The Rings of Sodom

E. Thornton Goode Jr.

Description

Ethan Trendeau, a concert pianist, and his partner, Shawn McAllister, an architect, leave their New York City apartment and buy a turn-of-the-century Victorian house on the coast of Maine. It is located north of Portland and south of Bar Harbor.
After doing some research on the house, they realize it has a strange history. Everyone refers to it as the ‘Haunted House’. Little did anyone really know how strange until they discover a hidden room in the basement.
Hank Morris, a carpenter and plumber from town, helps them open a bricked-up doorway to the room. After removing the bricks, they enter the room and discover a horrifying sight. None of them had any idea the Pandora Box they had just opened and the terror that was released.

Sujets

• LGBTQ+
• Gay
• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: iUniverse
• Date de parution: 20 mars 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781663251497
• Langue: English

Extrait

THE RINGS OF SODOM
 
 
 
 
E. THORNTON GOODE, JR.
 
 
 
 

 
THE RINGS OF SODOM
 
 
Copyright © 2023 E. Thornton Goode, Jr.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
 
 
iUniverse
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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
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.
 
ISBN: 978-1-6632-5146-6 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6632-5149-7 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2023905016
 
iUniverse rev. date: 03/14/2023
CONTENTS
IN APPRECIATION
BIOGRAPHY
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER I
CHAPTER II
CHAPTER III
CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER V
CHAPTER VI
CHAPTER VII
CHAPTER VIII
CHAPTER IX
CHAPTER X
CHAPTER XI
CHAPTER XII
CHAPTER XIII
CHAPTER XIV
CHAPTER XV
CHAPTER XVI
CHAPTER XVII
CHAPTER XVIII
CHAPTER XIX
CHAPTER XX
CHAPTER XXI
CHAPTER XXII
CHAPTER XXIII
IN APPRECIATION
My friend, Galen Berry, has allowed me to use his picture, so the reader may get an idea as to the appearance of the character, Bruce Livingston, who is a detective kind of guy who also plays the piano. Galen also was incredibly helpful in the proofreading, editing and making suggestions for clarification as well as things that could help the storyline. He has been helpful on the last six of my nine published novels. In my last novel, Saying Goodbye , he suggested an alternate ending to the one I had. I liked it so much, I rewrote the ending as he suggested.

I would like to thank my friend, Julian Green, for the use of his picture. I told him he was the image of the character, Peter Solvinoski, in this novel. I wanted the readers to get an idea as to what the character would look like in real life. This book was completely written before December 2017, and Julian was aware of it before his passing on Christmas Day of that year. You are sorely missed, my friend.

Thank you, Mario Figueroa, for letting me use your picture to show the image of the character, Captain Mario DeSilva, in this story. Thank you, Mario.

Terence Stokes is one of my friends from FaceBook. Originally from Barcelona, Spain, he is now a gym instructor, living in Austin, Texas. Terence is the spitting image of Shawn McAllister in the story. Thank you, Terence, for letting me use your picture. I gratefully appreciate it.

This is the first time this has happened. I am actually using one of my own pictures to represent one of the characters in my novels. This photo was taken back in 1985 when I was 40 years old. It would give a good representation of the character of Ethan Trendeau in the story. (Stop laughing. I know you are.)


Galen


Galen at his piano


Julian


Mario


Terence


Me

BIOGRAPHY
I can hardly believe it but this is novel number ten going to press. There are three more completed but they need some work. Here are the ones in print so far: The Old Lighthouse , The 2 , Two Portraits in Oil , MURAROOT , The Stranger from the Sea , The Seashell , It Happened in Zihuatanejo , The Quake and Saying Goodbye . The first two books are available from this website: www.buybooksontheweb.com The others are available from this website: www.iUniverse.com
I guess I need to get to work on my next book to get it ready for publication. My goal is to get all thirteen of my novels and my short stories as a collection in print before I drop dead. If I do kick the bucket before that happens, maybe my good friend, Galen, will complete it for me. GRIN.
Mexico is great. Life is good here. Most everything is much less expensive than in the states. When you can go for an office visit to your doctor, who speaks English and is smart as a whip and the bill comes to 150 pesos which is around $7.75 right now, what can I say?
It’s always summer here, too. If you don’t like humidity, you might not like it here. I have to keep the house closed up because of the piano and the artworks. I had to buy a dehumidifier and keep it running to keep the strings on the piano from rusting. So you have an idea as to the humidity, with the house closed, the dehumidifier takes seven gallons of water out of the air every twenty-four hours. That’s right. Seven gallons, not quarts. I need to put plated strings on the piano but I can’t find anyone who works on them here.
I know I should not put anything overly political in my books but I’ve been watching things happening in the states. I’m waiting for the IMBECILES in the Supreme Court to overturn same-sex marriage. They are trying to turn back the clock to the 1950s again. This is an issue that is obviously of importance to me and that’s why I wanted to make a comment about it.
PROLOGUE
There are many who scoff at the concept of the forces of good and evil and the war between the two. Many think they are ideas instilled in the heads of people by the religious community to strike fear into them. Yes, I do believe the churches are guilty of the fear factor as a controlling mechanism but I also believe there ARE good and evil forces out there. It may be possible there’s a devil who presides over a huge kingdom of satanic creatures and he’s constantly trying to capture the souls of the dying. I’ll reserve that conversation for another day. Some believe if bad things happen, they attribute it to the stupidity of the one involved and they should have avoided the situation bringing them the bad luck. It’s the same for good fortune. Their comment would be ‘they were just in the right place at the right time’ or ‘it was just a lucky guess or happening’.
Many will concur that stories of good people going bad with the issue of demonic possession, are only subjects for horror movies and are never actual events in reality. If so, why does the church have the rite of exorcism? Think about that.
For the purposes of this story, let’s assume there really is a devil who is responsible for the evil in the world and conducts evil in the conflict between it and good. With that as the premise, here is something to think about. Would a good person intentionally sell his soul and do unthinkably bad things due to the influence of evil to be the most incredible individual in his profession, miles above all others? What if that person happened to sell his soul strictly by pure accident or happenstance? Would his soul have to spend all eternity in Hell due to a mistake he made without even knowing it?
CHAPTER I
The phone rang in the office of Peter’s home. “Hello? Yes. Peter Solvinoski speaking. Don’t worry. It’s a mouth full. No one gets it right the first time. Sort of like General Custer trying to say Sacajawea’s name in the movie, ‘Night at the Museum’. No. Polish, actually. What can I help you with, Jerry? Oh. Your sheriff, Jake Banister, asked you to call me? What’s it about? Wow. That’s very interesting. Where? Small town in Maine? Just north of Portland on the coast. Thanks for the compliment and trust me, I’d love to help but I’m packing right now to leave the country very early in the morning on an assignment. Yes. The Amazon. Yes, it’s way out in the boonies. It’s a discovery they recently found and wanted me down as soon as possible. And here it’s the end of August already. But I’ll be back in about three to four months. Please, contact my office at the university here in Boston. If something urgent comes up, I’ll see about looking into it when I get back. Oh, it will be warm there. Correct. I’ll miss the beginning of cold weather here. I know. It usually hits around Halloween but that’s just over two months away. Yes. Jerry, thank you again for calling and do keep me in mind for things like this in the future. Lord knows I love these kinds of situations. Thank you. I will. Goodbye.”
He hung up the phone and continued packing. The information from the phone call was racing around in his head. “I just love it how the cops get hold of your phone number these days with no phone directories anymore. Guess my website online did help.” His head tilted to the side and he gave a little giggle as he paused for a moment. Then, he shook his head. “No! I’m not changing my plans. I’ve been looking forward to this trip since the discovery. I just know I can get another book out of it, too.”
Everything sitting by the front door, he went and fixed a cup of hot tea. After several sips, he went and sat at his 6-foot grand piano, placing the cup on the left corner of the music rack. A smile came to his face and he reached for the keys. The strains of I’ll Be Seeing You filled the room. As the last chord faded, he removed his hands from the keyboard. He stared out as a distant reverie came to mind. After a few moments, he smiled again then quietly sang the last words of the song ‘a cappella’. “‘I’ll be looking at the moon… but I’ll be seeing…. you.’” There was silence for a few moments. He stared off into space and spoke softly. “I wonder where he is? I wonder how he’s do