Free Cades Cove 01 - Cades Cove: A Novel of Terror by Aiden James

tell her and fearing it would be the truth if she asked the right question.
    “ I couldn’t find the report,” he told her when he reached the porch. “But, I took the opportunity to throw away some trash I left in the car.”
    “ I told you it was cold out here!”
    She sounded suspicious, shivering from the night’s briskness. Probably telling herself ‘he never leaves trash in his prized sports car’, he thought. He followed her inside and closed the door, pausing to take another look toward the curb through the front door’s peephole. For now, the trash container remained as he left it at the edge of the street.
    He locked the door and returned upstairs to the master bedroom. The room’s temperature had returned to normal. Pleased by his apparent success, he smiled and returned downstairs.
    At bedtime, despite his repeated assurances, Jillian insisted on keeping Sadie with her again tonight. Janice left at nine-thirty, and Miriam soon retired upstairs. Once ten o’clock came, Tyler also went to bed, leaving David as the only one downstairs. He watched the news and a re-run of “Friends” until eleven.

Unlike last night, he didn’t sense anything unusual while moving up the staircase. No voices, strange noises, or anything else to make him look over his shoulder. Relieved, he climbed into bed with Miriam, snuggling close to her as he pulled up the covers. Sleep came easily, and he didn’t stir at all until she woke him at daybreak.
     
     
     
    Chapter Nine
     
     
    “ Sadie...? Where are you, girl?”
    Tuesday afternoon. Tyler disarmed the alarm system and closed the front door behind him, laying his backpack and leather jacket on the sofa in the living room. He whistled for the dog, and while he waited for her to respond, he changed the television station from the Cartoon Network to the G-4 Network. After watching the latest advertisement for a new game system accessory, he called Sadie again. No answer. Not even a hint of the soft jingle from her collar that sometimes announced her approach.
    “‘ Here, Sadie!... Come here, girl!”
    He checked the den and then walked into the kitchen, continuing to call her on his way through the dining room back to the foyer. No sign of her on the main floor.
    “ Sadie, are you up there?” he asked, looking up to the second floor landing. “Come here, girl!”
    Where the hell is she?
    He climbed the stairs and stood in the hallway. Too quiet and unusually cold. Like someone had left a window wide open.
    Didn’t Dad notice something similar last night?
    Maybe the dog’s sleeping in the master bedroom, since she often liked to take her naps under Mom and Dad’s bed. But he remembered Dad closed the bedroom door when the two of them were the last ones downstairs that morning. The door remained closed.
    “ Sadie?”
    He moved down the hallway toward his room, where the door was also shut. The only open doorways were to Christopher and Jillian’s bedrooms. Since Sadie had slept with Jillian the past two nights, he checked her room first. The dog wasn’t there, but his little sister’s bedroom seemed very creepy...colder than the hallway too.
    He moved on to Christopher’s bedroom. Not finding the dog there either, Tyler stepped back into the hallway. That’s when he heard Sadie whimper in the corner of Christopher’s room. Burrowed underneath a large stuffed tiger sitting on the floor beneath his brother’s window, her labored breaths reminded him of what happened the past Sunday night.
    “ Hey, girl, are you all right?”
    He knelt down and petted her head while looking over his shoulder. Nothing else seemed out of place, though difficult to say for sure. His younger brother did little to organize his room. Despite Mom and Auntie Jan’s efforts, Christopher somehow managed to make his bedroom look like he hadn’t a dresser or closet to his name.
    “ Let’s go downstairs.” Tyler’s tone soothing, he scooped Sadie up into his arms. She shook terribly.