Down in the Hollow by Timothy Hobbs

Author:Timothy Hobbs [Hobbs, Timothy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Horror
ISBN: 9781959798057
Google: ayWnzwEACAAJ
Publisher: Wicked House Publishing
Published: 2023-01-28T16:54:41.295609+00:00

Sixteen

Dr. James Peterson wore a weak grin. “Abraham didn’t seem very enthused about us storing Eli’s remains in his freezer at the mercantile. And I don’t think Newell was all too cheerful about that decapitated head remaining at the funeral parlor.”

Sheriff Bertram Stone, positioned behind the steering wheel of the multifunctional Ford, glanced over at the doctor. The sheriff’s right arm now throbbed from the cut inflicted when he’d broken the funeral parlor’s front door glass. Twitching his bicep, he felt a sting run the length of his arm. “No, I don’t think Abraham cared for me throwin’ my legal weight around, and Newell is plain spooked. Gus wasn’t too pleased at bein’ waked up so early, either.”

Bertram kept the vehicle at a slow, steady speed, he and Peterson keeping a vigil for Lucas Cross on each side of the roadway leading to the Cross ranch. The sheriff had sent his deputies, Gus Greenwood and Howard Sparks, in the opposite direction to the north. Hunter Cooper and Abraham Tanner had been temporarily deputized by the sheriff, one sent west and the other east just in case Lucas Cross was confused and didn’t take the path back to his ranch. Newell Scruggs asked to be allowed to join in the search party, but Bertram and Peterson agreed the undertaker had experienced enough excitement for one night and suggested he get some rest.

Peterson, having seen the sheriff’s prior grimace, remarked, “I’d better have a look at that arm when we get back to town. It may need suturing.”

“Might need some sewing all right. But I’m more concerned with locatin’ Lucas right now.”

“I doubt he came this way.” The doctor watched the Ford’s headlights spread out on the roadside. “We’d have come across him by now.”

“You think so?”

“He was in such a feeble state I can’t believe we didn’t find him in town. I don’t see how it’s possible he could have wandered very far from my office.”

The sheriff gritted his teeth, his eyes tired, their lids heavy, his injured arm aching. “Hell, I don’t know what to believe anymore. If a supposed corpse can get up and walk, I guess anythin’ is possible.”

Peterson rubbed his head, holding his hand over his ear and grimacing. He knew the gun fired next to his ear and mounting fatigue conspired to bring a serious headache his way. “I am unable to explain what happened to Eli Snow. He had no pulse and no blood pressure. His pupils were fixed and dilated. There were no sounds of breathing at all. Clinically, he was dead.”

The sheriff freed an irrational giggle and said, “There has to be some reason, Doc. Dead things don’t get up and start walkin’ around. Hell, I’m not sayin’ you don’t know what you’re doin. It’s just…Well, if Snow came back to life, I suppose we really should keep a close look see on the head in that bag. It might be grinnin’ from ear to ear and us none the wiser!”

“I imagine there could be some rational explanation, Bertram.

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