FEAST OF THE FEAR

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Authors: Mark Edward Hall
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Jack?”
    She nodded.
    “ And your name is Daphne.”
    “ Correct again.”
    His last clear memory of the events before he woke up in the forest was Daphne saying, “I knew what you wanted from the beginning, Jack. And it wasn’t my love. It was my money, my homes, my private jet that I paid for you to learn to fly. Well, Jack, It’s all yours now. You own it!”
    Then something happened, some sort of phase shift. He remembered looking down at the altimeter and thinking, It happens at twenty thousand feet. Now we’re at fifteen thousand. Maybe it didn’t happen. But was that now, or was that then? He couldn’t remember. Suddenly he was at the controls again, thinking, I have a chance to stop this before it happens. But he remembered the sound of the gun going off, and the momentary relief that she hadn’t shot him in the head. That maybe he had stopped it before it happened. But the window had blown out and he felt the terrible sensation of decompression. Almost enough to rip his guts out through his asshole. After that he did not remember anything until he woke up in the woods with that phrase cycling through his head. It’s all yours now. You own it . . .!
    “ But we survived, Daphne,” Jack said. “Somehow we got out of that mess alive. Maybe it didn’t happen. Maybe we’re just dreaming this. I wanted to tell you before you pulled the trigger that it was all a mistake and that I want to make it up to you. What I mean is, maybe I did tell you. Maybe it didn’t happen.”
    “ You’re kidding, right, Jack?”
    “ Look at me,” he said, patting his body with his hands. “I’m alive.” But when he looked up again Daphne was gone. He heard her laughter though, like the sound of breaking glass.
     
    Maybe it didn’t happen, he kept thinking as he made his way back in the direction of the tracks. Maybe it’s still not too late to stop it from happening.
    It took him most of the day to slog out of the woods and find his way back to the old railroad spur. By then he was exhausted and the pain was numbing. He lay on the tracks for a long time trying to catch his breath. He closed his eyes and might have slept.
    And then that noise again, rumbling, roaring, air escaping a monstrous deflating balloon. He remembered looking down at the altimeter and thinking, It happens at twenty thousand feet. Now we’re at fifteen thousand. Ten! Five! Maybe it didn’t happen. But was that now, or was that then? He couldn’t remember. Eardrums bursting inside his head. Blood spewing from his mouth and nose. Altimeter spinning wildly backwards.
    Pitching, yawing, screaming.
     
    He opened his eyes. The moon had come up above the trees and he watched it rise into the sky.
    He heard a sound, sat up cocking his head, straining to make sense of it. He had dreamed but could not remember what it was about. In his mind there was a vague recollection of some sort of tragedy.
    He stood on shaky legs, looked back the way he had come. The forest was still. Nothing was in sight.
    It’s all yours now. You own it. . .
    The man did not know what that phrase meant any more than he had four days ago when he had come awake in the woods injured and afraid with it cycling through his head.
    It’s all yours now. You own it. . .
     
     
    THE END
     
     

 
     
    Now begins the special preview of my upcoming novel Soul Thief, scheduled for release in mid-summer 2012. Enjoy!
     
     
     
    SOUL THIEF
     
     
    A Novel by Mark Edward Hall
     
     
     
     
    “ The Soul Thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to destroy.”
     
    John10:10
     
     
     
    PART ONE
    TRINITY
     
     
     
    PROLOGUE
     
    APRIL 19 th
     
    On the night of April 19th the Callaghan family of Exeter New Hampshire was settling down to watch television after their evening meal. The Callaghans were an ordinary American family. Ben Callaghan, husband, father, little league coach, worked in the plumbing and heating business. Peg Callaghan was a full time mother and housewife. Ben and Peg

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