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    Night Falls
    Night Falls
    Night Falls
    Ebook88 pages1 hour

    Night Falls

    By Kimberly A. Bettes

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Amy and Scott Crane leave their suburban St. Louis home and head out into the backwoods of the Ozarks where they enjoy each other’s company as well as the beautiful scenery. But when night falls, the normally serene forest becomes a terrifying jungle and the couple find themselves entangled in a nightmare.

    When Scott disappears, Amy is left worrying about what might’ve happened to him...and wondering who the people lurking in the darkness around her might be.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherKimberly A. Bettes
    Release dateApr 21, 2015
    ISBN9781311316844
    Night Falls
    Author

    Kimberly A. Bettes

    Kimberly A. Bettes was born on Thanksgiving Day, 1977, completely ruining any chance her mother had at enjoying a delightful dinner. At the age of 12, Kimberly began writing poems, essays, and short stories. At 14, she began her first novel, a project that would take two years and many sleepless nights to complete. Since then, she has written more than ten novels, dozens of short stories, and hundreds of poems and essays. She currently lurks in the Ozark Mountains of southeast Missouri with her husband and son. It's there she terrorizes the residents of a small town with her twisted tales, most of which focus on the dark side of human nature. In addition to writing, Kimberly is also a freelance photographer and life-long chocolate enthusiast.

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      Book preview

      Night Falls - Kimberly A. Bettes

      NIGHT FALLS

      KIMBERLY A. BETTES

      This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

      Copyright © 2015 Kimberly A. Bettes

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the author.

      Case Publishing

      Cover art by Kimberly A. Bettes

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      The water carried her along like a rag doll that had been tossed into white rapids. Bobbing up and down with the flow of the stream, she lay on her back, bumping and scraping against the sharp boulders which rose out of the water and reached for the heavens. Staring into that endless expanse of black above her, an immense unknown peppered with the lights of long-dead stars, she wondered if she was seeing the night sky for the last time.

      Unable to move, Amy Crane was along for the ride. The icy water had shocked her body, temporarily paralyzing her muscles and numbing her nerve endings. She could no longer feel the pain in her limbs, nor could she fight against the current. All she could do was stare up at those stars and wonder where the hell things had gone wrong. As her body slid down the rocks of the cascading waterfall, sinking heavily below the surface of the dark pool at the base of the falls, she was pretty sure she’d never know.

      Amy considered herself a smart woman. The fact that she’d lived thirty-two years without being robbed, raped, or killed, without having so much as a broken bone or a deep cut, was a testament to her wisdom. And yet she somehow managed to end up in the middle of the woods, pursued by a group of maniacs.

      Where had she gone wrong?

      She’d spent the previous night caught in the throes of passion, limbs intertwined with those of her husband as their bodies lay tangled in the sheets. It was the first time in months that Scott had been enthusiastic about making love to her. Amy blamed his decreased sexual appetite on his increasingly demanding job. Owning and operating two upscale restaurants in St. Louis kept him busy and exhausted, but opening a third was positively draining him. Scott’s work kept him preoccupied to the point that their sex life—and at times, nearly their entire relationship—had been sacrificed in order for them to have the big house, the expensive cars, the grand vacations, and the padded bank accounts. Amy knew about all that going in to the marriage, and Scott reminded her of that fact every time they argued about his growing absence from home.

      She’d say, You’re married to your job. I never see you anymore.

      And he’d respond with, Amy, you knew when you married me what my job was like. You knew how it would be.

      It was true. She’d known and said yes to his proposal anyway, thinking it wouldn’t matter what happened. Love would get them through anything.

      Still, Amy couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something more to the late nights away from home and the distance that had grown between them, something that perhaps she’d missed.

      When the day dawned bright, a warm sun illuminating a deep blue October sky, she felt there had been a shift in their relationship during the night. Maybe it was just the post-coital bliss shining a rosy glow on the situation, but when Scott smiled at her, when he pushed her hair behind her ear, when he kissed her lips and caressed her cheek, she felt something there. Something different. Something good.

      After breakfast, the two exchanged smiles as they loaded Amy’s photography equipment into the SUV, along with a small cooler filled with bottles of water and granola bars. Then they headed south into the Ozarks, taking the back roads to see some of the most beautiful natural sites the country had to offer.

      Their days of taking spontaneous road trips had fallen by the wayside, as had most other aspects of their relationship. Scott’s job simply didn’t allow him enough free time to perform such leisurely activities. Not anymore. These days, the rare time he had away from his restaurants was spent catching up on household chores. That’s what made Amy think she was right about the change she thought she felt between them. Normally Scott wouldn’t have agreed to take a day off and go on a road trip with her. But today he had. That had to mean something, right?

      They buckled up and headed south from St. Louis, heading back into the region where Amy was born and raised. She loved the southeast part of the state for many reasons. Mostly because it was her home. But also because of the fond memories she had of meeting and falling in love with the new boy in her class, a boy who’d just moved to the area from the city and didn’t know anything about country living.

      They stopped first at Elephant Rocks State Park, where some of the boulders loomed larger than three-story houses. From there, they continued south on N Highway where they stopped at Johnson’s Shut-Ins State Park. An hour after leaving the shut-ins, they stopped at a small diner in Eminence for lunch. After that, they continued their adventure, hitting all the local attractions. Alley Spring, Round Spring, and Blue Spring. And since they were in the vicinity, they drove to Cardareva to look at the sheer bluff towering over the icy Current River.

      That is so neat, Scott said.

      He stood beside Amy at the water’s edge, his head tilted back as he stared in awe of the massive cliff.

      Amy’s eyes were trained on him. They’d been married for twelve years, but she looked at him now as if seeing him for the first time. His dark hair, blue eyes, and full lips.

      It really is amazing, she said softly, more to herself than to him. It wasn’t just the Cardareva bluff she was referring to. It was him. Her husband.

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