Read Online Poisoned Soil: A Supernatural Thriller by Tim Young - Free Book Online

Shane knelt at God’s feet as a humble, grateful servant. He leaned forward and cupped his hands to collect His gracious gift in this Garden of Eden.
    Before putting his hands in the water, Shane paused as he caught the reflection of wispy clouds streaming overhead against a deep blue sky. The moment was perfect. So quiet, so peaceful. And yet...he felt something else, something disquieting. What is it? He thought. Like...maybe I’m being watched. Is God watching me from above?
    A trio of pinecones fell beside him as a raven launched from a branch and descended to perch atop the boulder. It folded its wings close to its side as it peered deep into Shane’s eyes.
    “Well, I’ll be,” Shane said. “Look at that, Jesse.”
    Jesse remained hunched over, catching his breath. Shane looked down at the reflection of the bird and put his hands back to the water, still feeling as if he was being watched. Is it the raven? He asked himself. No. It wasn’t the raven, he realized as he looked up into the bird’s black eyes. Nor was it something he sensed from above. It was...something closer, he felt. Something from the side. Shane shifted his eyes to his left at Jesse, who knelt with his eyes closed and sweat dripping from his face. Jesse wasn’t watching him. The hair on the back of Shane’s neck began to prickle as he felt the staring bore into him. Something from...his right side. Slithering eyes upon him.
    In the dead quiet of the forest, he heard the slightest twitch of a rattle. He jerked his head quickly to his right, just in time to see a coiled timber rattlesnake that had chosen this oasis to give birth to her young. Shane’s eyes had time to open wide, but his scream couldn’t escape as the five-foot long rattler struck fast and hard, her fangs piercing the right carotid artery of Shane’s neck. Eden’s serpent hissed and recoiled to her newborn babies.
    Shane stood, screaming, as he pressed his hands to his neck.
    “JESUS! Rattler! I got bit!”
    Jesse saw Shane jump back. Ejected from the spring as if hell had spit him out.
    “What the hell happened?” Jesse shouted.
    Shane hit the ground, his face already flush and feeling like someone dug into his neck with a red hot poker. Jesse pried Shane’s bloody hands off his neck just enough to see the marks on Shane’s swelling neck as if a vampire had repossessed his soul. Shane clamped down on the pain again.
    “Shit!” Jesse exclaimed. “Holy shit!”
    Shane was in complete agony as the toxin started its work, weakening and disorienting him. He couldn’t have been bitten in a worse spot. Jesse helped him past the rhododendron on the left side of the spring and leaned him up against the boulder.
    “Shit!” Jesse was in a panic. He knew he needed to get help but— Where the hell are we? Shit! Jesse almost began hyperventilating. He tried to calm himself, tried to be the leader that Blake had told him he was of his clan. Think! he told himself. It was a timber rattler, but they’re not usually deadly if you get help.
    Then another voice emerged inside his head, a voice less confident. A voice that frightened Jesse.
    Ah, the voice said, but look at where the bite is. Right in the artery. D-E-A-T-H will be quick , the voice said in a raspy, haunting whisper.
    “Shit!”
    Jesse looked back at Shane, who no longer screamed. His neck had swollen to almost twice its normal size and was horribly bruised. Shane’s hands draped by his side. Jesse’s mind tugged him in all directions. Go get help. Stay and help. Save yourself. Comfort Shane. Kill that snake!
    “Shit!” Jesse didn’t know what to do. There was no way to extract the venom, no way, not from that spot on his neck. He could carry Shane to help, but they had been on the hunt for hours. It was so far back, and even if he could carry Shane that far, even if Shane could make it that long, he wondered if he could even find the way back? Jesse grabbed the rifle and went around the bushes to look for the