Phoenix and the Dark Star Read online

  Winona slightly hesitated before taking a deep breath and retaking her seat.

  “For the past few weeks, there has been a dangerous animal—that the authorities haven’t been able to track down—that has been attacking the hikers,” Shayne continued. Winona stared curiously at him. “Winnie, the hikers who’ve been going into those hiking trails for the last few weeks haven’t been coming out alive.”

  “What are you saying?” Winona again demanded to know while abruptly standing.

  “Winona, sit down—please,” Shayne slightly begged.

  “Travis and his dad went hiking in an area where people are being killed by an unknown animal,” Winona recapitulated as tears filled her eyes. “Were they attacked?”

  “Winona…” Shayne was only able to get out.

  “Were they attacked?” Winona demanded to know as tears rolled down her cheeks.

  Shayne slightly sighed before saying, “They were.” Without looking behind her, Winona slowly retook her seat. “I’m sorry, sweetheart, but Travis and his father were found dead by the Alaskan authorities.”

  Winona bowed her head with her eyes closed, doubled over until her face was buried and heavily cried. Dakota sat next to Winona while putting her arm around her. Winona moved until she was being embraced by Dakota’s consoling hug.

  “I’m going to my room,” Adam said, barely audible.

  Dakota just nodded for a response. Adam glanced at Winona before walking away.

  “Well, I do have an early morning shift tomorrow and it’s getting late,” Shayne began, not very loud as he was gesturing towards the bedroom. “So I’m calling it a night.”

  Dakota again just nodded as she continued to console Winona.

  Dakota consoled Winona for several minutes before Winona sat up, wiped the tears from her eyes and said in a low distant tone, “I have to use the bathroom.”

  “Okay,” Dakota said sympathetically as Winona stood.

  “I’m going to bed afterwards,” Winona continued in the same low and distant tone.

  “Okay,” Dakota repeated while standing.

  As Winona stepped away towards the bathroom, Dakota went to her bedroom.

  Winona took twice as long in the bathroom as normal, and once she was done she went to bed.

  Winona began crying again soon after her head had hit the pillow, and after crying into her pillow for an hour, she fell asleep.

  A wall separated Winona’s bedroom from Adam’s, and at 5:15 A.M., Wednesday morning, light tapping and scratching sounds at the wall had awakened Adam. Adam got up, went to Winona’s bedroom door and gently knocked. The light tapping and scratching sound continued without interruption, and after waiting a couple of seconds for a reply that didn’t come, he opened the door and looked in.

  Winona was still wearing the gray sweatpants and gray T-shirt, and she was writing out two sets of names, worldwide locations, dates and times on her bedroom wall with an eye-lining pencil.

  “Winnie?” Adam gently called before stepping in and turning on the lamp that was on Winona’s nightstand. Winona continued to write as if Adam had never spoken. As Adam stepped closer, he called slightly louder, “Winona?” Again when Winona continued to write as if he hadn’t spoken, he stepped up to her and waved his hand in front of her face. “Winona, will you answer me?” Adam then caught the zombie-looking expression in her face. “Winona?”

  With raised goose bumps on his arms, Adam left Winona’s room quickly, stepped up to his parents’ bedroom and knocked on the door hard enough to wake them up.

  After putting on a robe, Dakota answered the door. When she saw who was knocking, she asked, “What is it, Adam?”

  “Something is wrong with Winona,” Adam quickly informed.

  “What do you mean?” Dakota questioned.

  “She looks…” Adam got out before gesturing towards Winona’s room. “You had better look for yourself.”

  “Alright,” Dakota agreed before following Adam into the hall.

  Shayne got out of bed, got dressed and followed Dakota by several seconds.

  Dakota entered Winona’s bedroom, and when she saw what Winona was doing she stepped up to her and asked, “What are you doing, sweetheart?”

  As before when Adam had spoken to her, Winona continued to write as if no one had spoken.

  As Dakota moved to get a better look at Winona’s face, Shayne stepped in and saw what was going on.

  Before Shayne could respond to what Winona was doing, Dakota gestured for Shayne to wait.

  Shayne shot Dakota a confused look, and as he moved closer he asked, “What’s going on?”

  In a voice that was barely above a whisper, Dakota informed, “Winnie’s asleep.”

  “Winnie is writing on the wall while asleep?” Adam questioned.

  “That’s what she’s doing,” Dakota agreed.

  “Well, waking a sleepwalker is bad…” Shayne was only able to get out.

  “Don’t you mean a sleep writer?” Adam jokingly questioned.

  Shayne looked unimpressed at Adam before ignoring him and saying, “So I guess we should try to coax her back into bed without waking her.”

  Dakota gently took hold of Winona’s hand—the hand that she was writing with—while gently saying, “It’s time for bed, sweetie.”

  In the Mikasuki language and in a monotonic sounding voice, Winona said, “I have to finish.”

  As Dakota was attempting to gently guide Winona towards the bed, she told her, “You can finish later, sweetheart. Right now it’s time for bed.”

  While resisting Dakota’s attempts to guide her towards the bed—and while again speaking in the Mikasuki language—Winona repeated, “I have to finish.”

  Shayne had stepped closer to help Dakota, but when he noticed three of the names from the list, he instructed, “Dakota, step back. Go ahead and let her finish.”

  “Okay,” Dakota agreed in an uncertain tone before backing up and allowing Winona to continue.

  Winona continued where she had left off, as if she wasn’t interrupted.

  “Adam, go get me my cell phone,” Shayne instructed as he stared at the list on the wall.

  “Alright,” Adam said before walking away.

  Dakota could tell that Shayne had recognized something within Winona’s list, and as she turned to look at the list herself, she asked, “What is it, Shayne?”

  “Two of the names on the wall you should recognize, and I even recognize one more,” Shayne informed.

  Dakota read the list before saying, “Winnie had written Travis’s name and his dad’s name on the wall.”

  “And right below those two names is the name Phillip Redd,” Shayne said.

  “Do you know him?” Dakota asked.

  “No,” Shayne began. “His name was just mentioned to me last night in passing.”

  “Okay, well, who is he?”

  “He was the eighteen-year-old boy who was hiking with Travis and his dad.” Shayne informed as Adam was returning with a cell phone. “He too was found dead yesterday.”

  “Here’s your phone, Dad,” Adam said while holding out the phone for him to take.

  “Thanks,” Shayne said while taking the phone.

  “I don’t remember you mentioning Phillip’s name last night,” Dakota told Shayne.

  “I didn’t,” Shayne said while turning on the phone’s camera feature. “Adam, remove the lampshade.”

  “Alright,” Adam agreed before moving to do so.

  “Winnie had listed several names multiple times,” Dakota verbally took note of. “Like La Croix, Belfry, Viceroy and Lamed to name the first four.”

  “I saw that too,” Shayne said.

  Once the lampshade was off and Shayne had enough light within the room, he proceeded to take a few snapshots of the wall. After getting the pictures, he sent those pictures to someone at the precinct with the text message, “Don, do me a favor and look up these names for me and let me know what you find—Shayne.”

  A
fter Shayne closed his phone, he turned towards Dakota and asked, “Did Winona say what she had found at the house?”

  “She showed me what she had found,” Dakota replied.

  “And what was it?”

  “Magical rituals, incantations and journals,” Dakota informed.

  “And information on how to find and kill vampires,” Adam added.

  “You’re joking,” Shayne shot at Adam.

  “I’m serious,” Adam insisted. “In fact, on the way home, Winnie told Mom and me that just before she had left the hospital, she had a dream that Aunt Ruth’s attacker was a vampire.”

  “Honey, I know you don’t want to hear this, but Winona has just turned me into a believer that the paranormal and the supernatural exist,” Shayne just pursed his lips as Dakota continued with, “and that those stories that magic runs through your family’s veins are true.”

  Shayne sighed before saying, “All I wanted was to protect my kids from the lies, and now I don’t even know what the truth is.”

  “So you’re now saying that there is a possibility that magic runs through your veins?” Dakota questioned.

  “I thought that every paranormal encounter could be easily explained with a simple explanation,” Shayne began before gesturing towards Winona, “but I’m at a complete loss with this. So if the paranormal and the supernatural really do exist, then there is a possibility that magic runs through my veins.”

  “Dad, you should see what Winona had found,” Adam said.

  Shayne thought for a second before agreeing halfheartedly, “Yeah, I should.”

  Dakota, Shayne and Adam watched as Winona wrote name after name on the wall, and then suddenly, Winona stopped writing, turned towards her bed and climbed in.

  “Okay, that was a bit spooky,” Adam thought aloud.

  “Okay, well, assuming that she had quit because she had finished, let’s go and let her sleep,” Dakota suggested.

  Shayne looked at the alarm clock within the room while saying, “Going back to bed is out, so I might as well take a shower and get ready for my shift.”

  “I’ll fix breakfast,” Dakota said before turning towards the door and walking towards it.

  “Since I don’t work today, I’m going back to bed,” Adam announced as he was following Dakota and Shayne out into the hall.

  Several minutes later, just after Dakota and Shayne had sat down at the kitchen table to eat their breakfast, they heard Winona calling out in a frightened voice, “Mom! Mom!”

  Dakota, Shayne and Adam rushed to see what was frightening Winona.

  Winona was sitting on her bed and facing the list on the wall when the three rushed in. Winona glanced back at them before gesturing towards the list of names and demanding to know, “Who wrote this on my wall?”

  “You seriously don’t know?” Adam quickly asked.

  “I was asleep all night,” Winona retorted. “How someone could write this without waking me, I haven’t a clue.”

  “Sweetheart, from around 5:00 A.M. to about an hour ago, you wrote out that list,” Shayne said. “I don’t know what that list is of though.”

  “I know what that list is,” Winona informed.

  “What is the list of?” Adam asked.

  Winona turned towards her dad before hesitating to say, “I’m not crazy, but that’s a list of vampires and their victims during the last forty-eight hours. An animal didn’t kill Travis or his father. It was the vampire La Croix.”

  Shayne took a breath before saying, “Your mom and Adam told me what you had found at the house. Do you really believe that you have found incantations on finding and capturing vampires?”

  “I do,” Winona began while pointing towards the wall, “and I also believe that Blue Moon is urging me to go after these vampires. That’s why he had me write this out.”

  “You said that you don’t remember writing that out,” Adam pointed out.

  “I don’t have a memory of doing this, but I do remember dreaming of me telling Blue Moon that I didn’t want anything to do with vampires. Blue Moon then told me that the deaths from vampire attacks were at a record high. He was going to show me the stats on those deaths, but my dream had stopped before he had showed me what they were.” Winona gestured towards the wall again as she continued with, “Judging from the wall, he showed me alright. There has to be over a hundred names on that wall.”

  “So what are you going to do?” When Winona shot him a confused look, Shayne continued with, “Will you go after the vampires?”

  “Are you asking me that to see if I should be committed?” Winona quickly asked. “Because I’m not crazy.”

  Shayne amusingly grinned before saying, “Within a vision, you met Blue Moon and he told you where you can find his parchments. I told you not to pay attention to that vision, but you went looking for them anyway, and to my surprise you immediately found them.” Shayne then gestured towards the wall. “Then in your sleep you did this. You had experienced two paranormal occurrences back-to-back that I can’t explain away with rational explanations. Now I’m not sure how I should be acting to this, but committing you to a hospital won’t be happening.”

  “So you now believe me?” Winona asked.

  “I believe you, and I do want to know what you are going to do now. Will you go after those vampires?”

  “You would let me go if I wanted to?” Winona questioned.

  “You’re eighteen, Winnie, so legally I can’t stop you,” Shayne pointed out before glancing at the wall. “And you did say that you believe that Blue Moon is urging you on, and judging from this wall, I don’t think that he’s going to take ‘no’ for an answer.”

  “If my earlier dream was me actually talking to Blue Moon, then yeah, he’s persistent on me doing this.”

  Shayne thought for a second before saying, “I’m going to call the precinct and take a vacation day. And then, Winnie, you and I are going to the reservation.”

  “You’re going to the reservation?” Winona questioned incredulously.

  “I had been wrong my entire life about things relating to the paranormal, so maybe I’m being an idiot over my parents’ house.”

  “Maybe an idiot?” Winona playfully questioned.

  Shayne grinned before playfully ordering, “Just get ready to go.”

  “Yes, sir,” Winona said with a grin before standing up.

  “Okay, well, I got to get ready for work,” Dakota said before turning towards the door.

  “Have fun at work, Mom,” Winona said before Dakota could leave.

  “I’ll try,” Dakota said while walking away, followed by Adam and then Shayne.

  Winona went to her dresser and pulled out clean clothes.

  Chapter Eleven

  Later that morning, Winona and Shayne stepped into the Miccosukee Indian Reservation Police Station.

  When the officers and detectives saw who were walking in, they immediately greeted them with friendly smiles.

  Once Winona and Shayne reached Clint’s desk, Clint asked, “Detective Rivers of the Fort Lauderdale Police Department, how can I help you today?”

  “Things have been happening for the past twenty-four hours that made me question my entire belief system,” Shayne said.

  “So you’re not here on police business, Detective Rivers?” Clint questioned as Captain Wolf was walking up. “You must be lost then.”

  “I’m here as your brother,” Shayne snapped. “So stop being a dick.”

  “You’ve been a dick to me every day for a year,” Clint retorted. “I earned the right today to be a dick.”

  “Capt. Wolf, where do you keep the dueling pistols?” Winona questioned.

  “That’s the white men who use the dueling pistols, Winnie,” Capt. Wolf said before looking back and forth between Shayne and Clint. “Here we just bind them together with handcuffs and lock them in a holding cell until one has been knocked unconscious by the other.”

  “Just so you don’t get the wrong idea, Winnie, we don�
�t really do that here,” Clint told her.

  As Winona was giving him a polite grin, Capt. Wolf retorted, “I’ll make an exception with you two. So leave your sibling squabbles out of my police station.”

  “Yes, Captain,” Shayne and Clint said.

  Capt. Wolf faced Shayne before saying, “It’s been five years since you had left us, Shayne, and I was certain that you would return to us within a year… year and a half tops.”

  “Yes, well, my reason for leaving hasn’t changed,” Shayne told him. “Plus I’m doing well in Fort Lauderdale.”

  “Yeah, well, you’re still welcome to transfer back anytime you like,” Capt. Wolf informed.

  “I’ll keep that in mind, sir,” Shayne assured him.

  “Okay, I’ll leave you three to it,” Capt. Wolf said.

  As Capt. Wolf was walking away, Clint asked, “So why are you here, Shayne?”

  “Two reasons,” Shayne began. “The first reason is that, while driving over here I had called my lawyer. I had dropped my suit against you for the house…”

  “You no longer want the house?” Clint quickly asked.

  “I still want it,” Shayne corrected. “You want it too though and by both of us wanting that house, the already bad-blood between us had gotten worse…”

  “Sure you would piss me off from time to time, Shayne, but I had always turned the other cheek with you,” Clint interrupted. “It was you who had resented me.”

  “What I resented was your total lack of respect for my beliefs,” Shayne retorted. “That’s irrelevant now though because my belief system has changed. Since the lightning strike that almost killed Winnie, Blue Moon has been communicating with her through her dreams, and I am convinced that the connection between Winnie and Blue Moon is real. So I’m here to say, ‘I’m sorry’ for my attitude towards you over the years. I was wrong about those stories that Dad and Grandpa were telling. I thought that those stories were just… imaginary tales.”

  “I thought so too,” Clint informed. “It was Ruth who had never doubted them.”

  “And it so happens that Ruth was right,” Shayne added, “which brings me to the next reason why I’m here. I want to see those parchments.”