Ascendance

By C Jones

Ten year old Landon Gasby is a tortured young boy who has been abused and neglected his entire life until one night when in a fit of rage and jealousy he is brutally murdered by his sadistic parents. Landon hopes to finally be with God but instead becomes trapped between heaven and hell. In order to save his soul he must face the demons of his past and find a way to let go of the hatred he feels towards his killers.
Unfortunately the horror is just beginning for Landon as he learns what truly happened while he was alive and discovers the dark secrets about his parents pasts. Landon's faith is put to the test as he is forced to witness the terror that unfolds on Lisa and Garrett as the child struggles to make the right choices that he hopes will save his soul from the fires of hell and the darkness of purgatory.
But Landon is unaware that the one helping him on this journey is the Dark One. The master of betrayal and deception is guiding Landon on his final journey with his own plans for Landon's soul. The Dark One waits patiently, hoping to deceive Landon into making the decision that will not only destroy the child's soul, but all of humanity.
In C Jones debut novel the traditional American Horror story becomes more like a nursery rhyme. Horror will forever be seen in a new and more disturbing light. C Jones will take you to the edge of sanity and humility as the story continues to terrify and sicken you to the core, page after page. Can you make it to the end?

• Language: English
• Publisher: C Jones
• Release date: Feb 14, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310588563

C Jones

Born in the Midwest and a lifelong horror fan, C Jones has always had the imagination and aspiration to write truly terrifying and disturbing stories, to satisfy and intrigue fellow horror fans who enjoy a good scare and the ambient uncertainty that stays with them after reading a truly good horror novel.“While writing novels I sometimes have to take breaks because sometimes I can’t handle what comes out of my mind and flows into the stories I write. Everyone enjoys visiting the disturbing and dark sides of themselves. The only difference between myself and others is that I put on paper what’s going on in my head through my novels instead of keeping them locked away in my mind.”

Book preview

ASCENDANCE

C. JONES

Copyright © 2015 C Jones

Smashwords Edition

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 recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Disclaimer: Although parts of this story are inspired by true events, the persons, places, things, and otherwise animate or inanimate objects mentioned in this novel are figments of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to anything or anyone living (or dead) is unintentional. The author humbly begs your pardon. This is fiction, people.

Ascendancenovel.com

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I felt that my debut novel should be written about an issue that affects millions of us every day. Allow me to explain.

I am angered, sickened and saddened by so many cases of child abuse in the world today. There are so many innocent souls that are violently taken from us too early. All that remains are the sweet memories and for the rest of our lives nightmares about what they had endured at the hands of those who were supposed to love and protect them. This novel is inspired by all of the children whose lives have been stolen from us and for men and women who have suffered violence by the hands of loved ones. I hope the suffering of the guilty in this book brings some comfort to you, as writing is the only safe release for the anger I feel on this issue.

This book is dedicated to everyone who has lost their loved ones to violence. May you find comfort in the memories and know that it’s okay to continue smiling without them, for their smiles shall shine forever in our hearts and minds. One day we will see them again and we will run to them, embrace them with open arms and finally be at peace. Life is short, but our love lives on forever.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1. Home Sweet Home.

Chapter 2. An Evening Of Pain.

Chapter 3. Ramiel & The Dark One.

Chapter 4. Screams in The Night.

Chapter 5. A Booming Climax.

Chapter 6. Welcome.

Chapter 7. Lisa.

Chapter 8. Submission.

Chapter 9. Confession.

Chapter 10. A Mothers Love.

Chapter 11. No Loose Ends.

Chapter 12. No Way Out.

Chapter 13. Descend.

Dedicated to the innocent young souls who departed the world too soon. You will always be remembered and forever mourned.

CHAPTER ONE. HOME SWEET HOME.

The sun is setting as Garrett Gasby pulls his pickup into the driveway. He exits the rusty truck, slamming the door behind him. Garrett wanted nothing more than to sink into his favorite chair and nurse a bottle of whiskey. It had been a long day at the production plant working the shrink-wrapping machine. His legs hurt and fingers ached.

An icy chill hovers over the city of Brownstein, the humidity visible beneath the amber glow of the streetlight. It’s colder than normal for this time of year. A frigid and damp evening makes for a dreary September night.

Unaffected by the overgrown lawn and peeling paint on the siding, Garrett walked across the creaky, distressed porch and reached into his pocket for the keys. The only evidence that someone resides in this house is a dingy porch light that illuminated the weathered front door.

There were no other homes in sight. Acres of undeveloped and wooded terrain separated the Gasby house from any evidence of civilization. A lonely, dilapidated streetlight lit up the driveway from across the street.

This is the way Garrett enjoyed living. He disliked people and enjoyed his privacy.

Garrett is an average looking man with short and shaggy brown hair. His face, very wrinkled for being in his thirties put at least a decade on his appearance. A small belly protruding over his belt was obvious evidence of his infatuation with alcohol. Every day he wore the same faded blue jeans, tan carpenter boots and a black t- shirt. With extensive work Garrett may clean up well, but his messy hair, sunken brown eyes and rotting teeth make him extremely unattractive and almost repulsive to anyone who lays their eyes on him.

Garrett unlocks the door and strolls into the house. He dropped his keys onto the table next to his favorite chair, a musty and torn up recliner. As always, he is greeted by the same disorganized living room. A dusty, abandoned crib is wedged into the corner and week old take out boxes are scattered atop the coffee table.

The home hasn’t had a proper cleaning in years, made obvious by the cobwebs that littered every corner of the room.

The carpet had originally been green, but now appeared brown from years of dirt being driven into the fibers. Every piece of furniture was disgusting and stained from top to bottom. The blackened couch that used to be white reeked of year old garbage. That stinking couch is the first odor that greeted your nose as you entered the house. In Garrett’s case, this was home sweet home.

Darting his eyes around the living room, Garrett’s glare rests on a filthy and soiled ten year old boy sitting on the disgusting carpet. The boy's only article of clothing was a crusty, stained pair of underwear, soaked through with urine and glued to his rear with feces.

Who the hell let you out? Garrett grumbled.

No answer.

The little boy is holding the only toy he’s ever had, a wooden spoon, once used as an object to whip him when he was a baby. He was shockingly skinny and extremely malnourished. You could see every bone protruding through his leathery skin. His shoulder length brown hair was greasy, sticky and matted, caked against his head from the years of dirt and grime. With one simple glance it was obvious that this poor child hasn’t received love or care his entire life. Infected with the bastard gene at conception, Garrett shows little to no compassion for others, not even his own son Landon.

His tiny body cowered as Garrett strolled past him. Without warning, Garrett turns and looks at the boy, whose back is facing him. With a grin he gives Landon a swift kick in the ribs, instantly knocking the wind out of his tiny frail body and sending his torso to the floor.

Toughen up you little pussy. Garrett growled, glaring at his son in disgust as the child whimpered, unable to look at his father out of fear that he may be kicked again.

Garrett continues across the living room towards his whiskey, eager for his first sip of the evening. On his way to the kitchen he passes by a putrid and rusty dog crate, its floor soaking wet and packed with human waste. Unable to help himself, Garrett gives the cage a kick as well.

Full of his own urine and feces, this cage has been Landon's prison since the age of three.

You smell like shit you little bastard! Garrett grinned as he yanked his whiskey from the freezer. He walked over to the cabinet above the sink to retrieve a beer mug. His mouth was watering as he filled the glass half full with his beloved whiskey.

As he took a long swig from the bottle before returning it to the freezer, Garrett suddenly felt vomit creeping up his throat. The odor coming from the living room was too potent to handle. A wretched combination of rotten eggs, raw sewage and wet dog invaded his nostrils. The stench forced him to hold his nose while swallowing the acidic sludge lodged in the back of his mouth.

Garrett opened the refrigerator and quickly grabbed a can of beer. He stomps into the living room and storms toward his helpless son. Landon yelped as Garrett grabbed a handful of his hair and dragged him across the carpet.

Landon struggles, trying to free himself before he was forced back into that terrible cage.

Please daddy! I don’t want to go in there!

Shut up boy! You don’t make the rules in my house! Now go eat some shit you little prick. With a sneer Garrett shoves the child into the cage and locks the door.

Defeated once again, Landon curls up in the center of his prison, pulling his bony knees to his chest. Garrett positions himself in front of the cage and cracks the can open.

Landon peers up at his father curiously.

Why is he still standing there? Landon asked himself.

This should do the trick!

Garrett grinned with satisfaction as he poured the entire contents of the can over his sons head. Landon gasps from the shock of the cold liquid slapping his head and running down his back.

Garrett takes a deep breath, inhaling through his nose as he tosses the empty can across the living room.

Ah, that’s better!

His lips curl and he gives Landon a wicked sneer before returning to the kitchen and retrieving his whiskey.

I don’t want to hear a goddamn peep from over there! You understand me boy? I need peace and fucking quiet!

Garrett grabbed the mug and gave the cage another kick as he walked back into the living room.

Landon, now shivering and wet, begins to cry. Powerless against his father, Landon wept as quietly as possible to avoid another beating.

Garrett plops into his favorite recliner with a thump and continued gulping down his whiskey. As he glared at the cage that housed Landon, Garrett reached to the left of his chair and pulled out a BB gun, grinning at the boy as he rests the weapon across his lap.

The only television in the home lies silent in the living room, the screen riddled with cracks from Garrett’s clumsy and inaccurate shooting. Too uninterested and lazy to replace the TV, Garrett has grown to prefer the real cries of pain to artificial Hollywood tears.

An enjoyable hobby for Garrett is shooting Landon with his BB gun. Cruel and heartless as he is, Garrett takes pride in the bruises he inflicts upon his son. Landon’s body is already covered with welts from prior evenings of target practice. There wasn’t much flesh that remained for Garrett to shoot that wasn’t already black and blue. Landon could do nothing to stop this torture. He simply hugged his knees tightly and prayed that his father would decide against hurting him for the rest of the evening.

Woo! Let's make it four out of five tonight! Whadda say asshole?

Garrett puts his mug between his legs and raises the BB gun to his eye.

Terrified, Landon could not escape his fathers’ hatred and abuse. All he could do is stare longingly at his spoon, still lying on the carpet in the middle of the living room. All he could think about was how badly he wanted to hold his only toy. He’d been thrown into the cage before he had a chance to grab it.

Garrett pumps the BB gun five times and aims the barrel directly at his son. Landon turns around so his back is to his abuser, afraid that if he faced Garrett he may end up losing an eye this time.

Shaking uncontrollably and dreading the impending pain he will soon endure, Landon squeezed his eyes shut, bracing for the BB's to hit him.

Garrett leaned forward in his chair to take aim. For Landon, the seconds that passed felt like an eternity. Garrett smiled as he locked onto his target and without hesitation, squeezed the trigger.

POP!

Ahhh! Landon cries out from the pain.

Garrett pumps the gun another five times and aimed for Landon once more.

POP!

Silence.

Damn! Missed! cried Garrett.

Five more pumps.

POP!

Owwww! shrieked Landon, tears falling from his eyes.

One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

Five more pumps.

CLICK.

Damn! Garrett stammered.

CLICK.

Shit! Out of rounds.

Garrett rested the butt of the gun on his knee, the barrel pointed at the ceiling. He shrugged, too lazy to go on a hunt for more BB’s.

Aw fuck it, there's always tomorrow.

He returns the BB gun against the wall and arises with a wobble, looking for another form of entertainment at Landon’s expense.

Garrett stumbles to the middle of the living room, crosses his arms and eyeballs the clutter. He continued searching for another form of amusement.

Landon, relieved that he won’t have to endure any more pain from being shot tonight, looks around his cage for a clean place to sit. His rear end was skin and bones and covered with a blistering rash. Landon was hurting before his father shot him and the BB’s just made it worse. The pain from his infected backside made sitting in the cage pure torture, due to the bacteria eating away at his bottom. For months Landon has been in excruciating pain and he has no choice but to endure the agony of his burning, stinging flesh.

Landon longed for a normal life, craving the small things that other children take for granted. Landon wanted a bath. He wanted more than anything to be neat and clean, with shiny trimmed hair. The last time he tried bathing himself his father dumped a jar of pickles on him and threw Landon back into his prison. Garrett preferred to smell shit than give his son the satisfaction that came from being clean.

Landon is so tired of being in a cage and sick to death of the beatings. He’s tired of the pit in his stomach that begged for nourishment. The isolation was unbearable. A wooden spoon being his only companion, while other children his age laughed together, played games and enjoyed the outdoors. Those children have parents who loved them, fed them and protected them. With every passing day, Landon struggles to accept his fate. His future, in the hands of Garrett for the rest of his life.

Landon huddles in the corner and ignores his father, wishing he could be left alone. Tears swell in his eyes once more. The house is silent except for the tiny whimpers coming from the cage in the corner.

Out of nowhere a loud and thunderous noise echoes throughout the house.

BAM!!!

What the f… Garrett stammered, frozen with fear. His eyes rolled up to the ceiling. The sound came from upstairs.

Garrett didn’t want to go up there. But as always, his inquisitive nature overpowered his voice of reason. The whiskey coursing through his veins has always given Garrett a false perception of invincibility.

God damn bullshit! Garrett swayed left to right as he stood at the base of the staircase. Believing that he may be on the way to a battle upstairs, he calls out to the unidentified sound that has interrupted his evening.

You better run motherfucker cause I’m coming!

Landon wrapped his fingers around the cold metal bars and watched from his cage as Garrett stumbled up the staircase, disappearing into the dark hallway.

As he climbed up the musty staircase, Garrett’s ambivalence made him question his bravery, realizing that he may not have the ability to handle whatever is about to happen. The reality set in that Garrett may have to confront someone and he wasn’t ready or prepared for a fight. The alcohol he ingested earlier was beginning to lose its potency. His liquid courage wasn’t there to achieve the level of guts he needed to undergo his current predicament. He was already upstairs so he continued his investigation.

The hallway was pitch black and his eyes refused to focus. He ran his hand along the wall, trying to keep his balance as he stumbled through the clutter scattered across the floor.

Another loud and thunderous noise made him jump.

BAM!!!

He froze and listened.

Once again. Silence.

Deafening silence.

The quiet didn’t ring his ears for long.

SMACK!!!

The sounds are coming from the master bedroom.

He made his way to the end of the hallway. Before entering the bedroom he puffed out his chest and pursed his lips. He placed an unsteady hand on the dirty and creaky doorknob.

His greasy fingers began to shake and he hesitated. Garrett’s heart was racing in his chest. It wasn’t every day that Garrett was frightened by something. But on this night, his fear was reminiscent of his caged son, who’s forced to suffer in silence every moment of his young life.

Come on pussy, Garrett mumbled to himself. Just turn the damn knob.

His body surged with adrenaline as he flung open the door. A scream resounded throughout the room.

What the… Garrett’s voice trailed as he observed movement on his bed.

As his eyes adjusted to the dim candlelight glowing in the bedroom, his gaze fell upon a gorgeous blonde