Ghost Canyon (The John Decker Supernatural Thriller Series Book 7) by Anthony Strong (ebooks that read to you .TXT) 📕

over and end up like the three unfortunate souls huddled at the back of the tunnel. Especially since they were not the ones who would benefit from the wealth of precious metals surrounding them.

The Mexicans turned to head back, clutching their pickaxes tighter, because now they believed they were not alone in the darkness.

And they were right.

Something was moving toward them, out of sight beyond a bend in the tunnel. They could hear its footfalls, and the strange shuffling, popping sounds that grew louder with each moment.

The two men froze, caught in a dreadful realization that they were trapped. If they continued upon their route back to the surface, they would run into whatever was coming their way, and they were sure it was nothing good. But if they retreated, there was nowhere to go except a dead-end, and judging by the corpses huddled there, it hadn’t worked out too well for the last people to make that decision.

Yet they had no choice. Whatever was prowling the tunnels was surely not friendly, and they didn’t wish to encounter it, so they did the only thing possible. They fled back into the tunnel as far as they could go. And there they waited, scared and alone, with only the three mummified corpses for company. And when the beast came into view, red eyes glowing like the fires of hell, they cowered and whimpered and prayed for deliverance from the evil drawing closer with each step.

At least until they heard the voice whispering inside their heads, telling them that everything would be okay. It would all be over soon. All they had to do was remain still and let the creature have its way.

But then something strange happened. The skin-draped skeleton slinking toward them came to a halt a few feet from the symbol drawn on the ground. It stood there, glaring at them, the fire in its eyes fading, and taking with it the whispered voice. Then, with a shriek of frustration, the creature turned back the way it came, leaving the pair of terrified Mexicans alone.

They hadn’t seen it since.

Unwilling to move, fearful the nightmarish creature was waiting in the darkness beyond their flashlights, they settled onto the ground. After a while they turned one flashlight off to conserve battery power. And there they waited as day turned to night and back into day again. Now, as it approached nightfall for a second day, hunger gnawing their stomachs, they realized they must either move or starve to death just like their deceased companions.

After a brief discussion, they decided to try for the surface. They moved reluctantly, stepping past the protection symbol, and inching their way down the tunnel, using both flashlights even though one was visibly dimming, the batteries almost drained. They kept the beams aimed low and moved in silence lest they alert the creature to their presence.

For a while all went well. They followed the map back through the twisting maze of tunnels, and soon their spirits lifted upon the realization that they might actually make it out alive. Then, from somewhere deeper within the mine, they heard it. An inhuman shriek that echoed through the shafts and tunnels, bouncing off the narrow stone walls.

They quickened their pace, eager to escape, but it was not enough. The creature was coming. They could hear it growing closer, moving with surprising speed.

When Emmanuelle tripped, his foot catching a jagged rock and sending him sprawling, Hector turned back to help him up. But he’d fallen hard, his leg twisting at an unnatural angle as he landed. His scream of pain was only slightly less unnerving than the screech of anticipation from the darkness in the tunnel behind them. Hector summed up the situation, mumbled a brief apology in Spanish, then turned and fled despite his friend’s desperate pleas for help. As he approached the mine entrance, another scream reached his ears, shrill and full of terror. At least, until it was suddenly cut off.

Hector stumbled forward, out of the mine and into the cool desert night. The full moon hung low in the sky, bathing the landscape in a silvery glow. He turned and looked back the way he’d come, expecting to see the creature giving chase, but the mine’s entrance was nothing but a yawning, dark hole in the earth. And there, at the entrance, he noticed another symbol just like the one that had protected them the previous evening. Or at least, the remains of it. In his haste to escape, Hector had stood upon the crudely drawn symbol, scuffing it up and leaving it only half visible. He cursed his own stupidity. Someone had tried to keep the creature contained, until he’d come along and ruined it. Worse, he couldn’t even redraw it, because he didn’t remember exactly what the symbol was meant to look like.

Hector realized there was only one option. He must leave this place as quickly as possible. He turned and ran, clawing his way through the bushes clogging the rocky crevice. As he expected, there was no sign of his employers or the truck. Yet something was different. The entire area was ringed with yellow crime scene tape that flapped in the breeze. But there was no time to investigate this new development. Hector pushed his way past the tape and fled down the canyon trail as fast as his legs would carry him. A minute later the creature found the mine’s entrance, and unhindered by the destroyed symbol, emerged and spread its wings, then took to the sky with a triumphant wail.

Chapter Sixty

Decker stood in the Last Chance Hotel and Saloon’s museum room, his gaze resting upon the skeleton of the man they believed was Karuk, shot in the back by his partner almost fourteen decades earlier. In particular, he studied the three leg bones, aware time was growing short. Realizing there was no definitive way to identify which belonged with the skeleton, and which one had been removed from the grave