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

inside. He sounded cheerful, but frowned when Tyler just stared at him without a reply.
    “ Hey,” said Jillian, her tone casual until she turned to look at him. Like her younger brother, she frowned as well. “What’s up with you? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
    He shook harder. Jillian and Christopher dropped their backpacks and came over to him. Though so badly frightened, he wasn’t about to talk about what just happened. Empowered by the urge to protect them, he stated that his tremors came from hunger. He followed them into the kitchen, looking warily over his shoulder toward the foyer while they got something to eat. Jillian had been right after all and everyone else was wrong. There was someone in the house with them…someone hard to see and definitely not nice.
     
     
     
    Chapter Ten
     
     
    David pulled up in the driveway just before 7 p.m., parking the minivan behind the BMW. A very long day, it started with the long line of parents in their vehicles waiting their turn to drop off the kids at Chester Elementary School. Jillian and Christopher were late to class, as a result. He should’ve known it would be that kind of day.
    Things got even crazier when he arrived at work, as several amortization reports from last week needed to be completely redone. Then a representative from Kings Inc. brought in another box of investment documents just after 9 a.m., left out from the original files his department received at the end of September. To get everything fixed by six o’clock, it meant skipping both breaks and take lunch at his desk. The mound of paperwork grew another few inches in height, and the meeting to go over the prelims for Applewood Associates was now postponed until tomorrow morning, set for eight o’clock sharp.
    He gathered his briefcase and laptop and stepped out of the van. Rather than go directly inside the house he walked over to the empty trash container sitting next to the garage, where Tyler returned it once he got home from school that afternoon. He opened the lid, using the garage’s floodlight to allow him to see inside the container. A small amount of liquid rolled around the bottom. Other than that, it was empty.
    He closed the lid, smiling at the prospect of “Allie Mae’s Treasures” and the rest of their garbage lying someplace in the Morrison dump, where it would be crushed and buried within the next day or so. His mood brightened, he whistled a happy melody on up to the front door and stepped inside. Miriam and the kids waited for him in the living room.
    “ I take it you all have eaten,” he said, after he hung up his coat and joined them.
    “ Not yet,” said Miriam, her tone serious. “We need to discuss something with you first.”
    All three kids sat with her on the sofa. Miriam said some-thing that morning about Janice having a date tonight. As he surveyed his family eyeing him solemnly, he wished for a buffer like her, at least long enough for him to figure out what this was all about. Something wasn’t right, and he could tell that Miriam had a bone to pick with him.
    “ So, what’s up?”
    He said this nonchalant and sat on the loveseat instead of his preferred Lazy-Boy, hoping a different vantage point provided an edge. While waiting for a response, he noticed the deep worry on his younger children’s faces. It seemed Miriam worried, too, just beneath her simmering anger. Tyler’s expression surprised him most. His normal upbeat brash demeanor absent, he appeared quiet and sullen.
    “ There’s something in the house.” said Miriam.
    “ What do you mean by that?” he replied. His mouth became dry as he considered what she surely meant.
    “ Sh-h-h! ” she whispered, forceful. “It’s starting again…. Be quiet and you’ll hear what we’ve been listening to for the past hour.”
    She and the kids glanced in different directions, but all had their heads upturned toward the ceiling as they waited for something to happen. At first, he heard