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ago. He was being his usual chatty self and was asking me about doing some
investigation.”
“That’s impossible, Nathan.” She drew in a breath. “He’s dead.”
“So you’re saying I was contacted by a ghost?” He gritted his teeth. I don’t believe in
ghosts. She knows that Josephine rested her head on his shoulder waiting to see what was
going on next. He felt her curiosity fluttering on the edge of his mind.
“I don’t know who or what emailed you or was chatting with you, but it wasn’t the
team. They went out to this abandoned tavern in Nevada. It’s supposed to be haunted.
They wanted me to go with them, but I had another engagement I couldn’t miss. I was
going to leave when I was contacted by the police. Sheila, you hadn’t met her, she was
my niece. She—I was training her. I never should have let her go! She kept telling me
something bad would happen if she went. She was getting visions. She believed they
were from angels. I shouldn’t have let her go. Is Jo okay? I’ve been having bad dreams
about her.”
Angels. I doubt that. If those fluffy winged things do exist I doubt they’d give any hints
about what is to come or be talking to Marsha. “Calm down. I’m sorry to hear about your
niece. Jo is fine. I’ll tell her that you were asking about her.” Josephine kissed him on the
cheek.
“Okay, if it wasn’t Geri, then who was I talking to the other night?”
“I don’t know. What did you talk about?”
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Crymsyn Hart
“About going on a hunt to some place in Nevada called the Devil’s Tavern.” His
email dinged on the computer. “Hold on a sec.” He got up and went to the computer.
He shook the mouse so the screen came back on. The list of emails showed that one was
from Geri. The little smiley face on the contact even said he was online. “What the hell!”
“What is it?” Marsha asked.
“Is everything okay, Nathan?” Josephine asked.
He glanced at her and saw that she seemed a little paler than she should have been.
Her eyes were wide. He wasn’t sure if he should be concerned or not. He reached out
with his senses and didn’t feel anything in the room. He kissed her cheek. “Everything’s
fine, hun.”
“Are you sure Jo is okay? I’ve pulled a couple of cards on her and all I keep coming
up with is death.”
Marsha, I love you, but sometimes you being psychic is not the best thing in the world. I
sometimes wonder what you really know about me. “Yes. She’s fine. We’ll talk about it later.
Look, I just got another email from Geri. It shows he’s online. He sent me the directions
to the tavern.” He shifted the phone to his other hand.
“Send him a message and see if he answers you. We both know that he doesn’t
have any one living with him. I’m surprised that he even goes out on dates. We’re the
only ones that know about their deaths right now.”
“Okay one sec.” Nathan brought up his IM. He typed in a message. He noticed in
the screen’s reflection that Josephine had wrapped herself in his robe.
Goingbattieby12: Hey, Geri. Whatcha doing tonight?
Phantasym99: Hey, Nate. Not much. Just a small bout of insomnia. You get my
directions?
Goingbattieby12: Yeah sure did. Sounds fun. I’ll get myself together. You don’t mind if I
ask Jo to come along too do you? She’d love to come. So how’s Sheila?
“What’s he saying?” Marsha asked.
“Hold on. I’m waiting for him to type something.”
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Devil’s Tavern II: Vengeance
Phantasym99: Doing great. She’s feisty. Yeah I’d love for Jo to come along too. The more
the merrier.
“He says that Sheila’s doing great and she’s feisty. He’d love for Jo to come along
too. Obviously, this isn’t Geri. I know him well enough that if he was talking to a
woman he’d be stumbling over his words and would never use the word feisty. Besides
that he wouldn’t just say it was all right for Jo to come along. He’d ask you first.”
“Sounds about right. He couldn’t even look at a woman. Besides I know that he has
a thing for Jo and would get tongue tied even thinking about her,” Marsha commented.
Goingbattieby12: Well that’s great. Now tell me who this really is. I know Geri and
Sheila are dead.
There was a pause.
“Nathan, what’s going on?” Josephine asked.
Nathan ignored her question. All of a sudden the room grew darker than it already
was. Shadows wrapped around objects and became tangible. The atmosphere
thickened. The faint trace of sulfur filled the room. Josephine drew in breath. She let out
a small yelp. He spun around and looked at her. Her eyes were filled with fright. She
sat on the edge of the bed. A low chuckle came from the corner of the room. He put a
finger to his lips and signaled for her to be quiet. She nodded, but he saw the
trepidation on her face. He glanced back at the screen.
Phantasym99: So you think that you and the psychic bitch have it all figured out do you?
The words on the screen were echoed in the room. How is this happening?
“Nathan, are you hearing this too?”
“Yes, Marsha. It’s here too.”
Goingbattieby12: Who are you? He typed.
Phantasym99: If you really want to know that then come here and get your revenge for
your friends. Or truly find out if there’s an afterlife. I can answer all your questions. I know all
about things that you’d never even dreamed of. All those ghosts you think that you capture on
film are nothing compared to what I can show you.
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Crymsyn Hart
Nathan glanced at the bed. Josephine was staring at him with a confused look. He
knew that she heard the voice too. The atmosphere in the room pressed down around
him. He hadn’t felt anything like this since he had witnessed Josephine’s possession.
Phantasym99: There’s nothing that your vampire can do. She’s a lovely piece of ass
though. Did you know that it was me who instructed Harold to start talking to her? It took him
a while to get up the balls to do it. It’s a shame he couldn’t bring you to me. However, I didn’t
think the little prick really had it in him.
“Leave her out of this. Why did you kill the other investigators? Why did you send
that jackass to her? What do you want with me? With us?” he asked the thin air. He also
heard the voice over the phone too.
Dark laughter filled the room. “Your precious investigators got in my way. And
you. Well now you’re special. Why don’t you come down here and find out?”
What the hell is going on here? Who is this? Nathan began to type something again,
but the computer screen went black and began to smoke. Before that happened, the
printer went berserk. His computer shut down. The atmosphere remained heavy. He
tried to think about everything that had just happened. No one made threats to his
friends or about the woman whom he loved. He had sworn to himself that he would
find the individual who had sent Harold after Josephine.
“Nate, what’s going on?”
“Nothing, Marsha. Stay put. I’ll take care of it and then call you back.” He closed
the phone before she could answer him. He glanced over at Josephine. His instinct to
protect her kicked in.
He pulled on his pants and a shirt. He glanced at the printer and saw a stack of
paper was waiting for him. He picked it up and saw that a map of Nevada had been
printed out along with driving directions to get to the Devil’s Tavern. Whatever this
thing was, he had to make sure that it wasn’t going to hurt anyone else. Either way he
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