Mystery and Mahem

By James Aa. Keister

mystery and mayhem short stories about the un natural mystery dreams danger adventure and wonder like 'another hole', holes that pop up all over the country swallwing people who explore them only to spit them back out and they disintergrate before your eyes or 'danger game' where twelve year old boys dare one another and one escapes the dare only to have the others chase him into the road where a car hits him and the driver is more devastated because he can't find him in the road and the boys are on their way home to the cemetary where they come from because todays game is over and then 'there is no such thing' one baby sitter after another and this last one discovers the little boy is held captive by an angel and she should have left well enough alone or how about 'try to find me' a man whose wife continured to leave him no matter what he did to try and stop her, a search he could never find, a daughter he couldn't save and dreams he couldn't wake up from a nightmare story he couldn't finish and a clock that refused to slow down

• Language: English
• Publisher: James Aa. Keister
• Release date: Feb 20, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310923944

James Aa. Keister

James Aa. Keister, was born and lives in Monroe, Michigan. An artist in both the arts and music. Letting this strong sense of talent flourish over into his writings. With an imaginative endorsement of realism that brings forth an ever flowing twist to his novels.

Book preview

MYSTERIES AND MAYHEM

Volume One

By

James Aa Keister

SMASHWORDS EDITION

Published By:

James Aa Keister on Smashwords

Mysteries and Mayhem

Copyright 2014 by James Aa Keister

Adult Reading Material

This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author's imagination and used fictitiously.

This is volume one, with another to follow. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed bringing it to you.

Index

Another Hole

Behind Those Eyes

Curse of Flesh

Danger Game

Eaten

Firefly

Ghost Flower

Her ghost in the fog

Into Nothing (out of something)

Just my Selfie

Knock Off

Last star Shining

Must have been Angels

No such thing

One by One (they appear)

Paint it Black

Quagmire

Rain Sent

Swept Through

Try to Find Me

Up to Date

Voices in the Wind

When the Flesh runs Out

Xanthippe

Your Seven Gifts

Zoomorphic Beings

Volume One

Another Hole

What's going on? I thought this property was up for sale? Realtor Tim Tagma asked his colleague Mark Collor.

It is! Mark said as he pulled out his brief case and opened it. Then handed Tim some papers. Closed his brief case and told Tim, It's all yours buddy. Then left. Tim took the papers, slid them inside his jacket and headed over to where all the action was going on.

Hello Sheriff. What's going on? I've got clients coming out this way to look at the property.

Not today. The sheriff flatly stated.

And why not? My company owns this land your people are. Tim stopped.

''Like I said."

I know what you said Sheriff. Or have you forgotten that my brother is the mayor? Tim countered.

No, Mr. Tagma, I haven't forgotten. You make it a point to remind me everyday. The sheriff said as he paced off, which caused his deputy to laugh.

This isn't funny sheriff.

Do you see me laughing? Sheriff Billow stopped and turned around, staring Tim straight in his eyes. Not at all funny.

Then what's going on? Tim demanded. So the sheriff pointed to his deputy.

We've got a problem. Deputy Glenn Parks stepped in as the sheriff paced off.

And what sort of problem is it? Tim turned to Parks.

A deep one. Parks said with a grin. But in all seriousness. Parks threw up his hands. It's a hole. A big deep hole.

A hole? Tim's said with a hint of disbelief.

Yep. Come I'll show you. But be careful, we still don't know just how deep they are.

Wait a sec. You just said 'they', deputy Parks.

Yes. There are six holes. All in a circle pattern. Why? We don't know.

How did you find them? Tim asked.

Believe it or not...by satellite.

Satellite! Tim stopped. Just how big are they?

Big! And Deep. The deputy said as they stepped up to the edge of the hole. It was twenty feet across to the other side of the hole. Over where two men had tied off climbers ropes to a crane and were about to descend into the vast crater. A third rope was tied to a probe and hung from a heavy spool of rope that awaited on the back of the crane to be let down into this new hole. The two men stood watching as the probes lights were turned on and it's camera lens cleaned and checked for a quality picture. The probe lights lit up the entire twenty foot radius. Giving the two men plenty of light to see by. From what Tim could gather, one man would be lowered as far as a half mile. A little over twenty five hundred feet. The second man, one mile, and the probe two to five depending on the heat and pressure down there. Tim watched as the first man began his decent. Just after the probe had been lowered. The second man would wait for the first to give the all clear before he could head down. He would be passing up the first man who would be conducting test at a half mile deep. Running tests for oxygen and other contaminants or gases. Providing the tests pass, the second could make his decent. Tim turned around when he heard a car pulling up. It was his clients. So he headed off to meet with them. He tried to explain what was going on to the potential buyers then shook his head as the clients got back into their car and left. Tim came pacing back to the hole.

Lost 'em huh? Deputy Parks asked.

Yes. A million dollar deal. And this land ain't worth shit now. Not with something like this in the back yard.

Follow me Mr. Tagma. Let me show you something. The deputy lead Tim up the side of a hill, up to the top. Look! He pointed out to five other holes that had been dug over the course of a week. How? Remained a mystery. There was no dirt, loose soil, rocks, or debris outside the holes.

They had to been dug from the inside out. So whatever dug them, took all that dirt and rock with them. Down there. The military thought that the last set of holes they found were just sink holes. But as you can see, they're too perfect in size and shape. Each one exactly twenty feet across. And everyone of them...deep as hell. So now the military boys are trying to say that it's a machine digging the hole. Or a laser from the Russians or China. But too many of them keep popping up. Hell, they don't bloody know! No one does.

Worms? Tim queried.

Now that's a good one Timmy boy! Deputy Parks laughed. Almost as good as aliens. He laughed harder.

Well then, how about demons form the pits of hell, trying to unearth themselves? Tim laughed with him. Deputy Parks could see the sheriff wave them off the hill. So they headed down. The sheriff pulled Parks off to the side to speak to him privately. Tim glanced back at the holes edge. Then wandered over to watch the second man begin his decent into the darkness below. The man was out over the edge and on his way down when all of a sudden, his rope snapped. Sending the man into the depth of the dark gaping hole that looked like a hungry mouth waiting to be fed. And today, it would eat one such human. People ran to the edge to watch. No one had a clue what to do.

We need a fence. The sheriff suggested.

Sheriff. He was already going into the hole. He didn't fall over the edge. What we need to do now, is to find out if he had family. And inform them. One of the military officers said as he walked over to a crowd of workers and waved them back away from the hole. They all stood staring down into the very depths of what none of them understood. Down below, they could see the lights glowing off the sides of the walls and a silhouette of the first man who descended. His dark figure could clearly be seen. The man got on his radio, telling those above that he had seen his friend drop past him. When all of a sudden, the same man who had fallen into the hole came flying back out. As if something had shot him up and out. He went sailing about ten feet above the hole and landed on the hard ground next to the crane. The man got up unharmed, walked over to where his rope had broken, and gave it a quick once over. The Sheriff and two military officers ran over to the man. And as they were questioning the man, the two officers moved him to where he could sit down. The man shook his head in total confusion.

What happened down there Frank? The officer asked.

I don't know. Think my rope broke.

It did! And you fell into the hole.

Yeah, I remember. The hole. I saw a man, then a light, then. The climber then stopped.

Then what? Sheriff Billow asked.

It was all dark, like night. And. The man again stopped his words as he tried to remember.

What Frank? You saw darkness and what?

Stars. I seen stars and a lot of them. Then I felt myself being pushed up again.

"Did you feel anything else? The sheriff pushed.

Nothing. The man said as he sat down on the ground.

You okay? One of the military officers asked.

No. The man stated then turned to dust and crumbled to the ground. Every eye watched as the man turned to nothingness. The shock of it ran through their faces.

Same thing happened in Arkansas and every other place these holes have appeared." The officer stated.

What was that? Deputy Parks asked.

It seems that these holes are popping up in every state. People fall into them then come back out, seemingly unharmed, just to turn to dust a couple minutes later. The officer explained. We've sent in probes, cameras, people, you name it. Sending it down there just to get back nothing more than we've sent. Even when one of our men tossed down a grenade, it went past it's three second fuse. Then flew back up into the man's hands and as he caught it, he thought it would explode, but it too, turned to dust. He stately reported. We've sent lights that disappear, cameras that stop recording after a mile. The only thing that we know of that hasn't returned is, the officer paused as he glanced around. Then went into a loud whisper. Anything made of...gold!

Gold! The sheriff looked hard at the man with a suspicious look.

Saw it myself.

Really? The deputy queried. What did you guys do...a bunch of tests? Throwing shit down there to see what would and wouldn't come back!

Something like that. Each item we used as a test item had to be quickly checked. We've tried to do extensive tests on all the dust from each item, but only found that with each one, they were broken down into their basic components, their basic elements. Metals, gases, heavy or light. But metals like gold, silver, and other precious metals and stones like diamonds never returned.

It's like the earth is demanding back what we humans have mined out of her for the last ten millennium. The officer told tale.

"Okay. But what, who, is digging all these holes?

You tell me that and we'll know why it wants our gold." The sheriff shook his head and paced off to his car. He was a no nonsense type person. He dealt with facts and not theory. Something substantial not fictional. And definitely not something far reached as this phenomenon. He knew that there had to be some sort of an explanation. So he got in his cruiser and headed home. He had a couple things he needed to gather. There was another sight near by he wanted to head out to. This new sight only had two holes from what he last knew instead of the usual six. At least the last time the sheriff had seen it. He pulled up to his home and got out. Paced straight to his garage. He had no need at this time to go inside the house. What he needed was in his garage. So he went in and took a look around the equipment he had stored on shelves. Grabbed some cables and wire. A large box that contained ten or so cameras, batteries, and a portable generator. Took all that out to his car and lay them on the back seat. Then went back for some heavy duty halogen lights that he put into the trunk of his cruiser. Pulled out his assault rifle and set it on the passenger side floor. Loaded his pistol and headed out to the two hole sight. When he got there, he found a third hole had been dug and formed. So he parked, got out and walked around the holes. He got himself into a position where he could see all three holes and made an estimation where he thought a fourth one might be formed. But then realized that there could be one made at a couple different points in this six hole circle formation. So he set up half his equipment in one area and the rest in another. Hoping to catch what ever it was that was making the spherical pits. He got everything set up and stood back to admire his work. Turned and saw an antenna tower behind him that gave him another idea. So he took one of his cameras and climbed the tower. Got up as high as he dare to climb. Taped the camera so that it would record anything down by his other equipment. Climbed down and stood proud of himself. He just knew that he would record some good footage. Then sat in his car until night fall.

Started the generator, which could run for hours and hit the light switch. The bulbs illuminated the entire area. All the cameras set to record the moment they detected any sort of movement. He walked around to check his equipment then sat back in the car and was eating a sandwich he had made earlier that day. Drank the last of his coffee, which had gone cold, and waited, watched. His rifle lay across his lap. Cocked and ready. He was determined to figure this out. He knew that there had to a logical explanation. He must have sat and waited for more than half the night. His eyes grew tired and somewhere along the way, he passed out. But snapped back to reality when he heard something metallic hit the ground. Then a bright flash. One of his lights had been knocked over. It sent a shower of sparks into the air as the bulb exploded. Billow climbed up out of his cruiser and walked over to the fallen light to assess the damage and unplug it. Saw that a new hole had been formed and stared down into it. Took one of the other lights and tipped it so that it's beam of light would shine down into the unearthly pit. All that he could see was a glint of sparkle, like stars. But then they disappeared. He set the light back into place and went to one of the cameras. Pulled it from it's pod and took it back to his cruiser. Plugged it into his laptop and waited for it to down load what the camera had caught. Clicked a couple keys and it showed the ground just disappearing out of no where. Then nothing but black, dotted with a thousand glittery stars. As if he were staring up through a telescope out into space. Seeing nothing but the vast darkness and millions of stars. Which did not explain a damn thing in his mind.

Frustrated, he went and collected the other cameras he had placed in that area. Checking them all, just to find the same results. Even the one he had placed at ground level. The only difference he found with that one was that this black starry mass had extruded a foot or so above the ground as it bore it's hole. Then slowly sank back beneath the earthy surface. He could still see that the starry mass was close to the surface. And though he shined light on it, he could not catch a glimmer, nor any reflection on it's surface to let him know it had any mass or structure. So he paced over to his car and pulled out a gas can and a rag. Poured gas onto the rag and soaked it. Walked back over to the hole and lit the rag on fire. Tossed it into the black starry mass. Watched it fall and obviously hit something with some sort of substance. But then fell through it and faded away. Frustrated, he went and grabbed a long length of rope. Tied it to the plastic cup of his thermal bottle and sent it down to try and scoop up some of whatever it was that was down there. Pulled up his cup and lifted it up to see if anything was inside. To his surprise, he found the cup half full of this black substance. He pulled out an ink pen from his pocket and stuck it into the cup. The pen sank to the bottom without any resistance. Then turned to dust as he pulled it out. Which he could not understand. The pen was made of plastic just as the cup was. Yet the pen dissolved. And the cup held the substance that seemed to float in the cup like jello.

He carried the cup over to the car. Found a glass juice bottle. He wanted to try pouring the black substance into the bottle and have it sent to a lab. So he poured the substance into the bottle. Capped it and stood staring into it's starry abyss. Still tying to figure out what it was he held in his hand. The plastic cup he had once used to scoop up the mass now dissolved into dust. He saw something flash next to him. Saw his flaming rag as it landed at his feet. The rag turned to dust and the flames exhausted. But he didn't much care as he took his prize to the car and was about to head off with the substance to have it analyzed at the lab. He set the bottle down in the passenger seat where it would not spill over. Started the car and was about to put it into gear when he noticed that his car was sitting right in the middle of the hole. Floating as if suspended by wires. He looked out the window at the black mass beneath him that was holding up his car. He opened his door and saw that there was no way he could jump or make it back to the edge of the hole. He checked his mirrors, hoping for some sort of help. But saw nothing and no one. Here, he sat in the middle of his worst nightmare. He hit his horn, but it went dead. Tried to radio but the vehicle shut down completely. Not a thing was working. The only light he had was from those out along the edge of the hole. Which made him wonder, in all his panic, how his car got over and into the hole. He glanced over at the small jar and saw that the lid had been eaten away by the substance inside. The small half cups worth of black mass was slowly inching it's way over toward him. So he picked up the jar to try and recapture it but the jar dissolved into dust. He quickly pulled his gun and shot at the tiny mass. The bullet floated right through. As if nothing were even there to slow it down. Still it moved in closer. He wanted to bale out of the car but had no where to run to. No where to go. Maybe up on the roof. But how much protection would that really be? When this thing could simply swallow him. His fears turned to panic and panic turned to despair. His last and only hope was to hope that this thing, this substance, this what ever it was, had some sense of intelligence. So he did the only thing he knew to do. He pleaded to it.

Please! Don't kill me! He said as the small mass stopped. It was as if it were staring at him. Please, I'll send you back. Let you go home. Just don't kill me. Sheriff Billow held out his hand. The black starry mass jumped into his hand and sat there as if staring at the human. The sheriff could see tiny sparkles swimming around the dark matter as he held it up and stared into it's abyss. He was about to say something when the tiny mass leaped into the sheriffs mouth. Disappearing down his throat. It took the sheriff by surprise as he grabbed for his throat. But then his eyes turned a starry black. His body twitched a moment or two. He opened his car door and stepped out onto the dark substance. Walked over to the edge of the hole as his cruiser disappeared down into the mysterious mass. The sheriff then threw all the rest of his equipment into the hole and when he was done he turned and walked off into the nights cool early morning. He walked out past the town he lived in and headed out into another large field. Just beyond a crop of trees. Stopped and took a look up at the sky. Then down at the ground around his feet. He scooped up some of the soil into his hand and looked at it with intent. Opened his hand, but instead of the soil falling through his fingers like grains of sand, his hand absorbed the soil. He shook his head as if disapproving the soil. Then moved on. Walked another half mile and again he tested the soil. Satisfied he nodded. And just as he did, his body turned to total blackness. Sparkles of starry fragments glittered across his exterior as he fell to the ground. Spread out into a perfect circle that spread out until it had reached it's twenty foot diameter. And as it did, the ground began to disappear into another hole.

Behind Those Eyes

It's always a new day as she climbs herself up out of bed and heads off to the bathroom. Where she takes the time to clean up and make herself ready for the up coming day. Living on her own was all she had ever known in her thirty years of life. And doing for herself was all she knew to do to survive. She took what she wanted and that meant men as well as other things. She stole what she felt she needed. Food, clothing, money, jewelry. And she had an insatiable lust for flesh. And she knew how to target men using them like her very own play toys. And today, she had one such man in her sights. Sitting at her mirror and staring as she painted on her make up with a delicate touch. Taking a moment to stare into her own eyes. She had performed this very interregnum so many times before. Interlocked with what she knew to be just as wrong. Was it a lie" Not at all. She had plenty of those. Pockets full in fact. No, this was something that lay deeper within. Even darker than the blackest of nights could hold. Something evil that she bowed down to religiously. Her very own lustful desires. She wasn't a nymphomaniac. No. She just liked the thrill of the chase. The thrill of a capture. And the thrill of fear she drove deep into the hearts of those she tortured. She was satisfied with the way she looked and gave her hair one last tousle. Smiled at herself and went to find her keys as she headed out the door. Made her way down the hallway to the elevator. Stood waiting after she pushed the down button and heard the elevator car slow to a stop. Watching the doors open before her like brand new opportunities.

She let an elderly couple exit and then stepped on herself. The doors closed as she stood in the middle of the car. Feeling the elevator as it descended to the first floor. Feeling every stare of every eye in the elevator. Wanting to twist around and give them all a nasty piece of her mind. But instead, she held that piece and let them stare. She was beautiful in all her ways. Simple and sleek on the outside like a tigress yet just as deadly inside with her dark brunette hair and eyes to match. What most men would consider the perfect shape and body. But not so with her. She felt every flaw. Knew every hated scar. Especially those that were deep within. She could always see the demon that lay just beneath her skin. Hidden down in the depths of her soul. Ready to lash out. Still, she held it back as the elevator doors opened a floor or two before the lobby. Just then, her eyes, those beautiful eyes, looked up at the one face she craved to devour. As the man she wanted, hunted, stepped onto the elevator. He glanced over at her and smiled. She gave a smile back and let her eyes fall shyly to the floor. She wanted so badly to stare at him as if he were a fine sculptured statue. To taste him with those dark brown eyes of hers. Sink her teeth into his flesh as she...but then the elevator stopped and the doors pushed open. She gracefully stepped out. He was right behind her. She knew exactly where he would step to avoid the crowd of people in the lobby. And she made sure she took those steps