Paradise Road
Kat de Falla
Paradise Road
By: Kat de Falla
Copyright 2016 by Kat de Falla
Sun Moon Arts
Watertown, WI 53094
www.sunmoonarts.com
Discover other titles by Kat de Falla:
The Seer’s Lover
Darkwalker
Flying Mutant Zombie Rats
First Contact (Kat Green)
Paradise Road
Nicky’s white knuckles gripped the steering wheel at a proper ten and two. She tried to relax her grip. “I know we don’t talk much at school, but I invited you out tonight because I need your help.”
“I can’t help you,” Tracey answered. She wore black from head-to-toe, complete with thick eyeliner. She drummed her nails on the car’s dashboard.
Nicky took a left on Paradise Road. “Erin’s still there. I know it.”
The full moon seemed to be lighting her way to the quarter mile haunted stretch of Paradise Road outside of the small town of Jefferson, Wisconsin, where everyone knew the rules: never stop the car, never get out of the car, and never go into the woods on the left hand side. Two nights ago, Nicky disobeyed the rules and now her best friend was missing. They got separated and no one had seen or heard from her since. Nicky had heard her chilling scream and called 9-1-1. Today, authorities had called off the search. But Nicky wouldn’t give up. She took a deep breath and lifted one hand off the steering wheel, flipping it over to stare at it. She couldn’t see it shaking but every neuron in her body told her she was quivering on the inside.
“Let the police find her,” Tracey said.
“They’ve given up,” Nicky snapped.
The haunted section of the road was marked by a canopy of overhanging oak trees and spray painted signs reading: KEEP OFF and DANGER. Nicky felt the air thicken and the temperature drop. She slowed the car to a crawl. Fog swirled on the road and a stiff autumn wind tossed the dead leaves. Slivers of pale moonlight made shadows on the road.
“Can’t you help? Everyone knows you have that sixth sense thing,” Nicky could feel her heartbeat in her throat and her hand tremor became visible.
Tracey rolled up her window. “It’s not safe in there for you and I’m sorry to be the one to tell you this, but Erin is gone.”
“No, she’s not!” Nicky caught the sight of something rustling in the underbrush. She slammed on her brakes as a creature skittered into the middle of the road.
A raccoon. Without a head.
The animal stopped and twisted its neck in their direction, fresh blood spurting from a severed artery but leaving no trace on the road.
“There!” Nicky slammed the car in park and whipped open her door.
Tracey grabbed her arm. “Last warning. Don’t get out of the car.”
Untangling herself, Nicky left the vehicle and pursued the raccoon on foot. The weight of the woods seemed to push on her lungs and she gulped to get more air. The evening fog smothered her from every direction. She smelled damp leaves, mold, and rotting despair. Branches broke in the direction of the creature’s disappearance. She sped up and found old tire tracks of mud. She quickened her pace, moving deeper and deeper into the abyss. Every time she heard a noise, her heart stopped.
“Erin!” she shouted. She glimpsed the raccoon under a tree and then it vanished. The tire tracks ended and she stood under a towering oak with a ladder leaning up against it. Her eyes drifted upwards. Five tattered nooses were tied to a long branch.
Behind her, leaves rustled and a branch cracked. “Who’s there?” She spun around. Tracey seemed to materialize out of the fog. Nicky let out of a sigh. “I think I found something. That raccoon disappeared right here and look,” she said, gesturing to the ropes. “Do you think people have committed suicide here?”
“No,” Tracey said. “They were hung.”
A violent wave of nausea hit Nicky. She doubled over and clung to the trunk of the tree with one hand while she puked. Beads of cold sweat dotted her forehead. “What the hell happened here?”
Tracey’s eyes glazed over as she stared at the nooses. “My people were murdered here by locals. During a ritual.” She smiled at Nicky. “The entire coven. Hung by your ancestors. And Erin’s.”
In a flash, Tracey saw the pentagram, heard the witches’ incantations and inhaled the incense. Then the locals emerged, bundles of rope heavy in their hands. The women screamed and cursed while they were bound and the nooses affixed. Their necks snapped in succession and the silence of death took up residence in the woods with their trapped spirits.
Nicky held her hands up and backed away. “I didn’t know. How could I know?” She hit something solid behind her. A cloaked and hooded figure hissed, “Ssshe’s one of ttthem.”
Nicky screamed.
“She’s yours,” Tracey said.
Four more figures appeared on the tire tracks from the pentagram’s other corners. The beings advanced. “Tracey, you have to help me!”
“Ssshe’s one of ttthem,” they repeated.
Nicky ran, trying to break between two of the beings. But a sharp pain like a jagged pitchfork hammered into her back. She screamed and arched her head back as another set of claws swiped her back and ripped through her shirt to her skin. They were on top of her and dragged her to the base of the tree. She could see Tracey’s boots, then everything went black.
Blind and crawling on all fours, panic sliced through her bones.
“Nicky,” she heard Erin’s voice. “Is that you?”
* * *
Tracey shoved her icy hands in the pockets of her pants as she retraced her steps to Nicky’s car. She collapsed in the driver’s seat and swallowed the bile in her mouth before she floored the vehicle only to immediately hit the brakes.
Two decapitated raccoons emerged from the left hand side of the road. They craned their headless necks in her direction.
Her Wiccan ancestors wanted revenge.
And what her ancestor’s wanted, Tracey knew better than to refuse.
Thank you for reading my book. If you liked it, could you please
leave me a review at your favorite retailer? Thanks! Kat
About the Author:
Kat was born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin where she learned to roller skate, ride a banana seat bike, and love Shakespeare. She holds a Doctor of Pharmacy degree and is happily employed as a retail pharmacist. She is married to her soul mate, composer Lee de Falla and raising four kids together ala the Brady Bunch.
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Kat’s other books:
DARK FANTASY
THE 7 ARCHANGELS SERIES
The Seer's Lover
For years, Calise Rowe has been able to sense unusual energy from people, making her believe she is different. Pulled into an ancient war raging for centuries between demon hunters and seers, she's about to find out she's right.
Her search for the truth leads her to Lucas Rojas, a seer of angels and demons who walk the earth shrouded from normal human eyes. He's hidden his gift for years and refuses to endanger Calise by sharing it with her.
In the sultry Costa Rican Jungles, their worlds collide. As their passion and desire ignite, so does the ancient war between demons and seers. Will their combined efforts be enough to save themselves and the entire human world, or will their new found love be their downfall?
PARANORMAL SUSPENSE
HAUNTS FOR SALE SERIES
First Contact (co-written with Rachel Green) by: Kat Green
Sloane Osborne is a paranormal realtor in the business of selling haunted houses but, in truth, she’s only searching for one ghost. And her time is running out. It’s the 366th day after her fiancé’s death. Michael used to like putting things off for “a year and a day”—so tonight’s the night. Sloane will do anything to make contact with him before the clock strikes midnight. When she gets a call to check out a home in Waukesha, Wisconsin, it’s the last place she thinks Michael would contact her. Sloane is dead wrong.
MIDDLE GRADE
MOTO MADDIE’S BMX PORTAL
Flying Mutant Zombie Rats
Summer vacation is almost here! And Pea O'Neil is stoked to try out the new local BMX track which is finally open. He and his gang of friends can ride all summer long!
But when Pea tries a back flip, he unwittingly opens a portal to another dimension and hordes of flying mutant zombie rats are unleashed upon the city. With the help of an otherworldly talking cat sent to help prevent the demise of humankind, Pea and his friends must hunt down the hungry mutants and send them back before the portal closes.
But when the zombie rats attack a neighbor man, the boys have to enlist the help of a graveyard looney and the city's stray cats. With time running out, Pea and his gang track the monsters to the city's sewer system. But in the city sewer of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, it’s eat…or get eaten.
