Ragsheet

Clint Miller Jr.

Description

It has been a long-held belief that within our own government lies a shadow conspiracy whose members hide from the public the fact that we have received technological advancements from otherworldly beings. A small group of journalists and police officers may have uncovered the truth about the terrifying price that we all may have paid for that technology. The public will learn of this, not through the mainstream media, but through the front pages of a tabloid press – a ragsheet.

When Douglas Cherones, a rookie novelist, approaches Warren McCullough, a down on his luck reporter, the two embark on a mission to track down 14 missing children. Referred to by the media as the Mid-Atlantic fourteen, the trail leads them to a murder - suicide cult whose enigmatic leader may be in contact with a malevolent alien lifeform.

Sujets

• Fiction
• Horror
• Clint Miller

Informations

• Publié par: Xlibris US
• Date de parution: 09 janvier 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669850533
• Langue: English

Extrait

Ragsheet
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Clint Miller Jr.
 
Copyright © 2023 by Clint Miller Jr.
 
Library of Congress Control Number:
2022922456
ISBN:
Hardcover
978-1-6698-5054-0

Softcover
978-1-6698-5055-7

eBook
978-1-6698-5053-3
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
 
 
 
 
Rev. date: 01/09/2023
 
 
 
 
Xlibris
844-714-8691
www.Xlibris.com
847364
 
Elaine, Elena, Bart, and Eric
 
These individuals number among my favorite
people, and although departed, they remain in
my heart and I would like to dedicate this book
to them and their generosity in giving me that
most valuable of elements: their love.
 
All of the characters in this book are
fictitious, and any resemblance to any actual
persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
CONTENTS
PREFACE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
PROLOGUE
 
 
BOOK THE FIRST: DANCE OF SHADOWS
 
CHAPTER 1 :      THE FAMILY PORTRAIT
CHAPTER 2 :      NIGHT OF THE INTRUDER
CHAPTER 3 :      GOOD MOURNING, SUNSHINE
CHAPTER 4 :      THE AWAKENING
CHAPTER 5 :      FIRST RESPONDERS
CHAPTER 6 :      THE WATERING HOLE
CHAPTER 7 :      THE SCIENCE OF THINGS
CHAPTER 8 :      WNJQ PARANORMAL RADIO
CHAPTER 9 :      THE BROTHERS CHERONES
CHAPTER 10 :    PLATA O PLOMO
CHAPTER 11 :    CALL TO ADVENTURE
CHAPTER 12 :    RIGHT OF PARLEY
CHAPTER 13 :    UNKIND WORDS
CHAPTER 14 :    SECOND CHANCES
CHAPTER 15 :    TWIST OF THE KNIFE
CHAPTER 16 :    ABANDONED
CHAPTER 17 :    ENTER MADMAN
CHAPTER 18 :    ENCOUNTER IN A DARK ALLEY
CHAPTER 19 :    CHALK OUTLINE
 
BOOK THE SECOND: BROKEN SHACKLES
 
CHAPTER 20 :    APATHY FOR THE DEVIL
CHAPTER 21 :    SORRY FOR YOUR LOSS
CHAPTER 22 :    CLINICAL DEPRESSION
CHAPTER 23 :    POSTMORTEM
CHAPTER 24 :    THREE BILLY GOATS GRUFF
CHAPTER 25 :    REUNION BEACH
CHAPTER 26 :    MY NEIGHBOR EVERETT
CHAPTER 27 :    GUTTERS AND STRIKES
CHAPTER 28 :    CRACKDOWN
CHAPTER 29 :    DIRTY DEEDS
CHAPTER 30 :    DON’T FALL IN LOVE WITH ME, DOUGLAS
CHAPTER 31 :    CULT OF PERSONALITY
CHAPTER 32 :    THE BLUMBURTT ENCOUNTER
CHAPTER 33 :    RANSOM, PENNSYLVANIA
CHAPTER 34 :    DÉCLASSÉ
CHAPTER 35 :    THE ULTIMATUM
 
BOOK THE THIRD: THE WORLD REVEALED.
 
CHAPTER 36 :    THE GAME OF RISK
CHAPTER 37 :    TRUE DETECTIVES
CHAPTER 38 :    BLUNDERBUSS
CHAPTER 39 :    WAY OF THE GUN
CHAPTER 40 :    THIS MORTAL COIL
CHAPTER 41 :    BOUGH OF THE OLEA EUROPAEA
CHAPTER 42 :    FUNAMBULISM
CHAPTER 43 :    ANOTHER FINE MESS
CHAPTER 44 :    KICKING THE NEST
CHAPTER 45 :    THE KING OF PAIN
CHAPTER 46 :    DESCENSION
CHAPTER 47 :    LOSING GROUND
CHAPTER 48 :    LAST DAY ON EARTH
CHAPTER 49 :    THE ASCENSION
CHAPTER 50 :    AN EQUAL POUND OF FLESH
CHAPTER 51 :    THE DOPPELGÄNGER
CHAPTER 52 :    THE CORIOLIS EFFECT
CHAPTER 53 :    THE NOWHERE MAN
CHAPTER 54 :    HELLO DARKNESS, MY OLD FRIEND
CHAPTER 55 :    NIGHT HEAT
CHAPTER 56 :    LOOSE ENDS
CHAPTER 57 :    THERE WILL BE GREEN GRASS
CHAPTER 58 :    POSTSCRIPTUM
 
EPILOGUE
PREFACE
I am a writer.
I am a writer and a whore.
Being a writer makes me a whore, and let’s be honest, I’m a street-level whore at best.
It’s okay. Do not pity me. It is a victimless crime, and I only have myself to blame. I won’t tell you I chose to be a whore, but I won’t tell you I chose to be a writer either. Perhaps it is true that writing chose me.
If you have any of my novels, then I invited you here. For twenty-five dollars—thirty dollars if you bought a hardcover copy of my book—you can own a piece of me. When you received a copy of my book, I essentially propositioned you and hopefully you’ve accepted my offer.
It was I who reached out to you. I wanted your attention. After all, it is I who begged you to take notice of me.
I relish the thought that perhaps tonight will be the night you might spread my pages open, and look upon me in my raw, naked form. You see, it’s dark where I am, and by opening the cover of my book, you essentially are shining a light upon me. You may find it intriguing, or you may find it horrifying. It would be far worse to feel nothing at all.
When you take the time to read my works, you are entering me. You might move about inside my mind, and for a short time we can share something together—an experience, and for a moment—a single thought. You may even learn something about me—whether that’s good or bad.
If I’ve done a good job from the beginning, you’ll choose to turn the pages forward—one after the other. Please don’t dog-ear them though. I hate that. That’s just being rude. My hope is that we will arrive together in the end—to the climax. To that last chapter.
Our minds may linger together for a short time after that. A cooling-down period, so to speak. At that point, I hope you acknowledge me, perhaps by telling me that I’ve done a good job and that you enjoyed it. If I could, I’d look at your face to see your reaction. I keep asking what you thought of me—be honest. You don’t have to. Certainly, don’t patronize me. I am a whore after all. I know my place.
At this point you will close the book. Perhaps you will cherish the moment we shared. Or not. You might choose to completely forget about our brief time together. A select few might keep the book on a shelf as a memento. That’s flattering. It’s the best I can ever hope for. Someday—in the future, not now—you might even pick up the book to relive that experience. Then again, you might just pass me off to a friend and the cycle will continue. I’ll be in the hands of someone new. It’s all very exciting. You’ll never know where I might end up. It’s true, there’s a chance you may never think of me again—your memory of me will fade away completely. As sad as that would be for me, that’s the nature of the game. In the end, you may find that I’m not worth remembering at all.
But being read, and then being discarded, is not the worst thing that could happen to a writer. To never be opened, to never have been read at all, that is my fear. Rejection is far worse for either the writer or the whore. So please pick up this book, run your fingers across its spine, and smell the pages. The adventure is about to begin again for both of us. Open me up. Read me. If you enjoy the experience, then I’ll work harder on getting dressed up and reveal a lost chapter, or I will share with you a new book entirely.
In this way we can be together once again.
Thank you in advance.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I wish to express my sincere gratitude to these individuals for
without whom it would not be possible to complete this work.
 
Special thanks to
 
Ashley E. Chancy
Clint Miller
Anita Nelson
and
Daria R. Marino
rag s heet
(noun)
1. A low-quality paper often used in the production of newspapers and artist pads.
2. A newspaper, typically one regarded as being of low quality: “the local rag”
Prior to the development of wood pulp paper in the mid-1800s, a mass-produced paper was manufactured wholly or partly from rags or tinders, often made of cotton and later linen. The pulp was then treated with quicklime or bleach, used to brighten the paper, but which often meant the pulp itself underwent a chemical process that contributed to the material’s reduced durability and longevity.
PROLOGUE
Let this serve as both a warning to anyone who might have the misfortune of encountering such a being and an attempt on my part to put down into primitive words what I had seen on the night of October 26. I’ve heard one anonymous person’s report, upon witnessing such a being a few years back, refer to it as an angel—an archangel to be exact—which this credible individual claimed it was, and I quote, “Sent down from the heavens to smite evil-doers here on earth.”
As to my own firsthand all-too-close-for-comfort encounter that night, I can tell you that this thing was no hero—biblical or otherwise—and that it chose young children as the focus of its dubious attention. Not something, I think, an archangel would do—if I even were inclined to believe in archangels and those of their ilk. But what made this man’s description so interesting is that the creature I ran into did have a peculiar natural ability to cause a sense of vertigo to those who had gotten too close to it. I felt its unearthly power firsthand, and it was an interesting defense mechanism to be sure. This power it had over others had been interpreted by those same religious sources to conclude that the