A Drop of Blood

By Alison Furtaw

Anthony Murphy panted as he ran through the twisty tunnel. He could hear the things behind him, but he couldn’t see them. They shuffled and gibbered in the dark tunnel as he desperately tried to outrun them. He knew moving and starting high school would be hard, but this was ridiculous. He had started out the week with high hopes, and now his new friend was missing, his family was in danger, and his blood was a hot commodity. All it took to get his newly discovered relatives back to their home was a few drops of his blood, but apparently, they wanted a lot more than that.

• Language: English
• Publisher: World Castle Publishing, LLC
• Release date: Sep 25, 2023
• ISBN: 9798891260498

Alison Furtaw

The author came up with this story daydreaming in the bowels of the courthouse where she has spent the last 27 years. An attorney by trade, a writer by inclination, this book is the culmination of years of toil. Early in her career as a defense attorney, Furtaw lost her young husband and was left to raise their three kids on her own. This book is an homage to her kids, who remain her spirit and her inspiration. This book is also in gratitude to Tom Furtaw, who is remembered with great love and admiration.

Book preview

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A Drop of Blood

by

Alison Furtaw

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locations, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

WCP Logo 7

World Castle Publishing, LLC

Pensacola, Florida

Copyright © 2023 Alison Furtaw

Smashwords Edition

Paperback ISBN: 9798891260481

eBook ISBN: 9798891260498

First Edition World Castle Publishing, LLC, September 25, 2023

http://www.worldcastlepublishing.com

Smashwords Licensing Notes

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in articles and reviews.

Cover: Cover Designs by Karen

https://cover-designs-by-karen.com

Editor: Karen Fuller

Prologue

He ran through the twisty tunnel, clutching the rosary in one sweaty hand. He could feel the silver cross biting into his palm. The moaning was getting closer, and the fetid smell in the tunnel was overwhelming. Feeling a hand touch his shoulder, he turned to look, a scream trapped in his throat.

Chapter 1

Tony jerked awake, seeing his mother’s concerned face bending over him. Her hand was on his shoulder, and the end of her brown ponytail tickled his cheek. He blinked up at her, noticing the streak of white at her temple. It was more obvious when her hair was pulled back.

Tony, are you okay? She asked him, her expression worried.

Shaking the nightmare off, he sat up. His mom immediately took her hand off his shoulder and stepped back. She hardly ever came into his room unless invited. Since he had officially become a teenager, she was careful not to come into his room without knocking. As a single mom, she was really trying to respect his boundaries. Tony tried to smile. I’m fine, Mom. Just having a weird dream.

Nodding, she smiled back at him. Okay, coffee is on, and the cereal is on the table. With that comment, she left his room, closing the door behind her. He loved coffee, and although it drove her crazy, she let him have his morning cup of joe. At fourteen, he was just on the cusp of becoming an adult. His mom was very woke and never talked down to him. Tony smiled to himself for a minute. He really did love her.

Tony lay in bed for another few minutes, staring at the ceiling. He had been having the same nightmare for weeks, ever since they moved into the new house. The dream was always the same. He was stuck underground in some kind of tunnel, and behind him, things slithered and moaned in the dark. Things that wanted to eat him. He would turn around to see what was behind him, and then he would wake up. The things in the tunnel were dead. He didn’t know how he knew that, but he did. Rubbing his hands over his arms, which were covered in goosebumps despite the warm weather, he got out of bed.

His family had recently moved to Grosse Pointe, Michigan, where his parents had both grown up. His mom could not continue to pay the huge mortgage on their place in Chicago after their father died. He knew this because she had sat them all down and told them before she listed the townhouse. She wanted to save more for their college education, and so they were moving to Michigan. His mom was pretty no-nonsense, and she had made a real effort to reassure her kids that everything was under control. Their father had died two years ago of a heart attack. He was 40 years old. Their mom, Liz Murphy, was still staggering under the weight of the responsibility of being the breadwinner and paying off her own law school debt, not to mention parenting three teenagers. More than once, Tony had heard her crying behind her closed bedroom door.

Tony was a smart kid, and he understood about money, but he still missed his friends in Chicago. He was nervous about starting high school in a place where he knew no one, with the exception of his two older siblings. His brother would be a senior at the same school, and his sister would be a junior at the Catholic school down the road. The same all-girls Catholic High School that his mom had attended. Classes at his sister’s school had started last week. His sister seemed to be adjusting, and like Tony, she didn’t complain too much. There wasn’t any point. They all knew that their mom was doing the best she could.

His mind returning to the dream, he tried to shake it off. He decided to ignore it, assuming it was just his mind’s way of dealing with his anxiety about starting at a new school. Also, like the move to Grosse Pointe, there was nothing he could do about it. Time to make the donuts, as his dad used to say. He missed his dad’s booming laugh in the morning. It had been two years, but sometimes the pain was still so sharp it felt like yesterday.

Tony went into the kitchen to feed the dog and make himself a bowl of cereal. His mom came in dressed for work. She had just started a new job at the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office. His parents had met in law school. He had heard the story many times. His dad had worked in the law library, and his mom kept taking out books until the cute guy at the front desk finally asked her out. The thought made Tony smile. It was hard to imagine his mom having a crush.

Tony looked up from scratching Justice’s ears as he heard his mom enter the kitchen. Justice had been a rescue, and Tony’s dad had named him. He was some kind of terrier mix, and it seemed ironic that he had outlived his master. Justice slept with Kate every night and had done so since Joe Murphy, his real master, had never come home.

Giving the dog