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    Gods and Monsters: Episode Three
    Gods and Monsters: Episode Three
    Gods and Monsters: Episode Three
    Ebook78 pages1 hour

    Gods and Monsters: Episode Three

    By Scott Shoemaker

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    About this ebook

    Graham Sellers and his daughter Evey encounter their greatest foe yet, but it's not a mythological god or monster. A local do-gooder is convinced Graham's books are behind the strange events in the small town of Cedar Falls. Now Graham and his daughter must battle a resurgent Hades as well as a wave of censorship.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherScott Shoemaker
    Release dateMay 4, 2014
    ISBN9781311753977
    Gods and Monsters: Episode Three
    Author

    Scott Shoemaker

    Scott Shoemaker lives in Minnesota.

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      Book preview

      Gods and Monsters - Scott Shoemaker

      Gods and Monsters

      Episode Three

      by Scott Shoemaker

      Smashwords Edition

      Copyright © 2014 Scott Shoemaker

      Table of Contents

      1

      2

      3

      4

      5

      1

      To most people driving down Highway 29, Elmer Kleinhammer’s junkyard was an eyesore. A teeming jungle of rusted metal broken by the occasional tuft of weeds, it was seen as a blight on the pristine autumn scenery of Wisconsin.

      But to Elmer Kleinhammer, it was a treasure trove of history, of what had been and what could still be. Among the piles of parts was the axle for a 1974 El Dorado that wasn’t made anymore. Or the head gasket for a Pontiac Grand Am worth its weight in gold.

      Sure, Elmer had heard the complaining. Clean it up! It’s the armpit of Cedar Falls! An embarrassment! But he had ignored it all. It was his prize, his happy place, one of his daughters had said.

      As Elmer made his way through the rusted out bodies and random car parts, his Bassett hound Bo struggled to keep up. They were both getting older now. They could still make the tour of the grounds, but it took a little longer.

      Elmer strained to pick up a stick in the mud. Here, boy! He threw it as far as he could, maybe a couple dozen feet to a front seat for a 1970 El Camino.

      Bo sniffed the air, considered the distance, and let out a whimper.

      All right. We’ll get it tomorrow.

      Elmer patted Bo on the side before resuming their tour of the junkyard. They passed the black carcass of a 1948 Ford, Elmer’s first car. It didn’t run anymore, hadn’t since the summer of 1979. But he was going to restore it to its former glory one of these days. It was the least he could do for the car that had driven him on his first date, to his wedding, and the birth of his first-

      ZZZZT!

      Elmer slowly turned to the noise. It sounded like an electric spark, but there was only a light mist falling, hardly a storm.

      ZZZZT!

      Someone must’ve touched the electric fence surrounding the yard. He had put it up when the kids were breaking in and drinking in the middle of the night. Long ago a barking Bo would’ve chased them away, but these days the fence was a necessity.

      ZZZZT!

      Usually it only took one zap! for the kids to get the hint. Three zaps could kill someone. Elmer let out a sigh. Better check and make sure no one got hurt.

      Elmer ambled through the maze of cars and parts, following what was becoming a constant crackle. As the buzz grew louder, he decided it wasn’t the electric fence. It was coming from a cove between an old VW van and a school bus that was being temporarily stored for going on almost ten years.

      What were those kids doing? Elmer figured he would scare them off. Less hassle that way. He hid behind the front of the bus, ready to startle the hooligans.

      Elmer took a deep breath and spun around to the side of the bus, stopping cold.

      It wasn’t a bunch of kids. It wasn’t even a single kid.

      It was a man, taller than Elmer by at least a foot and bulging with muscles. At least he guessed it was a man since the entire body was covered in black armor.

      And the face… what wasn’t covered by the helmet simply didn’t exist. It was a black void with two red eyes hanging in the emptiness.

      Bo took one look at the figure, whimpered, and waddled off into the junkyard as fast as his arthritic legs would carry him.

      What-

      The figure raised its hand, and Elmer suddenly felt a tug throughout his body. His jaw dropped open. A cold feeling, colder than even the most brutal January day in Wisconsin, invaded his body.

      A light mist began to seep from him, and then-

      Nothing.

      Elmer Kleinhammer’s body collapsed to the ground, dead.

      Hades inhaled the swirling mist of Elmer Kleinhammer’s soul. It had been so long since he had taken a soul himself. It was intoxicating. He wanted more.

      And now that he was back, he would have them.

      2

      Sheriff Carl Jennings stared at the endless mound of rusting metal. For almost fifty years the junkyard had blotted the farmland surrounding Cedar Falls, and it had been in no better shape when he was a kid than it was now. On more than one occasion, he’d been asked if there was anything he could do to curtail the creeping automotive shambles. There wasn’t, but that didn’t stop the calls from coming.

      That would all change now that Elmer was gone. Elmer was a good guy. He gave Jennings a muffler for his car when the sheriff was in high school. Jennings had offered to pay for it, but the old man had insisted that he take it for nothing.

      And now he was gone. People would finally get their way, and the junkyard would be cleared. Jennings kicked a rock and walked over to where the Coroner was finishing up with Elmer’s body.

      What’s it look like? He asked.

      The Coroner threw a sheet over Elmer’s frozen face, his jaw locked opened in sheer terror.

      Given Elmer’s age…

      Jennings figured he was at least eighty. At least.

      You could probably pick your cause of death, she said. "But I’d put my money on

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