Travis Kincaid should
have been tired. Typically, a person
would be after running barely a mile at a full sprint through a dodgy forest in
the dead of night. Still, despite
gasping for air, he kept the pace. The
adrenalin pumping through his system as well as the cold stark terror raging
through his mind kept him going. He was
focused solely on running, and the fact that he had entered those woods with
two dear friends was not even registering with him anymore. The October night air was crisp and cold, and
that cold was radiating through him as he greedily gasped it in. The moonlight overhead gave him enough light
to make his way through the woods without running into too many trees.
Travis nearly smiled
when he caught sight of the edge of the woods.
Beyond that was a modest field where his friend's car was parked. It did not matter that he did not have a key
to the car; he was just desperate to get there, as if somehow reaching the car
would mean he would be safe. He was
hoping to get in the car and lock himself in, if anything to give him enough
time to use his cell phone to call for help.
He needed only a few more strides to clear the woods.
He did not make it.
* * * * *
In the weeks that had
followed CC Tucker's trying incident in her dorm room a lot had changed for
her. On the surface everything seemed
the same. Her roommate, Tonya, was
blissfully pledging to Kappa Theta Kappa and had dismissed the entire incident
to the gas leak explanation offered. CC
continued attending her classes, but now paid extra attention in Doctor Rodgers'
Anthropology course. She enjoyed hanging
out with her friends around campus, even though she had not joined any social
clubs.
Instead she had joined
a secret society of sorts.
Doctor Carson Rodgers
and Doctor Dante Amethyst maintained a very extensive library in the basement
of the Ellis Building. While this was
known to the senior faulty, the majority of the student body, and much of the
staff were oblivious to it. The library
was packed with books, many of them in languages CC couldn't read and some
older than the university itself. The
library was a single room, and it smelled of old books, which CC disliked at
first but had quickly gotten used to.
The table and chairs where oak and while still sturdy hadn't been
maintained very well with nick and scratches marring their former beauty.
The society itself was
a small one. Doctors Rodgers and Amethyst
were experts in parapsychology and what they referred to simply as
"lore". The incident that had
happened in CC's dorm room was ugly, but not an isolated thing. In fact it seemed there were much worse
things, and the two doctors were experts in understanding them. They were experts in dealing with them as
well. Both men were well into their forties,
but kept themselves up quite well.
Rodgers was quite warm and friendly outside of the classroom and did his
best to make CC feel safe and welcome within the group. Amethyst, while not unfriendly, was a bit
more reserved. He obviously had many
questions about what CC had endured, but Rodgers kept him from being too
pressing with his questions.
CC herself was there
for one reason only: she refused to be a victim. While she had a basic understanding of what
happened, the weird things that happened in the room and the possession, she
needed to know more. She knew now that
there was more to her world that she previously assumed, and was determined to
know whatever she could to make sure nothing could attempt to take advantage of
her again. She had compounded her new
studies with some extra time in the fitness center. The young hazel-eyed blonde seemed the same
as when she arrived on campus, but there was new strength in her.
She had gotten to know
the other's in the group a bit better.
Chad Armstrong was a graduate student studying mainly under Doctor
Rodgers. He was bright, personable, and
seemed quite knowledgeable as to the various supernatural goings-on that the
group was keenly interested in. CC had
also recently learned that Chad studied Wing Chun Kung-Fu, and was hoping that
he’d show her a few moves. Gabe Gunther
was quite different, at least as far as CC was concerned. He was a little younger than the doctors, but
not an academic. Gunther was previously
in the Army and had been a Ranger. He
seemed to be more of a bodyguard to the Doctors than anything else. While, he seemed nice enough to the others he
still looked upon CC as the new girl and seemed a bit dismissive of her.
The Ellison brothers
were still a bit of a mystery. While
Tommy hung around the group quite a bit and was nice, in a goofy kind of way;
James had only stopped in maybe twice since she met him and seemed determined
to keep his distance. It was obvious to
her that there was something going on with them that the others were keeping
from her, but she did not ask. While, she was considered part of the group now
it was clear that everyone wanted to make sure things were going to work out
before she got full disclosure on everything.
So when she walked
into the library and the doctors, Chad, and Gabe were in a heated discussion
she hesitated a bit before she asked what was going on.
“I don’t like this,
Doc. Sending one person to checkout a
ley line flux is never a good idea.” Gabe leaned against the table and had his
thickly muscled arms crossed. CC was not
sure if he was scowling since he always seemed to look mean when she was
around.
“Ley line.” CC recalled.
“Those are the invisible line of psychic energy that crisscross around
the planet, and when they flux that means something big and supernatural
happened… right?”
“Just about.” Rodgers
smiled and shot a glance at the others letting them know that he was a bit
impressed with how CC remembered that. “A
flux could mean “something big and supernatural” but this was not a huge
flux. So, it could possibly be nothing.”
“Still, I don’t like
the idea of just one person checking into this.” Gabe countered. “Amethyst needs one person to go with him to
New Mexico. You have to stay here to
make sure nothing else pops up. That
leaves one of us to go to Nicholstown.”
“Nicholstown? I live right by there.” CC chimed in
again. The men looked at here, and then
at each other. Chad was smiling a bit.
“Define ‘right by
there’.” Gabe looked at her.
“I grew up in the next
town over, Genesse, and spent a lot of time in Nicholstown.”
“That will definitely
help in investigating since she knows the area.” Chad said with a shrug and a
smile. “Should be fine for her first ‘field
trip’.”
“I’m fine with it as
well.” Offered Rodgers. “Feel like taking a little trip home?”
“Sure, but who’s going with me?”
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