Trouble no. 2 RavenCroft Collection
Chapter 1

“You’re a bit terrifying sometimes. You know that, right?”

Shifting uneasily in the driver’s seat, Kalabernus RavenCroft’s crystal clear blue eyes shimmered within the dark car in distress.

“I’m sorry, Stacey. I don’t mean to be,” he responded urgently, not wanting to frighten her. He peered over at the pretty young woman at his side. At twenty-five years of age, he had finally gone on his first date ever, with a real live girl, and he didn’t want to ruin it. When she’d said yes to his date proposal he’d been dumbfounded. Most women ran from him out of fear, but Stacey Lynn was different.

“I don’t mind Kalabernus. Really, I don’t,” she responded sweetly even as her eyes darted anxiously about her.

He could see her shiver almost violently and knew it hadn’t been from being cold. The heater was on high and warmth flooded the car.

Kalabernus scowled.

Silently he urged the shadows to stop messing with her. The moment he started talking to them to get them to stop he knew he’d lose his chance with her. But they were messing with her bad, and it was angering him.

Two of the troublesome three were swirling around her right before his very eyes, their inky cloud like essence were heckling him gleefully. He knew what they were trying to do. They were attempting to frighten Stacey away, which is what they’d done with every woman he’d ever expressed interest in.

Kalabernus’s beefy hands tightened on the steering wheel angrily as he swore silently. Why couldn’t the shadows just leave him alone?

“Did you enjoy the movie?” he asked, swatting his enormous hand toward Veranke. The inky black creature slithered towards her through the window of the car, joining his cohorts. Stacey jumped, not for the first time baffled by her date’s odd behavior.

“S… sorry.” Kalabernus stammered, “didn’t mean to frighten you.” he said quickly, jerking his hand back. The troublesome three were now at full strength with Veranke present. Their greenish black substance seemed to fill the empty space between them making it hard to see out the passenger window.

“You didn’t.” Stacey smiled easily. “But it‘s starting to rain so you might want to watch the road.” She calmly gestured toward the street in front of her.

“Right, of course,” he replied, turning his head away. She looked so pretty, he couldn’t help but stare. Catching a flash of light out of the corner of his eye, Kalabernus heard the rumble of a thunderstorm coming in the distance. A smattering of tiny water droplets plopped against his windshield - a prelude of the deluge to come.

“Better get you home before it starts pouring,” he replied, enjoying the easy smile she directed his way. He grinned and his heart thudded fiercely in his chest at the notion of a first kiss.

He’d never kissed a woman before either.

In unison, the troublesome three unexpectedly began screeching in a loud crescendo, forcing Kalabernus to cover his ears. Cringing painfully at the sound and the terrifying sight of their blood red eyes glowing with menace, he couldn’t help but shut his own eyes. Whimpering shamefully in distress, he missed seeing the driver speeding toward the town intersection, which had been the demon’s intent.

Kalabernus was unable to careen out of the way.

Darkness seemed to envelop the two individuals within the vehicle as a multitude of eerie evil cries resounded in his ears. Their worlds began to spin as the car flipped from the impact. The sound of screeching, grinding metal upon pavement was the only thing discernable through his otherwise darkened senses. The feeling of weightlessness, as though flying left him disoriented and unaware of the inevitable impact.

Lightning struck nearby as thunder boomed across the city of Loveland, bringing him back to a semi- conscious state mere seconds later. Fragmented sections of light blanketed the sky. An explosion of sound reverberated across the expansive distant mountain side as Kalabernus suddenly erupted in a panic from the sidewalk where he’d been thrown. Ignoring the jarring pain from having hit the hard ground with such force he refused to acknowledge any discomfort existed. He stumbled as he ran, his vision blurring from blood dripping down his forehead. There were jagged cuts from broken glass covering his face and arms and a nasty bump on his head.

Nipping at his heels as they slithered behind him were the ethereal black forms of his tormentors who were always ever present at his side. They cackled in their triumph, circling him as he attempted to run toward the vehicle, whipping around him effortlessly as though in a ritualistic dance of sorts. Normally his body would jerk in place and he’d fall to his knees in a malleable mess but not this time. The panic within him surged, his heart pounding wildly in his vast chest as the determination to save Stacey overcame his fear of the shadows.

Skidding to a halt several feet from the vehicle, which had flipped over and now sat roof first on the pavement, Kalabernus roared in distress.

“Stacey, nooooo!”

Heart filled with dread at the sight before him, Kalabernus could see her small form was pinned beneath the roof of the car.

Cackling at his ear, the demons Veranke and Zalman taunted him further.

“Dead! Ha! Smashed like a little dolly!” Veranke shouted with glee. His oily black vaporous form slithered about Kalabernus, attempting to dissuade him from further movement. “Shame on you!”

“Not paying attention!” Fallen accused while screaming in his ear.

“Murderer! Tsk, tsk, tsk.” Zalman snarled with a devilish eerie grin.

“Get away from me!” Kalabernus hollered, punching through Veranke’s form as though he were a mere wisp of smoke. He charged toward the vehicle as people began descending upon the street from the neighboring restaurants and bar, having heard the accident occur.

Kalabernus frantically attempted to determine the best way to get the car off Stacey. Tears splattered down his cheeks and his face was wrought with tortured emotion. Scrambling around the vehicle, he tried to determine his best leverage point.

“Off! Gotta get it off!” Yelling in a panic, his voice boomed across the street as he sobbed. The onlookers shrunk away, a few pulling out cell phones to call for help even as sirens could be heard in the distance.

Bending down next to Stacey where she lay, he struggled for a hand hold, scraping his fingers on the pavement painfully. Leveraging his body weight, Kalabernus shoved at the car door with his brute strength, causing it to rock and lift slightly, just enough to allow for him to reach under the roof of the car. Taking a firm hold, he groaned and growled, his face contorting from the exertion he was extolling, his jaw clenching as he bit down hard with his teeth. The jagged edge of the roof bit into his hand, cutting him, but he could no longer feel any pain.

Praying, that if there was a God that He’d allow him to lift the car away from the woman pinned below it, Kalabernus heaved with all his might, roaring from the strain. Venting one last guttural cry, he bounced with his knees in his crouched state, then flung the car with such force that it flipped over and landed back onto the roof of the car. It skidded to a halt near the street light.

Oblivious to the shocked, terrified gazes of the pedestrians, Kalabernus bent down toward Stacey’s prone form on the ground. The fact he’d just punted a car across the street as though it were a toy was lost on him, as he took in the pallor of her complexion. It was ghostly white and blood was oozing from her waist where the car had her pinned. Afraid to move her, for fear she might be paralyzed, Kalabernus ripped off his shirt, wadded it up, and pressed it against her waist.

When the emergency vehicles and police cars pulled up seconds later it was to the sight of an eerily quiet crowd and the giant of a man sobbing uncontrollably over a woman lying in the street.

Mumbling incoherently about vengeance and demonic shadows, Kalabernus had to be forcefully pulled away by half a dozen cops and two firemen. Leaning over Stacey the first paramedic grimaced as he tried to feel for a pulse. After making several attempts to jump start her heart, they finally gave voice to what they’d known when they’d first arrived at the scene.

“Time of death.” the paramedic said quietly, closing the young woman’s pretty brown eyes. “Ten thirty-seven.”

“No! No, no, Stacey!” Kalabernus hollered. The shadows in the street, of whom only he could see began whirling about as though in a gleeful dance. More had converged upon the street as the paramedics and officers had worked. Their hazy greenish black forms twisted and gyrated in a grotesque fashion. They mocked Kalabernus and hindered the many officers from working the scene to assist the other driver. Their blood red eyes gleamed in satisfaction at the reaction they were instilling within him as they tripped people, caused them to fumble, or distracted them with other matters by whispering in their ears.

“Stop it, all of you! You blasted cursed demons! How dare you? How could you do this?” Kalabernus shouted. Running about the street he punched at the air, looking like a wild man having gone crazy from drink.

“You wretched, vile creatures! You did this!” he roared. “You caused this to happen!” Kalabernus swung around suddenly, arms swiping through their shapeless forms as they dissipated and reappeared behind him. He was unaware of the frightening, even terrifying spectacle he was creating for those watching from the street who couldn’t see what he could.

“How could you? She was all I had!” he shouted, his voice echoing in the night as he spun around, his haunting blue eyes flashing brightly in the dim street lights. His short black hair clung to his head from the blood dripping off his forehead from his own injuries.

“Did you lose your friend?” The shadow Fallon wheezed, twisting itself into the form of a man without a clear face.

“We?” Veranke mocked next to Fallen, taking a similar form. “Why would we care for her? Why would we…?” They laughed evilly as Kalabernus lashed out at them enraged and disgusted by their callousness, not caring what kind of scene he might be making.

They wrapped around him then, taking leave of their human forms as they slithered about him. Head bowed Kalabernus’s shoulders slumped in defeat. He cried out at the night sky, hopelessness overwhelming him. Shaking his head as the rain erupted from the sky and began to pour down upon him in torrents he glared back at Stacey’s lifeless body then slumped to the ground with a tortured cry.

Arriving at the scene of the accident Bastion RavenCroft emerged from his son’s Deputy Sheriff’s cruiser. Seeing first the sheet covered body on the ground he turned in alarm toward the sound of a wounded animal wailing into the night. Kalabernus’s vast shirtless frame was bent over on the ground. His haunted, pain filled, bloody expression filled in the blanks without the need for questions. Troubled by the scene before him, he moved purposefully toward his son only to be stopped.

“Wait, dad! You need to hear this.” Kalturek halted his movements.

“Not now, Kalturek. Your brother needs me,” Bastion declared heatedly, attempting to move past him.

“No, dad, stop! Just listen,” Kalturek insisted, guiding the figure next to him closer so his father could hear.

Irritated Bastion scowled. “What is it then?”

Sniffling as she sobbed the young woman before him appeared both frightened and in awe as she spoke. “He lifted it off her.”

“Sorry?”

“Kalabernus, sir,” Angela said quietly, anxious to be speaking with the RavenCroft patriarch in person. The man made for a formidable sight himself in his black Stetson and duster. “I think he was trying to save her. He… well, he just lifted the car up off her and threw it over there. “

Pointing toward the mangled vehicle butting up against the stop light Bastion’s gaze followed the direction of her arm. Startled by what she said Bastion recognized the woman and realized she’d gone to school with his sons as well as Stacey.

“Did he really?” Bastion was astonished. She nodded and his gaze shifted toward Kalabernus where he knelt in the street. He had always been a giant among men, but Bastion never imagined he’d be capable of such immense strength as to lift a car.

“It took eight men to get him away from her so the paramedics could work.” Emotion charged Kalturek’s voice as he spoke.

An agonizing wail emitted from Kalabernus’s throat, piercing the night air. Bastion grimaced then strode with purpose toward Kalabernus. At twenty-five years of age, Stacey Lynn had been his son’s first crush, his first love, and his first and only date. Noting the frightened gazes of the many female onlookers who were shrinking away from the scene, Bastion had to acknowledge, in that moment, that Stacey had likely been his last.

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