Slave: The Ghost of Cambria - Book Two

The Story Until Now

Dear Reader,

This entry is meant to provide a refresher of Alive- Book One in The Ghost of Cambria Series.  This is not a stand-alone novel, and you will want to begin the story with the previous book.  You may skip forward to Chapter One now if Alive is still fresh in your mind.

Thank you and enjoy! - Joseph Stone

Tony De Luca, a young man who dreamed of becoming a carpenter and artist, offered a retired widower, Richard Cole, the chance of a lifetime.  Tony would help to restore Richard's dilapidated craftsman-styled home in the seaside hamlet of Cambria, California, in exchange for nothing more than the cost of materials.  The ambitious young man had hopes of starting his career with Richard's house.  Tony intended to photograph his work on the remodeled home to begin a marketable portfolio of his artistry. 

To celebrate his great luck, Richard opened a bottle of wine and drew a bath to celebrate.  After the water had filled the tub, Richard turned to undress and found an unknown man standing in the bathroom doorframe.  The tortured stranger attempted to speak but remained silent as if the words would not come. In moments, Richard was violently flung backward, forcing him to strike the cast-iron tub with his head.

   Kristen Cole, a thirty-three-year-old clinical psychologist in San Diego, was informed of the terrible accident that had taken her father's life.  As his benefactress, and on the advice of her real estate agent, Kristen decided to give the house a refurbishment before she would place it on the market to sell.  When Tony hadn't heard back from Richard regarding his offer, the young man visited the house where Kristen to relayed the news of her father's death.  In time, Kristen hired the inexperienced twenty-four-year-old Tony to oversee the refurbishment of the house.

   As the remodeling began, Kristen met a colleague of her father's, Ryan Hoffman.  Just two years older than she, Ryan had already accomplished more than most people do in a lifetime.  A veteran of the U.S. Navy and Yale University graduate, Ryan started his own defense consultancy that made him a multi-millionaire.  In search of a new challenge, Ryan stepped back from his company to become a professor at the local university, where he befriended Richard Cole.  Comforting Kristen after her father's death, Ryan courted her and soon began a genuine romance with the woman of his dreams.  For the first time since childhood, thoughts of marriage enter Kristen's mind.

   An erotic dream about young Tony took Kristen one afternoon.  As the dream was ending, Tony's face was replaced by another man's, one she'd never before seen.  He asked her to allow him to love her.  Flustered upon waking, Kristen's memories of the dream were placed aside.

   On his first day of work, Tony examined the house to find a warped wooden panel at the back of the living room coat closet.  When he attempted to remove the board, the lightbulb above his head shattered. Tensions rose between Kristen and Tony as the coming days of renovation work exposed the liabilities of his inexperience.  Kristen followed Tony to his workshop to confront him, presuming he'd left the job early that day to goof off.  Instead, she found the young man hard at work.  Embarrassed by her own lack of trust, Kristen's conciliatory gestures began greater communication and friendship between her and the handsome young man.

   After a series of dates with Ryan, Kristen had an erotic dream about him.  During the event, Kristen realized she was dreaming.  As Kristen turned her head to see Ryan's face during their lovemaking, she was confronted by the face of the same unknown man.  When Kristen became sure that she was no longer dreaming, the stranger vanished, horrifying her.

   Kristen believed that she had hallucinated the experience due to the stressors of losing her father, and consulted a therapist to get a second opinion.  She had slept poorly after her father's death, consuming unwise amounts of caffeine and alcohol that had clearly unbalanced her mind.  In an attempt to ground herself, Kristen adopted a young Husky named Penelope from the local shelter to go jogging with. 

The dog fell in love with Tony, but the young man was agitated by Kristen's decision to adopt such a challenging breed without first considering its needs. He chastised her for proposing to keep the active animal in an apartment when she would return home to San Diego. An argument ensued that resulted in Kristen having angry sexual relations with Tony, an act that left her feeling mad at herself.  Kristen told Tony that theirs must be a professional relationship and asked him to agree to forget their carnal mistake.  Reluctantly, he agreed.

   The next morning, Kristen found that Penelope had caused havoc to the worksite.  She had knocked over tools, chewed on everything she could find, and scratched wildly on the living room closet door.  Tony arrived moments later and began the dog's obedience training, as well as her owner's.

   Sleeping better with Penelope at her side, Kristen investigated research on parapsychology, finding more peer-reviewed scientific journals than she dreamed might exist for the maligned field. When her eyes grew tired, she listened to a comedy podcast about ghosts and the paranormal.  The plucky host discussed several accounts of hauntings, many of which occurred around three o'clock in the morning.  In time, and with Penelope resting happily by her side, Kristen fell asleep.  At three-fifteen in the morning, Kristen awoke to the sound of scratching from downstairs.  Realizing that Penelope had somehow left the closed master-bedroom, Kristen found the courage to go downstairs alone.  Sourcing the scratching to the living-room closet, Kristen found Penelope in the darkened closet, where she scolded the dog for leaving the bedroom.

   Ryan arrived at Kristen's house, unannounced, to ask her on an impromptu date.  Taking Ryan up on his offer, Kristen noticed that Tony was clearly jealous of her inclination to date the man.  As the pair were leaving on their date, Tony removed his shirt in an apparent attempt to intimidate his perceived rival with his strong young body.  After a romantic time where Ryan brought their relationship still closer, Kristen came home and immediately struck up an argument with Tony over his earlier behavior.  The fighting again served to arouse Tony and led to a second sexual encounter between the two.  In the end, Kristen dismissed her previous concerns about maintaining a professional relationship.  She was scheduled to leave for San Diego and place the house in Tony's hands the next day, so their affair would end by default.

   Ryan returned to Kristen's house, again unannounced, and invited Kristen on another impromptu date.  Reluctantly, Kristen agreed, announcing to the irritated Tony that she would be home before he left work for the day.  Ryan took Kristen on a tour of local vineyards, relying on the auto-drive feature of his sports car to drive them between locations when they became intoxicated.  Their relationship continued to flower as Ryan asked Kristen about her opinion on marriage.  Kristen joked that she could never think about such a thing with someone she hadn't yet tried out in bed. 

   Tony received a call from a very drunken Kristen, who asked him to leave the house lights on before he would leave work. She insisted she would not be coming home before the end of his workday.  Without emotion in his voice, Tony agreed, but almost punched a hole in the wall when they hung up on the call.  Again annoyed, Tony focused his anger on how Kristen has not taken her restless dog for a walk all day.  Receiving Penelope's affection, Tony took the dog home with him, leaving a note for Kristen to say that he would bring her back in the morning.

   As Kristen and Ryan's date wound down, she asked him to take her home.  Extraordinarily drunk and lost of all inhibition, Kristen teased Ryan as the vehicle drove them back to Cambria, giving him oral sex in the car.  When the couple arrived in her home, they immediately made for her bedroom.  Before they began, Ryan left Kristen to use the ensuite bathroom, where she soon heard him fall down, presumably from being so intoxicated.  Laughing and waiting for him to finish, Kristen soon fell asleep. Shortly after three, Ryan woke her with his lovemaking, returning the oral favors from earlier on their date. In the dark of the early morning hour, Kristen never opened her eyes until their lovemaking is finished.  When she rose to use the bathroom herself, she found Ryan dead on the bathroom floor.  His body laid in a pool of urine and blood, its edges dried under his head, a frozen expression of horror on his face.