Sapphire: A Paranormal Romance

Jimmy Parker is a typical high school
student.  Unpopular with the girls and picked on by the boys, he’s just trying
to survive long enough to escape the tiny Pennsylvanian town of Knorr.  With
Jimmy and his friend, George, heading to the school dance, they expect nothing
but the usual ritual humiliation from their peers.  But when a girl in a
brilliant blue dress enters their lives at the side of a lonely old
bridge…everything changes.

Her name is Sapphire, and she is the most
alluring girl that Jimmy has ever met.  Yet, there is something strange about
her; something different.  Why has he never seen her at school?  Why does she
only want to meet up near the bridge?  And why does everybody keep warning Jimmy
to stay away from her?

Before long, Jimmy is plunged into a
decades-old mystery.  The town of Knorr has many secrets; some held by powerful
men.  Men that would do anything to keep them from getting out.  Something dark
happened one night in Knorr, and now Jimmy is a part of it whether he likes it
or not.

And Sapphire holds the key to understanding
it all.

Jimmy discovers that his bond with the
mysterious girl creates a unique power between them.  A power that bridges
time, space, and even dimensions.  It is the one thing that could save them
both.

Because sometimes the most powerful force on
Earth is love.

SAPPHIRE

BY

BRYAN W. ALASPA

This novel is dedicated to the woman I
love more than I ever thought it possible to love another person.  This one,
perhaps more than any other, is for Melanie.

The
novel you are about to read takes place in the same town where my horror novel
The
Dead Phone
is set.  The setting is the small town of Knorr, Pennsylvania,
and since
The Dead Phone
is a novel intended for a different audience
than
Sapphire
, there are a few things you should know.  You do not need
to read that novel to understand this one, but a few things might help explain
some of the reactions characters have in this book.

First, Knorr is set
in the country, and the land is notorious for being filled with hills, trees,
and long, winding, twisting roads.  It is not a place for the faint of heart
when it comes to driving or riding a bike.   More importantly, Knorr is a small
town, with a few hundred people in it.  That means that everyone tends to know
everyone else and everyone else’s business.  Despite this, Knorr is a town
where bad things have happened over time. It is also a town good at hiding
secrets from the outside world.

At one time a serial
killer who was dubbed “the Boogeyman” took children, mostly little girls, from
their beds while the family slept and murdered them.  He would leave grisly
mementos behind for their families before allowing the bodies to be
discovered.  The Boogeyman killings eventually stopped and the town of Knorr
did its best to forget.

At the start of
The
Dead Phone
, non-fiction and true crime author Warren Hollis has rented a
small cabin and intends to research the Boogeyman killings.  He soon finds out
that Knorr is not like any other place on Earth.

The veil between
the living and the dead is very thin in Knorr.  Sometimes one person from one
side of that veil can reach over into the other.  When an antique, disconnected
phone decorating an alcove in the cabin where Warren is staying starts ringing
in the middle of the night, he finds out that the Boogeyman may not have left
Knorr entirely, and that his digging into the past might be stirring up that
monster.  The killings start again, and Warren discovers that his dead phone
can provide him with a bridge across to the other side and he can speak to the
dead, and the Boogeyman himself.

Warren eventually
teams up with a local newspaper editor named Tabitha.  Tabitha is the keeper of
Knorr’s history and has information to share about the Boogeyman case.  The two
of them want to figure out who is killing again and why.  In the course of events,
Tabitha’s newspaper offices are firebombed and several buildings in downtown
Knorr are destroyed in the fire when they face the evil side of Knorr.

As you will see in
this story, Warren, Tabitha, and even the sheriff from
The Dead Phone
make appearances again
Sapphire
.  This novel takes place after those
events, with Warren and Tabitha now married and trying to start their lives
over again, having had all of their illusions about life, death, and
life-after-death shattered.

Knorr is a place
where unusual things happen.   This is another story from Knorr that needs to
be told.  It is probably just the second tale of many of Knorr’s secrets that
refuse to stay hidden.

I hope you enjoy
the journey and come back to Knorr another time.

Bryan W. Alaspa

Chicago, IL

May 2013

Jimmy
stood in front of the full-length mirror and did not like what he
saw.  The sleeves were too short.  The white cuffs of his shirt stuck out from
the sleeves of his jacket.  Any dork could see that. Unfortunately, most of the
student body at Knorr High School already thought of him as a dork.  The last
thing he wanted was feeling that way during his senior prom.  However, here he
was, looking at an image that could only be described as “dork.” 

“No one will
notice,” said his mother from behind him.  She was hovering over his shoulder
like a specter.
 She was smiling and proud.  “You can take it off once you get
there, and no one will even be paying any attention.  Everyone will be too busy
having a good time to care what you’re wearing.”

Jimmy sighed and
tugged uselessly at the jacket’s sleeve.  “Mom, you just have no clue.”

She came forward
and hugged him.  Then she leaned in and kissed him on the cheek.  Jimmy felt
even more like a geek. 

“I’m not supposed
to,” she said.  “Mothers are not supposed to have a clue.”

“Why couldn’t I
have rented one?”  Jimmy asked for the nine-hundredth time that afternoon.

“You know why,”
she said, turning her back and fussing with something out of his sightline. 
“We can’t afford it.  Your uncle had this perfectly serviceable tuxedo and it’s
a shame not to use it.”

She reappeared
beside him in the mirror, her hand on her hip.  Her mouth was a tight line. 
Jimmy knew that poking at the nerve that they were not a family of means was a
low blow.  He had seen that look before.  This was the same look she had given
him as a kid when he wanted a toy that was just too expensive.  It was the same
look she had given him when he begged her for a cell phone.  And he saw the
exact same look from her whenever he talked about needing a car.

“I spent a lot of
time getting the shirt and pants to fit you,” she said.  “I did the best I
could with the jacket.  If you want, you can spend the night at home with me
instead of going at all.  So, either deal with this situation the best you can
or don’t go.  I really don’t care.”

She cared.  Jimmy
knew she cared.  She and his father had worked their fingers to the bone to
provide for Jimmy.  The family had never gone hungry.  They had never been
without clothes.  They may have shopped for their new school wardrobe at
Goodwill, but they had clothes.  They may have eaten more macaroni and cheese
than others, but they were never hungry.  Their car may have been rusted
through and coughed out oily blue smoke, but they always got where they needed
to go.  The house may have been run down and it may have been in the part of
town most of the other kids avoided, but they always had a roof over their
heads.  Then his father had died, suddenly, a few years ago.  The pain was
always there, behind Jimmy’s eyes, lurking around every corner.  His dad had
done what he could to make sure his family was cared for, but it had not been
easy.  His mother worked very hard.

Jimmy smiled his
crooked smile. “Sorry,” he said sheepishly.  “I appreciate it, Mom.  Come on,
it wouldn’t be a weekend if I didn’t complain about something.”

His mother’s face
softened and then her smile returned.  Jimmy managed to turn away, searching
for the bow tie, before she could plant another kiss on him.  He was only
willing to be gracious up to a certain point.  He found the tie and fiddled
with it for a moment.  When he turned back toward the mirror his mother was
fiddling with something behind him again.  He affixed the tie and straightened
it.  He took another look.  His image still said “dork,” but he had lived with
that image for a long time. 

Before too long he
would be elsewhere, and all of the things he had gone through in high school
would be over.  He could live with looking like a dork for another night. 
Besides, he was going with his best friend George, anyway, so things couldn’t
get too bad.

“When is George
getting here?” his mother asked.

“About five more
minutes,” Jimmy said.

“I wish you two
had managed to find some nice girls to ask,” his mother said.

“Mom, there isn’t
a girl in Knorr High School that would be caught dead attending the senior prom
with Jimmy Parker or George Howell,” he said as he adjusted his tie one more
time.  It immediately went crooked again, and he decided that the tie really
didn’t matter.

“I’m sure that’s
not true,” his mother said.

Jimmy turned to
face her.  “Mom, trust me on this one.  George and I are not the most popular
kids in school.  In fact, we are far from it.”

She reached out
and pinched his cheeks.  This was the one thing worse than the kiss on the
cheek.  One thing was certain: his mother had some kind of cheek fetish.

“But you’re such a
smart, nice kid,” she said.

Jimmy snorted. 
“Mom, even in your day the smart and nice kids were not the popular ones in
school, were they?”

She put her hands
on his shoulders.  “I found your father in high school.  He was smart and
nice.”

“He also played
football,” Jimmy said.

“He was the
kicker,” she said.  “You know, back in the old days when dinosaurs walked the Earth,
and your father and I were young.”

“Kickers still
wear uniforms,” Jimmy said.  He paused to make sure his hair looked OK one more
time.  The cowlick towards the back of his head was still there despite the
industrial strength hair gel he had put in there.

Just then, the
phone rang.  Jimmy’s mother vanished into the kitchen and Jimmy turned back to
the mirror and adjusted his tie for the millionth time.  He also tried to
plaster his hair down, but to no avail.  He sighed.  He was always going to
look this way, right?

“Jimmy,” his
mother said, returning to the bedroom.  “It’s Jesse.”

Jimmy smiled. 
Jesse was the town’s librarian.  The library was small, but filled with wonder,
as far as Jimmy was concerned.  It overlooked a river and was surrounded by
touristy attractions, but inside it was all books and musty smells.  Jimmy had
buried himself there when his father died and Jesse had taken a kind of liking
to him.  It may have been a stretch to say that Jesse was a father figure, but
their relationship was pretty close.  Jimmy ran to the phone.

“Hey, Jimmy! Are
you looking sharp in your suit?” Jesse asked.

Jimmy laughed. 
“Jesse, I would not look sharp wearing a suit full of razor blades.”

“Come on, you know
that isn’t true,” Jesse said.  “I’m sure you and George will have a good time. 
Maybe try to get up the nerve to ask a girl to dance.”

“I wouldn’t put
money on that,” Jimmy said.  “I’m betting most of the girls there arrive with
dates.”

“You just never
know,” Jesse said.  “I had a pretty amazing time the night of the big dance
when I was your age.  And I ended up going with a beautiful girl, to boot.  You
need to be a bit more positive.”