She Never Dies: Part 2: The Rose Miller Trilogy, #3

By Erik Handy

CAPTURE A GHOST?

 

Science has accomplished the impossible: the capture and containment of a ghost. Unfortunately, the ghost is Rose Miller, the I-4 Ghost.

 

KILL A GHOST?

 

When the project goes wrong, no one is safe from Rose's murderous wrath. The only way to survive is to permanently stop Rose. 

 

NO CHANCE!

 

Enter the Full Dark team! Hayes, Jones, and Drake dive into the fray with their wits, cutting-edge technology, and a fistful of bullets. Can they finally end Rose's reign of horror?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Erik Handy
• Release date: Jul 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9798224574506

Erik Handy

Erik Handy grew up on a steady diet of professional wrestling, bad horror movies that went straight to video, and comic books. There were also a lot of video games thrown in the mix. He currently absorbs silence and fish tacos.

Book preview

Read the Full Dark Series from the beginning!

1. The Hell of the Dead Saga

Hell of the Dead

Hell of the Dead 2

Hell of the Dead 3

Hell of the Dead 4

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2. The Rose Miller Trilogy

She Never Dies

Macabre

She Never Dies: Part 2

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3. The Malice Below

4. The Creeping City

5. Terror Rising

6. Rot House

7. Full Dark

THE CAPTURE

1

The blue four-door hatchback slowed when it neared the fenced-off plot of land. The young brunette looked to her left at the high strip of brush and trees that obstructed her view of the highway. There was nothing worth seeing there.

She continued through the gap in the chain-link fence that wrapped around the property. Within its confines, construction equipment lay motionless amid the unfinished skeletons of homes suspended in mid-construction. A sign, positioned to face the passing road, proudly proclaimed the land as The Future Location of SUNSET HOMES.

That never happened.

The scene revealed a surreal tableau of a nascent world, where houses stood incomplete, their frames arranged in meticulous grids. The skeletal structures reached upward, their exposed beams and foundations a testament to the stalled development. Alongside the stagnant construction lay weathered tractors, their once vibrant exteriors now tarnished by rust.

The site exuded an eerie ambiance, akin to that of a ghost town.

This is the place, all right, the woman thought.

She parked a few yards away from the gap in the fence. There was a gate there once, its hinges still affixed to the posts.

The faint hum of traffic emanating from the nearby highway seeped through the wooded barrier across the street, creating a subdued backdrop for the stillness that enveloped the area.

She quickly saw the first of what she knew were a dozen three-pronged stakes planted in the ground. They looked like tridents, but no ancient god had anything to do with their creation and deployment. Each one was wrapped with a ring of black wires near the tines. She wasn’t sure how they worked exactly, but she understood the basics.

With a final glance around, the woman closed her eyes briefly, absorbing the essence of this abandoned world. This was her realm. Some called it psychic. Others called it spiritual. She never labeled her ability. She could sense energies that shouldn’t have existed.

Ghosts.

Like the one who followed her.

A popular theory among paranatural experts was that some entities clung to those who sensed them. No one knew why. Perhaps the dead sought companionship in their ethereal states. They were lonely. Maybe ghosts were just collections of electricity that hadn’t shaken their consciousnesses yet. Perhaps they innately gravitated to people tuned into their frequencies like a magnet passing a pile of iron shavings.

The woman moved towards the center of the abandoned housing development. The crunch of gravel beneath her worn-out boots harmonized with the melancholic silence that enveloped the skeletal frames. The wind teased strands of her chestnut hair, which danced in rhythm with her purposeful gait.

We’re all energy, she thought. And there’s some bad juju nearby.

She passed another trident, looking up at it, hoping it would work as intended. If they didn’t, then she would end up like many before her who visited this barren place.

Another victim.

She swore she heard someone call her name within a sharp gust of breeze. She picked up the pace. The sooner she drew her pursuer out, the sooner this would be over.

She reached a light pole. The light on top flickered on and off. The thing felt out of place, a relic.

She gasped when she remembered what she read in the case file.

This was where she was found.

Rose Miller.

Her thought named the devil, calling it forth. A flood of images filled her head. Spiders on top of spiders scurrying in and out of an ear. A boot coming down on a face. A field of tall, dead grass.

She braced herself on the light pole.

Now, she said to the people she knew were watching. Now.

All flowers are pretty, from near her left ear.

She began to panic. She was bait and the shark was hungry.

She’s here, she said louder.

All flowers are pretty, from just under her right ear.

Now, she said again. Sweat rolled down the middle of her back. Now, god damn it!

A loud snap followed by a rolling hum swept over the property.

She turned and saw a woman standing beside her. The woman was her age and wore a soiled nightgown that reached her bare feet. Her hair, equally unkempt and filthy, hung in matted strands across her face. The woman’s face quivered. Her mouth moved, but emitted no sounds.

The hum got louder. Another snap.

The closest trident vibrated in the dirt. It began to glow white.

Rose, she said.

The other woman jerked to attention, staring a hole through her.

Good.

Another snap and Rose Miller was gone.

The tridents stuck among the half-built homes still vibrated and hummed. However, that wasn’t her problem. Her job was finished.

Abby, a man yelled from somewhere close.

Her eyes watered, but not from the sadness, fear, or anger she felt in Rose Miller’s presence. The science on display here affected her. She wanted to be out of here soon.

Abby, the man yelled again.

She saw him now, flanked by three men in