Ultimate Supernatural Horror Box Set

Grand Haven, Michigan

Sara

“What do you want?” she said into the phone, her voice so soft she could barely hear it.

“It’s the FBI. We’re here to help you get your son back.”

Sara blinked, then shook the cobwebs from her head. The fear she’d been feeling was replaced with something else. Something she hadn’t experienced in so long she’d forgotten what it felt like.

Hope.

“Jack?” she croaked.

“Yes, Jack. Open the door, and we can talk about it.”

“I… uh… gimme a minute.”

The fear came back, and her mind twisted in two. To have her child again would be a miracle. It would, quite literally, save her life.

But there was also a chance this was a trick. Sara knew there were bad people in the world. She’d had to endure some of the worst that humanity had to offer. This call could be connected to all the bad things from her past. Or it could be some new predator, looking for an opportunity.

As she considered her options, Sara quickly changed out of her soiled sweatpants, tossing them into the shower and shimmying into some jeans. Then she went into her kitchenette, seeking the gun. She found it on the floor, next to an old pizza box, and peeked through the curtains at the entrance to her trailer.

Two men in suits. They stared right at Sara, as if they’d anticipated her looking at them. Both held gold badges. Sara wondered if the shields were real or not, then realized it didn’t matter. They could kick in her flimsy trailer door with less energy than it took to sneeze. If these men wanted to get in, they easily could. But so far, they’d opted for the polite approach.

So maybe they were FBI and telling the truth. Or maybe they’d try to kill her. In either case, there wasn’t anything she could do to stop them. The gun she held only had one bullet in it. Sara hadn’t ever expected to use it for self-defense.

She placed her hand on the front door knob, feeling as if she were inviting trouble inside. But the reality was, no matter what they could do to her, it couldn’t be worse than what had already been done.

Sara unlocked it and opened the door.

“Can we come in?”

Sara nodded, stepping aside. She gestured to her cheap dinette set, one of the chairs wobbly. The cool, fresh air from outside made her realize how sour the smell was in her trailer, and she caught an acrid stench similar to spoiled milk. The men came in and stood there, seemingly oblivious to the mess around them. And a mess it was. Dishes piled high in the sink. Fast food wrappers strewn about. A garbage can filled to overflowing. A single strip of fly paper hanging from the overhead light, speckled with dozens of the dead.

But Sara didn’t care what they thought of the mess, or if they judged her. She just wanted to know if they were speaking the truth about Jack.

Neither man made a move to sit down. They were taller than they seemed to be when standing outside. Beefier, too. More like pro wrestlers than FBI guys.

“So, you’re in,” she forced herself to talk slowly, deliberately. “What do you want?”

“We know what happened on Rock Island.”

Sara may have flinched at that, but she still had enough liquor in her system to mask her reaction. Rock Island—which she thought of as Plincer’s Island—was the cause for her current situation.

“You went through a lot,” he continued. His eyes, and expression were blank. “But you survived. It must have been quite an ordeal.”

Sara wasn’t going to get into a conversation about the past, especially about what happened on that island. “What about Jack?”

“The government has a proposition for you. We want to help.”

The sneer formed on her lips before she could stop it. “The government? They’re the ones who took my baby.”

The agent continued. So far his partner hadn’t spoken. “Child Protective Services took Jack. You were caught doing sixty miles an hour in a thirty mile zone, and he wasn’t in a car seat.”

“I… I’d left the car seat in the house.”

“You blew a one point eight.”

Sara considered responding, but the fight had long been beaten out of her.

Yes, she was a drunk. After Plincer’s Island, alcohol was the only thing that drowned out the nightmares. She came away from it scared and broke, and the DUI had been the final nail in her coffin of failure. Sara had to sell the house to pay for her legal fees, and still spent six months in jail for wreckless endangerment. When she got out, and was unable to get Jack back from the foster home the state had stuck him in. She was a single parent with a criminal record, no means of employment, and many—including the judge—were dubious of her role in the Rock Island Massacre. Without money for a good lawyer, Sara went back to drinking, winding up in this shit hole trailer park, trying to find the guts to eat that single bullet.

“How can you help?” she whispered.

“There’s an experimental program, going on this weekend. If you volunteer for it, you’ll be given one million dollars, and we’ll work with CPS to get your son back.”

Sara snorted. “A million bucks, and Jack? This is a joke, right?”

“It’s for real, Sara.” He reached into his jacket, took out some folded papers. “The details are in here.”

“What’s the program? Some sort of rehab?” As she said it Sara found herself looking around the kitchenette for any alcohol that might be left over.

The silent one finally spoke. “It’s about fear.”

Sara stared at him, and his smile was chilling.

“Fear?”

The other one continued. “You understand fear better than most people. The government wants to study how you react to fear.”

“Why?”

“Understanding fear can lead to controlling it. Certainly you can see the advantages to that.”

Sara’s brow crinkled. “So this is a fear study? Do they hook me up to some machine, then make me watch scary movies?”

The quiet one let out a chuckle. “Oh, it’s a bit more complicated than that…”