One Last Trip Down The Savage Trail (Ghost Bear Book 3)

Book summary

"In 'One Last Trip Down The Savage Trail,' an ominous spirit, Ghost Bear, continues its reign of terror by possessing Tamara. Despite their desire to leave the past behind, Jenny and Mia are drawn back into the fray when they realize the spirit seeks revenge. With no clear plan, they enlist the aid of Tim Decker, a survivor of Ghost Bear's previous rampage. This unlikely trio embarks on a perilous journey to confront and defeat the malevolent entity once and for all, facing uncertainties and dangers at every turn."

Excerpt from One Last Trip Down The Savage Trail (Ghost Bear Book 3)

“Airlifted?” Jenny asked, still on her hospital bed. Mia shook her head the noise of the television had her attention, but she was zoned out. The sudden voice snapped her out of it. “Who was airlifted?” Jenny asked again.

Mia thought about it. “Tamara and Charlie,” she said. Jenny looked at her. “The crazy one lived?” she asked, and Mia nodded. “Yeah. I guess they found him, but he was, well,” she paused and tried to think of how to say it. “Insane. Raving about the ghosts, and he attacked three nurses. I heard him screaming before they knocked him out. They took him away,” Mia replied.

Jenny was impressed he made it out with his life, she was glad that no one would believe him either. This was one story that needed to disappear. She did her best not to think about the reality she had to live with now, maybe forever, and wondered how she hadn’t lost her mind in the process. Who knew, maybe there were different kinds of insanity, and she had one of them.

The intense pain brought her back to the now, and she took a shallow breath to try and control the pain. “You okay?” Mia asked, and she just nodded.

“Is it really over?” Jenny asked. “I think so, everything feels right, doesn’t it?” Mia asked, and Jenny shrugged. It was three in the morning, and she was in a hospital room with wounds from a ghost that she hoped to kill for the second and last time. Was kill the right word? Banish maybe. It was hard to be sure of anything anymore.

“Yeah, I think you’re right. I think it’s over,” she replied, and there was nothing more that needed to be said. Jenny didn’t want to sleep. Those dreams were sure to take her back to that damn forest, but the morphine drip made it hard to do much else.

“Don’t worry. I’m not going anywhere. Get some rest,” Mia said and held her hand. “Okay, don’t you dare be gone when I wake up,” she said and tried to smile. It felt like she managed to do it before she closed her eyes. Despite being afraid of whatever nightmares sleep would bring, the warmth of Mia’s hand helped keep it away. Even still, just before she fell asleep, she could have sworn she heard that dreadful scream of a bear in the distance, a fading echo.

Mia looked out the window. This small town was nice and all, but she knew too much. The secrets, the blood. All of it was just too much. She couldn’t wait to leave this place behind, and if it were up to her, never come back.

She was sure due to the ghost situation Jenny would want to come back, just to visit Matt. She didn’t want to think about it. The dead were supposed to be dead. There shouldn’t be a place where they were trapped.

The idea of all of it, the whole weight of the horror was getting to her. Without realizing it, Mia had an iron grip on Jenny’s hand and forced herself to let go. “I hate this place,” she said without even thinking about it. It had taken so much.

She leaned back into the chair, took a breath while turning off the TV. She half expected to see the face of that damned bear on the screen as it went black, but there was nothing. She shut her eyes and did her best not to think about the past. She had to let it go, and now was a good time to start that process.

Tamara lay on the operating table. The team saw it, but they couldn’t believe it. Wild animal attacks were rare, but they were the closest hospital that could handle it. “Jesus, how does anyone live through that? You can see her spine,” a nurse said and, while not grossed out by the wounds, still managed to be shocked.

“This is what bears do. This idiot must have attempted a selfie with one, and it attacked. It doesn’t matter let’s just close this mess up before she dies,” the doctor replied and got over the vicious nature of the wounds.

“Her vitals are stable. I mean, I see the damage, but look at the monitors; it’s almost as if she’s sleeping. I don’t get it,” another nurse said as she started to double check the machines to make sure they were all normal.

“Ladies, it’s late, and this one ruined a slow night. Let’s just take the win and finish this before something else goes wrong,” he replied through his surgical mask and got to work. The wounds were dry, as if whatever had cut through her had drained the moisture from her body.

It didn’t make sense, but neither did random bear attacks this late in the year. The flesh felt like it was leather, dead. The team worked for hours. Each long, jagged wound carefully bound together one at a time.

Hours later, the grim work was finished, the team was exhausted but also a little weirded out. “What kind of patient doesn’t bleed? I mean, not even a little?” she asked, and the surgeon didn’t know the answer. “Listen, if you want to worry about it, fine, but do it after you finish up and get her into a recovery room. Let’s just put this one behind us and not think about it too much. I’m tired, so are you. We can worry about it later,” he said and backed off.

The two nurses looked at one another. “Sure,” the one on the left said. The surgeon was happy to leave the operating room. It was a simple job, but it just didn’t feel right. It was like working with calluses on the bottom of a foot rather than normal skin. He pushed it out of his mind as the gloves and operation gear came off.

As he washed his hands, he glanced up through the window and swore that just for a second Tamara’s eyes were open, and they were solid green. He blinked, and they were closed as before. “What the hell?” he asked, but by the time he did, they were closed. It had been a long day. He was tired and delirious, too.

The two in the room with her looked back at him. He gave the thumbs up with a weak smile, then he walked out of the room and back to his office the paperwork could wait for now. Still, those green eyes. He couldn’t get them out of his head.

The surgeon sat down in his chair and leaned back. He had questions and the small town hospital hadn’t answered any of them. His hand reached for his phone when it rang. He wasn’t sure if he was psychic, or it was just a random act of the universe. He answered it. The phone number was unlisted, but that was common in his line of work.

“Hello?” he asked.

“Did the girl who was attacked by the bear live?” the voice on the other end asked. “Yeah, who is this?” he asked, confused at the aggressive tone of voice. “Listen, my name is Henry. Once the woman is stable, you need to ship her back here as soon as you can and, for God’s sakes, keep her sedated,” he said.

“How the hell did you get this number, who are you?” the surgeon asked the sudden urgency of the other voice snapped him back to attention. “I told you, my name. That woman is, I’m telling you she’s possessed. No messing around. The minute she wakes up, you and anyone there is in for a bad time. If you can get her back here, we can take care of her,” Henry said, his normally deep voice sounded afraid.

“I don’t know if this is some backwoods racism thing or what, but she’s injured, and for all I know, you’re the ones who did this,” he paused. “On the other hand, this has been a weird case. I’ve never seen one quite like it,” he said.

Dismissing the bloodless wounds and the flash of green eyes was hard to do. “Okay, tell me more,” he said. “It’s an insane story. Not so insane if you believe in evil. I’m sure you’ve heard of Bayok?” Henry asked.

“No,” he replied, “it doesn’t register.” There was a small, frustrated sigh on the other end. “Okay, long story short. That woman is possessed by a psychotic ghost of a bear. We’re sure of it. I know, insane, but you had to notice something wasn’t right, right? I mean, I know you’re not stupid, think about it,” Henry said.

“I don’t know about your story, but I do know something’s not right with that one. The pain she’ll be in will be extreme, so I’ll keep her sedated for as long as I can. Listen, someone will come for her, and after that, it’s all out of my hands. We have records she was here, so if she goes missing from a hospital room, there are going to be questions,” Bill replied against his better judgment.

“That’s all I can ask I’ll send a driver up as soon as I can,” he replied, then the line went dead. The doctor put the phone down and stared into the black screen. “What am I doing, this is insane. A ghost of a bear, really?” he asked himself, but in the past few hours, his life had taken a left hand turn into the strange, and the story of a possessed woman wasn’t so hard to believe.

One way or another it would be out of his hands. He opened up a drawer and pulled out a flask of whiskey, opened it and took a small swig, it didn’t help. All he wanted to do now was go home. He put the flask away, stood up. He got three steps toward the door when it opened.

The man jumped back a little. “Tracy, don’t you know how to knock?” he asked, then calmed down. She rolled her eyes. “We need you in the recovery room. She’s waking up,” Tracy replied with a worried look on her face.

They both knew this was impossible. No one recovered that fast. “If she wakes up now, it’s going to be torture. We can’t let her wake up,” he replied. Tracy wasn’t sure what he meant by can’t. She didn’t ask and the two of them ran back to the recovery room.