RED HILL PARADISE releases on 12/06. It is currently available for pre order here!

Take a look at the first chapter. Get to know our young heroes as something sinister begins to rear its ugly head.

Arrival

1

The small GPS machine stuck to the windshield had lost connection a few miles back, but they had the address and were able to find the drive with relative ease. As the SUV pulled around the last bend up the hill and they got a look at the place where they would be staying for the next several days, the young couple let out a collective sigh of relief. Instant relaxation. This getaway was coming at just the right time. 

The gravel driveway crackled beneath the rolling wheels of their family driver, the sound was music to their ears. The baby was conked out in the baby seat, the family dog, a long-legged hound mix of some sort, was curled up next to the baby, also asleep. The two had already become best friends. As the father, husband, dog-dad pulled the car to a stop near the cabin, he glanced over at his wife, then in the rearview mirror at his four-month-old and loyal pup, and he felt a surge of emotion. A surge he stifled before tears spilled over onto his stubbled cheek.

“Let’s go check it out,” Erica whispered, trying not to stir the baby.

“Okay,” Elliot agreed, also whispering.

The two quietly opened their doors and stood on the gravel drive. The last vestiges of summer sun peeked through the treetops, leaving enough light to see by, even at eight p.m. Erica was a sunshine gal, and this view thrilled her. Elliot was just happy to reach their destination with enough light left to unload the vehicle without having to shine his headlights toward the front door.

Erica went to open the door but Elliot stopped her. “Wait,” he said. “She’s passed out and Howie’s in there. Let’s just go check the place out before we start unpacking.”

This was the usual MO for the two of them when using an online service to rent a place to stay. Before bags were unpacked the couple would explore the rental and look at the temporary digs, usually ooh-ing and aah-ing over how lucky they were to find such a nice place to stay on the cheap. It also tapped into some inherent need Erica had to snoop around. It gave her a thrill, getting a look behind the curtain into other people’s lives.

Erica let her hand slip from the door handle, but the gesture was hesitant.

Elliot saw the hesitancy and—maybe it was the four months of bringing-up-baby they had been encased in—the reaction annoyed him. Sure, he was still getting used to being a father, learning all of the tricks of the trade, but he wasn’t completely incompetent.

“Jesus, Erica,” he whispered. “There isn’t anybody within a mile of here. Anyone does show up in the two minutes we’re inside, Howie will let us know.”

“Elliot, come on,” Erica said. “Don’t be stupid.” She opened the door, and gently as she could, unlatched the baby seat and nodded for Elliot to lead the way to the cabin.

They walked the fifty feet from the gravel car park to the open entryway of a screened-in porch, where they stopped before the cabin door.  Erica scrolled through her phone on the EscapeToday app, searching for the entry code. Elliot waited as he looked through the glass window of the door’s top half. Frosted glass, so that the warm lamplight just on the other side had a distorted, ghostly feel to it.

Ghostly.

A shiver tiptoed across Elliot’s shoulders, but he liked being just a little creeped out. It was fun for him. Always had been.

“Walk through a ghost?” Erica asked, reading his mind.

“Ha,” Elliot grunted. “Something like that.”

“All those killers-in-the-woods movies you watch. The code is 1-4-2-5-3-6.”

The mechanical beeping of the electric padlock led to the sound of a bolt sliding away from its catch. He opened the door, motioned for Erica to go in first, and took another glance over toward the SUV. Killers in the woods. The key word here was movies. Howie could fend for himself, sure, but maybe it was a good idea to bring Louise along. He was still getting the hang of this parenting thing, but Erica was right.

Don’t be stupid.

Elliot followed his wife into their temporary abode, and both were gobsmacked by the quaint beauty of the place. The door led into a corridor. Off to the right, just inside the door, was the sole bathroom. To the left was a bedroom, and ten feet ahead was the main space of the A-frame cabin. It was a spacious, high-ceilinged affair that felt like plenty of room despite the fact that the entire place was just a shade over a thousand square feet. The square footage was not something readily available on the EscapeToday app or website, but Erica was an expert web snooper and had sussed it out using a home evaluation site. 

The face of the A-frame was a floor-to-ceiling glass window, including sliding doors that led out to a huge, elevated porch. With the shades open, as they were when their little family arrived, they had a breathtaking view of the tops of the trees, and at that moment, the last beams of sunlight unleashing their grip on the West Virginia mountains.

“It’s beautiful,” Erica said as she placed the baby seat on the ground, carefully, so as not to wake Louise up. “It’s perfect.”

“Yeah,” Elliot agreed. He stepped fully into the living area. The downstairs was an open floor plan. A small dining table was quartered off by a counter. The counter had a stove built into it, and on the other side of that was a small kitchen containing not much more than a fridge, a sink, and the stove. Exactly what was needed. Around the corner from the kitchen and dining area was a lounge and living room, with a sofa, an armchair, and a television that Elliot assumed would not be getting any of the MLB games. Not that he had much skin in the game with the Sox off to a typically horrible season. He could last a week without checking the scores.

The two walked through the living room to the staircase that led to the second floor. Up there was the open master bedroom, no doors or walls needed. Basically, the master, the main living room, and the kitchen were one giant room stretching from the ground to second floor. Why would you want a closed off room when you could look out at the setting sun or the slowly growing glow of morning light from the comfort of a king-sized bed?

“Where the magic happens?” Elliot said as he plopped down onto the bed. He cocked one eyebrow in what was a faulty attempt at sexiness. This got the laugh he was hoping for from Erica as she also eased down onto the bed.

“Magic?” she said.

He bear crawled over to where she was sitting and gripped her shoulders. He buried his face in her neck, half kissing, half nibbling, and both of them laughed.

“That’s right,” he said between two exaggerated, lip-smacking kisses. “It’s magic.”

“Just not right now,” she said, softly pushing him away. It was a gentle push, one that said not right now, but keep that energy.

Elliot rolled back over to the other side of the bed. He felt that same irritability start to scratch its way to the surface. Of course he wasn’t trying to actually seduce her right then. He was just trying to be playful. Did Erica even remember what that was like? Playfulness? No, of course not. Every moment was another moment to worry about—

“Oh, Louise,” Erica whispered as she stood bolt upright out of the bed.

The baby was stirring and they could both hear in those soft cries the quickly mounting, volcanic fury of a hungry baby, ready to erupt. The tired coos of his wife as she scooped Louise out of her seat grounded Elliot. His wife had just given birth, hardly four months ago. He was lucky she might want to do it at all, with the physical recovery still very much in process. Not to mention the slight case of baby blues he suspected she was experiencing. Although she never came right out and said it, he had a feeling. 

Have some patience, dude, geez.

He watched Erica put Louise over her shoulder and gently pat her back. Erica had never expressed any great desire to be a mother in the years they’d been together, yet here she was, sliding so naturally into a maternal role. Elliot could only hope, for all of their sakes, that he was holding up on his end as a father.

“Do you hear that?” Erica asked.

Elliot was quiet for a moment, listening. He rolled his eyes when he finally did hear it. The unmistakable baying howl of their beloved dog. “Howie.”

***

Elliot went out to the Acadia, listening to the howling chorus of his dog. He opened the backseat of the SUV and Howie stopped crying and went immediately into an obedient sit like he’d been trained to do. Erica had turned this wild hound pup into a machine, an obedient disciple to all commands either she or Elliot handed out. Or at least she tried. Two years on and he still had a heavy streak of puppy in him. He was a damn good dog though, and Elliot had grown to love him.

“Why you acting like a newborn pup?” Elliot asked him.

Howie cocked his head, wondering if he’d been told to get out of the vehicle.

“Not yet,” Elliot said. He picked up a leash from the floor and placed it around Howie’s neck, then clicked his tongue at the dog. “Okay, let’s go.”

The dog jumped out of the vehicle and the two of them made their way across the gravel drive to the cabin. They were about halfway there when Elliot thought to ask, “What spooked you, boy?”

It wasn’t like Howie to go off howling at nothing. Especially after a long car ride, he was usually too exhausted for that type of puppy behavior. The thought brought Elliot to a standstill and Howie looked back from the end of his taut leash, wondering why the hell they weren’t moving. Elliot looked back toward the SUV. It was parked some fifty feet from the cabin door, and now that appeared to be a gulf of distance. What if somebody had come snooping around, seen their giant Acadia? It was a nice car, it would stand to reason that there were nice things inside of it. Nice things to steal, possibly. What if that was what set Howie off?

“That’s dumb,” Elliot whispered. And it was. This was the backwoods country. If anybody came walking through here, it wouldn’t be by chance. Sure as hell wouldn’t be to steal anything out of the back of their vehicle. That was the kind of stuff they’d left the city to avoid, if only for a few days. He looked down at Howie. “You’re being dumb.”

That was easy to say but not so easy to believe. He felt a pang of unease as they walked the rest of the way to the cabin. Inside, Elliot could hear Louise starting to calm already. By the sound of it, mother and baby were in the second-floor bedroom. He could hear Erica cooing to try and quiet the crying. It was working.

Elliot unleashed Howie and the dog made a controlled dash into the house, his nose snorting away, familiarizing himself with their new place. Elliot shut the door and was sure to lock it behind him. He knew he had to go out there again in a few minutes to unload the Acadia, but still…

Elliot joined Erica and Louise in the loft. “How’s our girl doing?”

“She’ll be fine,” Erica said, not looking up from the baby. Louise was almost quiet now, hiccupping out a last few whimpers. “I think if you just get her crib out of the trunk she should be fine to go right back to sleep. She’s so tired…”

Erica trailed off as Louise let out another whine. Elliot went on looking at them: the picture of perfection. That was all he wanted in this world, just the two of them. The last four months had been hard, in the way it’s hard for all parents with a newborn. But something about the world seemed complete in a way that he had not noticed it lacking previously.

“Elliot,” Erica whispered harshly.

“Sorry, yeah?” Elliot said.

“The crib?”

“Oh, sorry.”

A nice reality check. Yes, it was wonderful, this new life, but, it had its tough moments. And here was one of them. Something always needed to be done these days. Rarely did they find time to sit down and just breathe.

Elliot went back downstairs but hesitated with his hand on the back door. He considered leashing up Howie again, bringing him along, but then it would be nearly impossible to carry the porta-crib and their luggage at the same time. Maybe, though, the dog could just follow him… but that was equally as foolish—Howie was a hound, after all. In the woods. The dog would be a mile away on some scent before Elliot had the first piece of luggage into the cabin. And why was he so concerned about the dog? What was the big deal?

What made Howie start baying like that? What did he see?

“Nothing,” Elliot answered himself aloud. Then he opened the door.

He flipped a switch and a weak light from the edge of the screened-in porch barely cast enough glow to reach across the fifty feet to where the SUV was parked. He clicked the button that automatically lifted the rear hatch of the trunk. The light from the car now illuminated a little more of his path. Elliot paused at the edge of the porch and looked out across the drive and into the nearby trees.

“Stop it,” he whispered. “This is stupid.”

He stepped off the porch and his Asics crunched into the gravel. That, and the sound of the West Virginia cicadas and crickets singing their summer tune was all Elliot heard. It was peaceful, far from anything he knew or was familiar with. They’d driven four hours from Norfolk, Virginia, a busy city with congested streets, light pollution, and no possibility of these pleasantries.

By the time he was pulling his and Erica’s last bag from the trunk he’d almost forgotten being so scared to walk out here in the dark night. He shut the rear hatch to the Acadia and made sure the vehicle was locked, which in retrospect he thought silly. How far away was he from the nearest cabin? The nearest human being? Even better question, where was the closest human with ill intent? Wasn’t it true that he was far more likely to encounter some danger in his own driveway back home?

The light clicked off in the Acadia, and Elliot turned back toward the cabin. Fifty feet away, the porch light glowed along with all of the lights inside. Elliot thought this was a warm place. A good place. Somewhere that he and Erica could have a brief respite from all of the difficulties of their day-to-day life, the baby, the jobs, the home life, all the minutiae that somehow added up and felt like a boulder crushing every last ounce of fresh air out of their lungs. This was going to be a good time.

He raised his foot to walk in the direction of all that warmness, all of that light.

Crunch.

But, Elliot thought, his foot had not fallen. In fact, it still hung in the air, his running shoe ready to push down into the gravel and make that exact, satisfying sound. And someone else—something, maybe—made the sound before Elliot could take his first step. He did finally ease his foot down, slowly and softly, so as not to make any noise. And he listened. 

He squinted off down the driveway that led to the base of the cabin, the same road that he’d driven up less than thirty minutes before. The cabin was situated on a hill dotted by other cabins across several acres. A main access road looped around the hill with various paths branching off as driveways to the respective cabins. Their cabin rental had a little thirty-yard drive that bent around a thick copse of pine trees. Elliot knew those trees were no more than a stone’s throw away, yet it was so dark that he couldn’t see them. Couldn’t see a single branch, even. And off in that direction he’d heard the shifting of gravel underfoot.

For a moment it was as though God clicked ‘mute’ on the cosmic remote. The entire world was quiet as Elliot tried to define shapes in the darkness. After a few seconds, he noticed a small, repetitive thud, then quickly realized it was his pulse erupting through the small veins in his earlobe. After a full minute of silence, he finally—

Crunch.

Elliot took off like a swimmer from the blocks, nearly diving headfirst into gravel before his feet could catch up with his brain. He stayed on his feet, though, crossing the distance between vehicle and screen porch door in an impressive five strides. The luggage banged against his leg and over the gravel the whole way. Elliot fumbled with the screen, making it screech on its springs, then went through the door. He slammed it behind him and let the luggage topple onto the ground.

“Jesus, Elliot!”

Elliot almost let out a squeal but bit his tongue. Through the corridor into the living area, he saw it was just Erica, standing there with a hand on hip, scowling at him.

“Sorry,” he said through a few heavy breaths. “Something spooked me.”

“Spooked you?” Erica asked.

“Yeah. I heard somebody walking on the driveway. Y’know, in the gravel.”

Erica stared at him for a few seconds longer, then her face melted into a grin. “Come on, Elliot, are you serious?”

“Swear I heard it!”

Erica raised a hand to quiet him, but she was choking back a laugh. “Don’t wake Louise. She’s asleep upstairs.”

“What’s so funny?”

“It’s the woods. I doubt it was a person. You know there are animals out here, right? Lots of them, actually.”

Elliot lifted himself from the lean he’d collapsed into against the cabin door. He patted himself off as though he’d been covered in dust. Maybe it was an attempt to restore some of his dignity. “It sounded human to me.”

“Oh, come on, Elliot. Don’t get like that.”

Erica walked over to him and took his hand. She put her arm around his shoulder then gave him a kiss. There was a foot height difference between the two, so she had to go on tiptoe to do it. It was an endearing thing for Elliot, and he felt the need to defend his pride melt away. She was probably right, he was being silly.

All those killer-in-the-woods movies.

“So Louise is asleep in our bedroom?” Elliot said, trying and failing to hide his disappointment. Desperate times called for desperate measures, but both of them agreed, sex five feet away from a sleeping baby was not one of those measures.

“That’s right,” Erica said. “Howie is asleep on that big bed, too.”

“That’s great,” Elliot said. It was great, he realized. His whole family safe and together, right there. Away from whoever—no—whatever animal was outside. It was all great.

Erica pulled him along the hallway by his hand but then redirected him to the bedroom off to the left. “Have you seen this guest room?”

He hadn’t. He was happy it was there, though. She turned to face him in the doorway and gave him a kinky little smile.

“Everything locked up?” she asked.

“Yep,” he nodded. She pulled him into the room and closed the door behind them.