“I noticed your lights are off. Do you have a blown circuit or something?”
Jake glanced at his very dark house. “I don’t know. I just got home from the shop. Were the lights off earlier?”
Axel Grey—one of Diesel’s many brothers, Jake had come to learn—and his wife Lucy lived at the end of his street, which was great. They’d been very friendly when he came home from the hospital.
“I don’t think so, but I just got home, too, and noticed your house was dark. Want some help?”
“Sure. I’d be grateful. I don’t even know where my circuit box is.”
“Garage, probably. But if it’s off, you won’t be able to use your clicker.”
Jake snorted. “Yeah, I eventually figured that out. I still tried several times anyway. You’re right, it didn’t work, but I’m not a quitter. That I know of, anyway.” He shrugged.
Axel grinned as he walked up the driveway to join Jake. “No. You never struck me as a quitter. The truth is, I would have done the same thing with my clicker, pushing it several times just to make sure it didn’t work.”
They both stepped onto the porch. It was really just a cement slab, not even enough room for a chair, but Jake appreciated that there was an awning over it. It would be handy if he ever had to go through the front door in the rain.
So far, post-hospital, it hadn’t rained. He slid his key in the deadbolt lock and opened the door into his darkened living room. By habit, he reached for the light switch to the right of the door—which didn’t work, of course. He rolled his eyes at himself.
Axel, being a smarter man, it seemed, lifted his hand and clicked on a small flashlight he produced from somewhere, illuminating a small section of Jake’s living room. “Here, maybe this will help.”
“Thanks, Axel.” Jake followed the spot of light as Axel swung it around the living room and into the small kitchen-dining room combo straight ahead from the entryway. In thegloom down the short hall to the left, Jake saw his bedroom door was wide open as he liked it to be when he came home. He’d even purchased a Maxwell the Martian doorstop from the Big Bang Truck Stop’s merch section to keep his door open, since it had a tendency to swing closed if it wasn’t propped open.
The interior door to the garage was down a matching hall to the right.
Axel directed the beam of the flashlight away from the kitchen to the hallway leading to the garage. “Your house seems similar to mine in layout,” he commented.
“Yep.” Jake headed in that direction, walking past the small loveseat and sofa in the living room and straight down the short hallway to the garage.
He opened the door and Axel shined his light into the space. “Do have any idea where the circuit box is?” he asked Axel.
“If it’s like at my house, it’s over there.” As he spoke, he shone the light in the far corner—and opposite it, the door from the garage to the backyard slammed shut. Axel jerked the beam of light to the door, but there was nothing to see.
The entity stared at the home using experienced predator eyes, wanting more than anything to acquire his prey tonight and do what needed to be done. However, a shrewd predator wouldn’t strike twice on the same night after such a colossal failure.
His prey would be on high alert after this incident. The entity would not be able to complete the necessary procedure before others, also on high alert, might rush to his prey’s aid. They swarmed around his prey’s house even now.
No. The entity would lie low and wait. For now.
The wound he’d acquired on his hand while trying to force open the entry of the abode stung like failure. His lifeblood seeped from the wound. It would need a binding soon.
The entity would not fail when next it struck at Jake Jones. The pursuit and how it was carried out was imperative to his ultimate plan.
The entity would succeed no matter what.
Chapter Seven
Jake’s heart thudded hard in his chest the instant the back door slammed shut. Axel bobbled his flashlight, managing to catch it before it hit the ground.
“That scared the bejesus out of me,” he said. “Was someone in here?”
“I don’t know, but I know for a fact that I never leavethatdoor open.” Jake couldn’t seem to move. He was frozen in place.
“Hang on.” Axel left Jake in the open doorway to the house, taking his flashlight with him. A few seconds later, the sound of a switch flipping echoed though the empty garage. Abruptly, the lights in the house came on, throwing Jake’s shadow on the floor of the empty garage.
He flipped the switch for the overhead lights, flooding the empty space. Without discussing it, Jake and Axel approached the door to his backyard.
