Edge of Dark Light
Jim Cleveland
DEATH OR REDEMPTION
As winter snows hit his mountain village, Jason faces mysterious death threats, an enigmatic woman reporter, and a young girl with a bizarre resemblance to a lost lover. En route to join this pivotal weekend is a violent protagonist, Santos, who may be an avenging extraterrestrial soldier, leaving a wake of death and destruction in his path.
Both appear afflicted and inspired by dark energies on the planet as the weekend’s events unfold into a bullet-riddled showdown with angry drug dealers and a confrontation with a clandestine alien society.
Jason must find the wisdom to unravel the danger-laden mysteries surrounding him, and ultimately the courage and heroism to face death and shoot to kill.
JIM CLEVELAND is a .....
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Light and Life Publishers
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www.lightandlife.com
An Exploration of the Spiritual Universe
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Chapter 11
Johnny and Danny huffed up the snow-covered street, past the vacant, battened-down houses of summertime dwellers, toward the A-frame.
“Now! … now listen,” Johnny reasoned. “I ain’t goin’ up to that door.”
“What the hell else we gonna do?”
“Listen … you give me a few minutes to get around back … five minutes … then you ring the doorbell and take some cover. We’ll have him front and back. One of us bound to get a shot at him.”
“Hell naw,” Danny objected. “We’ll be shootin’ our own selves. We got to stick together. You ring the doorbell and we’ll both set up and ambush him.”
“We’ll have to get him or he’ll be locked in,” said Johnny.
“If he comes to the door, I’ll get him,” said Danny. “Just don’t shoot ‘less you get a good shot.” He hitched at the strap on the .30 caliber, bottom side up on his shoulder.
“Here comes a car!”
They scurried to hide as two bright lights loomed out of the night, emerging, finally as a white van, its tires grinding through the snow.
“That’s ‘at fella! Reckon we oughta not go back?”
“Naw,” said Danny. “Sid said they’d handle it. Let’s go get this other fucker.”
The sound of the vehicle interrupted Jason’s thoughts. He slipped out of the bed, naked, and went to the window in time to see the white van sloughing down the street. Where could it be going except to the house with Carol and her friends? Maybe it carried his intended assassin.
He began to shiver in the cool air. He slipped back to the floor by the bed to get his pants. She seemed to be asleep, but he could no longer enjoy their peaceful slumber. If she were awake, she still wouldn’t understand, but he himself knew there was danger and that’s all that mattered. He knew by his newly found powers of observance that she wasn’t part of it; he believed the house down the street was the source of it all. He knew Johnny Bannister and he had met the others, … barely, but enough to know the kind of people they were. He sensed it, and that was part of the realization. But it perplexed him that Carol would be part of it.
Fully dressed, he slipped quietly down the stairs, with only a glance at Joni’s huddled form in the bed. Their passion had been intense and satisfying to him and, he felt with pleasure, to her as well. He took the pistol from the wood box, affixed the safety and stuffed it into his pants. He picked up the rifle and walked to the front window for a look. The outside light was on, so he flipped it off, thinking to himself that the action would be noticed by someone outside, if indeed someone could be outside watching the house in such weather as this. It had almost stopped snowing; only a few flurries swirled, barely seen in the streetlights against the dark shy. There was no one in the street. He walked to the glass door leading to his deck, looking at the undisturbed drapery of snow.
He whirled around at the sound. She was coming down the stairs, wrapped in a blanket, barefooted, stepping quietly down into the dark den.
“What are you doing?” She asked him as if she genuinely wondered, genuinely cared.
He pondered before answering. “The threats are real, Joni. My imagination isn Other Books By This Author The Alien Intimacies The Celestial Songbook Beyond Cynicism Celestials over Cincinnati Dark Riders
