Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Cane
    The Cane
    The Cane
    Ebook77 pages1 hour

    The Cane

    By Gerry McDowell

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Meet James! He is just a regular guy with the same issues as everyone else until he gets pulled into a life and death struggle with the mysterious and horrific things that go bump in the night. Discover how James finds the power to do the most amazing things while he encounters an outrageous and terrifying runaway situation.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisheriUniverse
    Release dateSep 27, 2012
    ISBN9781475947830
    The Cane
    Author

    Gerry McDowell

    Gerry McDowell is a native of Benson, North Carolina. Growing up in open country gave him the opportunity to develop a fertile imagination. If you’ve read “The Cane” then you’re already aware of his penmanship. He now lives in Erwin, North Carolina with his wife Carolyn and their dogs PJ and Bandit.

    Related to The Cane

    Related ebooks

    Horror Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Gnome

      Oct 1, 2019

      The Gnome
      5 min read

    • Article

      Home For The Holidays

      Aug 10, 2021

      It’s been a year since I’ve been home. I missed Christmas because of work, so Thanksgiving marks a full lap around the calendar. My mom’s been complaining lately about how difficult things have gotten for her. Everything seemed so out of reach, so im

      7 min read

    • Article

      House Of Horrors

      Nov 26, 2020

      House Of Horrors
      4 min read

    • Article

      It Happened To Me…

      Jan 26, 2023

      It Happened To Me…
      7 min read

    • Article

      DON’T GO INTO The Cellar!

      Jan 21, 2020

      DON’T GO INTO The Cellar!
      4 min read

    • Article

      Festival

      Sep 15, 2018

      My husband, who loved festivals, who was a great fan of festivals, wanted to get to the square in time for the first band at eleven o’clock. From bed, the dog and I watched him dress. He tried on various T-shirts, declaring some of them too tight and

      13 min read

    • Article

      The Bathroom

      Jun 10, 2024

      Content Disclosure: Sexual Innuendo The garage light flips on like a flashbulb, freezing me in a mug shot. “Del, you out here?” my wife says sleepily as she steps down the cement riser. She looks at me standing before the window; then her attention i

      12 min read

    • Article

      Kids & Angels

      Jun 25, 2019

      Kids & Angels
      4 min read

    • Article

      After “The End”

      Oct 10, 2022

      I walked down the road with a hunched back and a wet cigarette in my mouth—the fire had died a while back. My hands were tucked into the pockets of my jacket, and my hair fell over my face, limiting my sight. But I wasn’t really seeing where I was go

      10 min read

    • Article

      Good Bones

      Mar 19, 2020

      Good Bones
      18 min read

    • Article

      Little Gods

      Jan 8, 2020

      Little Gods
      8 min read

    • Article

      Pop, Fizz, crash!

      Dec 7, 2023

      Pop, Fizz, crash!
      5 min read

    • Article

      Diary Of A Country Mouse

      Mar 3, 2020

      THURSDAY, 10 DECEMBER. Giles shows us the sample mice and I am, as if for the first time, overcome with joy. Perhaps when I was a child I had feelings like this—but not in many years. I look, for instance, at a small gray mouse, smaller than the othe

      17 min read

    • Article

      The Family Plot

      May 7, 2020

      The Family Plot
      10 min read

    • Article

      Six Stories

      Sep 8, 2020

      I’m on the train, traveling alone, with two seats to myself. I have to use the restroom. Without thinking about it carefully, I ask a couple across the aisle if they would please watch my things for me for a moment. Then I take a closer look at them

      8 min read

    • Article

      The Man On THE STAIRS

      Nov 26, 2020

      The Man On THE STAIRS
      4 min read

    • Article

      THE WALLS Have Eyes

      Aug 6, 2019

      THE WALLS Have Eyes
      4 min read

    • Article

      Cricket League

      Sep 1, 2022

      First prize 10 and under Tang Li, age 9 Palmetto Bay, FL My name is Anisa. I was in Hawaii on vacation. I enjoyed sipping refreshing drinks, overlooking the turquoise ocean, and dancing with others, before I overheard that the priceless Fire Ring wa

      10 min read

    • Article

      The Thing That looked Like Me

      Sep 28, 2021

      The Thing That looked Like Me
      3 min read

    • Article

      It Happened to Me…

      Nov 4, 2021

      When my son was around one, many items of his clothing began to inexplicably disappear. I can’t over-emphasise the inexplicable nature of what occurred – all the items unquestionably disappeared in my house. The house is always secure, and there is n

      8 min read

    • Article

      Night Light

      Oct 25, 2019

      Night Light
      3 min read

    • Article

      Henry Winkler

      Jan 8, 2024

      Henry Winkler
      6 min read

    • Article

      Begin Again

      Jun 14, 2022

      My grandfather came to live with me. There was nowhere else for him to go. What had happened to all his children? Death, decay, exile—I hardly know. My own parents died of pain. But I must not be too gloomy, at the beginning, or you will leave me, an

      6 min read

    • Article

      The Duplex

      Jun 9, 2020

      I moved to Los Angeles to sing. When was this? August? June? I was twenty-nine, and those were shapeless months, when the days blended together and I refused to pull them apart. My landlord was unusually close to her adult son. His name was Jeffrey,

      21 min read

    • Article

      Greetings Earthlings

      Sep 7, 2023

      Greetings Earthlings
      5 min read

    • Article

      It Happened to Me…

      Apr 21, 2022

      It Happened to Me…
      8 min read

    • Article

      The Party’s Over New Hope

      Nov 26, 2020

      Emily Casey, 24, from Darwen Rifling through the kitchen drawers, I cursed myself for not being organised. ‘There must be a pen in here somewhere,’ I said. Finally, an old biro popped its little head out from under a pile of old bills. ‘Yes! Got ya

      6 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Cane

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      The Cane - Gerry McDowell

      Copyright © 2012 by Gerry McDowell.

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

      This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

      iUniverse books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:

      iUniverse

      1663 Liberty Drive

      Bloomington, IN 47403

      www.iuniverse.com

      1-800-Authors (1-800-288-4677)

      Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

      Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

      Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

      ISBN: 978-1-4759-4782-3 (sc)

      ISBN: 978-1-4759-4783-0 (ebk)

      iUniverse rev. date: 08/28/2012

      Contents

      CHAPTER 1

      CHAPTER 2

      EPILOGUE

      ABOUT THE AUTHOR

      CHAPTER 1

      It all started with a cane, a simple walking stick. It had a way of falling in your path just as you walked by, it always somehow got between your legs, crossways, and always gave you a good trip. No matter where I put it down, be it in the corner, beside the chair where I was last sitting, or against a wall, it always would get you. I know this must sound pretty silly to you, but you had to be there to witness it.

      The reason I needed a cane in the first place was because of a couple of ruptured discs in my lower back. And because of those discs, I had to endure three surgeries, the last being a spinal fusion operation that resulted in the placement of two metal plates and eight very long screws imbedded in my lower spine. Due to a problem with the screws, my left leg had the tendency to collapse. I could be walking along as fine as you please, and the next thing I’d know I would be on my way down. There would be no warning or anything. That’s why I liked to keep the cane close by. You can imagine how I feel about that. I am only forty-six years old, but I get around like a very old man when my leg is acting up. I hate it.

      My name is James, my wife, Susan and I moved into this house fifteen years ago. We were very pleased with the purchase because the price was very reasonable. Now that I think about it, I should have known that something was wrong. The house was perfect. It was just the right size for my wife and me and our daughter Wendy. The other homes we’d looked at that were the right size, were way over our budget. So when we heard about this house we jumped on it. Of course no one volunteered any information about the house. I’m sure that almost everyone knew about the strange things that went on in the house, but no one was talking. From the beginning, it always felt as if someone were following you as you walked through the house. It felt as if they were about four or five feet behind you, but when you’d turn to look there would be no one there. There were times when you could walk into a room and stop abruptly, because it felt as if you were about to walk into someone. But we grew accustomed to that as the years passed. As a matter of fact, we joked about it to friends and relatives when we’d have cookouts and parties. I don’t care how many movies you see about ghosts and poltergeists; nothing can prepare you for the real thing. But I digress; let me tell you what happened to me.

      Our next door neighbor, Don, gave us a little kitten. She was the prettiest little thing. We named her, Precious. While she was with the litter, she was the friskiest one in the bunch. But after two days in our home she became mean. She would scratch, bite, and growl at you with very little provocation. The only time she was her old self was when she was outside. She would play with her ball of twine and chase butterflies, as most kittens will. But the moment you’d try to take her back in the house, she would have an instant mood swing. I never could figure that out.

      Then one night, in the latter part of May, I was startled awake by a lot of loud screaming and thumping. It sounded like World War Three was happening in my living-room. It sounded like someone was using a two by four to bang on the walls and the floor. Since Susan was at work, (she worked nights), I knew I was in big trouble, because I was supposed to be the only person at home. I heard Precious cry out in pain, so I knew someone was trying to hurt her. I went to the gun rack and got my deer gun, quickly loaded it, and went to the aid of my poor kitten. What I found was the beaten and battered remains of my sweet Precious. It looked as if she had been thrown into a meat grinder. Though her head was intact, it was badly deformed. It looked like someone had tried to stomp her head flat, but had only succeeded to stomp the shape out of it. Both of her eyes had popped out and were hanging by their nerve roots. The rest of her body was almost unidentifiable. It was so beaten and battered that it was almost flat. In some places the skin had ruptured, allowing her intestines to poke out. One of her hind legs were broken in so many places that it was folded back and around like there were no bones there at all.

      Blood was everywhere. It was splattered on the walls and the hardwood floor of the hallway, and through the door to the living room. The carpet in the living room had a big round pool of blood just inside the door, and in the center of the pool of blood was Precious. As I stood there looking at my poor kitten my knees buckled, and I just leaned back on my heels down on my knees, and gave a primal yell. I screamed, Whoever did this is dead!

      Then I jumped up

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1