Foiled Breach

By Thorn Osgood

A reckless driver tries to cut in front of Jayle in the left turn lane for the grocery store parking lot, but she refuses to let that happen. The driver blows his horn loud and long as she passes by him. She turns into the parking lot, finds a spot, and parks. When she gets out of her car, the same man is parked across the back of her parking space yelling at her. Seeing his red angry face she turns and goes around the front of her car toward the store. Was he going to come inside after her? She didn't think so and went on with her shopping.

Jayle falls asleep later at home and awakens frightened by what she's seen. She's sure it's not a dream. She was there and saw a dead body in a box. How was that possible? What did it mean? She had to find out more.

• Language: English
• Publisher: MindWingsAudio
• Release date: Jun 10, 2022
• ISBN: 9781611146196

Thorn Osgood

Thorn Osgood was born in Thomasville, Georgia, and grew up in South Florida. During her grade school years, her father read her stories that fed her imagination. Through the years, she has traveled many times to that special place in her mind to imagine fantastic yarns and what ifs and she has finally started to write them down. Thorn currently lives in Crawford County, Georgia with her Mittelschnauzer, Raskoph.

Book preview

Chapter 1

Excitement washed over Jayle as she sat waiting for the traffic light to change. It was her last day at her old place. She would be moving today. The past years had been rough for her while she was recovering from debt. Getting on her feet after her divorce hadn’t been easy. Things in her life were getting better with her new job, and she wanted to live in a place that reflected her success. She’d been at the Fortune 500 company for eighteen months now as a senior manager in their engineering department.

The traffic light changed, and she started to follow the other drivers in the left turn lane into the grocery store parking lot. She hoped to grab lunch before the movers arrived. A blue mustang pulled beside her, then sped forward and tried to cut in front of her car into the left turn lane, but she swerved around the car and kept going.

A blaring horn came from the obviously annoyed driver.

Ignoring the horn, she finished her turn into the grocery store parking lot. Drivers in the area had always seemed aggressive to her, and she was not willing to allow them to bully her because they had made a mistake. She found a parking spot and pulled in. When she got out of her car, she saw the blue mustang stopped across the rear of her parking space, idling.

Why didn’t you let me in? the guy yelled. His face was red and twisted with anger, his eyes throwing daggers at her.

She didn’t flinch. On observing his demeanor, she quietly went around the front of her car, through the parked cars.

You bitch! he shouted. Dyke! he added as she left the area.

After entering the grocery store, she grabbed a hand basket and went to the take-out section, wondering if she’d made a mistake. Maybe preventing a traffic violation wasn’t worth the bother. She definitely didn’t like being harassed. Articles on the internet and stories in the news about road rage ran through her mind, and none ended well—many with someone getting killed.

Refocusing, she grabbed a salad and a hummus with pretzels snacker and headed toward the checkout. Not able to resist when she passed the bakery, she got a bagel and cream cheese too.

Outside, she looked all around as she slowly walked to her car, making her way between the cars the way she had come. Safe, she thought. Maybe she had let her imagination go too far. She got into her car and drove home to wait for the movers’ arrival.

* * * * *

The movers arrived at the Laurel, Maryland, destination late in the afternoon. Unlocking the door to her new apartment, she took a deep breath as she walked in. She showed the movers where to put the furniture, then once more walked through the apartment. It had a two-bedroom open floor plan. The windows were large, and the ceilings were high. The bathroom was her favorite part, with its sunken whirlpool tub and separate shower stall.

After the movers left, Jayle ate her salad and lay down on the sofa to take in a horizontal view of her new living space. Fatigue set in, and she drifted off to sleep.

Darkness covered the old apartment and the basement entryway in South Bound Brook, New Jersey. She had returned to where she’d lived when she was married. She was looking for her old stuffed rabbit, Henrietta. It was her favorite childhood toy, and it was missing from her things. As a last resort, she’d come here. Henrietta might have fallen out of the old trunk. She wasn’t sure where she’d packed it. She searched the small storage room without success.

Venturing onto the dirt basement floor, she inspected the area with a flashlight. A large, flat black box was near the farthest wall in the corner. Where had that come from? The box was at least six feet long and rectangular. On one side were metal hinges, and a latch hung open on the opposite side. She placed the flashlight under her chin, and after a struggle she finally lifted the lid. When it was high enough, she put her foot up on the bottom side of the box and propped the lid on her knee. She shined the light inside the box. I-I-I-I-I! she screamed, falling backward onto the dirt floor. Oh! she blurted and dropped the flashlight. The light blinked out.

She grabbed the flashlight tightly and quickly secured the light cover and battery end. After a good shake, the light came on, and she fled the basement space. There was a body in the box, a fresh body in the box with a hole in its head. A body, a body, was all she could think. The words screamed in her head as she continued to flee.

Jayle’s eyes popped opened. Frightened, she sat up, gasping for air. Her heart was racing, and inside her head, the memory still echoed, a body in the box. She went to the sink and drank water from her cupped hands, then splashed her face.

The dream was so real. She felt like she’d actually been at the old apartment and seen the physical corpse. A feeling of connection filled her. It was more than just the discovery. She felt like it was her fault in some way. But that was impossible—she would have remembered, wouldn’t she? A sense of guilt weighed heavily in her mind. She considered going to the police, but what would she tell them? She saw a body in a box? She wasn’t even sure if it was a man or woman. All she could remember was the hole in the forehead.

When she and her friends talked about their dreams, it was nothing like this. They never talked about dreams that plagued them as if they had really happened. Why were her dreams different? This was too creepy. Even considering this dream as something serious was ridiculous, the more she thought about it. Her dreams were probably more real because she was the sensitive type. High strung, though she’d never admit to being that way. Besides, it could have been a sleep terror. She’d had them before when taking a nap after eating.

She fingered her locs away from her face. She was already a spectacle with naturally ginger-colored hair and brown skin—not common in black heritage. Now this phenomenon. If word got out, folks would swear the two things were somehow connected. Hmm, that’s a thought.

Just last year, she had sought medical and psychiatric help for something that she was experiencing. When she closed her eyelids and kept her eyes in viewing mode, she saw images of people doing all sorts of things. Some looked grief-stricken. Other times, it would be just the face of someone staring back. Once she saw only the brown hands of likely an old woman picking up nuts off the ground, and another time a truck driver with the acronym NDHA and the name Matthew on the cab door. None of it made any sense. Was she supposed to figure this stuff out and take some sort of action?