Emma Spaulding Paranormal Detective: Sasquatch (A Hemisphere Story Book 1) Read online

  Contents

  Welcome To Hemisphere!

  Get Your Public Service Announcements Here

  Four Authors One Town

  Dedication

  Epigraph

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  Epilogue

  About The Authors

  Calamity Or Death By Misadventure

  Hello, New Resident. I am Billy Baltimore, one of the Hemisphere City Planners. We’ll get you all moved in shortly, but first I have been asked to read this brief statement:

  The Hemisphere City Planners are a group of undercover authors just sitting around thinking $#!@ up. Most of that then walks the streets of Hemisphere. It’s not as important who we are as it is that you enjoy our little town. All new residents receive a robust information packet, so that they have everything they will need to survive. We the city planners welcome you. As we are fond of saying, Hemisphere: come for the great schools, stay for the weirdness.

  Okay, that wasn’t too bad, was it? Now, I really must insist that you take seriously that bit about the information packet. If you want things that go bump in the night, Hemisphere’s got ‘em, but hey, don’t worry. Everything you need to know is right in there and will give you every chance. It might help you find a great restaurant, too. Just click the link below.

  http://www.subscribepage.com/d8n7d2

  See you around, Neighbor. I think you’re gonna like it here.

  —Billy B.

  HEMISPHERE

  Anything Can Happen, and Something Always Does

  Twitter

  http://twitter.com/hemispherebooks

  Facebook

  http://www.facebook.com/TheHemisphereUnderground

  Wattpad

  (free stories)

  http://www.wattpad.com/user/HemisphereBooks

  Hemisphere On The Web

  http://hemisphereunderground.com

  One Town Many Stories

  (But they’re all A Hemisphere Story)

  BILLY BALTIMORE

  Emma Spaulding Paranormal Detective: Sasquatch

  Emma Spaulding Paranormal Detective: Djinn

  (Coming November 28th 2017)

  G. OLDMAN

  The Corgan Family Chronicles

  Book 1: Peril In The Park

  (Coming November 7th 2017)

  J.J. BELDING

  The Ripple

  (Coming November 14th 2017)

  KIT NASH

  The Rectifier Series

  Book 1: Some Assembly Required

  (Coming November 21st 2017)

  To all the Private Dicks. Stay on the case.

  When you’re at the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on

  —Theodore Roosevelt

  1

  It had been the perfect day. Their tenth wedding anniversary. High school sweethearts, Harry and Audri were inseparable. Where a lot of couples might be slowing down after four years of steady dating and ten years of marriage, they were still going strong. Neither had needed nor expected anything special for their tenth, but that hadn’t stopped Harry and Audri. She had surprised him with a piece of their wedding cake, kept in deep freeze all these years. He had presented her with two tickets for an afternoon ride in a hot air balloon, bought and paid for from Stinson’s Hot Air Extravaganza. The place was a one man operation, a one old man operation. Stinson lived in an abandoned mine. Harry had thought that strange, a man who lives deep in the ground running a business that took him high in the sky. It wasn’t strange enough for him to change his mind, however, and he and Audri took in Hemisphere from a thousand feet. It was perfect. The old man was a bit pervy, the way he kept staring at Audri, but that too wasn’t enough to dampen their spirits. They ate their frozen cake and were reminded again why they loved each other so much.

  Now Harry stood in the bathroom of the Hemisphere Suites looking at himself in the mirror. The smell of industrial cleaner wafting in from the tub on his left, old carpet smell from his right. Audri was already in the bed, waiting. Yep, ten years and still going strong. The thought made him look down at his naked body. His once young physique was now not so young, and a little more round. His mouth scrunched up in mild disappointment as the only thing he could see over his stomach were the tips of his toes.

  “Dicky-Do”, he said to himself with a smirk, remembering the joke they used to make in high school about their aged history teacher.

  His stomach sticks out more than his dicky do.

  Harry’s body now looked much like that history teacher's. Coupled with the fact that he was now a year older than that teacher was at the time, made the joke not as funny. He rubbed his stomach and sucked it in the best he could, giving himself ample view of half his feet now. The rest remained still cloistered under his gut.

  The hum of the air conditioner in the next room shutting down reminded Harry that none of this mattered either. He had somebody who loved him and it was going to be a wild night. He knew this because much like the balloon ride, he had also prepared for this. A new smile spread across his lips as he reached for the bottle of Grows-It. This little blue pill was going to get him up more than any balloon ever could and give Audri another ride she would never forget. He gave the lid a twist, and that’s when the pain started.

  It began in his stomach and radiated outward at an alarming pace. Harry dropped the bottle and little blue pills scattered over the tiled floor. Just as the pain subsided, it hit again and he gripped the sides of the sink and doubled over. Through the door, he heard Audri knock.

  “Is everything all right, Harry? I thought I heard something spill, my little meat-monkey,” she said.

  This made Harry smile, even as fresh pain wracked his body. Audri’s little pet names never made much sense and in some ways, to other ears, could sound downright insulting, but not to him. He grit his teeth and stifled a yelp as he reassured her.

  “Not to worry, dear. Be right out,” he said, sounding to himself like he was trying to lift a house.

  Something was definitely happening to him and that something hurt like hell. Sweat began to roll off him in a torrent and he looked down. Everything looked the same, well almost everything. His feet were not the only thing he could see over his stomach anymore. For just a second, he picked up the bottle of Grows-It and tried to read the label. It was only then he realized he hadn’t taken any of the pills yet. His skin now felt like it was on fire and he almost collapsed. With gargantuan effort, he pushed himself off the sink and looked in the mirror. He had never been able to grow a full beard and his head of hair abandoned him two years out of high school. The face that stared back at him now was covered in hair. Not just on his head and jaw, everywhere. He gasped and the sound that came out was one he had never heard himself make either, a more deep throaty growl than a gasp. Standing back he watched helplessly as the hair that covered every inch of his head and face now raced down his body. Within seconds every part of his pale blotchy skin was lost to view under a thick mat of hair.

  “Are you gargling mouthwash, my sweet panty-junkie? Trust me, what I want you to do with that mouth tonight isn’t going to require fresh breath,” Audri said with a throaty snarl of her own.

  Reason left Harry and he felt it slip away. Familiar things became unrecognizable and he had a sudden maddening craving to eat tree bark. Shuffling over to the door on his huge feet, the thing that used to be
Harry pawed at the nob with massive mandibles. The door flung open to a darkened room, the only light from the bathroom mirror cutting across his lower half. He saw her sit up in bed, a ravenous look on her face that matched his, albeit for different reasons. She just stared at him, well not him, but part of him.

  “Oh, Harry, we’re gonna have to buy stock in Grows-It,” she said, her voice sultry and low.

  The words meant something to him, but even as he tried to grasp their meaning, they faded from his mind, just out of reach. When he didn’t say anything, she leaned over and switched on the lamp. It was bright and she shielded her eyes for a second. When she finally did get a look at him, she screamed and the sound chilled him. The thing that was Harry turned and ran across the room. There was something in his way, but the scream made him not want to stop and he threw himself at it. Wood splintered under the impact as another terrified scream made the hair rise on his everything. Leaving behind only monstrous footprints in the soft earth, what was once Audri’s one true love barreled away deep into the Hemisphere forest.

  2

  A massive corrugated metal building faced Police Detective Emma Spaulding. It seemed to rise into the clouds, becoming lost to sight. She looked left, and then right. The cold steel went on forever, straight into the vanishing point. Something didn’t feel right, or rather it felt like she had done this before. A foreboding sense of Déjà vu came over her and she faltered. A cold wind blew. It rattled the walls and sent a shiver down her spine.

  Movement to her right got her attention. Her partner, Detective Sully Barrett was going in. He already had the door opened, his service pistol held out in front of him and pointed into the darkened recesses. She felt her face blanch. She took a step, knowing she had to follow him. A final look skyward revealed stacks pumping out their white smoke, smoke disappearing into nothing.

  Inside, sales and administration offices were first, desks, phones, computers, the usual stuff, but no people. Did they all run away when the Caster came through here? Some part of Emma knew that wasn’t true. Ahead, her partner moved silently. He crouched by a door. She watched Sully look at her and nod. Instinctively she moved up beside him. He flung open the door and went low. She went high. It was clear, and knowing that unsettled Emma even more.

  A second later they were through, into the heart of the factory. Without a word, Sully pointed her left. She wanted to stop him, but her voice failed her. He was gone, to the right and away from her. She swallowed hard and raised her gun, heel, step, heel, step.

  Painted lines on the floor delineated pathways through the maze of machinery. The whir and buzz of compressors, grinding metal, and the clack of rollers echoed across the cavernous chamber. The pungent smell of hot rubber, grease and oil made her nose itch. Her eyes scanned the recesses for the Caster. They had tracked him here in a cleanup operation. The shapeshifter uprising had been quashed. Only a few remaining loyalists were left. Not Shifters themselves, these were lower level Casters. They did their dirty work with spells.

  Emma’s hands grew clammy, the grip on her pistol felt tenuous as she moved through the factory. The growing sense of dread exploded as she saw her partner come around a large pipe. She could only watch as his face contorted into a mixture of what looked to her like fear and anger. He wasn’t looking at her, but at something just over her shoulder. As if moving through mud, Emma turned to look, even as Sully fired, the rounds sparking and ricocheting off the surrounding steel, making her flinch. She felt frozen to the ground as she watched the Caster raise his hands and close his eyes. Turning back, she felt the scream rise in her throat, rise but go no farther. Sully moved past her and every part of her wanted him to stop. He tackled the Caster even as the spell went forth. There was a flash of light, blinding in its intensity. Emma, somehow able to move again, raced forward to where Sully had gone. The Caster lay dazed on the floor, beside him, a green parrot walked around, shaking its head and ruffling its wings.

  Another second and Emma was on top of the Caster, shaking him. She found her voice and it seemed unrecognizable to her own ears, but she knew what it was she was saying, begging for. Release and freedom if he would only change Sully back. The Caster only stared blankly back at her, shaking his head, denying. Emma put the pistol to the Caster’s head, blind rage making her homicidal. A second later, she looked up as backup arrived. The bulk of the Hemisphere police force stormed in and took charge of the Caster. They pulled him away from her, others gripping her shoulders, more for support than to restrain. A sound to her left, flapping wings and a screech. The parrot was airborne. Emma ripped her jacket from her body and smothered the parrot, clutching it to her chest even as she turned toward the Caster. Shouting her demand, hot tears clouding her vision. The Caster continued to shake his head, then stare in seeming disbelief as a binding cuff was slapped on his wrist. The Caster stared at Emma over his shoulder as he was led away and Emma could only scream.

  The sound of her own terror woke her and she sat bolt upright in her bed. Perspiration running off her forehead, she clutched at her chest to keep her heart from exploding. She looked over to the window. The sun was already up and she was in danger of being late. She swung her legs off the bed and supported her self with her arms, head down, nothing about the day drawing her out with any enthusiasm. Emma rose and went to the cage, removed the towel draped over it and stared down at her partner.

  “Maybe today, Detective Barrett. Sully. Maybe today’s the day.”

  3

  The plain colored walls felt like they were closing in on Emma, the same way they seemed to do every six months. What color was plain anyway? Emma let the thought roll around in her head for a little while. It wasn’t white and it wasn’t beige. She remembered that eggshell was a color, maybe eggshell was just a fancied up word for plain. No, that wasn’t right. Eggshell wasn’t a color of paint, it was a texture. Well, shit.

  She shook her head in frustration and tried to focus on other things, anything but why she was here. Pictures of wardens circled the room on the walls, all arranged in a line, all at the same height. She could tell the really old ones because they were black and white. The last one in the line was Warden Coulson Bulger. Emma huffed.

  “Geeze what a name? At least his parents loved him enough to name him something besides Richard,” she said to herself, then shifted nervously in her seat.

  “No time for jokes now. This is a new warden, maybe with some fresh ideas. Behave,” she said, working her hands in her lap.

  The rest of the seats around the oblong table were empty, for now. She knew any minute the seven seats across from her would be filled, by the members of the Prison Review Board. The thought sent her into a panic and she looked up at the wall above the door. Emblazoned there was the crest of the Hemisphere Correctional Division.

  Punish, Protect, but Rehabilitate

  To calm her mind, she read those words, words she had seen countless times when she was still on the force. The only difference was, then she was fighting to keep perps locked up. Now she was begging to have one released. The only word there that had any real meaning for her was ‘Punish’. The rest was just slogan, meant to soften the blow for bleeding-heart types. Prisons were for punishing. It was all that mattered to her since Sully got turned. She wanted to punish the Caster that did it and she hoped he stayed locked up forever, forever minus five minutes. It’s what kept her coming back to the review board, hat in hand, begging. Five minutes and that Mouth Jammer could wag his tongue and she could have Sully back.

  The ire that rose in her chest was stifled as the door opened and seven people entered. Each took their seats without speaking and none looked at her as they settled in, opening the files each had on the table before them. She watched as the individual members read over the pages within and she knew it was a stall. Everyone knew why they were gathered. It was the same reason they had met with her six months ago, and six months before that. Why did bleeding-hearts always have to put on a show? Finally, Warden Bulger raised
his head and looked to his left and right. The three board members to either side put their hands in their own laps and glanced back at him. Seeming satisfied that everyone was ready, the Warden cleared his throat, leaned forward and laced his fingers together on the table in front of him.

  “The purpose of this session is to entertain the request by former Hemisphere police detective, Emma Spaulding as it relates to inmate 4076182. Detective Spaulding is present as are all members of the board. The details of the request have been read. At this time, we provide opportunity for the petitioner to make her plea verbally and to add anything that she deems relevant. Detective Spaulding?” Warden Bulger said, looking at her for the first time.

  Emma felt her heart race. She squeezed her fingers tightly under the table. The pain helped to calm her down, give her focus, and avoid grabbing the Warden by the neck and slamming his head into the table. No, that would not be good.

  “I don’t know that I have much to add. I would just ask that the members of the board consider that my petition is made not for myself, but for my partner, Sullivan Barrett. He served with distinction for twenty years and deserves every consideration. What happened to him should’ve happened to me and it was only his devotion to protecting others that spared me from the terrible fate that has befallen him. I will make every effort to bring him back. It’s why I left the force, so I could give all my time to finding a cure. This request remains my… our one best shot. I consider it my duty to do this, and I hope you would consider it your duty as well,” she said.