Prey Until Dawn - an authorized excerpt

Prey

Until

Dawn

by

Daryn Guarino

Prey Until Dawn

Copyright © 2012 by Daryn Guarino

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical or otherwise, including photocopying, recording, rebinding, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the express written permission of the publisher or the author.

For additional information, please contact Daryn.Guarino@gmail.com

To My Sons, Connor and Morgan

I did my best to keep the magic alive for you. You are my finest creations and you make me proud every single day. Thank you for being more than I ever thought possible.

DISCLAIMER

This is a work of pure fiction. The events and people in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to any actual person, living or dead, is purely coincidental and really, really frightening to consider.

Contents

1 Montgomery's Farm 1

2 The Librarian 69

3 Summer Diary 165

4 Sins Of The Father 251

5 Aiding & Abetting 459

1Montgomery's Farm

- Doctor Logsdon's Comments -

I met Gibson Bickel in early June of 2010 when he became a person of interest in a criminal investigation. It was a complicated case, further complicated by Mr. Bickel's fanciful explanation for the events in question. Complicated cases with especially crazy stories are my specialty, so I was called in to consult with the Pennsylvania State Police. I have several advanced degrees in human behavior, but consider myself to be, primarily, a psychiatrist, a psychiatrist who specializes in criminal matters and crimes committed by the criminally insane. I have studied these types of cases for more than two decades and am considered by my peers to be the foremost American expert regarding the instabilities of a deranged psyche, a prober of the cracks in the criminal mind if you will. I acknowledge that I might be most learned on the subject, but expert? When my shallow knowledge is gathered and stacked, it is a flyspeck against the spreading vastness of the dark topic. Like the planet Mercury passing in front of the sun, can Mercury claim to be master of the dwarfing sun that looms behind it? Only considered in such light, can I claim expertise over criminals and criminal behavior.

Mr. Bickel, a well-nourished and, otherwise, healthy white male of twenty-one years of age, was admitted to the local emergency room after he was involved in an alcohol-related, high speed, single-vehicle wreck. He received Grade Three contusions on the front and back of both of his thighs, deep bruises loaded with clotted blood, a crush injury. His thighs had been squeezed so violently in the crash that the pressurized blood had ruptured the flesh, leaving bloody craters marking each explosive release. He had multiple large gashes on his scalp that required more than sixty stitches to close. Unsurprisingly perhaps, his blood alcohol level was a staggering .33, more than four times the legal limit of .08. Surgical intervention was required to treat the thigh injuries with an external drain remaining in his left thigh. His scalp wounds were cleaned and stitched without incident.

All through his treatment, he told a strange tale. He told anyone who would listen. He emphatically explained it in detail to the emergency room and operating room staff as his injuries were triaged and treated. Since he reeked of alcohol and his words were heavily slurred, his ravings were dismissed as bourbon-addled fantasy and paranoia. When his story remained unchanged on the following day, his mental state immediately came into question. As the police verified some of the more concerning pieces of his story, they discovered a corpse. Mr. Bickel's status as a person of interest solidified at that moment and he was transferred to my care at the Warren State Hospital for the Insane for observation.