Haven: Desolace Series II

Prologue

In book one of the Desolace series, we get our first look at the serial killer known as The Headhunter. He is likely the most terrifying individual you have ever encountered. A prime example of what true evil really is. He abducts, tortures, and maims his victims, keeping their heads as gruesome trophies. Then he taunts the police by leaving the headless corpses of his victims displayed for the entire world to see.

Eventually, two meddling high school girls find out about him. They fool around with an Ouija board one night and accidentally contact a real spirit; the ghost of one of his victims. When the apparition leads Katie and Julie through the woods to show them her killer, the girls make a startling discovery. They recognize the man as their school bus driver.

Unfortunately, the killer hears the two girls on his front porch and catches a glimpse of Julie. He recognizes her face peering through his front window, but can't place her at first. By the time he figures out who she is, a strange entity has entered the picture, instructing him to take the girl to a specific place where The Headhunter assumes they will meet. Finally, the killer abducts Julie and takes her to this location.

When he steps into the specified building to meet the owner of the voice in his head, The Headhunter finds that he has walked through some sort of magical doorway into another world.

In this new world, The Headhunter awakens in, the mysterious voice instructs him to take the girl to a place known as The Factory. The voice introduces itself to him as the Black Knight, and informs him of what he will do in this world—abduct people and bring them to the Black Knight's factory.

He does the Black Knight's bidding, his resentment growing every time he restrains himself from killing. With the aid of a six-legged, two-headed, mechanical horse that the Black Knight has provided, he goes out into the world to grudgingly carry out his mission.

Back on Earth, Katie has what she believes to be a dream. In this visage she meets a tall, pale sorcerer that calls himself Edward the White. He begs for her aid, citing the fact that evil has gained entrance to his world from her own and he needs her aid to vanquish it.

When Katie awakens, the shimmering spirit that led her to the discovery of The Headhunter is in her room, beckoning for Katie to follow her once more. Katie follows, stepping through the portal into, what she thought was, a dream world.

She soon meets the man that appeared in her dream. He informs Katie that they must form a group of people, comprised solely of individuals from Earth. The only catch? They must all have talents that are unique within the group. This group will consist of: a magician, hunter, warrior, healer, and some type of religious person.

After speaking with Edward at length, Katie soon realizes the probability that her friend Julie has been brought to this world. She agrees to help him for the time being; in return she asks for his help finding her friend.

Edward agrees to help Katie and they soon set off on their quest. During their travels, they encounter strange robotic creatures. Vicious things obviously created for one purpose: Destruction.

As they continue their journey, they come across an old man living in a shack near a stream. The man welcomes them in and allows them to spend the night, offering them both food and stories.

Later, after a much needed rest and information about a town to the north, he wishes them well and sends Edward and Katie off with a sack containing food for their journey.

As Edward and Katie moved toward the town that the old man had called Haven, they came across a portal.

With Edward's coaxing, Katie goes through the portal and finds herself in a small town, on what appears to be Earth. She discovers, shortly after arriving there, that she is indeed on Earth. Erie, Pennsylvania, to be exact.

While there, Katie hears something coming from a nearby park, and when she goes to investigate, she finds several people attacking a man. Katie intervenes and helps to disperse the attackers. She then proceeds to tell the man she helped, Mike, about the portal and about Desolace.

It takes more than just stories to convince Mike to go back with her, but when Katie shows him the portal that she came through, he quickly changes his tune and agrees to come with her.

When the two of them go back through the portal, they end up in yet another monstrous fight; this time with mechanical spiders. In the end, Edward and his magic prevail once more.

The group finally arrives in Haven. Since it is late, they decide to get a room at the tavern in town. As the night slowly creeps by, the story continues ...

Chapter 1

Edward awoke with a start and sat bolt upright in the chair. At first he couldn't figure out what had awakened him. Then, out of the corner of one eye, he saw Amber nervously flitting about the room. He was about to ask her what was bothering her when a long howl sounded in the distance. Moments later, it was answered by another, which was much closer.

As he considered whether he should wake the others or let them sleep, he hears the muffled flurry of movement coming from just outside. Cautiously, he rose from the chair and went to the window, standing off to one side a bit to peer down at the street below. What he saw down there was unnerving ... to say the least.

Thundering down the street was the largest pack of wolves he had ever seen in his life. These didn't appear to be normal wolves either. Even from his vantage point, he could tell that these wolves were much larger than average. The pack seemed to be growing in size; others were joining from around nearly every building on the street. To Edward, it looked as if there were close to a hundred of them down there. They were all rushing down the street heading toward the edge of town.

Edward was unsure if they were running away from something, or heading into a scuffle with some unseen foe. He maintained his position by the window for a few more minutes until he saw, what he felt to be, the last stragglers lope off into the distance at the back of the pack. Now that they seemed to be gone he began to relax and noticed how eerily quiet the town had become. He imagined that if he were to drop a blade of grass at this very moment he would hear it hit the floor.

He turned his attention from the window and looked over at Amber. She didn't seem to be any calmer. If anything, she looked more nervous now than she had when the pack was running through the street below.

Suddenly, there was a loud crash that sounded as if it had come from downstairs. The impact of it caused the floor to tremble beneath Edward's feet. At the sound, Mike jumped up out of bed so quickly that he nearly fell to the floor.

What the hell was that? Mike asked, looking wildly around the room and trying to shake the fuzziness of sleep to gain his bearings. It took a minute for him to realize where he was and that he wasn't dreaming. Another loud crash from below shook the room, followed shortly by a heavy object falling to the floor.

What's going on? Katie mumbled as she sat up groggily and tried to focus her eyes. Suddenly, a long, strange sounding howl emitted from somewhere below them in the tavern. The sound made Katie shiver. The light grew strange in the room. As Katie tried to gather her wits, she looked around the room and saw Amber cowering in a corner as far from the door as she could get. Instead of the normal glow that usually emanated from her ghostly form at night, she seemed to be pulsating. Bright one second, significantly dimmer the next, as if she were trying to disappear.

Mike stood and retrieved his sword from the floor next to his bed. Edward opened the palm of his hand and produced a small flame to give the room more light. It hovered steadily just above his palm as he walked to Mike's position near the door. As Edward approached, Mike opened the door slightly, cautiously peering out into the hallway. When he saw that it was empty, he motioned with his head to Edward and both stepped out of the room.

Katie stayed inside and crossed to where Amber cowered, still pulsating in the corner. She hoped that her presence would comfort Amber, at least enough to make her stop flickering in and out. Katie's courage seemed to be bolstered by Amber's presence, so she hoped the same would be true for her.

In the hallway, the two men moved slowly toward the staircase at the far end. About halfway along they began to hear heavy footsteps coming up the stairs. They stopped in their tracks and anxiously waited for whatever was coming.

Moments later, an enormous, wolf-shaped metal head appeared at the top of the stairs. It stopped when it saw them and regarded them with its baleful, glowing, green eyes as if it were assessing their potential threat.

What the hell is that? Mike whispered nervously to Edward.

I don't know and I'm not sure I want to find out either. I hope it doesn't come after us, because somehow I think it would take more than the two of us to keep that thing at bay, Edward replied.

As if it could sense their fear, the beast turned and entered the hallway. As it did, Mike and Edward backed up a few steps. The monstrous creature had three heads, two that they had been unable to see when it was still in the stairway, and it was much larger than either of them had thought. It was easily five feet tall, and broad enough at the shoulders that it made them wonder how it had fit up the stairway in the first place. It must have taken up the entire width when it was coming up. It began to crouch slightly, while it stood eyeing them malevolently. The two outer heads lowered and growled menacingly. The middle head rose toward the ceiling and uttered the most horrible sounding howl either of them had ever heard. Its deafening pitch echoed wildly off the walls.

In his fear, Edward lost his concentration. The flame hovering just above his hand sputtered for a moment and then went out. The hallway was plunged into darkness. The only things visible in that moment were the six glowing green orbs that were the beast's eyes.

In the room, despite any courage they had mustered from their closeness, Katie and Amber were visibly trembling. The tremendously loud howl that erupted moments before sounded as if it were just outside the room. It made Katie more terrified than she had ever been in her life. Something that could make a sound like that was surely going to kill them all. With every nerve on edge, she waited to hear the inevitable scream that would soon come from the hallway just before her friends were killed. The sound she heard next was anything but what she expected to hear.

In the darkness of the hallway Mike gathered himself, knowing his next move might be his last. He raised his sword into striking position and let loose a battle cry that he never thought he was capable of managing until now. He rushed blindly toward the only point of focus he had; the glowing green orbs that he knew were the creature's eyes. When he thought he was close enough to strike, he swung the sword as hard as he could in a downward motion that he hoped would damage the monster enough to get it to back off.

His swing had yet to gain any momentum when it encountered resistance. The blow glanced off of one of the heads, causing a brief spark of light. Not used to wielding a sword, Mike was unable to stop the blade's momentum, its entirety now embedded in the wooden floor of the hallway. He struggled for a moment to free the blade, and seconds later found himself lying on his back on the floor. The creature had hit him with one of its enormous paws, but to Mike it felt more like he had been hit by a car. He laid there in an agony, stunned by the blow, and wondered if he had managed to acquire some broken bones.

Just when he began to think it was the most pain he had ever endured in his life, the beast bit into his left leg with such force that he was sure part of his leg was no longer attached to his body. Just then, a bright slice of blue light passed over his head. As it went by, he felt a temporary chill and wondered briefly if he was dying.

The bolt of blue light struck the mechanical monster with a blinding flash. As the beast roared in rage, Edward quickly came forward to grab Mike under the arms, dragging him out of the immediate vicinity of the beast's massive jaws. Then, Edward stood up and turned his palms to the sky. Sparks began to dance from one hand to the other as he gathered his concentration. Moments later they began to crackle. Edward turned his hands so that his palms were facing the beast. Two streaks of lightning instantly sped toward the creature. As they struck, the outer heads of the beast sagged lifelessly, tiny flames appearing on them. The remaining head roared at him in fury.

Suddenly, the beast charged toward Edward. With nowhere to go, and barely any time to react, he quickly jumped to one side. He pressed himself as flat as he could against the wall, hoping that it would miss him. Luck was with him as the beast thundered past and crashed through the wall at the end of the hallway.

Dim light filtered through the gaping hole. Edward moved toward the opening and looked outside. Other than a dissipating cloud of dust, there was nothing moving in the street below. When he turned from the hole to check on Mike, he saw that Katie and Amber had now joined them. Katie was bent over Mike and appeared to be tending to his wounds the best she could. Amber didn't seem to be scared anymore, as the glow of her form was steady once again.

Mike groaned in agony as Katie checked his leg. It was definitely broken in at least one place. A piece of bone was protruding through his pants and his leg was slick with blood.

Can you see if you can find something to splint his leg with? she asked Edward. He nodded and headed toward the stairs, sure he would find something in the wreckage caused by the creature ramming its way inside. As he reached the bottom of the stairs, he saw broken tables and chairs were strewn about everywhere, as if there had been a really big fight before everyone had gone home. He sifted through the debris and found a couple wooden chair legs that he felt would do the job, and then went behind the bar and found some towels. He grabbed a few of them and headed back upstairs.

Katie heard him coming and called out, Did you find anything useful down there?

Yes, he said, as he reached the top of the stairs. He held the items out to her. Will these do?

I think so. I'm going to need your help when I do this.

What do you want me to do? he asked.

Hold him down, please. This is really going to hurt and I need to keep him as still as possible.

Edward knelt down beside him, rolled up the end of one of the towels, and put it in his mouth. Bite down on this as hard as you can. Mike nodded his head to let him know he understood and then Edward leaned forward, putting his hands on Mike's chest. Go ahead, he instructed Katie.

She felt around as delicately as possible, trying to locate each end of the broken bone. She had done this for animals on the farm where she grew up, but never a human. Once she determined the correct angle, she pushed down on the bone that was protruding from his leg. His scream, muffled by the towel, was so brief that she thought he must have passed out. With the bone now back inside of his leg, she quickly squeezed her hands around the break on both sides and aligned the bones the best she could. While she did this Mike didn't even flinch, which confirmed to her that he was unconscious. When she was satisfied that the bone was properly set, she began using the materials Edward had brought her. First placing the wooden chair legs on either side of his leg to keep it straight, and then tying the towels tightly around it to keep everything in place as firmly as possible. When she was finished she looked to Edward and asked, Is there anything you can do to stop the bleeding? I can't put a tourniquet on him for fear of interfering with the splint.

I think so, he replied, moving from his position at Mike's head down to where Katie sat. He knelt down next to her and began to rub his hands