Into the Dread Void (The Dread Void Book 1) Read online

  Into the Dread Void

  The Dread Void Book 1

  ABE MOSS

  Copyright © 2021 by Abe Moss

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Cover Design by James T. Egan of Bookfly Design LLC.

  NOVELS BY ABE MOSS

  THE WRITHING

  BATHWATER BLUES

  BY THE LIGHT OF HIS LANTERN

  LITTLE EMMETT

  UNDER THE WICKED MOON

  GILLS

  A GHOST ARRIVES

  RUBY HOLLOWAY READS AFTER DARK

  Contents

  1. THE ENTITY

  2. NELL

  3. NELL

  4. NELL

  5. THE ENTITY

  6. NELL

  7. NELL

  8. HUX

  9. NELL

  10. NELL

  11. HUX

  12. NELL

  13. HUX

  14. NELL

  15. HUX

  16. NELL

  17. THE ENTITY

  18. HUX

  19. NELL

  20. HUX

  21. NELL

  22. HUX

  23. NELL

  24. NELL

  25. HUX

  26. NELL

  27. HUX

  28. NELL

  29. HUX

  30. NELL

  31. HUX

  32. NELL

  33. HUX

  34. NELL

  35. HUX

  36. NELL

  A SPECIAL THANKS

  1

  THE ENTITY

  The first thing Jordan Hadfield saw when he opened his eyes was his wife’s smiling face. Her cheeks were softly bathed in a green light.

  “Sorry to wake you.”

  Kayla looked dreamily upon him, adoringly.

  Squinting, Jordan peered around their dark, cramped RV. It was coming through the curtained windows—the green light. Right away it filled him with a sense of unease. An off-balance, tilted sensation.

  “What’s going on?” he croaked, sitting up.

  “I need to show you something.”

  Kayla was kneeling on the floor beside their bottom bunk. Jordan rubbed his face, then reached toward the tiny, inset shelf where his phone lay. Before he could grab it, his wife gently intercepted his hand in hers and stood from her crouch.

  “You need to come see this,” she said.

  She lightly tugged his hand, urging him to get up, to follow.

  “I didn’t even feel you get out of bed…” He glanced to the windows again, to the unnatural, sour-green light coming through. “What is that out there?”

  “That’s what I want to show you.”

  Jordan swiveled out of bed, feet on the floor. He sighed groggily. It finally dawned on him that Kayla wasn’t whispering. He lifted his gaze to the underside of the top bunk.

  “Are the kids asleep?”

  Kayla pulled his hand once more.

  “They’re already outside. They saw it before I did.”

  “What is it?”

  “Come and see,” she said, grinning in the dark as if he was the ridiculous one.

  He looked to the window, the curtains letting only a fraction through—a sickly glow.

  She tugged his hand one last time, really leaned back, and as Jordan allowed her to pull him to his feet, a smothering, full-bodied dread washed over him. Perhaps he stood up too quickly. Lightheaded. Perhaps it was the fact his wife seemed so eerily peppy for being awakened by their children in the middle of the night. Perhaps it was how the green light became increasingly out of place the more Jordan’s lagging mind caught up with his surroundings.

  A cool summer night’s breeze carried the scent of pine needles and mountain air to Jordan’s nostrils as Kayla led him toward the RV door, already standing open. The light coming through the door was much brighter—like a neon sign had somehow found them in the wilderness. Each step Jordan took toward the door, hand held securely in his wife’s, the more certain he became that he must be dreaming.

  “What’s out there?” he murmured.

  For a moment he tried to plant himself and halt their progress, but Kayla pulled him steadily along, his bare feet shuffling just to keep up. She descended the few small steps out of the RV onto the dirt. She was barefooted, which Jordan only now realized was all the more odd. Kayla had never been an enthusiastic camper—hence the comforts of a family RV—and it struck Jordan as especially shocking that she should dirty her feet so carelessly…

  “Come on, come on, come on…” she chanted.

  Stepping onto the rough ground, Jordan studied his wife from behind, illuminated like someone out of a fairy tale—the way the loose strands of her hair caught the green light. It was incredibly bright now. It shined through the trees ahead, just beyond their clearing. Led by the hand, Jordan managed to lose track of his wife in that instant, at least in thought, as he stared beyond her into those trees. Through the branches, the light split into dazzling, misty rays upon their bodies.

  “What… is that?”

  He expected no explanation. Not anymore. He spoke to himself mostly. The dread which had previously unsettled him lifted, gave way to intrigue. Fascination. He followed Kayla between the trees, through them, until they stepped into the next clearing and suddenly he found himself face to face with it. With the light.

  “Holy shit,” he muttered under his breath.

  It’s all there was, was light. Suspended and blinding. It came from nothing, no source. The light itself was the source, hovering in the center of the small clearing. As they came closer Jordon lost his ability to speak. There were two small silhouettes crouched before the light. Aiden and Alex. They were on their knees. Jordan couldn’t see his children much better than that, his own eyes could hardly peel themselves away from the deafening brilliance shining over their little frames. Green and sparkling, like a traffic light evolved into a star…

  “Wow…”

  They arrived behind their children, standing over them, where Kayla finally let go of Jordan’s hand. Somehow, it no longer occurred to Jordan to ask what it was. It wasn’t anything. It was simply there. His thoughts circled nothing else. The four of them stared into the light in absolute awe, mesmerized. Somewhere in the back of Jordan’s mind, buzzing through the joyous wonderment of the occasion, he thought to himself how lucky they were to witness this anomaly, whatever it was, and share the moment together as a family. How could they explain this to anyone after the fact? To think he’d been in bed only a minute ago, none the wiser of this phenomenon taking place outside their RV. Thank God for Kayla, he thought. How she’d managed to pull herself away so that he too could experience it with the rest of his family, he couldn’t fathom. He could never pull himself away, not now. He couldn’t even blink, overcome with the terrible fear that the light would extinguish as soon as he did. Or worse, that he’d wake up altogether from this marvelous dream.

  Wow.

  Sweat beaded off his face as he began to feel terribly hot under his clothes.

  2

  NELL

  The dark and narrow street of Shepherd Boulevard hummed with an assortment of sounds. Crickets chirped in an endless song—the heartbeat of night itself. Sprinklers machine-gunned the lawns of sleeping homes. In the far distance, a car alarm went off for a good twenty seconds before finally being silenced. Leaves rustled in a gentle breeze. Somewhere in the vicinity, a dog yipped sharply from someone’s backyard, and followi
ng the distinct clatter of a screen door its owner whisper-shouted for it to get back inside.

  Then, at 174 Shepherd Boulevard, as regular and routine as any other nightly ambience, there were the low murmurings of voices. Two voices, to be precise. Secretive and yet brimming with barely restrained amusement. Cautious and yet untouchable. From the vacant sidewalk, their shadows could be spotted leaned against the house’s vinyl siding, as well as the orange-red glow of a cigarette butt passed between their hands.

  Fourteen-year-old Nell Parrish took a long, hollow-cheeked drag, held the smoke puckered in her mouth, and passed the cigarette to fourteen-year-old Lisa Carter beside her. Nell blew the smoke from her pursed lips and watched it plume like a phantom into the overhead darkness.

  Lisa sighed drearily, pausing with the cigarette to her lips.

  “This sucks. I don’t want to share my room with a stranger, some lying thief I can’t trust. I’ll have to start locking up my shit again…”

  “Isn’t that how you ended up here in the first place?” Nell said. The corner of her mouth curled into a devilish smirk. “By being a lying thief?”

  “That’s how I know,” Lisa said. She took a drag and held it, thinking. She blew it out. “Besides… I’m not like that anymore.”

  “Not since you met me,” Nell said smugly, and took the cigarette back. “I was the positive influence you were missing all this time.”

  “Mhmm, and now you’re leaving there’s nothing stopping me from spiraling back into a hopeless cycle of rebellion and delinquency…”

  “Sure there is.” Nell sucked the cigarette, then let another ghost slip from her mouth. “I’ll kick your skinny ass if you do.”

  “My skinny ass? Bitch, you’ve got the body of an eight-year-old.”

  They each burst out laughing before they quickly remembered themselves and smothered it down, snickering under their breath. Nell leaned away from the house for a moment to spy the windows on the upper floor. Still dark. Curtains drawn. She tried to take another drag off their cigarette—it was almost finished—and choked on it instead.

  “Seriously, though,” Lisa said. “I’m gonna go crazy here without you.”

  Nell dropped the butt into the grass and mashed it with the toe of her sneaker.

  “It’s not like I’m moving out of state. I’m not even leaving town. It’s like… a three-mile walk.”

  “But your new family won’t like me. They’ll want you to make new friends. Better friends, they’ll say.”

  “Oh, Jesus….”

  “They’ll have you turning into a goodie-goodie in no time…”

  “Really?” Nell bent close, ensuring Lisa saw her scrutinizing stare. “A goodie-goodie?”

  “Just a matter of days, probably…”

  Nell scoffed. “Don’t worry about going crazy without me. That ship has sailed…”

  “Oh, yeah?”

  “Yeah. Long gone…”

  Lisa lifted her arm, held it out like an offering. “All right, prove it. Cure me.”

  Nell blew a puff of air from her nose. “This again?”

  “For old time’s sake.”

  “Need I remind you I can’t cure people…”

  “Yeah, yeah, whatever you call it. Clear my mind, then.”

  “You think I can’t?”

  “Just do it,” Lisa said, and shook her arm impatiently. “Prove I’m crazy.”

  With both hands, Nell grabbed hold of Lisa’s wrist and squeezed. She clenched and unclenched, moving her hands up and down Lisa’s arm as if feeling for something—waiting for something.

  “You feeling any different?” Nell asked.

  “Hmm. I’m not sure…”

  “Nothing at all?”

  “I don’t think so. Maybe you’ve lost your touch…”

  “It’s not that,” Nell said, continuing to squeeze. She furrowed her brow. She paused. Her eyes widened. She gasped suddenly, looking up into Lisa’s steady, unsurprised gaze. “Oh, no. Lisa…”

  “What is it, Nell?” she asked, playing along.

  “You’re not crazy after all,” Nell said. “I think you’re just—”

  “Just a dumbass!” Lisa finished in a loud, mocking whisper. She yanked her arm out of Nell’s grip and laughed.

  “I don’t get why you love that so much,” Nell said.

  “Because I know you love it,” Lisa said. “I’m a very generous friend like that. Which is why you’ll miss me more than I’ll miss you after you leave…”

  Nell sighed. “Probably.”

  Just then, the night gave way to silence for a moment. Not even the crickets seemed to chirp. A quiet, scratching anxiety surfaced out of it—out of the silence—and Nell felt compelled to say something, anything, to fill it.

  “It’s true, though,” Lisa said, beating her to it. For a second Nell thought she was still talking about them missing each other. “Your foster parents won’t like me.”

  “You don’t know that. You haven’t even met them.”

  “You told me both their names are Kacy,” Lisa said. She made a sudden sound in the back of her throat as she held in another bout of laughter. “I mean, come on…”

  “No,” Nell interrupted. “The dad’s name is Casey, with a C. The mom’s name is Kacy, with a K.”

  “Same difference.”

  “They actually seem really nice,” Nell said.

  “Exactly. And soon you’ll be nice, too. They’ll reprogram you. Your grades will improve, you’ll be… I don’t know, fuckin’ valedictorian or some shit, their model kid, and then you won’t be able to be seen with someone like me again.”

  “I’ve had plenty of foster families before this,” Nell said. “Probably won’t be my last, either.”

  “You’ve had better luck than me…”

  Nell couldn’t help it. Her eyes fell to the scars on Lisa’s bicep, and naturally Lisa caught her looking, having expected it.

  “I never want another foster family,” Lisa said, almost pridefully. “I’d be happy just to stay here until I’m eighteen.”

  “Yeah, the group home suits you,” Nell said.

  Though it was a joke, Lisa nodded in agreement. “I think it does.”

  It was getting especially late, and Nell didn’t know how much longer their luck would last before someone heard them outside.

  “We should go in,” Nell said.

  The vinyl siding creaked as she pushed herself off the house. Lisa stayed put, at least for a moment. She was staring off into nothing, likely thinking things Nell wished she wouldn’t.

  “These last two years wouldn’t have been the same if you weren’t here. Things are gonna suck without you…”

  “It’s not gonna suck. We’ll still hang out.”

  Even in the house’s midnight shadow, Nell saw the grimace Lisa wore, still thinking. Nell opened her mouth to say something, something more reassuring, but Lisa straightened without another word and started off around the side of the house. Nearly stepping on her best friend’s heels, Nell stared at the back of Lisa’s head as they made their way around, toward the back door which they left open for themselves. Lisa pushed the door open gently, the house’s interior black and muffled as a tomb.

  Without hesitation, Nell followed her into the dark.

  3

  NELL

  Casey and Kacy—the Palmers—gave Nell a lighthearted tour of their quaint rambler as the sun began to set outside.

  Nell couldn’t help admiring how neat they were, in the appearance of both their home and themselves. Casey was the epitome of clean-cut. Dress shirt, eyeglasses, clean-shaven. Looking not at all his age, he reminded Nell of a guppy schoolteacher. Kacy was similar in that respect. Exuberant and remarkably wide-eyed for someone nearing forty, Nell thought. Nell believed she could fairly judge the level of hardship an adult has faced based on the light left in their eyes, in accordance with their age, of course. In that regard, the Palmers struck her as being especially fortunate. Perhaps even sheltered…


  Nell followed them from room to room while their dog—a curious black-and-brown, curly-haired mongrel named Howard—trailed her the entire way, incessantly sniffing the bags she carried. Nell listened politely as Casey and Kacy described the various facets of a home to her, as if she’d never used a stove before, or didn’t know that regular families sometimes enjoyed their meals together at a dining room table. They were nervous, she gathered, and understandably so. Though they had a daughter of their own, this was their first foray into the foster system.

  They showed her into the living room, where their sixteen-year-old daughter, Julie, watched television. Julie seemed rather unimpressed with the whole ordeal, and much to her parents’ private disapproval she did not get up to greet Nell. Upon being introduced, she turned her TV-sparkling eyes in their sockets to see them and she smiled—just with her mouth, as the rest of her face couldn’t be bothered to express anything at all. Nell smiled in return.

  “She’s a little shy,” Kacy whispered as they stepped into the hallway.

  “Julie is not shy,” Casey corrected, eyeing his wife in a way that suggested they both knew better. “But she’s really a sweet girl, Nell. You’ll get along great.”

  Nell simply nodded. She couldn’t blame Julie for being indifferent.

  They passed one room, the door shut, which Kacy pointed out as being Julie’s. Julie was smart not to let the new girl get a good look at her private space, Nell thought. As much as she couldn’t blame her for being indifferent, she couldn’t blame her for being wary, either.