Free Rising Fears by Michaelbrent Collings

as, through the computerized haze, he saw something. It was something completely unforeseen, something that penetrated him to the depths of his soul. Something that could not be, but somehow was.
    "Elizabeth?" he whispered.
    It was his wife's face, mouth open in a silent scream of pain and terror.

 
     
     
    ***

NINE
    ***
    The image on his computer screen changed a moment later. It was still, impossibly, his wife, but now she was not screaming that horrible, blood-curdling silent scream. Now her lips were moving, as though she were trying to say something. He couldn't hear it, though, just as he hadn't heard her on the night she was killed...not until it was too late, anyway. He strained to make it out, to read her lips through the flickering pixels that threatened to crowd her face off the screen at any moment.
    Then the door to his office flung open with a bang. He looked over and saw Hatty, looking perturbed, then looked back almost instantly at the screen. But it was too late. There was nothing there. The screen was blank.
    He looked at the photo on his desk, and was relieved to see it was back to normal as well, his dead family smiling back at him once again as though all was well.
    "Ox is out here again," said Hatty.
    Jason almost didn't hear her. He was staring at the computer, as though trying to call his wife's image back by force of will, as though by staring he could re-impose the insanity that had somehow fallen over the office during the last minutes.
    The computer blinked once, and Jason hoped that his wife's image would return. But no. The screen went dark. Silent.
    Dead.
    "You're kidding," he said.
    "I know," responded Hatty, mistaking the object of his anger. "But you know Ox."
    "What?" said Jason. Then he realized what Hatty had been saying and felt anger well up within him once more. George "Ox" Mackey was a good guy, the owner of Rising's general store. But he also had a debilitating fear that had him in Jason's office once a week or more, asking for help. "If you're going to tell me that Ox wants me to get something off his roof..." he began.
    "He's afraid of heights, Sheriff. You know that."
    "Get rid of him, Hatty," said Jason, and returned to his computer. Still dark.
    He stared at the notes he had taken as words flashed on the screen. "Harappan," "Roanoke," "Hoer-Verde," "Chinese army."
    "Sheriff," Hatty was saying. "All he needs is-"
    "For Heaven's sake, Hatty, he's a grown man and I don't have time to cater to his fear of heights, so please for the love of God get rid of him ."
    He saw Hatty glance out into the reception area, and caught a glimpse of Ox. The man was aptly named. In his late forties, the man was incredibly powerful of build, and easily seven feet tall to boot. Built like a brick wall that ran away to join a street gang, but his face was kind, and his large eyes were now glistening with concern and worry.
    Hatty stared at the big frightened man, then motioned to him to hold on a second before swinging the door shut. Jason barely noticed the movements, still engrossed in the computer's dark screen.
    "Sheriff," said Hatty after a moment. "I know you're busy, and I know you're taking this all real personal."
    "Hatty-"
    "Shut it, Junior!" snapped the older woman, and Jason felt himself obey her reflexively, a habit born of the fact that he - like just about every other middle-aged man and woman in Rising - had at one time been a student in Hatty's elementary school days. Then, as now, Hatty had not been a force to be trifled with.
    "Good," she said, nodding approvingly at his instant silence. "Now you listen up, Sheriff, because I'm only saying this once. Everyone here is afraid. The little boy disappearing the way he did has us all on edge. But he's gone, and he's probably dead. And the rest of the people in this town are more afraid than they usually are. Which means they're going to grasp at any straw they can to feel like someone's protecting them. And that's you." Hatty leaned in