“I…did it for…you,” Gordon spat and sputtered to the preacher. “All of them. Even Rebecca…”
Rebecca? Mom’s ghost woman?
The goats stirred again, hooves scraping the desecrated dirt, the air rich and warm with the scent of blood. Jett tugged her mom’s arm, trying to pull her into the sane and dark concealment of the corn, but Katy shrugged her off. With a final scream of rage, Katy scrambled to her feet and shoved Gordon so hard that the pole penetrated all the way through his torso until the slimy tip was exposed.
“You killed Mark!” Katy yelled, backing away. Gordon’s eyes clouded, his face sickly pale in the ambience of the preacher’s strange glow.
“Come on, Mom,” Jett said, eyeing the goats who were now rearing and bleating and stomping.
As Katy relented and let herself be pulled from the clearing, Jett took one last look when she heard Gordon emit a bone-rattling groan.
The Horseback Preacher was hoisting up Gordon so that he hung from the pole like a scarecrow, and the goats closed in to feed.
As she and Katy put distance between themselves and the horror they’d just witnessed, Jett couldn’t tell where the bleating ended and the screaming began.
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
“A light,” Katy said. “Over there.”
When she’d first seen it, she’d thought they had gotten turned around in the dark rows and were back at the clearing. But the wedge of light was more orange-red than the illumination cast by the preacher’s skin. As they pushed through the stalks and grew nearer, Katy was positive it was a flashlight.
And she found it just as Jett wailed, in a chilling mockery of a goat’s bleat, “Daaaad.”
Katy collected the light and swiveled the beam to where Jett knelt over Mark. His eyes were closed and his mouth was slack, and he looked for all the world like a corpse. But he snorted and moaned, an ember of life still smoldering away despite the deep gouge in his shoulder.
“Hurry,” Katy said. “Put your jacket over him.”
“He’s gonna die,” Jett whispered as she obeyed.
Katy pulled her daughter’s face away from the mangled form of her father and aimed the beam so they could see each other’s faces. “Not yet.”
Jett bit her lip, smearing black lipstick, and then nodded, her eyes bright with tears but still defiant and determined. “Okay. But what if the preacher…?”
“It could have already killed us if it wanted.” Katy shucked off her blouse and ripped the cotton fabric in half, winding the two strips around Mark’s shoulder as best she could. She noted the red bandage on his wrist and wondered if he’d already lost too much blood to survive.
Jett laid her jacket across Mark’s chest and tucked the edges around him. “Maybe we could drag him,” Jett said. “At least get him out of the cornfield.”
“We better leave him here and go get help.” The house with its welcoming, lighted windows seemed miles away, but it was only a few hundred yards.
“You go,” Jett said. “I’ll stay with him.”
Katy looked back across the swaying tassels. “The goats…”
“Pretty sure they’ll be full, Mom.”
Katy nodded, handing the light to Jett. “Keep him warm.”
She galloped through the cornfield, heading straight down a dark row. Soon she burst into open meadow, and the sky that had seemed a suffocating blanket was now wide and fresh and clear, sprinkled with stars, the faint moon glinting in the dewy grass. Reaching the house, she ran through the open door and grabbed the phone.
Dead.
As she passed the living room, she glanced inside and saw the scarecrow sitting in the chair. She gasped, thinking it was Gordon somehow back from the dead. Then she realized it was the female scarecrow from the attic.
Its head was now attached to its stuffed body and was reclined as if in sleep. The stitched mouth seemed to be smiling.
Rest in peace, Rebecca.
Katy switched on the porch lights, pushing back more of the darkness. She retraced her route back into the cornfield, heading toward the flashlight beam. She was glad the preacher’s aura wasn’t bright enough to reveal the mutilated silhouette of Gordon, who had finally fulfilled his deepest fantasy—he had become legend.
“What happened?” Jett said.
“Phone’s dead. Gordon must have cut the wires.”
Jett fumbled in the pocket of the leather jacket that lay across Mark. She held up her cell phone. “Twenty-first century, Mom. You ought to try living in it sometime.”
“Why didn’t you give that to me ten minutes ago?”
“The only place you can get a signal is the top floor of the barn.”
“Oh.”
Katy listened to the softly sighing Solom night for a moment.
“You chicken?” Jett said. “Want me to go?”
“I’m not chicken. I’m chickenshit.”
Katy headed back to the meadow and the dark barn that lay beyond it. She turned before she was out of sight of Jett kneeling at her father’s side.
“We’ll get through this together, just like I promised,” Katy said. “All of us. Okay?”
Jett nodded, the veil of worry lifting just enough to reveal the girl inside. “I know.”
By the time she reached the barnyard, Katy was exhausted. She wasn’t eager to battle her way through the goats. But she discovered the gate was open and the animals were gone.
She braced herself and entered the brooding barn. The only sounds were the soft clucking of roosting chickens and the creaking of old wood. She powered up the cell phone and used its light to illuminate her path up the stairs. By the time she reached the loft, she was damp with nervous sweat.
When the bars on the phone revealed she had a decent signal, she punched in 9-1-1, wondering what she was going to say.
Before she got an answer, she glanced out the window. The Horseback Preacher was mounted on a large steed, riding into the forested hills. The goats followed behind him, silent and steady and sturdy. The preacher’s ethereal head bobbed like a lantern on a wire, and she couldn’t be sure, but he seemed to tip his hat in her direction.
A crisp, direct voice came on the line. “This is 9-1-1, where are you calling from?”
Katy heard a soft, scratching whisper behind her and the sweetly decadent scent of lilacs overpowered the smell of straw and manure. Katy glanced around the loft, but she was alone.
At least as alone as she would ever be.
“Solom,” Katy said into the phone. “This is Solom.”
THE END
Preorder Solom #2: The Narrow Gate at Amazon!
Releases Feb. 26, 2014.
After the violent death of Katy Logan’s psychopathic husband, she inherits a farm in the Appalachian Mountain town of Solom.
Determined to protect her teen daughter Jett and not surrender to fear, she builds a new life in the wake of the tragedy. However, the dark forces that drove her husband to madness still lurk in Solom, and a horseback preacher has returned from the grave with a sinister mission. Solom’s slumbering spirits are stirring, the herds of goats are restless, and the townspeople are banding together to ward off the sinister force that threatens to destroy them.
Katy and Jett discover an unexpected ally as they are drawn into the supernatural showdown, but is anyone--or anything--powerful enough to walk away from Solom’s final battleground?
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About the author:
Thanks for visiting Solom. You’re always welcome back, and next time bring a friend. I appreciate your reviews because they help me keep writing stories.
I’m an organic gardener and musician, as well as the international bestselling author of more than 20 thrillers, including The Home, McFall, The Red Church, Liquid Fear, and Speed Dating with the Dead. His books have appeared in the Kindle Top 100 more than a dozen times in five different countri
es. Visit me at AuthorScottNicholson.com, my Facebook author page, or my Amazon Author Central page.
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Thanks to editor Sharon Stogner of Devil In the Details Editing, cover designer Kealan-Patrick Burke, and proofreaders Don Cranford, Samantha Woods, Kellie Ann Harrington,
VIEW OTHER KINDLE BOOKS BY SCOTT NICHOLSON:
Novels
After: First Light
After: The Shock
After: The Echo
The Home
McFall
Solom #2: The Narrow Gate
Creative Spirit
Disintegration
The Red Church
Speed Dating with the Dead
The Skull Ring
Drummer Boy
The Harvest
Kiss Me or Die
Liquid Fear
Chronic Fear
Cursed (with J.R. Rain)
Bad Blood (with J.R. Rain & H.T. Night)
Ghost College (with J.R. Rain)
The Vampire Club (with J.R. Rain)
Spider Web (with J.R. Rain)
Meat Camp (with J.T. Warren)
October Girls
Crime Beat
The Dead Love Longer
Fangs In Vain
Burial to Follow
After: Milepost 291
Story Collections
Curtains
Flowers
Ashes
The First
Zombie Bits
Head Cases
Gateway Drug
Missing Pieces
These Things Happened
American Horror
Children’s Books
If I Were Your Monster (with Lee Davis)
Too Many Witches (with Lee Davis)
Ida Claire (with Lee Davis)
Duncan the Punkin (with Sergio Castro)
BOX SETS
Ethereal Messenger
Mystery Dance
Horror Movies: Three Screenplays
Ghost Box: Six Supernatural Thrillers
Scott Nicholson Library, Vol. 1
Scott Nicholson Library, Vol. 2
Scott Nicholson Library, Vol. 3
Scott Nicholson Library, Vol. 4
Box of Boo (Library, Vol. V)
Mad Stacks: Short Stories Box Set
Bad Stacks: Short Stories Box Set
Odd Stacks: Short Stories Box Set
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After: First Light
After: The Shock
After: The Echo
McFall
Liquid Fear
Chronic Fear
Creative Spirit
The Home
The Gorge
Disintegration
The Red Church
Speed Dating with the Dead
The Skull Ring
Drummer Boy
The Harvest
Kiss Me or Die
Cursed (with J.R. Rain)
Ghost College (with J.R. Rain)
The Vampire Club (with J.R. Rain)
Bad Blood (with J.R. Rain & H.T. Night)
Spider Web (with J.R. Rain)
Meat Camp (with J.T. Warren)
October Girls
Crime Beat
The Dead Love Longer
Burial to Follow
Fangs In Vain
Solom: The Scarecrow
Solom: The Flock
After: Milepost 291
Collections
Curtains
Flowers
Ashes
The First
Zombie Bits
Head Cases
Gateway Drug
Missing Pieces
These Things Happened
Children’s Books
If I Were Your Monster (with Lee Davis)
Duncan the Punkin (with Sergio Castro)
Too Many Witches (with Lee Davis)
Ida Claire (with Lee Davis)
Writing
Write Good or Die
The Indie Journey: Secrets to Writing Success
Omnibus editions
Ethereal Messenger
Mystery Dance
Horror Movies: Three Screenplays
Ghost Box: Six Supernatural Thrillers
Scott Nicholson Library, Vol. 1
Scott Nicholson Library, Vol. 2
Scott Nicholson Library, Vol. 3
Scott Nicholson Library, Vol. 4
Box of Boo: Four Horror Thrillers
Mad Stacks: Short Stories Box Set
Bad Stacks: Short Stories Box Set
Odd Stacks: Short Stories Box Set
Table of Contents
Solom: The Scarecrow
About the Author
Scott’s Kindle links
Scott’s UK Kindle links
Table of Contents
When Katy remarries and brings her teen daughter Jett to the rural Appalachian town of Solom, they di...
SOLOM: THE SCARECROWBy Scott NicholsonPreorder
CHAPTER ONELilacs.
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREECabbage.
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
CHAPTER THIRTY
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN“
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
CHAPTER FORTY
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
About the author:
VIEW OTHER KINDLE BOOKS BY SCOTT NICHOLSON:NovelsAfter: First LightAfter: The Shock
Missing PiecesThese Things HappenedAmerican HorrorChildren’s BooksIf I Were Your Monster
Scott Nicholson Library, Vol. 1Scott Nicholson Library, Vol. 2Scott Nicholson Library, Vol. 3Scott Ni...
VIEW U.K. KINDLE BOOKS BY SCOTT NICHOLSON:After: First LightAfter: The Shock
Table of ContentsSolom: The Scarecrow
Table of Contents
When Katy remarries and brings her teen daughter Jett to the rural Appalachian town of Solom, they di...
SOLOM: THE SCARECROWBy Scott NicholsonPreorder
CHAPTER ONELilacs.
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREECabbage.
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
CHAPTER THIRTY
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN“
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
CHAPTER FORTY
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
About the author:
VIEW OTHER KINDLE BOOKS BY SCOTT NICHOLSON:NovelsAfter: First LightAfter: The Shock
Missing PiecesThese Things HappenedAmerican HorrorChildren’s BooksIf I Were Your Monster
Scott Nicholson Library, Vol. 1Scott Nicholson Library, Vol. 2Scott Nicholson Library, Vol. 3Scott Ni...
VIEW U.K. KINDLE BOOKS BY SCOTT NICHOLSON:After: First LightAfter: The Shock
Table of ContentsSolom: The Scarecrow