Saturday, January 11, 2014

Teaser: "From Hell to Heaven"

We love teasers!  Here's one from Peggy McDaniel McCombs, for her story From Hell to Heaven.  To read the story in it's entirety, please visit Tricky Raven.





From Hell to Heaven

Beta/Proof reader/Advisor: Maria Vilson

Chapter 21

Warning: 
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Standing before them was a police officer they had never seen before…well, Quil had seen him before; after all he was the one that took Bella’s car from her. He was standing with his feet spread apart, arms stretched out, hands holding onto his firearm as it smoked from recently being fired.

Billy was laying on the floor, his wheelchair on its side next to him; even the wheels still turned as it just took place, and you could see that he was trying to get away from something. He had the expression of fear in his eyes, and was panting obviously from that fear.

“Dad!” Jake yelled as he ran to his father’s side, stooping down to check if he was alright.

Charlie lay on the floor and was trying to pull himself up to lean against the wall. His eye was closed, and he was cringing from the pain in his arm where he had just been shot. His side arm was lying on the floor at his feet.

The other officer was still frozen to the same spot and had an expression of disbelief; he was in shock. Sam walked up to the officer and slowly took his firearm from his hands and patted him on the back to let him know that it was okay.

The officer turned to Sam and batted his eyes before turning them back to his Chief who was cursing from the pain. Sam helped the officer to sit on the sofa as Paul and Jared made their way to Charlie. Paul picked up the firearm that lay at his feet and handed it to Sam. 

Sam laid the guns on the coffee table and continued to comfort the officer clearly not coming out of the shock he was in any time soon.

Paul ran to the bathroom and grabbed the first aid kit that all the wolves kept in their houses in case one of them needed immediate attention and made his way back to Charlie after grabbing a bowl of luke-warm water and a soft cloth. 

Jared ripped the sleeve easily from Charlie’s shirt, as Paul came back handing the first aid kit and a bowl of water to Jared who immediately began to clean the area of his arm that was hit. 

They noticed his bruised face and thought how Jake had done a number on him at the Police Station after hearing about Bella through the pack mind; and, that was probably why he showed up here at Billy’s. He was probably hunting for Jake.

They wondered what Billy had said to piss him off enough that he would even threaten to shoot Billy. Not that it would have taken much in Charlie’s state of mind, but Billy should have known better.

Charlie’s arm hung uselessly at his side which told them that the bullet had broken the bone on impact. Jared wrapped a bandage around the wound and tied his arm into a sling to keep it in place until they could get him to a hospital to have it taken care of. 

But there was something else that they noticed about Charlie. Even with the cringing of his eyes from the pain, he eyes seemed to be normal. Whatever had control of Charlie was no longer visible. It seemed that Charlie was free of the mind control.

Charlie looked around the room taking in all that surrounded him. He saw Jake helping Billy off the floor and into his wheelchair and one of his own officers sitting on the sofa being comforted by Sam Uley. His head was swarming with confusion as he took in his surroundings as he tried to remember what had just happened. 

Charlie’s head felt as though he had a cloud swarming around in his head as he kept shaking it trying to clear it enough to remember why he was even here. Why can’t I remember? He thought to himself. 

As he thought about not being able to remember it dawned on him that he couldn’t remember anything since the day Bella showed up at the airport. He wondered how long he had been out of it, was it minutes or days? He just couldn’t remember.

“Jared? What am I doing here?” he asked looking up and realizing the pack was all here. Paul and Jared looked at one another as their eyebrows disappeared into their hair lines.

“Don’t you remember Chief?” Paul asked looking back at Charlie. Charlie shook his head and rubbed his face with his other hand.

“Why is Mark here, who shot me, what the hell is going on?!” He yelled cringing as a pain shot through his arm.

“Sam,” Paul called getting Sam’s attention. Sam rose to his feet patting Mark on the shoulder letting him know he’d be right back.

“I think what was controlling the Chief is gone, and he wants answers to what’s going on,” Paul said. Sam looked down at Charlie and told him to look him in the eyes. Charlie complied.

“Why, what the hell is going on,” he reiterated, but this time to Sam.

“You don’t remember anything?” Sam asked not knowing whether to be glad or worried about the state of Charlie’s mind.

“No! Would I be asking you if I knew? I need answers here Sam. How long have I been out of it?” he asked. At least he realized he had been out of it. Sam thought.

“We don’t know everything yet Charlie, all we know is that someone or something has been controlling your mind. Making you do things you normally wouldn’t do and in this case you almost shot and killed your best friend. That officer over there allegedly stopped you by shooting you in the arm to save Billy,” Sam explained.

Charlie swallowed hard, his face turned white as snow as he looked at Mark and then to where Jake had just put his dad back into his wheelchair.

“Oh my God! Is he okay?” Charlie asked with a shaky voice.

“Yeah, a little shaken up, but he’ll be okay. The officer is still in shock though. We’ll have to come up with a viable reason for all of this. That officer over there is in shock and needs to know what the hell is going on. We can tell him the truth, but I have to know that he’ll keep our secret Charlie before I start spouting off our legends to him,” Sam replied truthfully.

“He’s a good kid Sam. We’ve had conversations about the magic of the Quileute people. We never got into what that really meant, but he believes there are such things, and I’m sure he’ll keep your secret. Just let him know that no one is to know, he’ll abide by his word.” Sam nodded his head not really knowing what to do.

“We need to get you to a hospital,” Sam said.

“Not yet, we need a story and I need to talk to Billy first. Help me up guys,” Charlie said. Sam and Paul picked Charlie up carefully so as not to disturb his arm and helped him to the sofa next to Mark.

Mark didn’t move a muscle as he stared straight out into space. Mark thought of Charlie as family and he just had to shoot him to stop him from killing an innocent man. He didn’t know what was going on, but he was sure glad he showed up when he did otherwise someone would have died.

He knew Charlie wasn’t in his right mind. He had never seen his Chief act in such a manner. It frightened him beyond belief. He began thinking that maybe he was in the wrong profession. 

He shouldn’t be acting this way, but it was the first time he had ever used his firearm and who does he shoot? His own Chief; but, what was he supposed to do, let Charlie shoot and maybe kill the old man in the wheelchair?