The Monster of Creasy's Hollow (Defenders of the Rift Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

heard anything last night,
but that didn’t mean it wasn’t there. He wondered if
there was a connection between the two events. Could they have
unwittingly caused some kind of monster to be made out of poor Waldo?
Just the thought of something so horrible made him want to cry.
    Angie was concerned as well. Chip was a joker and had
been all their lives. But he hadn’t been joking this morning,
she was sure of that. She’d watched the blood drain from his
face as Donny described what he’d heard, and Angie knew from
experience that Chip wasn’t that good of an actor. It probably
wasn’t a monster, but whatever the two had heard was real. Or
at least they thought it was.
    Despite the group’s thoughts, school work soon
drew their attention away from monsters, occult rituals, or anything
else other than getting through the school day and preparing for the
week-end.
    Other problems would just have to wait.

    *****

    Kat Harold had opened her restaurant at five am., as
usual, and she and her crew began preparing for breakfast.
    Kat’s mind was far afield as she went through her
morning routine. So many times she had done these familiar things
that her hands would work from muscle memories alone, so that left
her free to think about the day before.
    She wanted to be angry at Chuck for not knowing what had
happened, but this morning realized that wasn’t fair. Chuck
knew more than the rest of them did because he studied more. That
didn’t make him infallible, or an authority. It just made him
their leader.
    Chuck’s reminder of why they had started their
little group had also hit home. The group had never done anything
that even bordered on malicious or evil. They had performed rituals
for good health, healing, and for success in business. Not at the
expense of anyone else, either. The small group of friends had no
interest in harming others, or seeing harm caused.
    The door bell ringing jarred Kat out of her musings, and
she put on a smile and went to wait on the first customer of the day,
leaving thoughts of summons and spells behind her.

    Chuck yawned as he sat down behind his desk and started
getting organized for his day. Friday usually wasn’t too bad on
him, though he did have a business lunch today at twelve.
    He had stayed awake into the late hours studying, but
was no closer to an answer than he had been the day before when the
blue energy wave had knocked him from his feet. He wasn’t sure
there was an answer to be found, at least not in the books he
possessed.
    This was above him. The event of yesterday afternoon was
like nothing he had ever encountered, and his studying had revealed
nothing that he hadn’t already known, or at least suspected.
There had been real power behind it. A level of power that he and his
small circle were unlikely to be able to match. They just weren’t
that kind of people. Everything they had ever done had been positive
in nature. Yesterday had been anything but positive.
    Chip’s report of something ‘howling’
last night had not been encouraging, either. While Chuck hadn’t
been able to hear anything like it himself, he had heard what sounded
like every dog in the Hollow up in arms. And dogs, historically,
reacted poorly to things summoned to the Earth from other realms. For
Chuck, that was just another puzzle piece.
    The phone ringing jolted him out of that train of
thought. He shook his head to clear it a bit, then answered the
phone, starting his work day. He would have to worry about the rest
later.

    *****

    Alvin and Valina Thomas were quiet as they began their
work day at the hardware store. Both were thinking about yesterday,
and wondering what had happened. And who was behind it.
    They had never intended to get so deeply involved into
this cult type stuff, but both had to agree that their business had
improved since it started. Drawing energy from the Earth to heal, to
be successful, to have a better life had seemed ideal. Still did at
times.
    But yesterday had