Earthbound : A gripping crime thriller full of twists and supernatural suspense by Fynn Perry (popular romance novels TXT) 📗

other spirits could hurt him then it seemed a reasonable conclusion that smashing into another spirit at fifty-five miles an hour could also hurt. He didn’t want to take the chance and he had already run out of time—the truck was upon him.

He crouched as low as he could between lanes with his head ducked down. His stress may have been virtual, but it felt very real and was reaching unbearable levels. Above his head he heard crackling sounds, like a sort of static electricity, followed by shouts of disappointment. As soon as the truck had passed, he stood up to assess the situation. He felt and looked no different. In a split second, he registered a second pickup coming up fast in the other lane. It was the dreadlocked surfer he had seen earlier, now hanging off the side of the truck with one arm, his other arm outstretched, hand in a fist. John tried to duck again and leaned into another lane, but it was too late to completely avoid the blow. He had almost descended to his previous position when he felt clawing, ripping, and icy pain shoot through his left shoulder, followed by a victorious scream as the truck hurtled past.

John looked up and saw the gang member holding up a red glowing mass, which was entangled in his fingers. John looked at his shoulder. There was a chunk missing about the size of a small apple and a deep red glow pulsated from the area. He saw a break in the traffic and ran through the remaining lane just as a car was approaching.

John carried on running for five minutes before he was comfortable that no spirit was in pursuit. He sat down against a tree for a while, panting from the pain through gritted teeth. The reddening of his shoulder had increased, and he felt considerably weaker, as though he was losing energy. Whatever was happening to him, he had to keep moving and get to Jen’s house, where he could properly rest. What if there was no way to recover? What if he just kept on feeling weaker and weaker? Would he just disappear, never able to get back to the life he once knew?

The bus stop wasn’t far, and the thought of resting on the bus propelled him on. He would still have a twenty-minute journey on foot at the other end of the ride and he hoped his energy would hold out.

Evening had arrived by the time he got to Jennifer’s neighborhood in Brooklyn. It was the antithesis of downtown Manhattan with its bright lights and loud noise. Here, he found sleepy, vapor-lit streets lined with leafy, shadowy trees and filled with rows of regimented, cookie-cutter houses, their windows covered with backlit curtains. There was the occasional glow from a spirit moving behind a window or riding as a passenger in the few cars passing him on the streets. Thankfully, they seemed to want to keep themselves to themselves. John found himself thinking he would be grateful for a little less interaction with the spirit world from now on.

An elderly mortal couple passed him, walking their dog. A few yards behind them followed the spirit of a middle-aged woman. John guessed that she might be their daughter. She stopped walking. John did likewise, not knowing what to expect. Her expression had changed from sorrow to sincere concern.

“You’re hurt!” she exclaimed and moved closer to him with her hand outstretched, trying to touch his shoulder. John pulled back.

“You need to trust me,” she reassured.

She was right, of course. John had to trust someone and this time he didn’t move as she approached and pushed her hand toward and into his shoulder.

He braced himself for the pain, but there wasn’t any.

“This will help you,” she said calmly as her hand entered under his wound. It felt soothing, and John saw the redness was disappearing.

“I don’t understand.”

“We can help or hurt each other through our interactions,” she explained. “The outcome depends on our intentions, good or bad. Whoever did this to you obviously wished you harm.”

“Yeah! I got that part!” John exclaimed, smiling.

She smiled back briefly and continued. “I can’t do any more but you will see, it will get better over time as long as you rest now. It will heal over, but it will not grow back. You were lucky you weren’t literally torn to pieces.”

John looked more confused.

“If too much of your energy is separated from you, you will simply cease to exist in this form or any other. You will simply not be ‘you.’ That’s final. Remember that!”

John nodded as he tried to process what he had just heard.

“We’re all here because we’re not ready to move on,” she continued. “We’re either looking for answers as to how we got here, or we can’t let go of something from our mortal lives. But we get so caught up in our quests, when we first arrive, that few of us realize the dangers we can face from other spirits.”

‘But I’m not actually dead—as a mortal, I mean,” he protested.

“Ah. One of those, are you?” Her tone had changed to one of annoyance.

“One of what?” John asked.

“A doubter, a disbeliever…a crazy person! I can’t believe I wasted my time on you!” She hurried back to the elderly couple who had not moved much farther down the street, ignoring his shouts for her to return and leaving John to consider what had just happened. Maybe to other spirits he really did sound crazy in claiming not to be dead. Doubting that he had enough energy to run after her, and then try to convince her that he wasn’t in fact unhinged, John decided to conserve what little strength he had into getting back to Jennifer and a place where he could rest.

It was 9:30 p.m. by the time John turned the corner into Jennifer’s street.

As he approached the house, he saw David’s gray Volvo parked in the driveway. The hood was still