Caught Within Time

Jason Moser

Published by Jason Moser, 2020.

This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.

CAUGHT WITHIN TIME

First edition. May 31, 2020.

Copyright © 2020 Jason Moser.

Written by Jason Moser.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 12

CHAPTER 13

CHAPTER 14

CHAPTER 15

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

To my loving and supportive wife and two sons. Without your support and motivational pushes along the way, I could never stay focused and dedicated enough to my writing and publishing to finish.

To the United States Navy Submarine Force who pushed my mind into another time and place, helping me create this exciting story.

PROLOGUE

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A noiseless shadow cursorily smothered the forest as dusk winked into the pitch darkness of night. An eerie northerly gale whistled through the tall oaks and maples, twisting and turning each of the proud giants in different directions. Branches cracked and snapped in the frigid air, echoing throughout the dense upstate New York forest as the untamed breeze tried to untangle the trees with each of its forceful gusts.

Thick gray clouds cast one thick blanket across the sky, drawing darkness faster than usual on the icy, wintery night. As the tiny world succumbed to near-total darkness, the wind grew stronger and air colder. It was going to snow again; the feeling was in the air.

An old house stood awkwardly amid a thick armor of scattered timbers. Its once sturdy walls weakened by thirty years of neglect showed their age; faded paint and splintered wood were signs of caustic winters and unforgiving summers. Mother Nature was certainly taking her toll on the large, antique structure.

Only a few windows remained intact throughout the imposing structure. Tossed rocks claimed some as others shattered from strong winds and loud claps of thunder from the violent storms that frequented the Buffalo area.

Shards of mildew-stained shingles rested in a hapless manner about the spacious front and back yards, torn from the roof by the same relentless winds that claimed some of the windows. Though most of the roof was intact, several shingles lay about in a scattered mess on top of the roof, patiently awaiting one last violent wind to carry them away.

The old Bonner house was left abandoned to rot away about forty years ago. It’s first and last resident, Abe Bonner, mysteriously disappeared on December 24, 1975. No one had any idea what happened to the old man; there were no signs of foul play; his body never found. The old hermit just disappeared from the face of the earth without a trace on that cold winter night.

Over the years, rumors and stories spread that Abe haunted the old Bonner house. Some say it was haunted by whoever was involved with Abe’s demise. No one dared to enter the house, that is, after the freak disappearance of Lisa and Mark Fife. The two went off in the woods to play one afternoon and never returned. The thing so shocking about their disappearing was that it happened the day before Christmas in 1995, precisely twenty years after Abe vanished.

Police search and rescue personnel were baffled, especially since the children left a definitive trail leading them straight to the mysterious house. Authorities searched the entire premises inside and out and found no evidence of their whereabouts. The police investigated the case for a year, then it went cold – another case involving that mysterious house unsolved.

Parents urged their children to never go near the property, ever. Like that ever works.

On occasion, teenagers frequented the spooky property, throwing keg parties on the front lawn and testing their bravery by entering the ruins. The daring teenagers would get up enough courage to enter the house, and even though everyone knew the stories, they were either too drunk or too bigheaded to care. Either way, it didn’t seem all that scary. What was there to be scared of besides the stories? There were no such things as ghosts.

Most of the teens would tour the entire two-story structure, all except one sealed off room upstairs. As hard as anyone tried, no one could break into the seemingly fortified space; the door was as hard as steel, like a vault guarding an unforeseen treasure. Of course, the fact that they couldn’t get in the room made them want inside the room that much more.

So, the stories told.

CHAPTER 1

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December 22nd

It was a frigid evening in upstate New York about twenty miles east of Buffalo. Dry snow had dusted everything in sight with a crystal-like coating, sparkling to life as the Christmas lights produced the only light around the White’s house. The chilling air outside was unbearably cold, but the wall’s insulation kept everyone warm and cozy as they huddled together in the spacious den.

Tommy didn’t believe everything Skip said about the Bonner house, at least not to the extent he was telling it. Though he heard different renditions of the story from other people before, one being his father, Skip was known to exaggerate from time to time.

The lights were off throughout the spacious house. Two lone candles flickered brightly on the coffee table at the center of the room, casting the most frightening shadows on each of the walls. The jumping flicker of candlelight made all of their faces stand out like ghostly apparitions floating in the abysmal darkness.

Once Skip had concluded his rendition of the Bonner house story, Tommy jumped right in with another more eerie tale about a ghost named Raul. Taking a more fictional approach to storytelling, he went into explicit details about what Raul did for a living, or his death for that matter.

* * *

The White family was hosting the annual family Christmas and New Years’ holiday get-together, a tradition they held for over a decade. The previous year, the entire family traveled to Seattle to spend the holidays with the Brass family.

Ed and Laura Brass arrived the previous evening along with their son Tommy. By Tommy’s request, they also brought his cousin William and his college girlfriend, Susan Rosner. Tommy was nineteen years old and attending his second year at Washington State University. Majoring in theatrical arts, he had a truly outstanding character and could always brighten the darkest spirit. His mind could create stories in less than a blink, all of which entertained and amused everyone.

Tommy had uncontrollably curly hair, blessed onto him by both of his parents. Though slightly balding, he still retained a boyish charm in the face. It didn’t match his curly brown hair, but it gave him that unique attraction that women fell for in college. He was flattered by all of the come-ons and coincidental bumps in the hallways at school. These were mere ploys the young college girls used to get his attention, but he paid them no mind. He fell for Susan, the girl of his dreams, early on in his collegiate studies. She was his eighteen-year-old choir partner and girlfriend. She was much shorter than he. Her eyes could only see his neck as she looked straight ahead at him. That didn’t bother her too much because every time she told him that she was too short, or he was too tall, he would reassure her and tell her that she would grow some more and not to worry. She laughed every time he said it, knowing she was as tall as she would ever be in her life. It was just the way he said it that made her laugh. He sounded as if he had meant it, though he loved her just the way she was.

Susan was perfect in every aspect of a woman. Her dark brown hair had a slight copper glow to it that drove him nuts. It was always neatly styled and set by eight in the morning, but she hardly had to do anything with it. And she never overdid it, allowing her beautiful hair to look natural and conservative. Her eyes were terrific too. They were very mysterious in that they always appeared to be a different color. Sometimes they were brown; other times, they were green; sometimes, there was even a shade of blue. She had a perfect body to top all of that.

Susan was a physical fitness fanatic. She was deep into aerobics and tried her best to work out every morning. Tommy also loved to work out, but concentrated more on martial arts instead of standard gym class. He studied jujitsu off-campus nightly after his late afternoon college class. The only reason Tommy chose jujitsu was that his preferred art of aikido wasn’t available near his college campus. Just before starting college, and after twelve vigorous years of aikido, he achieved the highest degree belt in aikido. Tommy was eager to try something new to broaden his knowledge of the arts. It was quite a challenge for him since the two styles were entirely different. Still, he picked up on it very quickly and advanced through jujitsu belts quite rapidly.

Tommy was the least violent person anyone knew. He had never actually been in a real fight in his life, besides tournaments and regional meets. Always getting along with everyone, Tommy never really thought a lot about fighting. He merely stuck to martial arts to get out any frustrations and to be at peace with himself if he ever felt out of control or disconnected.

Susan loved to watch him practice. He sometimes even taught her a few things after his classes, combining the jujitsu with the moves he already knew from aikido. He had the skills and techniques to be an instructor but never cared to be a teacher. At least for now. He never argued when she wanted him to teach her a few moves.

William Brass, Tommy’s younger cousin, who was also nineteen, was more disciplined than Tommy could ever be in his life. He was an Air Force Cadet attending his freshman year at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. He was studying aeronautical sciences and math on a full-ride scholarship. Willy, as everyone called him, qualified for the Dean’s Ace during his first semester.

Though he committed most time to academic duties, Willy always found time to be with his family during the holidays. As an early Christmas present, Willy’s parents sent him to New York for the Christmas gathering. His parents couldn’t make it themselves because of their family business in Washington picking up so much during the holidays.

Tommy and Willy’s fathers were very close, starting a furniture business together when they were just out of high school. Work always seemed slow up until the holidays since most people wanted to buy custom-built furniture items for their loved ones at Christmas. Since Ed flew out to New York for the traditional get-together, his brother Simon stayed behind to take care of the business.

Sitting on the other side of Tommy was Bethany Brass, the only child of Ed and Simon’s younger brother George. He and his wife Francine remained in New York while his two brothers moved to Washington to follow their dreams.

Beth wasn’t always as happy as most kids her age. She was very mature for a fourteen-year-old. She was relatively quiet most of the time, silently holding back feelings that she figured no one else would understand. Though Beth didn’t believe anyone could notice, it was quite noticeable on the outside. She was disgusted by the façade her parents portrayed while they stayed at the White’s house for the holidays. Whenever George and Francine were in public or around family, they were two different people. No one else noticed the change except Beth.

Despite her bottled-up feelings, she was still able to muster up some fun in her life. She was laughing and giggling like all of the other teenagers during the spooky storytelling. She had always looked up to Tommy from the time she met him, never getting too far away from him when they were in the same room. Tommy always seemed to look out for her. She had a crush on him since she could remember, and his corny stories always cheered her up. He was invariably sweet to her, unlike their cousin Skip, who always pushed her around. She trusted Tommy, almost to the point where she could tell him what was bothering her all of the time.

Janice White, the same age as Susan, was the oldest daughter of Rustle and Amy White. She had just started college in the fall and loved every minute of it. Her blond hair was full of life, and the animate expression of sheer happiness always graced her face. She very rarely frowned. Her smile was as perfect as any up and coming model, and her full-featured body brought forward steady confidence. She was studying to become an actress, attending many theatrical classes at the Buffalo Academy of Arts. Janice and Tommy got along great because they both loved being comical and tried to stay as young as possible at every given opportunity. Almost daily, she let everyone know her dream was to become an actress.