314 (34 page)

Alma had her hands in her coat pocket and
was rubbing her thumb against a small piece of soft fabric on her
keychain. The sensation soothed her.

“I know the feeling,” said Aubrey. “I am
zonked.”

Alma stared out the front window as they
drove away. It was foggy out, and it looked like it was going to
rain.

“Whoa,” said Jacker as he pulled the van
over to the side of the road. A car zipped by them on the left and
disappeared into the fog ahead. “What an asshole. I wonder where he
was off to in such a hurry.”

Alma stopped rubbing the fabric on her keys
and pulled them out. She stared at the miniature teddy bear.

“I don’t know,” said Stephen. “And I don’t
care. I just want to go home.”

“Same here,” said Rachel. “I don’t ever want
to go back to that place.”

“Widowsfield,” said Alma as she stared at
the teddy bear. She loved it, and knew that she could use it to
focus on when she was frightened. It was a source of happiness for
her.

“Don’t even say the name,” said Aubrey. “I
don’t ever want to remember that place.”

“Jacker,” said Alma.

“What is it, beautiful?” asked Jacker as he
started to pull the van back onto the road.

“Wait,” said Alma.

Jacker and Stephen turned to look at
her.

She stayed silent for a moment as she
continued to stare at the teddy bear keychain. She couldn’t
remember where she got it.

“Guys,” said Alma. “It’s happening
again.”

“What is?” asked Aubrey

“Widowsfield. 314. It’s the same as before.
Do you remember going into town?” she asked. “We came all the way
here, but I don’t remember anything about the town. Do you?”

They all looked at each other, and finally
Rachel spoke up. “I’m officially creeped out you guys. Alma’s
right. I can’t remember shit.”

“Neither do I,” said Stephen. “Did we get
footage for the show?”

Jacker pulled a purple coin out of his
pocket and stared at it as the others spoke.

“We’re going through the same thing that I
did,” said Alma. “Somehow or another we got tricked. The town
turned us around. It stole something from us.”

“Jacker,” said Stephen. “Turn the van
around. We’re going back.”

“What about the fence?” asked Aubrey.

Jacker turned the wheel and hit the gas.
Gravel spit up behind them as they headed back to town. “Fuck the
fence,” he said as he sped up. “If there’re no guards then I’ll
plow right through the fucker.”

“There’s no fence,” said Stephen. “Look,
there’s a sign right there.”

There was a large, bright billboard on the
side of the road that exclaimed, “Welcome to Widowsfield.”

Jacker drove the van into town and turned
left on Main Street. They pulled up to a stop light and looked
around. The town wasn’t abandoned like they’d been told it was.
There were people on the sidewalk, cars on the road, and even a UPS
truck parked in front of the Anderson Used Book Store.

“This isn’t right,” said Aubrey. “I’ve been
here a ton of times. All of these buildings were boarded up before.
I’m serious, none of this should be here.” She watched a man with
long hair walking on the sidewalk. He had a walkman clipped to his
belt and was in the process of changing CDs.

“Look at the clock on the bank over there,”
said Jacker as he pointed at the bank that shared a parking lot
with the Widowsfield Emergency Services building.

3:13

“Guys,” said Stephen. He looked ashen as he
stared at the UPS truck outside of the book store. “This is
Widowsfield, in 1996.”

Alma saw the bank’s clock change time.

3:14

AFTERWORD

Michael Harper followed the fence that
surrounded Widowsfield until he found a sewer drain on the south
side. He cursed under his breath as he got on his hands and knees
to crawl through the slime. The pipe stank of mold and he held his
breath as he made his way through. Once on the other side he
climbed up a slight incline and found himself in a field with the
middle school within sight.

He checked his pistol to make sure there was
a bullet in the chamber. If his daughter and the reporter thought
they were going to reveal what happened in Widowsfield, they’d have
to go through him to do it.

It was one day until March 14th, and Michael
knew just where his daughter would be staying. “Time to join your
brother, Alma.”

He would finish what he should’ve done
sixteen years ago. Alma Harper had to die.

TO BE CONTINUED…

AUTHOR’S NOTE

And now you’ve officially been cursed! If
you’re anything like me, you’ll start to see the number 314
everywhere.

The curse of 314 was something that started
with one of my friends in high school. We worked at a fast food
restaurant, and after tax several of the meals we served cost
$3.14. All day long my friend would have to say to people, “That
will be $3.14.” We all hated our job, and this monotonous
repetition of a price started to haunt us. Before we knew it, the
number 314 started to show up everywhere in our lives. It appears
with such frequency that it has become a 20 year long joke between
all of us.

That’s the origin of the number, and how it
became a theme for this book. However, there’s a lot more to it
than that. In this book, the characters just barely made a dent in
the mystery that surrounds Widowsfield and what it was that caused
the town to descend into such chaos. This book was focused on Ben
and Alma, and what happened to them at the cabin at the exact
moment that the 314 curse began. Ben was forced to stay, while Alma
was saved. Ben’s spirit was haunted by what he’d experienced, and
the creatures in the mist (The Devil?) used him to craft all of the
horrors that were unleashed upon the populace time and time again
afterward.

In the next book, the role of Cada EIB will
be revealed. Were they the ones that “opened the door” and caused
the event to take place? Why did they purchase the land and then
try to rebuild Widowsfield with mannequins? Those questions will be
answered in the next book.

In each of my books I try to challenge
myself to do something different. In 314, I played with the book’s
structure in an attempt to mimic the idea of the town being stuck
in a constant recurring nightmare. There’s a lot of talk of
circles, or coils, in this book. The structure of the book itself
is a sort of recurring spiral. It is split into three parts. In the
first part, each chapter begins in 1996, and then switches to 2012.
In part two, all of the chapters take place in 2012. In part three,
each chapter begins in 2012, and then switches to 1996, opposite of
what it was in the first part. I wanted to play with this idea of
switching time frames in an attempt to make the reader feel like
they were going in circles, as well as to push the idea that all of
these events were happening simultaneously. I thought it was an
interesting way to make the story-telling mirror the story
itself.

I hope you enjoyed this book, and I also
hope you’ve had a chance to read my other series, the zombie
apocalypse books, Deadlocked. I love to discuss my books with
readers and welcome you to join in the conversation. You can find
me at arwisebooks.com, as well as on the AR Wise Fan Page on
Facebook. I would definitely suggest liking the fan page, because I
give away quite a few things to people there. Currently I am
offering free signed covers of my books! Go ‘Like’ the page so you
can find out how to get one! I can also be reached by email at
[email protected].

Finally, if you enjoyed 314, please consider
leaving a review on whichever site you downloaded it from. Customer
reviews are incredibly important to independent writers like
myself. Every time a good review is posted, not only do more people
learn about my books, but I am also given a chance to be inspired
to write more by knowing that people are enjoying my work!

Thanks to everyone that has supported me,
and I look forward to creeping you out with more horrific books in
the near future!