A Phantom Passion Read online

  “Where's the officer?”

  Lee ignored Daemon as he continued, “Gina and Doug, I can show them to you.”

  “What's that mean, Lee? Huh?”

  Lee's tone immediately became more serious and intimidating as he responded, “Exactly what I said... I can prove it. I can prove they're here, I can prove Gina is still here.”

  “Really?” Daemon's eyes widened as he looked at Lee and the surrounding officers, “Okay, let's put the guns down, and we'll watch your prove it. Sure... yeah... I'll let you prove it, right here and right now.”

  Lee anxiously smiled as he stared at the cops. He thought about the perplexing situation, why didn't Georgie appear after his murder. As Lee's hand began to tremble, the officers slowly raised their guns and aimed at him. At that moment, Lee chuckled erratically as he felt he found the final piece of the puzzle – he found the missing variable in the equation. It was an uncertain solution, but the final straw he could grasp.

  “Okay, okay. There's Gina's murder, then there was Doug's suicide.”

  Daemon nodded in agreement. Lee's breathing escalated wildly and his limps trembled uncontrollably. He swallowed the lump in his throat as fresh tears rolled down his cheeks – a waterfall of melancholy. He tightly gripped the firearm aimed at his temple as he nodded slowly.

  “Okay,” he continued, “Now, there's Georgie's murder... and my suicide.”

  In that instant, Lee shot himself in the head. A nervous police officer discharged his firearm, causing the other officers to follow suit. A volley of bullets tore through Lee like tissue paper.

  Daemon tightly shut his eyes as the police officers repeatedly yelled, “Crossfire! Crossfire!”

  As the bullets stopped pouring, Daemon slowly opened his eyes. Lee's limp body fell to the side, his knees bent slightly – bloodied holes were scattered through his chest and arms. Blood was splattered across the wall and window. Daemon inhaled and exhaled deeply.

  “Well... get to work, cordon off the area,” he murmured.

  As he maneuvered through the plethora of officers crowding the entrance and hall, he shouted back into the apartment, “Hey, find that officer's body and photograph everything with the flash! Tell me if you see anything unusual, alright?”

  Daemon waited in the parking lot, lost in his own contemplation. Leaning on the front of his black Lincoln Town Car, he smoked a cigarette and stared at the elegant sunrise – it emitted a hypnotizing red color. The dense fog had seemingly vanished during the heated confrontation. The streets were loud and busy. Bumper-to-bumper traffic on Hill Street with the occasional honk and road rage, children fighting and bickering loudly as they walked to school, birds chirping and squawking as they soared through the red sky – a regular day in Tuncernia Valley.

  “Here's your coffee, sir,” a regular beat police officer interrupted Daemon's introspection.

  “Thanks, kid, appreciate it,” Daemon responded as he crushed his cigarette on the moist concrete and sipped his coffee, “Why does all the coffee in the city taste so bland?”

  “I–I don't know” the young officer stuttered, “Also, they found the body and finished photographing the apartment. There was something unusual.”

  Daemon turned in surprise, “Really? What did you find?”

  “Well, we didn't technically find anything, but the officer's body was... it was brutally mangled. We we're talking and we don't think the suspect was capable of that. I thought I'd let you know...”

  “That's it? What about the pictures?”

  “They were normal,” the officer shrugged.

  Daemon nodded and took another sip of his coffee. He was immensely disappointed.

  “Sir, can I ask you a question?” the officer continued.

  “Go for it.”

  “What do you think happened up there? You think he really saw ghosts?”

  Daemon sighed, “A murder-suicide. Another one.”

  The police officer stared at the floor as he slowly walked away, discontent with Daemon's answer.

  “I'll tell you this kid,” Daemon continued, “I think Lee believed he saw Gina. I think he believed he loved her and she loved him. I think he believed he could talk to her and be with her, but he was uncertain. He didn't know how to do it, he didn't know how to love her. That's it, that's all.”

  The young police officer nodded and continued walking towards the apartment. Daemon finished his coffee and disposed of it in the trash can nearby. He straightened his coat and tie, and wiped the small beads of sweat glistening on his forehead with the back of his hand. Afterward, he coughed loudly and cleared his throat. He removed the notepad from the pocket inside his coat and walked towards the apartment complex – he was ready for his formal investigation.

  As he slowly followed the young officer, he murmured to himself, “You know... I'm not so certain myself.”

  Dear Reader,

  First and foremost, thank you for reading! This was an incredibly personal and significant project. Like Leroy Vellon's love for Virginia Plots, this was a work of genuine passion – it's also my first novella. The fact that you read this book from beginning to end is amazing. It shows that you either enjoyed the story or you can tolerate a bad book simply to see it to the end – either way, thank you! Your readership is both encouraging and motivational. I sincerely hope your money and your time was well spent.

  If this is your first time reading one of my books, I hope I've made a great first impression. There are many horror stories I want to tell, and I hope you're there to read them. If you'd like to read some of my other books, check out my Amazon's Author Page. My latest horror anthology book, Tales From Under The Bed Vol. 3, might be your cup of tea. (Do you like ghosts, zombies, aliens, and possession?)

  Anyway, if you enjoyed this book, please leave a review on Amazon.com. Your feedback helps me improve and it helps the book garner more attention. If you thought the book was great, please share it with your friends and family – loan it to them, buy them a copy, or read it to them over the phone. You want your friends to experience great stories, too, right? Also, if you want to contact me directly about anything, you can visit my website, www.jon-athan.com, or tweet me @Jonny_Athan – I'll be there to respond!

  Until our next venture into horror,

  Jon Athan

  Fun Facts

  Oh, did you finish reading my letter? You're still reading? Great! If you really enjoyed the book, you'll probably enjoy some of these facts. If you disliked the book, you're probably thinking, what kind of facts could be buried in this heap of trash? Well, although you may not think so, I put in a lot of thought and a lot of hours into developing this story.

  First, the character names have their own specific meanings. For example, Leroy Vellon is an anagram for Lonely Lover. Virginia Plots is an anagram for A Loving Spirit. Finally, Doug Gruseld is an anagram for Grudged Soul. As you can see, these anagrams reflect the characters' personalities and roles in the story. The names sound a bit peculiar, but I tried my best to find a balance between unique and regular. To compensate, I gave each character a more common recurring nickname, as well.

  Okay, on to our other supporting characters. Georgie Gambit's name comes from the chess opening where a player makes a sacrifice to gain an advantage. In this case, Lee sacrifices Georgie to get an advantage. Detective Daemon was as simple as Georgie, maybe even more so. I was once told the name Daemon meant Spirit Guardian. In A Phantom Passion, he's a detective, which means he's in the police force and he protects the people, and he's uncertain about Lee's spiritual experience – yet, he's more than willing to help. It's fairly simple.

  The narrative is also straight-forward. If you missed it, there was a bit of foreshadowing in Chapter 3, though. I have a line where Georgie says, “What are you afraid of, Lee? Ghosts? Zombies? The police? … Take my gun if you're afraid, but take the job, too.” Coincidentally, Lee does face a ghost (Doug's spirit), a zombie (the dead police officer under the bed), and the police (Detective Daemon a
nd the officers who arrive on the scene) during the final act; as you know, he also takes Georgie's gun. (There's some toaster foreshadowing in that chapter, too.) Also, you can notice Lee's perfect morning in Chapter 2's fantasy is quite the opposite of a regular morning as shown at the end of Chapter 13.

  Anyway, there are other bits of interesting information scattered throughout the story. (You can probably find the other anagram on your own.) I usually don't lay out the information and my thought-process like this, but I thought I'd be an interesting treat for those who genuinely enjoyed the book. Once again, thank you for reading – it means more than you can possibly imagine. Until next time!