The Haunted: The Hunted

By Jeffrey Lynn Stoddard

Elija Morales and his partner of 3 1/2 years, Lobo Sanchez, have just moved into their new home. Strangely, recent unexplained events would seem to indicate that Elijah and Lobo are not the only ones occupying the home. In fact, they are soon to discover that whatever is haunting their 100 year old house has plans for Elija far greater and more horrifying than any he could ever have imagined.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jeffrey Lynn Stoddard
• Release date: Oct 1, 2009
• ISBN: 9781452308647

Jeffrey Lynn Stoddard

* Born in Concord, California. Raised in South Lake Tahoe, California.* Avid fan of true-life haunting and ghost stories. Even lived in several haunted houses and has some psychic ability.* Major roller coaster fanatic. This fanaticism is only surpassed by his love for Disneyland which proves that Jeffrey is either an eternal child or certifiably insane.* An ordained minister of the Universal Life Church. Proof that Hell has, indeed, frozen over.* Lives in Washington State with his partner, Vincent, and two cats, Kodora and Koji.* Was an announcer in radio for many years, where "I got paid to sit in front of a microphone and talk to myself."* Favorite Quote: "I like children. If they're properly cooked." W.C. Fields.* As a teen, he was once denied entrance to Disneyland because of a hole in the knee of his jeans.

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The Haunted – The Hunted

Jeffrey Lynn Stoddard

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Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2009 Jeffrey Lynn Stoddard

Published by Smashwords

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Table Of Contents

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

About the Author

Other Titles

Chapter 1

I admire you, Elijah Morales told Lobo Sanchez, his partner of 3 ½ years. Even though you’re 2 years older than me, you zip around the house like you’re in a race car. You’re making me feel old, here. Slow down a little.

Lobo, who was seated at the counter dividing the kitchen from the dining area, glanced up from his coffee. What are you talking about? he asked.

Elijah poured himself his own coffee and then leaned against the Formica countertop across from his lover. Just a few moments ago I heard you straightening up the spare bedroom, and now you’re in here. I’m only 37 but I’m creaking and moaning and dragging my feet first thing in the morning, and here you are performing feats befitting a man in his teens.

A quizzical look crossed Lobo’s face as he stared up at Elijah. Again, what are you talking about? he asked. "’A few moments ago’ I was here in the kitchen. I haven’t been anywhere near the spare bedroom this morning."

Nodding his understanding, Elijah took a quick, cautious sip off his cup and then lowered it to the counter. I heard a box hitting the floor in there, he admitted with a quick recollection of the noise heard in the adjacent room of their single-story home as he was dressing for the day. I assumed it was you. One of the boxes must have fallen off another. I could have sworn that I heard footsteps in there, though.

Lobo shrugged. Well, if you did, they weren’t mine. Maybe we have a ghost.

Chuckling at the ridiculous suggestion, Elijah said, If we do then he’s paying his share of the mortgage. Where are you working today?

Downing the last of his coffee, Lobo stood. At the Gardenside Apartments, over on the east side, he said before rounding the counter and depositing his cup in the dishwasher. The city is putting a lot of money into renovating that part of town.

Elijah ran a hand down Lobo’s back, enjoying the feel of the taut muscles. It needs it, he said with a sigh. The way that area fell to ruin I’m amazed that they don’t just bulldoze it completely and start over from scratch.

Turning to his partner, Lobo drew Elijah to himself and smiled. It would cost a hell of a lot more to rebuild than to renovate. Besides, there’s a lot of classic architecture in that area, it’d be a crime to tear it all down. Now that they’ve chased the gangs out, me and the others can get to work bringing the area back to what it once was and getting businesses and residents to move back. Lobo leaned in for a pretty powerful kiss that momentarily left Elijah feeling weak in the knees. I gotta run or I’ll be late, he said, pulling back.

Feeling that certain ping of excitement, Elijah would have been more than happy to make a quick detour back into the bedroom before Lobo’s departure, but knowing of his partner’s time constraints he merely smiled and wished Lobo a good day, and with a quick pat of the man’s ass, he watched his partner leave the room. Now alone, Elijah had the whole day open up before him, which, as was so often the case between projects, was completely empty. Days off were few and far between. This schedule was more a matter of random necessity as, being an author, Elijah had disciplined himself to get to work whenever inspiration presented itself.

The hours stuck in his home office were long as he would sit in front of the computer screen typing until either he had come to a natural break, or Lobo had dragged him away. This was not to say that Elijah did not enjoy his work. Quite the contrary. He had found early on that he could become so immersed in his fictitious love stories that the hours would seem like minutes, and it was always a surprise to him to glance out the window to find the sun setting when he felt it to be only around noon.

The office in his and Lobo’s previous apartment was small, and although uninspiring in and of itself, Elijah had managed to separate himself from his surroundings and come up with the most brilliant stories. Consequently, his books were a hit in the gay community, earning him a comfortable living. And along with Lobo’s landscaping business, allowed the two to move out of their cramped apartment and purchase their new home.

Elijah glanced about the kitchen and grumbled under his breath over the unpacked boxes still needing attending to. Having moved in only 5 days ago, he and his partner had sufficient time in which to unpack and settle in, but with Lobo being gone all day and Elijah secluding himself in his office to wrap up a writing project, there was actually very little time to unpack. In all honesty, Elijah had to admit to himself that it was a miracle that they had been able to get as far as they had, what with setting up the bed and what other little tasks they had managed to complete in the new house.

Today, however, was going to be different. Elijah had been entertaining an idea for a story that had come to him before they had moved, but since the whole plot had yet to reveal itself to him he decided to take a few days off and think it through before diving in. This, then, would allow him to get busy digging himself and Lobo out of the boxes that met them at every corner of their three-bedroom home in the middle of suburbia. They had both fallen in love with the neighborhood with its manicured lawns, hedges and massive oak trees shading the yards and street.

More importantly, though, the immediate neighbors had displayed no adverse reactions to having a gay couple move in next to them. This had been a problem with one of their homophobic neighbors back at their previous apartment, and a driving force behind their getting the hell out of that place. And yet, even with the tensions and threats, Elijah had managed to continue to come up with the love stories that had been responsible for making a name for himself in gay literary circles.

He helped himself to a leisurely breakfast of bacon and eggs before daring to even peek into the spare bedroom to see what damage had been done by one of the boxes having toppled over earlier. Seeing as how this room had become more or less the holding room for items that had yet to find a permanent home, it had been packed full, the overflow having been littered about the remainder of the house close to their proposed places of final residency.

The long hallway with two bedrooms on the right and his office and the bathroom on the left felt to be longer than it actually was. This was, no doubt, due to the bare walls that had yet to be adorned with the many paintings and pictures the two men had accumulated over the years and for now resided in brown paper wrapping in the spare bedroom. These, Elijah thought as he eyed the light blue walls while his bare feet plodded softly down the Heritage Diamond Bakhtaran runner, would probably be the first to go up. Give the hallway a little personality.

Bright sunlight poured through the window at the end of the hall and traveled up his body as he neared, finally hitting him in the face as he reached the doorway, and turning away from the glare, Elijah grabbed the knob, turned it and pushed. Surprisingly, the door did not budge, so he applied more pressure to the knob, finding it to turn very little, and certainly not enough to gain entrance into the room behind it. He jiggled the handle again before stepping back to inspect it, seeing that there was no lock on the door. In fact, the only doors he remembered containing locks were the front, back and bathroom doors.

Considering the fact that the house itself was more than 100 years old, Elijah assumed that the handle had more than likely become rusty over time. Therefore, it might need a little friendly persuasion. Gripping it again, this time with both hands, he turned it both left and right a couple times without success. A few more insistent jiggles proved just as ineffective, so Elijah again stepped back in frustration and glared down at the metal knob.

The wooden door was heavy enough to prevent him trying to push his way through, and the classic molding too beautiful to mar by using a crowbar. Therefore, it was quickly becoming apparent that he would either have to get a locksmith out to the house or wait until Lobo returned from work this evening and see what he could figure out. Either way, Elijah was not going to be doing any unpacking from this room, but although frustrating, he knew that he had plenty of other boxes scattered about the house to keep him busy for a good portion of the day.

It was rather odd that the door would refuse him entrance, seeing as how the knob had always been easy to turn in the past, but considering the constant changing of atmospheric conditions Elijah figured that to be the probable cause. Maybe later today he would be able to get in the room after it had begun cooling outside. Giving the doorknob one final glare, Elijah headed back into his and Lobo’s bedroom to make the bed and unpack what few moving boxes remained in that room.

Finding a place for the extra bedding was not a problem as it was distributed to both the closet and chest of drawers, although the bulky spare comforter took a bit of work. Elijah had to try several times to get it to stay on the upper shelf as the minute he would walk away, it would fall to the floor. It eventually took the wedging-in of one of Lobo’s work boots to get the comforter to stay in place, and although it looked ridiculous it served its purpose until he could make other arrangements. Having accomplished that feat Elijah turned back to the box to empty the remaining sheets. Strangely, he noticed that all the drawers in the dresser were now standing wide open. He did remember them being closed only minutes before… or at least he thought he remembered them that way. Obviously he was wrong for the proof of his faulty memory now stood before him like a monument, and this caused him to wonder if maybe he had not slept long enough last night and was now suffering from a slight form of amnesia.

All but the bottom drawer was shoved closed, that one remaining open to hold the set of sheets still laying at the bottom of the box. Turning, he lifted the cardboard flap that had refused to stay open and reached down to retrieve the linen, when suddenly there came a noise from the spare bedroom. This was similar to the one he had thought to have heard earlier that morning. The sound was obviously the result of another box toppling over as Elijah could clearly make out the clatter of something heavy hitting the floor. This was quickly followed by a shattering noise while another unidentified object was heard to roll around on the floor for a moment before falling silent.

Elijah rolled his eyes in disgust. The very last thing he needed this morning was to have extra work being thrust upon him by his and Lobo’s careless stacking of the boxes a couple days back. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly in order to dispel the mounting annoyance. He even went so far as to close his eyes and count to ten, after which a smile began to emerge as he then began to find a bizarre humor in the situation; this being the fact that while he had been hoping to minimize the unpleasant task of unpacking, fate had intervened in the spare room and decided not to let him off so easily.

Shaking his head, Elijah withdrew the sheets. He straightened up and turned back to the dresser to find that, once again, every single drawer was again standing wide open. In fact, the very top drawer had come out completely and now lay at an angle on top of the drawer below it. Elijah studied this odd phenomenon for a couple moments before walking to the right side and inspecting the floor. It did not appear to be slanting forward, at least not enough to cause the drawers to slide open on their own. Nevertheless, this was apparently the case and, therefore, would need to be corrected lest he spend every waking hour pushing drawers back in. He figured that a little later he would locate a level and check the angles out more carefully, placing something beneath the two front legs if necessary. Alternately, he might just move the dresser to another spot in the room, although both he and Lobo were quite satisfied with it where it was.

The sheets were deposited into the bottom drawer, the top one was replaced and all others pushed back in. This, then, completed the unpacking in the bedroom, and flattening the boxes he carried them out into the hallway, standing them against the wall to be taken outside later. With the memory of what new mess awaited him in the already messy and crowded spare bedroom, Elijah decided to give the stuck door another try. The room, after all, was not going to unpack and clean itself. He again trod down the hallway, the soft runner cushioning his steps, and came to a halt before the closed door.

Reaching out with his right hand, he was about to grab the handle when all at once he saw and heard the doorknob rattle briefly as if somebody on the other side had been wiggling it. This lasted only a second but it was definite and most certainly not the result of the house settling or the latch somehow turning on its own. Then again, he thought, perhaps his previous exertions had been responsible for making the handle re-settle by itself. Maybe a loose floorboard was to blame. He bounced on his toes a couple times, not seeing or feeling the floor give in to his weight, but without placing a marble down there to see if it moved Elijah could not be 100 percent certain.

Again he reached out for the knob, but before he could make contact Elijah watched as the knob again jiggled itself, only this time for a longer period of time and much more frantic. This action sent him backward a few steps while an eerie chill caressed his spine. Following this, the knob fell still and silent, even though the rattling noise continued to be heard inside Elijah’s head. As disconcerting as this was, he eventually felt a smile spreading across his face. Determining that what he had just witnessed was either perfectly logical, or an indication of his losing his mind, Elijah heard himself chuckle before he again approached the door.

Taking a deep breath, he once more extended his right hand and took hold of the doorknob, but he quickly withdrew his hand over the increasing burning sensation on his skin. It felt almost as