Title: Fury from Hell
Author: Rochelle Campbell
Series: From Hell Series (Book 1)
Genre: Paranormal/Cop Thriller (with dashes of Horror & Suspense)
Publisher: Self Published
Release Date: Sept 9 2014
Edition/Formats Available In: eBook
Blurb/Synopsis:
Fury From Hell is a paranormal thriller
about good vs. evil. Here, the good is
in the form of Detective Jennifer Holden, a homicide cop that is haunted by her
own personal demons of a murder she committed when she was just a
teenager. The trauma she suffered at the
hands of social agency after agency hardened Jennifer into a staunch atheist
making her gun and her bank account the only things she truly believes in.
We meet Detective Holden, shortly before
she begins working on her first solo murder case. The victim is Kyma Barnes who was brutally
raped and killed. As Kyma’s soul leaves her body, a demon being called by a
coven of dark witches at nearby Prospect Park, is drawn to the dying woman by
her death throes. Fury Abatu offers to
avenge Kyma’s death. The price? The
dying woman’s soul. Kyma gives it gladly
to ensure the man who killed her pays dearly.
At the crime scene, Jennifer becomes
possessed by Fury Abatu. Hosts usually
die a violent death within weeks of the initial possession. Detective Holden
does not know she is possessed…
With her own demise on the line, Jennifer
must fight for her life and her very soul – something she’s not sure she even
believes in – to rid herself of the dark force surrounding her and her friends.
Can Jennifer be saved from the demon? Will she be able to find the faith to believe
in something greater than herself and her material things?
~ * ~
Excerpt:
November
1st, 12:42 A.M.
With butterflies stomping around in her
belly, Jennifer reached the crime scene in under twelve minutes. The brisk walk made her perspire even though
it was a cool night. There were several
officers milling about. Jennifer walked
under the police barricade and headed towards the back of the site where the
bulk of cops congregated.
She took a deep breath and said to the
nearest officer, “I’m Detective Holden and I’ve been assigned this case. Who was first on scene? And what do you know?”
The false bravado seemed to ring true to
the officers in the vicinity and they jerked to attention mumbling the name
Saks.
Holden was feeling pretty good until they
turned, looked around and saw her.
“Oh…Holy Holden. It’s just you,” said Saks, a rookie barely a
year out of cadet school.
Jennifer cringed inwardly at the moniker
but kept her poker face intact. Her
already fraying nerves unraveling just a hair more.
“I was first on-scene. I heard a blood-curdling scream and came
running down the block — I was on Hoyt but closer to Schermerhorn. By the time I got here the perp was gone and the
girl — dead and totally jacked up. I
mean unrecognizable. Her ID says she’s
Kyma Barnes and she was a looker. Perp
played with her for quite a while before he did her in. She’s a bloody mess!”
While he was speaking, Jennifer drifted
closer to the body. Just as he finished,
she caught the first glimpse of the victim.
Jennifer’s hand immediately went to her mouth. Her stomach heaved.
“Six years on the job and she’s like a
damned rookie. Watch it boys, the
Detective in Charge is gonna to blow,” said Saks.
Shaking her head from side to side,
Jennifer was oblivious to the comment as she tried to get away from the body so
she wouldn’t defile the remains any further.
Images flickered shutter-like in front of her eyes. Her uncle ripping her orange coat with the
pumpkin buttons. Him, above with her
knees spread wide. Blinking it all back but losing badly, Jennifer tried to
swerve around the body and tripped on the blue tarp flapping in the slight
breeze. She fell just above the victim’s
head bashing the side of her own face.
Jennifer was near enough that the victim’s bloody hand was splattered
with vomit.
Behind her she could hear the sound of
laughter, back slapping and a loud guffaw.
Jennifer blinked and attempted to wipe the filth out of her eyes but an
impossible image arrested her gaze — two eyes dripping with blood ensconced in
a reptilian female-looking face.
The hallucination was accompanied by a
feeling of prickly heat all over her body effectively chasing away her
childhood demons. A loud shriek pierced
her ears forcing Jennifer to cover them and shut her eyes. Then, just as suddenly, the sensation and
sound stopped simultaneously. Jennifer
cautiously opened her eyes. All she saw
in front of her was the claw-like hand of her victim, Kyma Barnes.
Fully ensconced in the detective, the Fury
pushed up the image of the little gun under the tarp. Jennifer moved her eyes and saw a denser
blackness further under the tarp. She moved
her hand and grasped the gun.
>> Keep it…<<
Jennifer’s mind accepted the command
without question. Still partially
underneath the tarp, Jennifer rolled over onto her knees with her back towards
the still laughing cops and she pocketed the gun. The Fury wiped away all of her conscious
mind’s recollection of doing so.
“You gonna stay under there all night,
Holden? Even if you don’t have a life,
the rest of us do!”
“Come on, Saks, give her a break. This is a rough one. The victim was beaten, raped and
sodomized. I had to step away for a
minute to get my stomach under control.”
Detective Yearwood bent down and held out a
clean tissue to Jennifer. She took it
gratefully and began wiping her face from a sitting position not trusting
herself to stand just yet.
She pushed herself up and looked down at
Kyma’s body and saw it as if for the first time in sharp detail. She went and stood by the victim’s feet and
angled her head to take in what she saw.
Grabbing her notebook she noted the angle of the victim’s legs — both
still tented but the right one bent outward more than the left.
He’s probably a righty; he used his left
knee to separate her legs and probably leaned on his left arm to balance.
She leaned over and sure enough found
indentations in the hard-packed earth.
“Hey, did anybody take a cast of the
indentations on her right side? We may
get lucky and get a print out of that.”
“Holden, of course I did that. I’m not a rookie anymore,” Saks said in a
pained voice.
Still observing, Holden looked at Kyma’s
arms and face. Frozen on Barnes’ ravaged
face Jennifer swore she saw satisfaction.
She noted the observation down and continued her investigation. Squatting down near the bloodied hand over
the cement, she inspected it. There was
a lot of blood. Most of it probably the
victim’s but Jennifer’s gut told her some of the perp’s blood was there,
too. The prickly heat sensation ran up
her spine and her eyes were drawn to the victim’s breasts. They looked mangled. Getting really close, Jennifer pulled out her
penlight and directed it around the black and blue aureole.
“Saks, did you get a saliva sample from her
left breast?”
“A what?
Are you crazy? He was just twisting and pulling at her and don’t you see
the knife marks all over her stomach?”
“Yeah, I do but you didn’t see the minute
teeth marks on her breast. What? Are you afraid if you look at her breasts too
long you’ll get a woody?”
The other cops smirked and a few soft jeers
could be heard. Still very close to
Jennifer, Yearwood said, “Good one, Holden.
Get ‘em where it hurts.”
“Get over here and do your job, Saks. Maybe with real police work we can actually
catch the perp you let get away,” Jennifer snapped off her light and stood
up. She felt strong and secure in
herself which was a generally unheard of feeling for her. Jennifer shook it off and looked down at Kyma
Barnes’ remains.
“Nasty way to die.”
“It is,” Yearwood responded.
“I’m going to get this bastard,” Jennifer
said with a ferocity that made the hair on the back of Yearwood’s neck
rise. He looked at her. Something about her was…off.
“Holden, you okay tonight? You seem…different.”
“Different?
Different how? I’m not the one
who likes reading the obituaries every damned day,” she said, her eyes slitting
dangerously.
Yearwood took an imperceptible step back
and decided to ignore the slight.
“Dunno.
You seem really on top of your game tonight — I’m liking it…a lot.”
Appeased, Jennifer smiled. Yet, to Yearwood, her smile had a feral
quality to it but he decided to keep that to himself. In a lightning fast move, Jennifer gripped
his hand and shook it. It was a firm,
manly, shake.
“Thanks, Yearwood. You don’t know how much I appreciate your observation.”
He gazed down into her eyes and noticed for
the umpteenth time that her eyes had lighter brown flecks in them. He shoved down his feelings again but felt a
slight surge of energy and hope. His
hand was still wrapped around hers and he took a deep breath consciously
releasing the soft hand that suddenly seemed so extraordinarily strong.
“Looks like you’ve got this case well
underway, Holden. I’ll let you have at
it.”
He stepped back trying to slow his racing
heart and hide the growing excitement in his nether region. He nodded at her and the other officers and
walked off briskly heading towards the wire fence.
Jennifer turned back to the scene and
looked for more clues that would help her find the man who did this. While working, it came to her that she had
finally found an overriding desire to do her job. Too stunned to deal with the revelation, she
put it on the back burner to mull over later.
Deep inside Jennifer’s psyche, the Fury
smiled at Jennifer’s realization. It was
no revelation; it was merely the subtle prodding of the demon. The Fury hoped this host was ready for what
more was to come.
~ * ~
Author Information:
Writing has been a ‘thing’ I’ve done for
well over 20 years. I started off in
journalism and was bitten by the fiction bug in college. Through a series of fortunate events, I found
an awesome Sci-Fi writing mentor – Jacqueline Lichtenberg. I studied with her for two years and began
formulating plots that she approved of…mostly.
Then, one day, I saw a plume of steam rising up from a manhole and the
idea of a Fury coming out/through and Fury From Hell was born.
Author Links:
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Amazon Author Page
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