Silent Screams

Silent Screams A Paranormal Domestic Thriller Not Safe at Home Book 2 May Black Copyright © 2023 by May Black All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. Cover by getcovers.com Previously published as The Unheard. Chapter 1 Jody sat straight up in bed. “Did you feel that?” She nudged Lu. “I feel you poking me,” Lu mumbled. “Seriously, Lu, did you feel it? Something just happened.” “Sleeping.” Jody reached for her cellphone just as it began ringing. “It’s Lynda.” She put the phone on speaker and answered. “Did you feel it?” “Yes, what happened? Can you tell?” Lu sat up and yawned. “It’s all over. Dolly is okay,” Lynda reported. “But she will need you soon.” “Why? What happened?” Jody asked. Lynda told them what she had just learned. Before she finished, Jody was grabbing Lu’s phone and punching in Dolly’s number. Chapter 2 “I’m not even sure we’ll be able to have a party,” Dolly said. “I don’t know why I’m spending all this time worrying about it and trying to plan it all. Maybe it’s best to just drop it and reschedule when all this is over. I don’t know who we’d invite, anyway. It’s not like I have any friends left.” “Whatever you want,” Randall mumbled. “You don’t even care.” Randall put down his iPad and sighed. “Of course, I care,” he said gently. “But you’re right. We probably won’t be able to have a party. It wouldn’t be safe. Let’s just do something small. You and me. We’ll plan a huge first anniversary celebration later in the year. Or just do up the second one real big. And we will invite our friends,” he added. Dolly nodded glumly. Stupid COVID was ruining everything. As she began to wallow in self-pity, she forced herself to stop and think about the people who were not planning anniversaries but were instead planning funerals. She had to keep things in perspective. Dolly and Randall had known each other for only two months before they got married. A whirlwind romance was putting it mildly. He swept her off her feet and married her before she really knew what was happening. Despite the chorus of negativity and the warnings from friends and family, she went ahead with everything, just the way Randall wanted it. There were no family or friends at their impromptu wedding. It was just the two of them at a small resort surrounded by strangers who pretended to be happy for the newlyweds. Randall insisted there be no announcements in the paper or wedding registry. There were no parties or gifts. One day she was just Dolly and the next she was Mrs. Randall Loomis and everything went on just as before. Except now that the news began to trickle out, the people in her life had no qualms about telling her exactly what they thought of her speedy and isolated wedding. And what they thought of Randall. She wished her loved ones were more supportive of her, even if they didn’t like Randall. But over the following year, she became more and more alone, choosing to side with the man she had only known for a year rather than her family and lifelong friends. Conversations were filled with awkward silences, and eventually stopped altogether. Dolly was stuck. She thought finally being married at thirty-one would solve her loneliness, but instead she was feeling more alone than ever. Dolly didn’t fear being alone. She just wanted the company. Someone to do things with. Someone by her side. At first, that’s what she had with Randall, but as the year progressed, she began to realize he wasn’t the one who was going to keep her company. He traveled for work and would often be gone for weeks at a time. The first few times he left, unannounced, for an extended time, she tried to be agreeable. She wanted to be the loving and understanding wife. But after the third time she found herself alone for two weeks straight, she became angry. “You didn’t tell me I was getting a part-time husband,” she railed at him. The look on his face frightened her. His eyes went black, and he clenched his jaw so hard the muscles on his face stood out. He held his hand over his heart as though he were in pain. Then a darkness passed over his entire being and Dolly took an involuntary step back, unconsciously holding up a hand to ward off whatever it was he had just become. He didn’t say anything to her, and he certainly didn’t harm her, but the look on his face was enough to convince her that she would never again challenge him about his work. In fact, she quickly learned never to challenge him about anything. She pushed the entire event to the back of her mind and the next day the couple went back to a version of normal. Something had changed within her, though. Dolly had an inkling that her family and friends might be right and there were things she didn’t know about her new husband. There were layers that went deeper than what she saw. Instinctively, she knew she didn’t want to explore any further for fear of what she might uncover. Randall was sprawled in his chair, engrossed in whatever he was reading. He obviously didn’t want to talk right now, so she decided to drop the conversation. A party was a bad idea anyway. Randall flipped the cover of his iPad closed and stood. “Gotta go,” he said. “What? Where? Now?” she stumbled through the one-word questions, trying to comprehend what had just happened. “Work,” he said. He walked from the room quickly. She followed him. He was in the bedroom, pulling suitcases from the closet.