The Beast of 1977 (Book 1)

An empty, small, quiet church inhabited an equally isolated pasture. Eight pews in all; four on both sides. Down in front, a short pulpit, behind the pulpit, a ten foot tall porcelain statue of Christ Jesus, nailed to a cross that was lanced onto a wall above, looking down with a woeful demeanor.

Like a sudden explosion, the beast crashed straight through one of the windows and into the church, landing on the newly cleaned red carpet. It shook off shards of glass from its thick fur while its mouth was completely soaked with blood.

Its face appeared as evil as the sins that it had been committing all evening long. It crept about the building as though it were in search of something. Its heavy breathing echoed throughout the church.

The demon's immense paws tracked snow, mud and blood all over the floor, leaving both a mess and deep crevices behind it. As it prowled, large globs of feces dropped from its anus; some in small clumps, and others in elephant sized layers.

The ungodly creature, on all fours, plodded around the sanctuary until it found itself in front of the altar. Its glaring eyes happened to look up to see the crucified savior.

At first, the beast only shook its hairy head from side to side like an agitated bull, until it managed to catch the statue's eyes slowly creep open and look back down upon it.At first, both individuals gave each other only hard stares, as if they were waiting for the other to make a move.

Then, the beast, possibly out of a confused rage, opened its mouth wide and let out a vicious roar before slumping down to its knees in agony.

It lied on the carpet, writing in pain. A minute or two passed before the Nazarene, with his crown of bloody thorns perched upon his head, picked the demon up by its shoulders and dragged it away, leaving only a black streak behind on the carpet.Ever so gradually, the beast's snout was beginning to shrink.

There was an uncanny, almost appalling silence in the deep farmland that evening. The natural nighttime sounds, from the hooting owl, to the occasional rambling barking dog, were nowhere to be heard.

A February winters twilight never felt so alone and frigid; it was as if the entire world had left Cuyahoga Falls behind.

Silence never sounded so ugly.

6:37 a.m.

The subzero, overcast sky bared down upon the seven brown and white police cruisers that crept into the driveway of 1941 Prosler Road that following morning.

Both Detective Linus Bruin and his partner, Detective Alan Fitzpatrick climbed out of their vehicle with their individual pistols already in hand. Fourteen other police officers tagged along behind the two, all with their respective weapons drawn.

house. He pulled down his black wool hat tighter on his head as his pale white face grew a shade lighter

wasn't sure just what he would end up finding, but he was certain that nothing was going to catch him off guard; the man had invested entirely too much time and effort into the case to allow it to collapse

up onto the porch, knocked on

officers before returning his attention to the door where he proceeded to muster all of

attempts, the door went flying wide open. The instant he stepped inside, the piercing buzzing sound of a loud device could be heard

called oud, pointing his gun straight ahead while skulking about for

made their way inside. Two ventured down a hallway, while the others stuck

waiting for him on the other end. The buzzing commotion was completely unfamiliar to him. Right then, a blustery wind rushed into the living room from the kitchen. At first he reckoned that his suspect had escaped through a backdoor, which was exactly why his heavy feet paced even

doorway, his brown eyes were immediately bombarded by the grotesque visual of blood layered walls, and what resembled a mass of both torn

the mutilation stood back in both awe and repulsion at the horrendous scene laid out before

who had always hoped that a gunshot victim would be the worst thing that he would ever have to experience in his storied career as an officer, suddenly became ill to his stomach. He didn't want to step into the kitchen, but there were others behind him that were a

a second glance, the officers stampeded their way inside the

"Well," Fitzpatrick cringed, "I'll be dammed."

"No one in the other rooms, Detective," a black officer announced as he ventured into the

fellow officers all tip-toed around the disfigured corpse, but with all of the blood and body parts that littered the floor, it was

"Is this him?" Bruin examined, kneeling down and poking at the

replied while clicking off

Bruin looked up to see the gaping hole in the wall to his right. "And just

same thing that did this," Fitzpatrick

The two men glanced over at each other with confounded glares on

destroyed basement door. "We're going down." He brazenly proclaimed, taking seven other

other unsettling stares as though they had been

glasses and a brown winter coat came rambling into the kitchen. Unlike his

stepped over the carcass, nearly knocking over both Bruin and Fitzpatrick in the process, before approaching the open wall. "What is this?" He