Quade asks for the details of the deceased suspect and an ID on the wife. Sergeant Baker hands him a printed document of the wife’s details and her current whereabouts. She resides in an old age home, across town. Quade looks at his watch, realizing there’s not much time left.
He Rushes towards the old age home, walks up to the receptionist and asks for the wife, Ms. Holland, formerly Ms. McLean. The receptionist called a nurse, Rebecca, 27, who told Quade about her condition, the fact she hasn’t spoke in years. A constant state of shock. Quade sees her regardless, sitting on a wheelchair below a tree, alone.
He walks up to her, looks closely and waves his hand in front of her. She doesn’t flinch. He knew, simple introduction was useless and went straight to the point.
He Showed her a picture of her kids and told her about the situation. She finally looked at it and given some type of response. Rebecca was surprised and curious as she could only watch from a far but not hear what they’re talking about.
Quade asks about what happened between her and her former husband.
“There’s something wrong with that house Ms. Holland, I need to know what happen that night.” he said.
She still doesn't respond.
“There are people dying in that house, ever since that night. Whatever is there, never left. I need to end it, so I ask for you assistance in this matter, please.” he pleads.
Still no respond from her. Quade was about to give up, until she finally said something.
“Witchcraft” she said.
“He was obsessed, At first I thought it was for fictional amusement. He always liked reading. Then he started reading books about the ghosts, monsters, curses and eventually he started collecting bones, odd stones and all kinds of things, but it wasn’t the worse of it. He said he finally made contact and that he’s talking to a spirit. Every night he would lock himself in his work office and just mumble to himself. I was worried” she said as she breaks into tears.
“I should’ve acted sooner, so they… so they would’ve been alive.” she continued mumbling.
“what happened after?” he asked.
“He drags the kids, I tried to stop him-- but that thing appeared.” She replied.
“what thing? Ms. Holland, what thing?” he said as he pressured her.
She didn’t respond but struggled to utter the words as she was having a flashback of her laying on the ground, watching her kids get dragged into the dark hallway by their father, where a devious form of evil appeared from his office, she saw it’s hand grab her kids. The father, down on his knees continues worshiping the deity in his presence and offered his children's soul as sacrifice.
She runs out the house and never looked back. Quade asked her to leave with him and go back there to end it for once and for all. She yelled no and started to act out.
“I will not go back there, let me be!” she said while breaking down until the nurse intervened.
“All right that’s enough! You need to leave mister.” she said.
Quade continues, speaking louder “There is lives on the line, not just your own kids. If you refuse now, others will suffer the same fate. You don’t have a choice”.
The nurse becomes hostile, “Leave or I’m calling security!”.
Quade walks off, stressed out as he looks at his watch, knowing he’s run out of time.
He pauses for a moment and thinks carefully about what he’s about to do next.
He shouts, “Your kids are still alive”.
Ms. Holland stopped panicking and muttered in disbelief, “what?”.
“There’s not much time left, I’m offering you an opportunity, it’s now or never.” he said.
The nurse wouldn't allow Ms.Holland to leave the old age home, which forced Qade to sneak her out at a convenient time.
Back at the library, Lauren finishes her first day’s work and is ready to go home. She walks the same path back, roads were quiet unlike the big city she was from, hardly anyone walking the streets. All she could hear was one or two cars honking, a dog barking every two minutes or so from a distance.
She finally arrived at her residence, goes inside and locks the door. As she walked towards the lounge she saw a man standing there, looking at her directly with a straight posture, clothes neatly worn with glasses, 1970’s look in a creepy way.
Lauren froze with fear. The man, Mr. McLean, looked at Lauren and continued to say, “You’re not my wife”.
Lauren visibly confused with fear asked, “How.. did you get in here?”.
She walks back slowly and makes a run for it to the door but he somehow he instantly stood in front of it and continued yelling “You’re are not her!”.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Lauren pleads for her life: “No...wait, please-- wait” as she trips backwards and falls to the floor.
Mr. McLean started acting insanely violent, forced himself on top of her and just wrapped his hands around her neck. She tried to fight back but she couldn’t touch him. Her hands would phase through his body like he was some type of ghost.
As he was about to strangle Lauren to death, squeaks could be heard. McLean shouts “Who’s There?”.
It was briefly silent, and out of the blue, all they could hear was “It’s Britney Bitch”.
The song ‘Gimme more’ by Britney spears played so loud, it got McLean to get off Lauren and check out where the sound was coming from.
Lauren catches her breath for bit, but Quade appears, quietly moving to pick Lauren up and signals her to move silently towards the door.
McLean was visibly confused as he saw a portable speaker producing the loud sound. He crushes it and the music stops. McLean walks through the walls, to the lounge and sees Quade and Lauren trying to escape.
Quade tries to fight the ghost, knowing he’s punches will have no effect, but enough to distract him so that Lauren escapes, but McLean moved too fast. He prevented her from leaving the house but when the door was opened, McLean sees Ms. Holland standing there.
In his eyes, her image is the same as the day she left, although for others, she’s an old lady.
“Maize?, you came back” he said.
She stands there trembling at the edge of the doorway, outside the house, with one arm behind her back.
The ghost can’t leave the interior of the premises therefore no harm could be done to her. McLean insists she enter the house but she doesn’t move an inch towards him.
Behind her back, she has the blade that was given to her by Quade prior to arriving at the residence. It can’t be used by Quade quite yet because the blade has conditions it needs to meet. First, it needs personal feelings in order for it to be effective like a car needs fuel. Once the conditions are met, The blade can used to stab the ghost in order to sever it’s existence from reality.
Ms. Holland pleads, “Just give me my children back...”.
McLean replied with joy, “you don’t understand, this world does not belong to us. I’ve send them somewhere where they will be safe”.
Quade then shouts, “No you haven’t. You meddled with forces beyond your comprehension. You damned your kids to death”.
McLean turns around denying Quade’s accusation, charging towards him.
Quade maneuvers his way across the rooms but that didn’t help since McLean can run through walls. He makes his way to the door, and asks for the blade.
“blade, Now!” he shouts but McLean catches him again, and strangles him up against the wall.
Lauren is cornered, just standing there, not knowing what to do.
“They’re waiting for you Maize, They are crying for their mother to return.” said McLean.
The stakes are high, although Ms. Holland acted odd and walks into the house. Quade nods his head and tries to signal her to get back out.
“Don’t, no!” he screamed while being strangled.
McLean tells her that he can take her to them, which she momentarily believed him.
Quade struggling to breathe said: “I lied, your kids are gone, they are not coming back.” Down the hallway, two kids were standing there saying “Mommy” with joy. Quade looks at them with disbelief.
He continues to alert Ms. Holland that those were not her kids. She stood there with joy and said “My babies...”. She drops the blade and walks towards McLean, who has his right arm stretch out towards her while strangling Quade with his left arm.
Ms. Holland stands in front of McLean, completely manipulated by him. “We can be a family again” he said. The kids walks towards them and as that was happening, Quade notices Lauren picking up the blade and running towards McLean, in which Quade kicked Ms. Holland out of the way, Giving room for Lauren to stab him straight on and she succeeded.
McLean disintegrates into a million particles as he scream with agony, "No!".
Ms. Holland breaks down in tears, enraged while being forcibly dragged out the house and sedated. “No, my children!” she screamed. Quade calls the nurse from the old age home to come get Ms. Holland who is heavily sedated.
“I’m going to torch the place. I suggest you take your belongings and pack them in the boot.” he said as he brings out a 5L petrol canister out the boot of his car and heads into the residence, pouring the fuel all over the place.
Lauren gathered her items and waited outside by the car. The nurse arrived and took Ms. Holland to her vehicle. Quade warned her that she might act out from time to time, and that they should really keep her away from anything dangerous.
“After tonight, she might get suicidal so keep watch on her, closely.” he said.
Rebecca continued to judge Quade for his lack of sympathy before leaving with Ms. Holland. Quade set the house on fire and the two just stared at it, calmly.
“Fuck. How am I supposed to pay the damages.” said Lauren with hopelessness.
Quade replied with confusion, “You were nearly killed by a ghost and that is what’s bothering you right now.”
Lauren continues, “I wouldn’t have to worry about it if I was dead. My life is ruined.”.
“You won’t have to. I own the place.” he said.
Lauren visibly confused: “what?”.
Quade continues elaborating, “Bought it a decades ago, not me but my mentor. Planned it for this specific moment. This only happens once every ten years, I don't know why, but it needed to end”.
It took Lauren a moment before she realized.
“You used me as bait.” she said.
Quade replied, “I’m not proud of it, but I did what was necessary. On top of that, you handled yourself pretty well in there”.
Lauren was clearly not on the same page as this all unexpectedly fell upon her. She was about to ask a few more questions but was interrupted.
“You have two options now, One you can remember everything that happen tonight for the rest of your life, or I can temporarily erase your memory using this cognitive drug and all this will feel like it was just a dream. It's safe." he said as he show her the bottle.
Lauren momentarily thinks about it and decides she’ll remember. Quade accepted her decision and asked her to get into the car, where he will drop her off at a motel. Lauren insisted on seeking more answers from him and as annoying as it was, he agreed to answer her questions.
“Fine, I’ll tell you what you want to know, I’m hungry anyway. There’s a diner not too far from here, might as well pop by.” he said.
They packed her items into the boot of the car, entered the vehicle and drove off to the Diner. They arrive there, picked a table and sat down. The waitress, Patty, 22, and childhood friend of Quade, approaches them.
He introduces her to Lauren and they familiarized themselves with each other. The two gave their orders and Patty left to prep the food. While they were waiting, he asked Lauren personal questions.
“What brings you to Newfound Valley?” he asked.
“Other than trying to get killed by ghosts, I’m in my third year, studying Archaeology. So, I tried looking for libraries willing to support me but most of them were already full, until I came across Ms. Walter’s vacancy. I contacted her and the rest followed, now here I am and after tonight, I’m not so sure anymore.” she replied.
“I thought archaeology and being a librarian was two different things.” he said.
“It is, but I’m not sure which I want to dedicate my life to. I really want to do both. Now you answer me, what are you? Some type of ghost buster?” she asked.
“Sort of. Things go on in this town that’s just terrifying but other times, beautiful I’d say. Ghosts are rarely an issue here but they’re tricky. There’s always some type of personal reason for what they do, which makes it harder to end it, like tonight. I lied about her kids just to get her there, someone who’s already been through enough and now has to relive it, again. My Predecessor always insisted to lower your humanity, in order to do what’s necessary to protect others. If he saw me lacking tonight, he definitely would’ve killed me, but he ain’t around.” he replied.
Lauren apologizes for the loss.
“Don’t be. If there’s one thing I know for sure about him is he will do anything but walk into the light.” he said as he chuckles.
“I thought you’d be more secretive to tell me about what you do. Why are you telling me this?” she asked curiously.
“let’s call it, fate.” he replied.
As Lauren was about to ask him to clarify what he meant by that, Patty brings the food and joins in on the conversation.
“So what y'all taking about?” she asked.
“Why she came to Newfound, Varsity program. Looks like we have a new Librarian in town.” said Quade as Lauren was about to reply.
“Oh Cool, so listen, I know you’re new in town and you must be exhausted I think, so me and a few girls are going to have a ladies night out tomorrow and was wondering will you care to join?” she asked.
“You should go, it’s a great opportunity to get to know the people around here.” he said.
Lauren agrees.
“Great, so where should we pick you up?” asked Patty.
“I’m registering her at Joe’s motel for a while.” he said.
Patty disgusted, shoves Quade's shoulder and continued to say, “Joe’s mot...no! That place is disgusting. what’s wrong with you? I have an extra room available in my apartment, I’ll be happy to let you stay at my place and also split the bill obviously but that can come later. I think it’ll work great for the both of us. My shift ends in half an hour, we can go there together”.
Lauren is happy with the offer and agrees to stay at her place.
“Alright, that’s settled. I’m starving so let me eat.” said Quade.
a Local walks in and sits down, waiting for Patty.
“Duty calls.” said patty and she heads back to work.
“Does she know?” asked Lauren.
“No, and I like to keep it that way. It is for the best.” he replied.
Lauren nods her head and continues to ask, “I figured you already know my name since you owned the house, I forgot to ask, your name?”.
“It’s Quade. Quade Phoenix.” he replied.
“Tell me more about the blade? Are there other items like that, do you collect them? Can I examine some?” she asked as she felt thrilled.
“Slow down, first of all these are not just collectible items you put in some case, for the whole world to come see. These are dangerous items, emphasis on the word Dangerous, is not to meant for the public eye” he replied.
“I want to know more, you can’t really expect me to unlearn what I just saw.” Lauren argued but he continues elaborating.
“Although-- Although there are other things you can come by. I do have some of the more harmless things locked up in storage. You can start there I guess.” he said.
Lauren was thankful and Patty’s shift ended.
They leave the diner and Quade's car. He drops them off at Patty’s apartment and went their separate ways. Patty walks Lauren into her new apartment, shows her around and gave her a spare key.
“--and here is your room, I’m sorry about the mess, I’ll get that all cleaned up now.” she said.
“No it’s okay, it’s been a long night, we could do it tomorrow.” said Lauren.
“ugh you're the best.” said Patty comically as she goes to her room and prepares to sleep. Lauren does the same. Back at Quade’s base of operations, known as the Bunker, behind a bookshelf is a secret door leading down to an underground tunnel that hosts several prison cells. He walks down the aisle until reaching a particular cell, with bulletproof glass covering the entrance.
It was dark inside, the lights slowly fade in through using a motion sensor. Quade makes himself comfortable by grabbing the bench behind him and sitting down on it.
“It’s been 521 days or so already. I’m close this time, I found a way, Um --I don’t know what to--” said Quade, distressed.
Within the cell, a figure walks toward Quade, Henri Nolan, 54, Former Kal Blade. Stuck in a zombie-like state, making growls and hitting his head against the glass.
“-- Mark my words you old man, I’ll get you out of there, just hang on a little longer.” said Quade as he left the cell and went back up. The room fades into darkness as Henri just stood still, watching time pass by in the dark, empty space.