9111 Sharp Road by Eric R. Johnston Read Free Book Online Page A

a dream. I stood and walked over to him. He seemed to have the same realness about him that he had during my earlier vision. Was I unconscious?
    “Yes, they have Lori, and you are unconscious , but that doesn’t mean this is any less real or important.” He paused a moment and looked directly into my eyes. “Don’t blame yourself.”
    “What are you talking about?”
    Instead of answering my question, he motioned to the glowing door behind him. “You see the door?”
    “Yes….”
    “And I expect you noticed the pipe in your sister’s room ?”
    “Yes, it was red.”
    “The pipe was, until recently, the only means the chiroptera had of getting into the house. The well is not really a well, but a doorway, a portal, into another realm. Do you understand? ”
    “No.” I thought about it…the pipe was part of the septic system…and they lived in that well that was a doorway to another realm . So, these creatures lived in the dirty wastes of a septic system? “Dad, it doesn’t make any sense. ” Then I thought for another moment. “ They came in through my window and took Lori. They didn’ t come through a pipe . ”
    I thought back to that day that I saw Lori transform. That was the day after we saw the chiroptera for the first time. They had been lurking outside, looking in our windows, but seemingly not able to come in…except…the pipe in Lori’s room. They must have come in her room, done something to her that night to begin the process of transforming her into one of them.
    I didn’t quite understand the anatomy of a house, nor did I know exactly how a pipe like that could connect to a well at least a tenth of a mile away, but I supposed it didn’t really matter. When you were talking about humanoid bats kidnapping your little sister and turning her into one of them, issues like plumbing no longer seem ed to be very important.
    “Amanda, that pipe connects directly to that well I showed you. The well where they are now holding Lori. She is…becoming one of them. That’s how they breed.”
    Tears started streaming down my face. “Is there anything we can do?”
    He didn’t answer at first, as if he was reluctant to tell me anymore . “Amanda, I don’t want to say this, but,” he paused, pain etched across his features, “you must let us out.” He then turned around and reached for the glowing door. It opened to an even more brilliant light of blue and white . “Come.”
    We walked through the door, and I was amazed at the grand world around me. It was almost as if I was walking through space. Wisps of blue-tinted gas swirled around me, twirling up my arms and around my legs. It felt like there was electricity all around me.
    “Why are we here, Dad?” I asked. My sense of urgency still lingered. I—or we—needed to get to Lori . I didn’ t have time to mess around in some sort of ghost world.
    “Amanda, I need to show you this .” As he spoke, the gas began to take form. Person after person stepped forward— man, woman, child.
    “Who are these people?”
    “They are the ninety-one eleven. They are the imprisoned dead. You must release us . ” He sounded like he was reading a script.
    “I don’t understand.”
    “There are nine thousand one hundred and eleven spirits trapped in Orchard Hills, the cemetery town…and this house is the focal point of that prison. Everything in this town centers around this house.”
    “Are you one of the imprisoned spirits?”
    “You found my grave out there?”
    “Yes.”
    “That’s your answer.”
    “Why is your body buried here? How did you die?”
    “I was killed trying to destroy the chiroptera. They have been holding your grandmother hostage for some time now, for cing her to live in this house.”
    The house was the center of Orchard Hills? But what about the well? Where did that come in? Just the home of the chiroptera? Perhaps, but before I could ask for clarification, I was distracted by t he ghosts that kept materializing and