The White Candle

By Jerald Payne

Derek Stone has learned to fight for himself from the playgrounds of his childhood to the jungles of Vietnam and now to the dishonesty that surrounds the boardroom. Despite his best efforts, Derek is immersed in a world driven by lies, greed, and ruthlessness. After an unsuccessful attempt to defend his financial business from those who want to steal it, Derek decides to seek revenge through unique means. After he contacts a witch, she presents him with ten black candles intended to be vessels for his vindictive thoughts and one white candle meant to attract good spirits. As Derek vacillates between the past and present and struggles to find his way out of the darkness with help from the white candle, now only time will tell if he will fall deeper into the darkness or emerge to help others who have fallen. In this supernatural thriller, a businessman is led on down an intriguing path of vengeance, with help from a witch, after unsuccessfully defending his company from a white collar thief.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu Publishing Services
• Release date: Jun 23, 2017
• ISBN: 9781483470344

Book preview

wife.

CHAPTER 2

Intro the Witch

Back to work the next morning, smoking on his Churchill and blowing rings, Derek was thinking of the mess he had on his desk and in his life with the takeover of his company. He decided to put several good hours into salvaging what he could of his empire and then go have a gin and tonic for lunch. David came in and wanted to talk about his idea for revenge. Derek was in the mood for anything at this point, so he told David to go ahead and tell him about his idea. David said, You know about the witch I met and told you about, Derek interrupting David, excuse me, a witch, don’t waste my time, I have enough bullshit already in my life. Anyway, I gave her a call and she wants to meet with us. What the hell does a witch have to do with anything? Derek said. Well if you remember, Howard liked to play on the dark side so I thought it would be a good idea to attack him there, you know, some of his own medicine. Okay set it up; I am in for hearing about anything at this point. Derek said. Let me make a phone call, David said, and see what’s up. Derek was thinking that this is really out of the box even for him. David, with a big smile on his face looked over at his boss, Hey, she will see us now, I will drive."

Soon both of them were off to a strange way to solve any problem, but Derek knew he tried the legal way and that was a disaster.

The apartment she lived in was in the Haight Ashbury District of the City, and inside was a room lit softly and a round table surrounded with candles of different colors, the smell of candles burning and of course beads everywhere. When they sat down with her, at this table, that looked like something out of the movies, with dark thick drapes hanging around the seating, they couldn’t help looking at each other and shrugging their shoulders. David told her what had happened and who had done this to them and what they wanted from her and her suggestions. She got up from the table and walked behind her seat looking down in thought, for what seemed like an hour, and then said, okay, are you prepared to pay me for what you are asking? David said yes, we want to get this guy who ruined our life and business so let us know how much you want. She took out a notepad and pencil and said, I want you to follow these instructions very carefully if you want any results. She said this while looking right into their eyes and through to their souls, as it seemed like. They both said sure and assured her they were on the same page. With that she laid out a program to get the evil spirits to go after Howard in Chicago and it went like this. I want you to take these candles, 10 black ones with 13 bad things written on them, as you can see and one White Candle. Derek immediately asked who gets the White Candle and what is it for? Witch, The white one is for you Derek in your office and it is good and will bring in the good spirits, without it your office will be taken over by bad spirits and more will come. The black ones are to be put throughout your office and whenever you pass it, you say something nasty and bad, while thinking of the person you want to hurt and you can also spit at it as well, maybe a good Idea. The White Candle can just sit there and nothing has to be done to it, except for good thoughts to be directed at it. Derek, that sounds great, is that all, can we go? No, she said, you must listen carefully, I am going to give you some grave parts and you are to wait until the strike of midnight and then you will put the grave parts around the wick of the black candle and you will then light it with a wooden match at midnight, and I mean midnight, don’t be late, and then repeat this verse. They both looked at each other because they had never done anything like this before and it was starting to feel a little scary. Well the two guys left headed for their office, loaded with ammunition to get Howard in Chicago. At the office they, after opening two cold Heineken’s, went around to find the best place to put the black candles with the White Candle going into Derek’s office. With all that done they waited until the dark of evening with wooden matches in hand, grave parts ready to be sprinkled and with the stroke of the clock at midnight, David said, okay we want to light this right at midnight. Are you ready to do this Derek; I know that this kind of stuff is not your favorite. Derek, looking little scared, you go ahead and light the candles, let’s rock this boat. The grave parts were put around the wicks, and the wooden match was struck and the candles were lit. Not knowing exactly what they had done, they both headed home thinking that the fix was in for Howard. David, now we must cuss at the candles when we walk by them and we need to tell the employees to do the same thing also. Derek, I hope they all don’t just get up and walk out. Don’t worry boss, I will handle it all," David chimed in.

As Derek drove into the City from his home in the hills, he was thinking of what they had done last night and wondered what was going to happen if anything at all. When he reached his office some of the employees who were Catholic questioned both David and Derek about the black candles in the office. David had already explained to them what the boss and him were doing and why. Well immediately several of the religious ones quit and said that they could not be around this type of activity. The rest of them just watched in amusement as David and Derek would both hiss at the candles and say bad things as they passed them. This went on for a couple of weeks, and one day late in the afternoon when Derek was in his office, the janitor who worked at night and cleaned his office had asked to speak with him and Derek said yes and was waiting in the office for him. Manuel Rodriguez was his name and he seemed to be upset, anxious to speak to him. Derek told him to have a seat and tell him what is on his mind. Manuel, now sweating on his brow and his hands shaking, what are you doing with the black candles in your office? Do you have any idea of what you are doing, what you are asking to happen? Mr. Derek, I am very scared for you and me when I am cleaning your offices Derek explained to him what had happened and that they met with this witch and she came up with this idea to get those who hurt them. Manuel, now very antsy in his seat, let me tell you boss what I am seeing at night when I am cleaning your office, and I say your office because that is where all the activity is. Derek gave him a puzzled what activity, I am supposed to have only good spirits in my office and I should be golden. he thought. It seems like you have invited a lot of bad spirits to your office boss, last night when I came in, there were three of them around your desk, one with massive shoulders and long white hair and could only be seen from the waist up the rest was not there, invisible and he was directing the conversation they were having. I was scared out of my mind, Manuel said and I will not be back to clean until this is all gone, maybe I won’t come back at all. Derek, not sure of what he was hearing, said okay, how do we fix my office? Manuel said, I have a friend who is a Priest and I will ask him to come over here and put holy water in the corners of the office and do an exorcism to get rid of the bad spirits before this situation gets out of control. Derek said okay and let me know how it goes. Derek was not sure of this, he had not seen any ghosts but went ahead with the recommendations from Manuel being he was so adamant about what he had seen.

The next morning when Derek arrived, he saw his office door open and wondered who had been in there. Who is in my office?he said to his secretary. Nobody, but go in, you will see what happened. It scares the hell out of me his secretary said. He walked into his office and on the far right wall was written in large red letters; it looked like blood had been smeared and made into words, Death to the VP. After pondering the writing it was determined that the reference to VP had to be David, being he was the one who came up with this dumb idea. Derek, leave it alone until David has a chance to see this, I am thinking that we should maybe call the police. Don’t let anyone else in my office, I am going to lunch. This really freaks me out; I have to have time to ponder this and what happened and who would do this. Derek had a few more than usual cocktails that day and went back to the office with a nice buzz. His secretary could always tell when he had a buzz on and she knew he would be playful if teased. As Derek sat at his desk and started to reach for a Churchill to smoke, His secretary said why suck on the cigar when you have these, I am kind of turned on from all this. Well then you are a sick puppy then sweetheart, I have no interest, this on the wall has to be taken seriously, sorry. He walked to his private bathroom to splash water on his face and as he stood in front of the sink with a large mirror over it, his secretary said in a loud voice, I got a phone call from David and as soon as she mentioned the name David, the mirror in front of him exploded in hundreds of pieces, scaring the hell out of Derek as he stood there in a pile of glass. They all screamed, are you alright in there? and came in running. They were totally shaken and a little scared by what had just happened.

CHAPTER 3

The White Candle

It seemed like all Derek spent his time doing these days was meeting with attorneys over the legal problems now beseeching his business. The training of new agents was given to Paul his Director of Training, who enjoyed showing off to new employees and was always willing to take on anyone new.

The afternoon went by and he had not seen David around all day and was wondering what had happened to him. Derek feeling hungry, went to his favorite restaurant. He had his private table at the restaurant which was reserved for him and his party at any time. After ordering his drink, he noticed David coming over to sit at his table. David complemented Derek on the evening past and what a great time he and his wife had had. David said that he had never seen her so thankful for being invited to Bill’s and made it clear that she would love to go back anytime. Derek smiled and said that he had a good time also and what an escape it was from all that was going on with his company. They had another drink and some lunch, Derek always had the English muffin cheeseburger and David always went with the pastrami, today’s lunch was a little more special because they had a lingerie company come in for some sexy entertainment. There was this fox that owned the company, Renee Adler, and Derek always loved to buy raffle tickets as they watched the pretty young girls model the lingerie. Renee seemed not to notice Derek; she was busy with her girls and putting on the fashion show. She seemed to be surrounded all the time by other guys trying to get to know her or get noticed. Derek would have nothing of that and wanted women to come to him and that never seemed to be a problem. Derek told David I have something to show you at the office that you won’t believe so come straight to my office when you get back. David said what it is now? No nothing like that, but it is scary. David said ok and ordered another drink Hey Derek you busy, David said as he stuck his head inside Derek’s office, oh come on in I am just finishing up another letter to the attorneys. Handing him a neat scotch, look behind you, you won’t believe this. David glancing over his shoulder and then jumping up, what the hell is that, where did that come from? Hell if I know, it was there when I came in this morning. It looks as if it was written in blood, and I think it is directed at you."

As David took a seat, he saw a tape recorder on Derek’s desk, you have something to record or are you going to record me? No, just wait a minute and I will let you know; I want to finish this letter. They were both feeling a little tipsy from the lunch so Derek thought it would be fun to share with David the recording he had captured about David’s wife having phone sex. Derek gave it some more thought and decided it wasn’t the time, not with the writing on the wall. Derek finished the letter to his attorney; David picked up the recording and pushed play. Derek, David put that down, I am trying to finish this letter David didn’t listen, so, oh well. David was always joking about sex and had screwed most of the women at the bar. Knowing that David was ready for some levity he said, Ok, I am finished, now I have something for you to hear. You know how your wife always says she would love to go to bed with me and we have joked about it, well I want you to listen to this, and it is a crack up and I think we could use a good laugh. With that he proceeded to push the play button on the recorder and sat back and watched David’s face and wondering when he would figure it out and what response he would have, a good one Derek was sure of. Well it was not long before David spoke up and said, Is that my wife? Are you fucking kidding me? He said. Derek not sure about the response yet kept playing it, thinking David was going to bust up hearing his wife come over another man. The woman on the tape had stripped down to only her bra and was playing with her pussy