The witch of grays point, p.1
The Witch of Gray's Point, page 1
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THE WITCH OF GRAY’S POINT
Lorestalker—Book 3
Copyright © 2019 J.P. Barnett
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ISBN (EPUB Version): 1622530837
ISBN-13 (EPUB Version): 978-1-62253-083-0
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Editor: Mike Robinson
Cover Artist: Richard Tran
Interior Designer: Lane Diamond
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PUBLISHER’S NOTE:
At the end of this novel of approximately 71,865 words, you will find two Special Sneak Previews: 1) THE HAUNT AT HOGG RUN by J.P. Barnett, the next (fourth) novel in this multiple award-winning “Lorestalker” series, and; 2) MEMOIRS OF A TRANSFERABLE SOUL by W. Town Andrews, an award-winning literary horror novel. We think you’ll enjoy these books, too, and provide these previews as a FREE extra service, which you should in no way consider a part of the price you paid for this book. We hope you will both appreciate and enjoy the opportunity. Thank you.
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eBook License Notes:
You may not use, reproduce or transmit in any manner, any part of this book without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations used in critical articles and reviews, or in accordance with federal Fair Use laws. All rights are reserved.
This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only; it may not be resold 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, please return to your eBook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
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Disclaimer:
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination, or the author has used them fictitiously.
Books by J.P. Barnett
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The LORESTALKER Series
Book 1: The Beast of Rose Valley
Book 2: The Kraken of Cape Madre
Book 3: The Witch of Gray’s Point
Book 4: The Haunt at Hogg Run
Book 5: The Devil of Misty Lake
Book 6: The Legacy of Rose Valley
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JPBarnett.com
What Others Are Saying
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THE BEAST OF ROSE VALLEY:
“If you are looking for a fun, fast-paced creature feature set in a small town, you really can’t go wrong with this one.” ~ Steve Stred, Kendall Reviews
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THE KRAKEN OF CAPE MADRE:
“Barnett has skills. He has the ability to take a reader anywhere and everywhere and make you feel every bit of emotions his characters are feeling.” ~ Ash, Reviews of a Fear Street Zombie
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THE WITCH OF GRAY’S POINT:
“For lovers of myths, folklore, and the macabre, Barnett is the author to follow and, with three books already published, there is plenty of material to read. His most recent release, The Witch of Gray’s Point, adds an excellent installment to the series as a whole.” ~ Alicia Smock, Roll Out Reviews
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THE HAUNT AT HOGG RUN:
“This is one of those stories that is so fast-paced and exciting that you can't stop reading. I love, love Macy having her own book. I found myself holding my breath and making out-loud noises rooting for Macy to get out of her sticky situations. Great story, great writing!” ~ Mistie Cogdill, Author of “In the Right Time”
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THE DEVIL OF MISTY LAKE:
“The vivid action sequences resembled a fast-paced movie, making The Devil of Misty Lake a perfect read for anyone interested in an adventurous ride.” ~ Shrabastee Chakraborty, Readers’ Favorite Book Reviews
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THE LEGACY OF ROSE VALLEY:
“Barnett describes his creatures running rampant with such vivid detail that it is almost impossible not to feel a shiver run down your spine when reading. The result of this balanced mix of mystery, horror, and romance is the exciting reading experience...” ~ Essien Asian, Readers’ Favorite Book Reviews
BONUS CONTENT
We’re pleased to offer you not one, but two Special Sneak Previews at the end of this book.
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In the first preview, you’ll enjoy the prologue and first chapter of the next book in this “Lorestalker” series of creature feature, horror suspense thrillers by J.P. Barnett, THE HAUNT AT HOGG RUN.
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FINALIST: Feathered Quill Book Awards 2021:
Mystery/Thriller/Suspense/Horror
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TOP 5 FINALIST: The Kindle Book Review 2021:
Fiction - Horror/Suspense
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OR GRAB THE FULL EBOOK TODAY!
FIND LINKS TO YOUR FAVORITE RETAILER HERE:
The LORESTALKER Series at Evolved Publishing
In the second preview, you’ll enjoy the first four chapters of W. Town Andrews’ critically acclaimed, award-winning MEMOIRS OF A TRANSFERABLE SOUL, a mind-bending, soul-bending, genre-bending adventure.
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“The premise is powerful, and just the idea of an illness that can’t be diagnosed is in itself a mind-blowing worry, for how can one fight a disease they cannot name? ...an irresistible story... hugely entertaining.” ~ Readers’ Favorite Book Reviews, Divine Zape (5 STARS)
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“W. Town Andrews’ writing is lyrical and smooth and it grabs the reader from the very first page. I was literally glued to the pages, exploring the realism with which the author describes patients at a terminal stage. ... The author combines strong narration with humor to transform an already beautiful story into a page-turner.” ~ Readers’ Favorite Book Reviews, Romuald Dzemo (5 STARS)
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OR GRAB THE FULL EBOOK TODAY!
FIND LINKS TO YOUR FAVORITE RETAILER HERE:
W. TOWN ANDREWS at Evolved Publishing
Table of Contents
Copyright
Books by J.P. Barnett
What Others Are Saying
BONUS CONTENT
Table of Contents
THE WITCH OF GRAY’S POINT
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Epilogue
Special Sneak Preview: THE HAUNT AT HOGG RUN by J.P. Barnett
Acknowledgements
About the Author
More from J.P Barnett
What’s Next?
More from Evolved Publishing
Special Sneak Preview: MEMOIRS OF A TRANSFERABLE SOUL by W. Town Andrews
Prologue
The others whispered in the darkness, but Ana kept mostly to herself, nestling her baby against her bosom and praying the journey would soon be over. An old, battery-operated radio crooned out the twangy tones of American country music from the floorboard of the van. She’d heard the song, but she couldn’t understand the lyrics. Without a watch, she could only guess as to how long she’d been sitting like this. Hours, surely, but many more lay ahead.
With her free hand, she clutched tightly to the strap of her canteen, helpfully provided to her by the driver of the van. The water would be crucial to her survival. Each of them had one, but the pattern on hers uniquely swirled with purple and gray camouflage. She’d probably already drank too much.
Her baby squirmed in her arms. Thankfully, as if sensing the danger himself, he’d hardly made a sound the entire trip. Still, Ana heard the murmurings in the dark. The rest of the refugees referred to her baby as desafortunado, but he gave her the strength to escape. He was far from unlucky.
The van jostled as it turned off the pavement onto rougher terrain. The whispering stopped, each of them waiting, worrying about what could happen next. Ana held her breath, trying to hear anything outside the thin metal walls around her, but she could make out nothing except the metallic tings of gravel striking the undercarriage.
There were soft gasps when the van came to a sudden, screeching stop. Like Ana, they all knew that they couldn’t possibly have arrived at their destination yet.
Within moments, the double doors swung open. A beam of light burst across the darkness, blinding Ana. The light searched the faces, one by one. Ana
“Tú. Ven,” said the shadowed man on the other end of the flashlight.
Ana looked to those next to her, desperate to believe that he’d spoken to them instead, but all eyes were on her. When she didn’t immediately move to exit the van, the man grabbed her upper arm. Not hard, but forcefully enough that she moved without putting up a fight.
Meekly, she protested that they surely could not have arrived already. The man didn’t seem to care. Once Ana’s feet squarely hit the gravel, he retrieved her canteen and dropped it on the ground next to her. After slamming the van doors shut, he pointed up the road to the faint lights of a house sitting alone in the desert.
“Ve allí.”
“No,” she begged. “Éste no fue el acuerdo.”
“Lo sé,” he admitted, casting his eyes downward. “Lo siento.”
With his half-hearted apology, he quickly rounded the van, jumped into the driver’s seat, and pulled away. Ana slammed her free hand against the doors and screamed before it surged out of her reach. Her baby, for the first time since they had crossed the border, cried.
As the taillights disappeared into the darkness, Ana scanned the horizon, hoping to find any semblance of civilization aside from the house at the end of the gravel road. She found nothing. Only the foreboding shadows of scrub trees and cacti barely visible under the light of a crescent moon. She pulled her baby closer to her chest, trying to decide whether she should walk into the darkness or towards the house.
Something moved in the corner of her eye. Near one of the small trees sat a dog—or a coyote—on its haunches, regarding her with a calm but unsettling stare. She turned towards it, taking in its size. Its form was bigger than she expected, surely larger than any coyote. But it wasn’t its size that stopped Ana’s breath; it was its strange, human-like face, flat and white, full of depth and understanding no animal could possess.
She took a step forward and screamed at the animal, but it did not falter. Her baby howled now, surely sensing her unease. The dog cocked its oddly-shaped head at the sound of the baby, then stood up. Not on all fours, as Ana expected, but on two strong, furry legs with knees that bent backwards.
It started towards her, and she ran.
Scrambling down the road, she was certain that anything under that house’s roof would be better than this abomination from hell. A kind of garbled crack sounded behind her, like a bone breaking underwater. Glancing back, she saw the creature was on all fours now, its limbs more canine even as its face remained... wrong. Ana shrieked and stumbled down to one knee, stopping just short of smashing her baby into the ground.
Up in an instant, she rushed forward. The house sat only a few feet away. She could see the wooden steps; could feel the warm glow of the lights on her face even as she felt the dog gaining on her, nipping at her heels. She whispered a prayer and stretched her legs as far as they would go, advancing towards safety with every hurried step.
Then—it was gone.
She didn’t see it disappear, but could tell it was no longer there. Stopping at the bottom of the steps, she turned to make sure. She jumped as a near-silent owl barreled towards her face, letting out a piercing screech. As she cradled her baby tighter, it crested the peak of the roof, and disappeared into the desert night.
The gravel road stretched back towards the highway, eerily desolate. Ana tried to catch her breath, her heart beating against the soft skin of her baby. Tears streamed down her cheeks. Her chest filled with dread at the prospect of whoever lived on the other side of this house’s front door. She had no choice, though. She needed shelter from the terrors of the desert.
Mustering her resolve, Ana slowly ascended the steps towards an empty porch. An old, beat-up swing hung silent and frozen in the still air. The window in the door had no coverings, giving her an unfettered view into a cozy-but-rustic cabin peppered with olive and mustard furniture. The mounted head of a buck stared at her from above the fireplace.
Shushing her baby, Ana raised a free hand to knock on the door, but before her knuckles met the hard wood, the door slid open with a creak. A man stood in the doorway, his elongated frame swallowing the light behind him, and bathing Ana in shadow.
She craned her neck, regarding him with dark brown eyes. Though she couldn’t make out all of his features, she could see a thin, graying mustache and old, kind eyes. His lips curled up into a welcoming smile as he widened his arms.
“Ana Marie! Bienvenida. Estoy tan contento de que hayas llegado.”
His voice sounded familiar, though she didn’t recognize his silhouette. Still, she felt safe, as if this man could protect her from the horrors of the world. She stepped into his arms and he embraced her like family, careful to give the baby room to breathe.
He stroked the back of her head. “It’s okay, dear. Everything will be fine.”
She barely knew English, only understanding the word okay. But the tone of his voice felt genuine. He backed away from the hug and stepped aside.
“Ven. Rápida. It’s not safe out at this hour.”
Reluctant, Ana carried her baby across the threshold of the mysterious house, and into a new life.
Chapter 1
Campus seemed quieter than usual, abandoned by students holing up in their dorm rooms trying to cram a semester’s worth of material in a few days. Miriam liked it better this way.
Though there were few trees to speak of on the outskirts of West Texas, she still enjoyed the stern, scholastic beauty of the concrete and brick. Usually, though, drunk co-eds and childish pranks marred any such sanctity. Dobie Tech boasted the dubious distinction of being a “party school.”
She almost hated to leave campus when it was this quiet, but she had a road trip before her. Miriam didn’t have her own transportation, so when she needed to go anywhere by car, she had no choice but to turn to Macy Donner, her best friend and proud owner of a beat-up Sentra that, while not much to look at, certainly got the job done.
The Sentra now sat on the curb, hazard lights flashing while Miriam loaded up for the trip. Macy rushed past her and popped open the trunk.
“What if we get a case?” Macy asked, standing aside so that Miriam could heft up her bags.
“We dealt with the kraken over two months ago,” Miriam replied. “And we haven’t gotten a single call. Cryptids don’t just pop up every day.”
Macy shrugged. “I dunno. They seem to follow you.”
Miriam offered a faint smirk. It certainly felt that way sometimes, with two unbelievable encounters under her belt in just a couple of years. As thrilling as the hunt was, though, Miriam found herself enjoying the downtime, focusing on school and planning out her future. She’d get back to tracking monsters eventually, of course—it’s what she was made for—but everyone deserved a breather.
“At least tell me where you’re going,” Macy said. “In case I need to come get you.”
“Nope,” Miriam said. She dropped her backpack in and closed the trunk. “It’s my super-secret study place. I need the quiet.”
“Yeah, but I hate when you go there. You don’t ever answer your texts.”
“No service. That’s the beauty of it.”
Macy pouted, a move she somehow pulled off without seeming infantile. “Fine. Keep your secrets.”
Miriam had fallen hopelessly behind in school after slaying the kraken in Cape Madre. She’d spent weeks studying the carcass, and her professors didn’t seem to want to count that towards her grade even though she made a valiant effort to convince them otherwise. Still, her exploits impressed some of them enough to throw her a few bones in the way of extra time on her projects, and some unscheduled office hours. Success wasn’t completely out of reach yet, but Miriam desperately wanted to get her head back above water. She didn’t like flirting with failure.
“I’ll check in,” Miriam relented. “Okay? I’ll call at least once. I promise. It’s only four days.”
Macy nodded and followed Miriam as she rounded the car to the driver’s side. Dropping down into her seat, she looked up at Macy. “Tell Tanner good luck on his first final.”
“I’ll tell him,” Macy said. “If he’ll let me get close to him. He says I’m a distraction.”
One of many who would likely describe Macy that way. Miriam closed the door, started the ignition, and rolled down the window. Macy stooped down to look inside. “Take care of my baby. She’s the only car I’ve got.”
