Seasons of Heaven Read Online Free PDF Page B

obstacle, but his body was so heavy from the fear and fatigue that he just couldn’t go on any further. It almost felt as if the evil in the room was suffocating all of his energy. His hands were shaking and he could feel the sweat beading along his upper lip. His breaths were coming in ragged gasps as the things advanced on him, waving their slimy looking tentacles in the air.
    James was sure this was the end for him. He was trying not to breathe at all now that they were so close. It felt like the air in the room was filled with their wickedness and James was afraid of breathing it in. While he contemplated what they may do to him, he found himself wishing that he’d lived a better life. What if he didn’t get to go and be with Sarah and Thomas? As he pondered his mistakes in life, the creatures disappeared into the night once again as fast as they had appeared earlier. James looked around the room, his thoughts were muddled and he was second-guessing himself. It was as if the things had never been there at all. Had he imagined the whole thing? That was when there was another blinding flash of light and James woke up.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER THREE
    “BANISHED”
    NEW YORK CITY, HOSPITAL
     
    It took James a few seconds to get his bearings back and remember where he was. He’d somehow made it back to his office and he must have fallen asleep at his desk. He’d had the nightmare….again. James stood up quickly, too quickly. The blood rushed from his head to his feet and he nearly fell over. He had to reach out for the desk and steady himself as he walked around it. He wanted to go home.
    He began moving things around on the top of his desk, looking for his keys. He all at once felt like he needed to get out of this place, it was driving him crazy and he felt like he couldn’t breathe. His hands shook as he moved things around on his neatly organized desk only to find that it didn’t hold any keys or any other surprises. He was getting more frustrated with each passing minute. He felt an urgency to escape from this place…to be outside in the cool, wet night air where he could finally breathe.
    Behind him, the rain was pelting like bullets against the panes of the large window that looked out over the hospital grounds. A bolt of lightning cut across the dark sky and caused it to light up as if someone had thrown on a switch. James didn’t notice any of this. All he was focused on was finding his keys. They had to be here somewhere. He needed to get out of this place.
    He went around behind the big desk and sat down in the over-sized leather office chair and began to go through the desk drawers. He’d long ago lost the intense pride that he’d had in the diplomas, certificates and commendations that hung on the wall behind him now. He’d been a doctor for so many years and the certificates hung behind him on the wall for so long, he barely noticed them any longer. They didn’t mean the same thing to him that they used to. He no longer took the same pride in them, or in himself.
    James had lived a charmed life for a while. He had studied first in France at the Medicine school of Paris before immigrating to the U.S. to study Cardio-vascular disorders. He had been so young then, and so full of hope. He’d been valedictorian of his class and constantly looking for new ways to nurture his desire to help his fellow man. He wanted to give back some of what he felt like he’d been blessed with right up until the time when he began to lose everything that mattered to him in his own life.
    After going through each desk drawer twice and still not finding the keys, he slumped back down into the chair in defeat. His eyes landed on the pictures of his wife Sarah and his son Thomas displayed in wooden frames atop his desk. Sarah smiled out at him with her green eyes twinkling and her light auburn hair shining in the sun of the beach she had been standing on when the picture was taken. She had such an