A Spiral of Fear

Second Edition. Originally published under the title Lost in Fear. On the east edge of Flagstaff, Arizona, the Brentwood Motel stood dark and silent. In the chilly predawn the sixteen-foot-tall neon cactus road sign loomed blank and dead, its flashing yellow and green replaced by waning milky-blue moonlight. As the stars faded from the Arizona sky, the young woman in unit number fourteen fought to break the grip of a nightmare.
A nightmare she'd had off and on for the last fifteen years. Julie Taylor lunged upright in bed, a scream locked between her clenched jaws, her fingers covering the pale scar under her cheekbone. Julie's chest and back were sweat-drenched, the skin hot and sticky. Her blue cotton gown was plastered tighter than if she'd walked through a shower. The nightmare always left Julie terrified. She blinked at her strange surroundings; it wasn't her room at Mrs.
Hager's house in San Bernardino. It took Julie a minute to remember that she is on the way to Oak Grove, a small town in Arkansas, where she intends to teach school next fall. It is also a place to hide from the evil that threatens to destroy her.