Nephilim's Captive - Abby Knox Page 0,3
the foot of Bell Mountain. Driving by the park, Ada saw a small clutch of protestors, but nobody was paying them any mind. She drove by the park slowly, watching them hold their signs about the end being nigh.
Wonder what that’s all about.
She wouldn’t have time to find out. Ada would have to leave after one day of the Folklore Festival because Charlene in Round Rock, Texas, would be expecting her tomorrow to look at some strange artifacts that a contractor had found in her root cellar. The woman’s house was not the sight of an ancient alien spaceship crash, but Ada figured she would check it out anyway.
Whatever the protestors were warning folks about, the Episcopalians took a different view. The parking lot next to St. Alban’s Church, with its gothic bell tower and arched windows, was home to carnival rides, games, and a beer garden.
She drove farther on and saw the art deco movie house advertising screenings of that one mediocre monster movie in which Hollywood had attempted to tell the story of Eden, based loosely on the mysterious drownings and strange creature sightings.
Ada cranked a hard right turn at the main intersection and made her way toward the elementary school, the location where the panel discussions were to be held. In place of school announcements, the marquee listed the schedule of speakers for today. A round table discussion on Mothman was slated for ten a.m.. The historical society would give a walking tour of local haunted houses at one p.m. An open mic session for people to share Bigfoot sightings was set for three p.m. In five minutes, the panel discussion on The Mysterious Bell Mountain Giant was set to begin. The latter was the entire reason why Ada had been brought here, though she could have given talks on at least one or two other subjects on the agenda.
Oddly, the Bell Mountain Giant was one of the only cryptids she had not yet investigated personally. But Ada had done her homework, and as it turned out, the whole area was riddled with sightings of UFOs, mysterious creatures, and geological anomalies. She was excited to get lost in the discovery of new-to-her mythology, and first-hand accounts were Ada’s catnip.
Slowing to a stop in front of the school, Ada flagged down a volunteer in a neon green vest who smiled at her as she rolled down the window.
“Parking here is full.”
Ada returned his congenial smile. “I’m one of the speakers here today.”
“Hang on,” he said, pausing to speak into a two-way radio attached to his vest. She listened to the static that came over.
That’s weird.
Something about the static unsettled Ada.
It’s probably nothing.
Pretty soon, another volunteer jogged over, out of breath. “I’m sorry, Beau, the walkies are on the fritz and I couldn’t hear everything you said.”
The woman turned to Ada and held out her hand, introducing herself as Emmeline, the organizer of the panel discussions. “You’re Ada Blair! I wanted to meet you in person. We’ve got reserved parking for you and all the other panelists. Hang on, I’ll let the crew know you’re here.”
The volunteer named Beau fiddled with his walkie-talkie for a moment more but continued having trouble connecting with someone on the channel. “This daggum thing,” he muttered.
Emmeline tried her radio but again, more static.
Ada knew then her ears were not playing tricks on her. They were experiencing a special kind of interference that she had heard before. Not the kind of interruption one gets from a hacker with a similar communication device. She’d heard the familiar vibrating coming from baby monitors in haunted houses, and on CB radios of truckers who had reported strange orbs in the air. It was the familiar sound of non-human mischief, the sound of supernatural beings fucking around with radio waves.
She heard what Emmeline and Beau had not heard because they were not listening for it.
The staticky voice in the vibrating waves of sound whispered, “Go away.”
The glitch was barely half a second long.
“Aw shit,” she muttered under her breath. “Please. Not today, Satan.”
Chapter Two
Samuel
After days of nonstop reading, the giant’s eyes finally landed on something new.
A name. It emerged onto the page with no connection to anything else.
The skin of the giant’s fingertips was dry and cracked from all the searching and re-reading that had turned up nothing to explain what he was feeling. His research had revealed no clues to explain why he was feeling this nudge, a sort of mystical pull toward something, or someone.
The feeling