Unholy Ground

By R.J. Burroughs

Life in small-town Chickasha, Oklahoma, could only be described as calm, peaceful, and tranquil living at its very best. That tranquility was suddenly broken when the city police detective Dusty started to find bodies in local graveyards.

Dusty was completely stumped, trying to find any answers to who killed these people and why they were being killed and their bodies discarded in city cemeteries, until an old gypsy recluse shows up at the station with an outlandish tale her mother passed on to her many years from the pasta tale of an entity that rests in the graves of those who have passed on from this life yet not making the kingdom of love and happiness. These souls have only made it to the kingdom of hate, despair, and the kingdom of evilthe kingdom called hell.

Follow Dusty and Olga as they confront this evil in this frightening tale by author R. J. Burroughs in the style of writing Mr. Burroughs has become a master at.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 11, 2017
• ISBN: 9781543414561

R.J. Burroughs

Mr. Burroughs grew up in Oklahoma, living in Verden and then Chickasha, that's the reason he uses these two towns for the location of his books. His humor series taking place in Verden, all others take place in Chickasha. Burroughs graduated from Chickasha in 1965, spent a few years in the US Navy, He and his wife Marsha have three children, Brooke, Ashley, and Derek, a combination of 5 grandkids. Mr. Burroughs is semi retired from the Pipeline field, giving him time to work on his different book, his Boys series, a Thriller, as well as a drama coming soon called Buster Rime.

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Copyright © 2017 by R.J. Burroughs.

ISBN:      Softcover      978-1-5434-1457-8

               eBook            978-1-5434-1456-1

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 04/10/2017

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1

Terri Robins literally hated to grocery shop this late in the evening. If she had her way, everything in the world she needed to get done would be accomplished between 1:00 and 3:00 p.m. each day. Life has its funny little ways of tripping people up, however, just like it did this evening.

Her husband Rob was not supposed to be home from New York City until Monday, yet one simple call from him completely threw off her plans. He phoned to let her know he had completed his business early and would be arriving home on flight 5565 at 11:45 tomorrow morning.

Now at 8:45 p.m., she was grocery shopping for the big homecoming meal she had been planning since the day he left for New York. She knew she could have waited until the morning to do the shopping, but tomorrow being the third of June, everyone that received food stamps would be in the store stocking up on this and that. She knew from past experience that the Chickasha, Oklahoma, Homeland grocery store was a busy place on those days. Loading her groceries into the backseat of her Ford Five Hundred, her peripheral vision picked up something or at least she thought she saw some movement from the corner of her left eye. She turned, scanned the parking lot, then smiled to herself at seeing nothing but a couple of cars parked way off to her left. Terri figured the cars must belong to store employees. She even laughed a little to herself realizing how her nerves played such a trick on her. She knew that being out this late, alone in such a large parking lot, contributed to her fear and imagination.

What she thought she saw gave her the willies all the same, a man dressed in a black suit with spots of dirt on it in several places, not fifty yards away from her. Still smiling, she decided no more would she be watching any stupid horror movies. Shaking just a little and grinning to herself, she opened the driver’s door, got behind the wheel, and started the car. She drove out of the parking lot a little faster than she really should have, but getting away seemed the thing to be doing at the time, as this place was starting to give her the creeps.

Driving home, Terri thought about the meal she would be fixing for Rob’s homecoming. She wanted it to not just be special, but extra special. After all, they would be celebrating their first year of marriage in a couple of weeks and who’s to know if he would be home to celebrate since his job sent him out of town so often.

Turning the corner to Wewoka Lane, she looked ahead to her house set in the middle of the block. Actually, there were only three houses on the lane: her home and another on the north side with only one home across the street. A slight fear gripped her as again. She thought her mind was playing another trick because as she passed the first house, she thought she saw the same man from the grocery store parking lot. But this time, she didn’t see him out of her peripheral vision. She saw him with both eyes, and he was standing in front of her neighbor’s blue BMW parked in the driveway next to the large white garage door. It was same man; same dark suit; same spots of dirt scattered over him.

She turned her head back so as not to run over some child who may still be playing in the street or hitting the green Chevy parked next to the curb. She slowed down as she reached her driveway and looked back to see if the man she thought she saw was really there. This time, she saw nothing. No man. No dirty suit. Nothing. Smiling to herself as she let out a large gasp of air, she felt assured he was never there in the first place, neither at the grocery store nor standing in driveway of her neighbor’s house. She decided that Rob, surprising her like he did—combined with her being out late, which was something she always avoided whenever possible—must have brought on hallucinations. Or perhaps being as tired as she was brought on these stupid sightings. If she was going to have hallucinations, why couldn’t it be a good-looking young man and not some weird looking old guy with dirt on his suit?

As she started to turn into her driveway, she noticed the small red Volkswagen parked at the curb. The big white letters on the back window that read Volkswagen meant that it could be no one other than her sister, Katie. Why Katie always insisted that the name of the car she happens to own at the time is written either on the front windshield or back, Terri would never understand.

Katie was in her junior year of college at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma, and it was nice having her nearby. Wasn’t it a known fact that college kids sometime did weird things, as least weird by her and Rob’s standards? She hoped Katie was there to spend the night with her. More often than not, Katie stopped by just to come and get a free meal.

Opening the side door, Terri heard the sound of the TV coming from the living room. Yea, Katie was there for the night. If she had just come for a meal, the TV would be off and Katie would be raiding the icebox, or sitting at the dinner table, or eating whatever it was she found to eat.

Katie, hearing the door open, came running into the dining room. Hi, sis. I guess you know this is your lucky day. She looked into the two paper bags Terri had just brought in.

Lucky day? How is this my lucky day, Miss Katie?

Well, I don’t have a date tonight, so I thought instead of spending the night in that small stuffy dorm room looking at the four walls, why don’t I just go over to my big sister’s house and spend the night with her. Maybe even help her cook supper? she answered.

Well, you know, you’re always welcome here. But if I remember right, you’ve never cooked a meal in the nineteen years you’ve been alive, Terri said to her sister smiling.

Whatever. I’ve cooked, she answered, opening the icebox door trying to find something to snack on until dinner was ready.

Terri cooked a couple chicken fried steaks, opened a can of green beans, and warmed up some gravy she had left over from breakfast. As they set eating, the man in the dark dirty suit kept popping in and out of Terri’s mind. Several times she thought about telling Katie but thought better of it. She was happy Katie decided to spend the night with her. She sure didn’t want to spoil her sister’s sleepover with a figment of her imagination.

After supper, they just left the dirty dishes soaking in the sink. Tomorrow would be soon enough to do the dishes. They both changed into their sleepwear. Terri wore the long white cotton nightgown she always wore when Rob was away, and Katie was in a long white T-shirt with a picture of Betty Boop on it. They sat around watching an Elvis movie on TV while talking about Rob’s homecoming, college, boys, and anything else that happen to pop into their minds.

This movie sucks, sis, Katie said.

I’ll tell you what might just improve this movie, Terri said smiling at her sister.

Speak to me, sister, Katie answered, trying to put an excited look on her face but failing miserably.

I’ll be right back, Terri said, as she jumped up heading for the kitchen.

Katie continued watching the movie trying her best to get into it, but Elvis was a lot better singer than he was an actor. It wasn’t that she didn’t like Elvis; musicals just weren’t her bag of tea. She liked a good action movie or a horror movie if it was well directed. She hated horror movies where the directors made everything so dark you really couldn’t see what was going on. When that happened, she would either turn off the TV or get up and leave the theater.

Here you go, Katie, Terri said, as she came into the living room carrying two large pieces of chocolate cake.

Now that’s what I’m talking about, Katie said, taking one of the pieces of cake.

They went back to watching the movie, while enjoying the cake. After the movie went off, Terri checked her watch. My Lord, Katie! It’s almost 1:00 a.m., we better get our butts to bed, or it will be noon thirty before we even think about getting out of bed tomorrow.

I’m with you, Katie answered, as she got up and headed for the guest bedroom she always slept in when visiting Terri and Rob.

Terri picked up the two empty plates with the two forks and headed back into the kitchen. She placed the plates in the sink alongside the dinner dishes and placed the plastic cover over the remainder of the cake. Turning to head for her own room, she noticed she hadn’t done anything with the large butcher knife she used to cut the cake. She knew she should place it in the sink with the dishes to let the water soak the drying chocolate off the blade, but for now, she was just too tired. To heck with it. Tomorrow would be soon enough to take care of the knife and the rest of the dishes.

Taking her watch off and lying back in her bed felt wonderful. A good night’s sleep would make all the work that lay ahead of her tomorrow a lot easier on her to face. Rolling over just enough to turn off the lamp on her nightstand, she was soon fast asleep.

Terri wasn’t sure what it was that woke her up. She rolled over to look at the little red numbers on the small alarm clock on Rob’s nightstand; the numbers showed it was 3:30 in the morning. She couldn’t figure what kind of sound it would be to wake her up at this time in the morning. She didn’t hear a siren anywhere in the distance or a car turning around in her driveway, something that happened quite a lot since Wewoka Lane is a dead end.

Lying there in the darkened room, her senses had picked up some kind of sound, but she wondered what.

Then she heard it again. She thought it was coming from the guest bathroom. It was a gargling sound. She figured Katie must have either forgotten to brush her teeth or had a bad taste in her mouth and was in the bathroom brushing or gargling with mouthwash. Terri hoped that her sister wasn’t coming down with a cold. She did not want to catch a cold, especially with Rob coming home. She felt like hollering out to tell Katie to hold the noise down but was afraid Katie wouldn’t know she was just teasing.

Katie gargled a lot longer than Terri though necessary, but then Terri wasn’t a very pretty blond college girl whose appearance was about the most important thing to her in her world. Wait until she gets married. Getting up at 3:30 in the morning to brush her teeth would be over completely, she thought smiling.

Then she heard Katie in the kitchen. That surprised Terri because she didn’t hear her walk by her room. Sure door was closed, but there were several loose boards under the shag carpet that made it almost impossible to walk down that hall without making several squeaking sounds along the way. She figured Katie must have just tiptoed down the hall not making much sound at all in hopes of not waking her sister.

Terri could hear her moving stuff around in the kitchen. She had to giggle to herself. Katie made an effort to go down the hall quietly, but once in the kitchen, she sounded like a bull in a china shop. Terri figured if there would be any cake left for tomorrow, it would surprise her.

Then everything went completely quiet. Katie must have finished eating and was tiptoeing back to her room with a belly full of chocolate cake. Terri listened as best she could, hoping to hear her sister going back to the guest room. Terri considered jumping up and jerking open the door to scare her but thought better of that.

Then with the moonlight coming through the window, she saw her bedroom doorknob starting to move very slowly, first one way then the other. This seemed kind of strange to her. Why would Katie be opening her door? she wondered. Terri lay in bed, her eyes glued to the doorknob. Back and forth, it turned. Back and forth, as if the person turning it didn’t know in order to open the door not only do you twist the knob, you have to also push on it as well.

When the door started to slowly open, Terri lay her head back on the pillow keeping her eyes closed just enough to look as if she were asleep yet cracked open a tiny bit in order to see what her sister was up to.

As the door slowly opened, Terri could barely make out her sister standing in the hallway looking in at her from what was left of the moonlight. She seemed to be trying to decide whether or not to come in or go back to her room. Terri had a pretty good idea what Katie was up to. She must have awoke remembering the cake and decided she would have a nighttime snack. Now that it was over, she must have gotten it in her mind to scare the crap out of her sister like they use to do to each other as kids living at home.

It seemed like Katie stood looking in Terri’s room for several minutes before she started to move forward. Peeking through the small slits between her eyelids, Terri could barely make out her sister’s face, but what she saw made a chill run through her. Katie’s face looked different, extremely different than any expression Terri had ever seen on her before. And she had seen a lot of different expressions on her sister’s face over the years.

The expression on her younger sister’s face was an expression of hate. No, of hate and something else combined with it. It was enough to make her open her eyes completely, sit up in bed, and say, Katie what do you want?

Katie didn’t seem to hear her. She just slowly kept coming toward the bed. Katie, Katie, Terri said.

Terri reached over and turned the nightstand light on. When the light filled the room, Terri thought her heart was going to stop. As Katie approached her bed, her feet didn’t seem to be moving. It appeared her feet were in fact several inches off the carpet.

This has to be a dream, a bad dream, Terri thought. But in her heart, she knew it was no dream. What was happening was real, but how could it be? How could