MoonLit Bay

By Elena Dorothy Bowman

What of the object that seems to cry out in excruciating pain giving off a blinding light when these intruders bombard its shell by laser beams? Why did they pick this peaceful small coastal town of Moonlit Bay for their clandestine operations? Who are these people? Where did they and the object in question come from? And who or what is inside the object that is so important to the invaders? These are questions that Elliot, Ryan, Penny and Stacie are determined to discover if it’s the last thing they do.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Write Words Inc.
• Release date: May 12, 2014
• ISBN: 9781613861622

Book preview

Prologue

What is in an abandoned building on an uninhabited island across Moonlit Bay that is surreptitiously invaded by armed, unidentified entities who are helmeted and dressed in black survival suits with breathing apparatus’s attached? And why are their compatriots dressed in Hazmat suits armed with laser guns surrounding an object that seems to cry out in excruciating pain giving off a blinding light when its shell is bombarded by laser beams? Who are these people and where did they and the object in question come from?

And why did they pick this peaceful unassuming small coastal town of Moonlit Bay, whose population didn’t exceed more than 575 permanent residents for their clandestine operations? These are questions that Elliot, Ryan, Penny and Stacie are determined to discover if it’s the last thing they do.

* * *

Four adults – all in their mid-to late twenties —were caught in a harrowing ordeal they would not soon forget. Ryan Phillips and Elliot Nelson were both six feet tall, good-looking, with the graceful proportion of athletes. Ryan’s intensely deep blue eyes and Elliot’s mischievous dark brown ones only added to their good looks, which had a positive effect on many young women. But they weren’t about to get serious with anyone, not just yet anyway. Ryan and Elliot were long time friends who grew up in a middle class neighborhood. Not having the finances to attend the college of their choice, they joined the Navy. To their credit they were able to attend courses offered by the service to obtain a college degree in Criminology hoping to use that education when their tour of duty was over. They saw enough of the world and preferred to settle in their small seaport town rather than living in a big city. Their goal was to return to their home town and join the Moonlit Bay Police Force and that is where the two young men became involved with the two young women, Stacie Evans and Penny McNeal, and everything changed.

* * *

The two young women, Stacie and Penny grew up together in a small mid-western town. They were both an only child in their family, and the only girls in the neighborhood. From the very beginning it was Stacie, who was a year or so older than Penny and a bit taller than her, who always looked out for Penny, sort of like an older sister. To some people even though they knew better, whenever they saw the two girls together, which was constantly, thought they looked so much alike they could have been sisters, Stacie with her big blue eyes and long blond hair, Penny with deep blue eyes and long dark brown hair. Stacie wore her hair in braids, and Penny loved to feel the wind in her hair. As they grew older, Stacie wore her hair up. Penny never did.

Stacie, always the tomboy played football with the boys while Penny was more into listening and talking to the birds and all the animals that seemed to congregate around her. Stacie marveled at how Penny seemed to know how to talk to animals, while she just as soon leave them alone. Stacie was more the sensible type, as well as being a bit idealistic, while Penny seemed to be more into feelings, as well as being more artistic.

Ryan and Elliot ran into Stacie and Penny when the girls first moved into Moonlit Bay. They were having trouble finding a place to stay until they saw Ryan in his police uniform and thought it was safe to ask him if he knew of a nice cottage in the area for sale. Ryan was more than happy to assist two young and beautiful ladies and asked them out for dinner after helping them find a home they felt they could afford. And yes, he brought Elliot along with him.

These four soon became fast friends but were not quite ready to take it any further, yet, from all outward appearance to anyone who was watching, it looked as if they had.

* * *

Stacie’s and Penny’s parents were friends from the same town and decided to purchase homes next to one another when they moved into their small mid-western town. Their parents worked for a corporation that had offices all over the world, which had offered their parents a higher position in another area. But when their parents signed on it was with the stipulation that they wouldn’t accept any position that would take them out of their mid-western town. They wanted their daughters to grow up in their small town and away from any big city. Since the Corporation needed qualified people at their Mid-Western Branch, the Corporation agreed. They could serve the Corporation best where they were at while their daughters were growing up.

The girls reached an age where they could follow their own pursuits and decided to attend college in New York. Their parents could go no further in the Branch they were at and were hoping to fill the upper managerial positions which had opened up in the Corporate Headquarters in New York. The offer was made to them, which they readily accepted, since they wanted to be closer to where their daughters were going to school. Not wishing to commute from New York to their mid-western town on the weekends their parents decided to take up residence in upper New York State and away from the City.

They were hardly settled in their new positions, and looking forward to new challenges when disaster struck on 911. Both sets of parents working in Tower One on the higher floors were among the victims of that terrible attack.

After graduating from college, the two women longing to put that tragedy behind them migrated to Moonlit Bay. It didn’t take long before Penny’s curiosity led all four of them into a series of events they could not believe would happen to them in a million years.

* * *

Stacie worked for an Advertising Firm as an Illustrator. Penny, on the other hand, was a free-lance Artist and still talking and listening to the world around her. After running into Ryan, they purchased the medium-sized spacious cottage with the money from the sale of their parents’ homes which they pooled together, leaving them with more than enough money to furnish their home and to live on, their salaries included. The cottage was situation on the top of a hill that overlooked Moonlit Bay. Ryan’s and Elliot’s homes were quite a distance away from where the women lived, but close enough for help when a problem arose, which usually did on a daily basis.

* * *

The four main characters watched out for one another, especially the men. They took it upon themselves to be the women’s protectors. Whenever the women seemed to be in trouble, which was usually the case, they called on their male friends for help. The fact that their two friends were police officers only added to their feeling of safety and security in a world so far away from what they once knew as home. As their friendships deepened their love for one another become more than that of siblings…they were falling in love with one another, but couldn’t make up their minds with whom.

Due to Penny’s awareness, it didn’t take long for all four to become involved in a series of mishaps that became very dangerous and possibly life-threatening after stumbling on a group of outsiders who were conducting a clandestine operation within an abandoned building across the Bay.

Penny was the first to discover the strange happenings in that building across the Bay. She was captured in the glare of a searchlight and coupled with the arrival of a motor launch carrying unidentified clad men toward her, only added to her anxiety. Little did her friends know that her discovery would soon take on a life on its own entangling all four friends as well as the detective who believed in them in a stranger and bizarre mystery.

* * *

Thus began a strange, dangerous, and unbelievable journey for the four friends. It would take them through a series of kidnapings, imprisonments, and the assistance of an unimaginable ally to escape from their cells to gain their freedom.

Determined to discover who their kidnappers were, they ran into more barriers than they expected. It was only when a more seasoned detective, who had been on the Force longer than anyone else, heard their story and in spite of its seemingly impossible probability, caught his interest and decided not only to help them but to see their quest to the end.

All five set on an unusual journey that would take them to the edge of reason and beyond. They became involved with a life force they couldn’t believe existed and a group of intruders that were never actually defined as to who they really were — whether human or alien. Intruders, whose disappearances under a catastrophic eruption without revealing their identity left them in a quandary as to where they came from.

The five main characters caught up in the strange web that engulfed them in spite of their mishaps were destined to become rescuers to an alien life force to which they had become attuned. Mysteriously and unknown to any of them their attempted rescue and ultimate survival of the entities that asked for their help, did not go unrewarded. They were each the recipients of special gifts aligned with their particular calling that could and would enrich their lives forever.

Chapter 1

Penny walked along the beach on Moonlit Bay. She loved strolling along the water’s edge, picking up sea shells, the different colored stones and rocks that had a different look to them and, those with a sense of crystals embedded with them. Then there were the various pieces of driftwood, which washed up along the shoreline from the thunderous waves crashing upon the rocks, and the sand dunes, which at times, seemed prevalent everywhere. She only picked up the interestingly shaped pieces that she thought she could polish up and use as conversational pieces when she placed them on their coffee table. She was selective in her search, picking one here and there until she could carry no more. Sometimes her roommate, Stacie, would go along with her, but this night, Stacie was busy doing something else and didn’t feel as if she could take the time to walk along the beach with Penny.

* * *

There was more than one reason for Penny to walk along the beach, particularly at eventide and sometimes long into the night, it was because she was the only one on the beach. Besides picking up driftwood and all the other articles she could find she didn’t have to compete with others looking for the same articles that she was searching for. On nights such as these, she often wondered about the strange, mysterious, odd-shaped building: a cut above the trees surrounding it; situated on the high ground above the water’s edge; and on the small, otherwise uninhabited island across the Bay.

The mysterious sounds, emanating from it during the blackness of night, and the strange elusive blinking lights flickering through the trees like fireflies, as if someone was sending out a distress signal in Morse code, was not duly disturbing to the residents of Moonlit Bay. On most occasions they usually ignored the strange emissions believing that the town’s more rambunctious teens were the ones responsible for the shenanigans.

* * *

However, on this particular evening she had stayed longer than she ordinarily would have and the strangest sounds she hadn’t heard before began emerging from the building. The blinking lights seemed to have taken on a different meaning from any she had seen before. They weren’t blinking off and on as fireflies or as a distress signal being sent out, but the lights together with the noise emanating from the building was as if some high frequency sound and light waves were being transmitted across the Bay to someone, somewhere far beyond Moonlit Bay.

At times it appeared to her as if the signal was changing directions to a distant point far out to sea. This was not only an unusual anomaly to her way of thinking, but completely out of the ordinary and really had her complete attention.

Wonder what they are doing over there, she pondered as she continued to watch spellbound. The lights flickering off and on, accompanied by strange, mysterious, ominous sounds, emanating from the building across the Bay — mesmerized her.

She knew she stayed a little too long when the search light appeared from out of nowhere, flashed across the bay, captured her in its light, blinded her and after the light flickered off, allowed her to regain her senses.

I think I’d better get out of here before something bad happens, she said softly. As she slowly retreated away from the shore line, she heard the sound of a motor launch coming her way. Suddenly, for reasons unknown to her, she began to run for all she was worth. Struggling to hang on to her driftwood and treasures she was hoping to be safe at home long before the boat reached the shore. Visibly shaken, she wished her friend Stacie was with her. She wished she had insisted on Stacie dropping what she was doing and joining her, so she wouldn’t be so scared now. But Stacie had other things to do and wasn’t with her.

She didn’t think she could make it back up to the walkway and away from the beach before they caught her. So she hid behind the sand dunes, hoping whoever and whatever was chasing her would go away. The boat reached the shore and three men, dressed in black, with strange headgear covering their heads, came ashore and started searching for something. They’re searching for me she cringed and she shook violently as she watched the men coming closer and closer. She scrunched down as far as she could and drew her legs up under her while spreading the driftwood around, in order to conceal herself so as to make herself as invisible as possible. She heard the men talking as they walked past her, oblivious to anyone or anything hiding behind the sand dunes.

One of them stopped just before the sand dune she was hiding behind, and lit a cigarette. She held her breath, clapped her hand tight against her mouth so to prevent herself from crying out. She didn’t dare make a sound, or try to see who it was or what he looked like. He didn’t blow the match out as he rushed to catch up with the others, but threw it away. It landed so close to Penny that she automatically wanted to snuff it out but caught herself and didn’t dare move. Any movement at this point surely would have alerted him that someone was hiding behind the dune. She could only imagine what would have happened if he found her there. She shuddered at the thought.

When the men walked past her, she heard them talking, but couldn’t make out what they were saying. She listened intently, but their dialect was one she had never heard before and living in her area, there were many different languages spoken that she had heard, that is, besides English. As the echo of their words slowly disappeared, Penny rose from her hiding place and made a beeline for home and safety.

* * *

Penny raced across the street and up the hill to her home, then up the stairs to the front door, and was completely out of breath when she reached it. As she slammed the door closed behind her, she leaned against it to catch her breath. Stacie heard the door slam and rushed from the kitchen to the front of the house to see what all the commotion was about.

Penny, what happened, she cried out with a worried look on her face. She stared at her roommate, who was now sliding down the door to the floor, and asked her why she was out of breath, and why she looked as if she was being chased by ghost.

If it was only a ghost, I wouldn’t be worried so much.

What are you talking about, Stacie asked, as she helped Penny to her feet.

Wait ’till I tell you…Stacie, she said, her voice betraying her fears. But first, peek out the window, don’t let anyone see you and tell me if you see anyone out there.

Who? Who am I supposed to see out there? Stacie asked before moving toward the window.

Don’t ask questions, please. Just go and look, she pleaded as she pushed Stacie toward the window.

Okay, okay I’m going you don’t have to push me. Still, I would appreciate knowing what I’m supposed to be looking at or for.

Three men in black with something odd on their heads, Penny answered with a whisper.

Men in black! And with some strange thing on their heads! Stacie couldn’t control her laughter. What have you been drinking?

Just look, please, Penny again pleaded.

Oh, okay, only if you stop pushing me, I’ll look for what and why I don’t really know, she said shaking her head and wondering what had gotten into her friend.

Stacie did as Penny demanded discreetly peering out the window behind the curtains so as not to add to Penny’s distress. As Penny watched, Stacie looked and looked, first up one side of the street then the next, more than once to satisfy, not only her own curiosity but to quiet Penny. But she didn’t see a soul, not one, and she was certain of it, not a soul was out there. The streets were completely empty all the way to the Bay.

Most of the townspeople living in the houses lining the area had retired for the night hours ago. Not a light shone from anywhere that she could see, telegraphing to anyone who may have been watching, for one reason or another, that the inhabitants had gone to bed. The only light appearing out on to the street was theirs. When Stacie informed Penny of this fact Penny, in a panic, ran around the house frantically turning off all the lights, so that when she finally caught her breath not a sliver of light from their home could filter out to the street, or beyond, in case anyone was watching.

Finally, Stacie couldn’t hold it in any longer and demanded to know what it was that had Penny so upset. What makes you think that someone or anyone, for that matter, was chasing you?

Because they, they caught me in their searchlight! she stammered.

Who caught you, and in what searchlight? Penny you are not making any sense.

Penny took a deep breath and hurriedly explained to Stacie what happened out at the beach. While I was searching for driftwood along the shoreline, you know I love to do that at night.

Stacie nodded.

Well, all of a sudden I saw those lights, blinking off and on, which made me wonder…

What blinking lights? Stacie interrupted.

The lights on that big building across the Bay, you know that ominous looking one that has everyone shaking their heads wondering what is going on over there.

That’s because that island is supposed to be uninhabited, and everyone thinks kids are doing that, Stacie said perplexed, as she nodded signifying she knew the building, but what did that have to do with Penny?

Yes, I know people think kids are responsible for the goings on over there, Penny said as she shook her head, but not like this, not only were the lights blinking as if someone was sending out a signal in Morse code but they were erratic. Besides, I doubt if any of the kids know Morse code. It is strange though, I thought the island was uninhabited too, but guess it isn’t now.

I guess not after what you said. Wonder who is living there now? Stacie asked. Then with an encouraging smile to Penny, urged her to go on, wondering what she was going to come up with next.

Penny took a deep breath before continuing. A few minutes later, the lights changed and then there was this horrific high-pitched sound coming from the building with the lights all blinking again, only this time it was different. Penny paused to catch her breath and sipped a little water from the glass she held in her hand.

What do you mean different?

It was a sound I never heard before and again I thought the lights were sending out a signal for help in Morse code, but then it changed to something that was really weird. It was as if signals were going way out to sea somewhere. And the sounds…those screeching sounds with the lights flashing off and on the way they were, were not only terrifying it was as if something horrible was happening inside that building. And while I stood there petrified with the driftwood in my arms, a blinding bright light, a searchlight I think it was, shot out into the darkness and caught me in its glare. It held me in its grip for a few moments, as if I was paralyzed, and when it went off I couldn’t see anything for a few minutes or maybe hours, I don’t really know.

Guess one could say that was really scary, Stacie admitted listening to Penny and the fear in her voice.

That’s when I first heard the motor launch before I saw it and I thought it was heading straight for me. I ran and hid behind the sand dunes and spread all those really great pieces of driftwood around and over to hide me from them and held my breath.

Good thinking. I guess they never saw you there.

I don’t really know. Maybe they did and pretended they didn’t just so they could follow me to see where I live.

And just when I thought I was safe, one of them stopped right by the sand dune I was hiding behind and lit a cigarette, tossed his lit match right down beside me and I almost had a heart attack. I waited to see if he saw me, but he didn’t. At least I don’t think he did.

And that’s who you were running from?

Penny just nodded. She had run out of breath and waited to hear what Stacie thought.

Maybe we should go to the police and tell them what happened.

What good would that do? Other than letting the police and the people in that building know who I am and where I live? No way, I don’t want anyone to know that I know that building is occupied by some very strange people. No thank you!

Stacie looked at her roommate and wondered what was going on in her mind at this moment in time. But she thought that can wait until tomorrow. Right now, I want her to rest and not think about what she just went through. Then