Whispers of Gray (Keep In The Light Book 2)

Book summary

Sara and Jeff, haunted by past tragedies, confront supernatural forces and ancient evil as they uncover hidden secrets. Sara's nightmares and a mysterious benefactor's request blur the lines between reality and nightmare, testing their resolve to overcome the darkness. WHISPERS OF GRAY is a gripping supernatural thriller by David Musser.

Excerpt from Whispers of Gray (Keep In The Light Book 2)

Chapter 1: The Walk

The dog barked, and Jeff tried to wake up. Shaking his head several times to clear the dreams, he glanced at the clock. "1 a.m. … f'n dog," he grumbled to himself. Luckily, his wife was still asleep. That was all he needed was for the dog to wake her up. She had taken a couple of sleeping pills earlier.

She had been having trouble sleeping since she started the new job. The hours were crazy for her, and he tried his best to help. Never should have got the dog, he thought as he got out of bed. Stopping at the rocking chair on his side of the bed, he quickly pulled on his pants.

Since the dog only barked once, he took his time. If it's not in a hurry, I'll be out there for a while, he thought as he grabbed a t-shirt from the top of the hamper, sniffed it, and pulled it on; he glanced back at his sleeping wife and thought to himself. She is so beautiful. If she did not have to be up early, I'd be rubbing her neck, kissing that spot she likes on her back!

He paused, walked back to the bed, and covered her feet. She had pulled the sheets up again in her sleep, and he knew she would wake up miserable if her feet were cold.

Walking down the hall, he was glad they were still crating the puppy. He knew it would not be long before she was trained and, most likely, sleeping between them in the bed. Why had I told her I loved dogs when we first met? It was not exactly a lie. He had no opinion of them, but what type of monster didn't like dogs? So, Jeff said those three little words, "I love dogs," and they became man and wife a year later. He had just finished his degree; she was already a not-so-starving artist.

She would tell people she lucked into it, but he knew she had talent. She was an outstanding painter. Who knew you could make money painting? He often wondered, but that new car in the driveway was as much proof as anything.

This new job, though, was something he could not understand. Why someone would want to commission a portrait from 3:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. daily was beyond him. It was only supposed to be a three-week gig, but after several false starts, one of which was when her client tore up the canvas and threw it on the fire, she was inexplicably still working there. That incident had kind of freaked her out. The client had apologized, though, and the next day, a new car with a big blood-red bow on top of it was in the driveway.

Jeff's mind had been wandering, and he pushed his long hair back out of his eyes and scratched gently on the bald spot on top. Sarah said she couldn't see any hair loss, but he felt it. So, he scratched gently to make sure it did not cause any more premature hair loss. A part of him wondered why he had thought of the bow as blood-red.

He grabbed the leash, opened the cage, quickly grabbed the dog by the collar, and hooked it. "There you go, puppy. Damn. We have to give you a name soon. Who are you?" Jeff was still bent down, his face at her level, and he was rewarded with a lick to the nose.

She whined a little, so he stood up and went through all the training the pet store had told him. He inquired if she had to go pee, and then off they go. Love to put in a dog door, he thought, but knew that Sarah was paranoid of snakes and frogs and anything else that could sneak in, for that matter, so the idea was out of the question, for those reasons, sure, but mostly because their new puppy was a mastiff who within six months will weigh in at about 100 pounds and be almost her full height. I bet she will be able to touch my shoulders when standing on her hind legs. Excuse me. I would like a man-sized dog door, please, he laughed.

At the door, he pushed his feet into his sneakers and pressed the heels down. This created a makeshift pair of clogs. His wife called him lazy for doing this whenever she caught him, but he would shrug it off each time, telling her how comfortable it was and encouraging her to try it sometime. "So easy to put on or take off," even with his wonderful grin, she was not impressed, and he knew she would always think of him as a little lazy.

Looking up as he walked with the puppy, he hoped she would finish her business soon enough for him to get another hour or two of sleep. He didn't have to wake up with Sarah when she got ready to go, but he had always felt better if they kissed before either of them left for work. A silly tradition, but one that he hoped to continue until he passed away.

There was no question of who would die first. Genetics was not on his side. His father and grandfathers on both sides died young and balding. Jeff did what he could to prevent this. He worked out, stopped drinking, and tried to eat right. The keyword on that was tried.

Sarah's parents and grandparents were still alive and played hearts or one of those card games on a weekly basis.

The puppy kept walking around. She had circled the new car twice before she moved on to the small yard. She looked up at the streetlight and barked to let it know who was boss, then circled her favorite bush a couple of times, but nothing.

"Come on, pee," Jeff demanded, and the dog sat and looked up at him for a treat. He knew better than to talk to the dog when she was trying to pee. Now, it would be another twenty minutes before she was done; that was after she finally figured out Jeff hadn't said, "Sit."

Jeff was tempted to unhook the leash and just let her run around the yard, but he knew that with his luck, she would get hit by the only car that was driving in the subdivision. Who is driving in the subdivision this late anyway? He wondered. The vehicle had been driving up and down the few nearby streets for a while now; he had been tracking it in the back of his mind as they walked.

The car was some type of muscle car. Not on his street now, but the next one. He heard it first and then saw it as it passed between two houses. The puppy had heard it as well and barked at it to let it know who the boss was.

The funny thing was that when the dog barked, Jeff saw the brake lights hit for a second, almost as if the person in the car heard the bark and understood the implied threat. My imagination is working overtime, he thought.

He turned and pulled the leash a little, and the pup followed. Jeff walked it around the side of the house. It was new territory, he thought, and he hoped it would help her go.

Within a few minutes, it did. The puppy squatted, and when she was finished. Jeff praised her, and they headed back to the front of the house. "No playing," the trainer had said. "If you want to play outside with her, take her out again, but not when taking her to pee." Jeff thought this was bullshit, but he's never had a dog before, so he figured it would0 not hurt to do things by the book.

He stopped just after they had turned the corner. The puppy growled, and Jeff swallowed a couple of times in disbelief. The car was right in front of him. Still on the street but not pointed the way a car should be on the street, it faced them with the lights off. The engine had a gentle idle. "What the---" Jeff starts, and the puppy barks again and then whines, pressing its body against Jeff's leg. He felt a little bit of pee on the top of his foot and, for an instant, thought it was his bowels that let loose before he realized it was the puppy.

He shook his head in rage and disbelief and started to feel really pissed off after he saw how scared the puppy was. Jeff started to walk toward the car. The lights turned on then and temporarily blinded him; the engine revved up, and it became louder and louder. The mystery driver held the brake down, keeping the car in place while simultaneously pressing the gas pedal to the floor. The car tilted forward under the power. Jeff got madder. He knew they were going to wake up his wife if they kept this up.

He shielded his eyes partially with his free hand and could see the tires slowly start to spin as if the engine's power could not be held back much longer.

Jeff looked around for a weapon and saw nothing. The puppy growled again, louder this time, and Jeff was surprised as the lights went off. "Good girl," he whispered, not knowing whether she was responsible for the light going off, but her courage was enhancing his. She had not given up, and he felt like he should have reinforced that.

There was going to be a fight; this was going down. He took a deep breath and hooked the leash to a bush. No need to let the puppy get hurt if I have to jump quickly, he thought as he broke into a run toward the driver's side door.

He was a good thirty feet away but having always been fast, he cleared the first twenty quickly. He stared at the windshield, trying to see who was driving, as he cleared the next five feet. The car eerily remained in place, the sound of the revving engine continued to escalate crazily.

Just as he reached the street, the car surged forward. "Stupid, stupid," Jeff uttered aloud as the car came at him. How did you die? Well, I charged a car.

The distance between them closing fast, Jeff prepared to leap out of the way, but as the streetlight caught the driver's face, he was frozen in disbelief.

The car struck him; his legs went under the car, and both ankles shattered as the car pressed him forward. His head bounced off the hood, and he heard a loud crack and knew that his neck was broken. The rest he saw as his head tossed from side to side, up and down, with no control as the car continued to drive forward. Not the puppy, he thought as he realized for the first time in his life that he was a dog person.

He remembered how sweet she was when she licked him on the nose and smiled. The car stopped, and he heard the driver put it in reverse. Never could drive a clutch; he was glad to no longer feel anything. He was being dragged back through the grass---his shoe caught in the bumper. He wondered if it would drag him all the way to hell when the car jumped back over the curb, which caused his foot to slide out of his shoe, and he finally stopped moving.