What The Shadows Know--A Stranger's Stranger Wisdom, Ep. 13
Clean Supernatural Suspense Thriller for fans of Frank Peretti & Ted Dekker
“So, you’re just going to call him?” Her mom said over the phone.
“Aren’t you curious?” Beth asked, standing in the kitchen near the phone on her wall.
“What if he’s a serial killer?”
“Well, I guess he could be. But how do you explain the book he sent with those verses?” She tried to convince her mom, needing an ally for courage.
Beth continued to think about the stranger who had sent the note and the odd pages marked with highlights. She had found an unusual solace in the words as they seemed to resonate with her in a bizarre way, a sharp departure from the icy panic that gripped her after the palm reader’s unsettling session and dire warning. Ever since she’d left that day, a presence like an endless night of sinister shadows had followed her, disrupting her days.
No time felt safe anymore.
When she was a child, the morning’s arrival meant she could either forget what had happened or pretend it never did. The piercing sunlight and beaming orb of day would chase away the night’s terror as if the world were filled with promise and hope.
But now, nothing was sacred.
The creatures beyond the veil crept in, even at noon, the darkness slithering in the midday.
Closing in on her.
“What’s his name?”
“Paul, I think,” Beth said.
“It wouldn’t hurt to call. You going to do it right now?”
“Yes, or I might lose my nerve.”
“Well, good luck. Call back if you need anything.”
“I will.”
They said their usual “I love yous”, then hung up.
With the phone still cradled in her hand, Beth opened the old, weathered book that sat on the counter near the sink. The pages splayed apart to the placeholder where she kept the handwritten paper folded inside. Pulling out the note, she read the phone number at the bottom.
Before thinking, she dialed. After the first ring, a male voice came on the line.
“Hello?”
“Is this Paul?”
“Yes.”
“Um, this is Beth. I don’t know if you remember me,” she said, her throat crackling like she had swallowed sand, “but you sent a book.”
“Beth Cane. I remember,” he paused, “How have you been?”
“Good, I guess,” she said for lack of a better response. “I was wondering…”
“Why I sent that to you?” He finished for her.
“Yes.”
“Prayer.”
“Ex-excuse me,” Beth stuttered, not sure she heard correctly, “Did you say prayer?”
“That is exactly what I said.” The phrase rolled off his tongue as if he said it every day.
“I don’t know that I believe in prayer.” She paused, wondering what kind of “prayer” he was referring to. “Like talking to yourself?”
She heard a soft chuckle on the other end. Not a mocking one like she was used to hearing from others. His response seemed genuine, even though slightly amused.
“So not talking to yourself,” she corrected.
“No,” he said softly, Beth sensing a hint of tenderness in his voice before he changed the subject. “The vision of Amelia, when she was missing, where did it come from?”
“Nobody. I just saw it.”
“And what was the source of what you saw? Of the vision?” He gently asked. His almost warm-hearted approach reminded her of when she was a kid at the playground with a friend, whose dad had a voice as soft as her feathered pillow. No pulsating shadow of anger clouded her friend’s father. Quite the opposite, he exuded kindness and…safety.
“I was the source,” she said, confused.
“You, all by yourself?”
“I mean, River used to say it is my power, inside me, but yes.”
“So there’s a source? Like when you plug a fan into a wall socket—a power source. It can’t move or blow without one,” he explained.
“Power, yes,” she said, not sure where this was going.
“I believe in power, too, Beth. It comes from a source. One we don’t usually see with our eyes. One arriving from the unseen realm, like the flow behind the wall to the fan.” He stopped as if thinking of what to say next, then continued, “Just think about the source. That’s all.”
“What do you mean?” she asked. “Are we talking about the vision or something else?”
“More like someone else,” he said quietly. “You’ve been through a lot. Your father wasn’t always the safest person. I know you still jump into the bed, as a 20-something-year-old, because of the darkness you fear under it. I know you feel cursed,” he said, with a bit of sadness.
Beth snatched the phone back, her eyes wide and questioning, as if it held some secret power, before demanding, “How could you possibly know that?”
These weren’t details plastered in newspapers. Her father was a saint according to the public. Not even her friends or most anyone knew except the three who had lived in their house on the dead-end street.
A hero.
The media lauded him as a star.
Her father’s sins and their past were buried with him in the cemetery, under a heavy marble stone. Beth had walked away, swearing never to be like him. She’d plunged her old life deep into the earth.
Promised herself to create a new one. A life she would choose, on her own terms.
But here was Paul. He exhumed her secret life, revealing details not even River knew.
What if he is a serial killer?
Her mom’s words flashed in her mind.
“Have you been stalking me?!”
Beth blurted out the question, her eyes darting around the kitchen. She knew she should hang up, but something compelled her to wait for his answer.
Copyright (C) 2026 T.H. Meyer, Author. All rights reserved.
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What the Shadows Know Blurb—Beth Cane’s glass-house life sits on the shifting sands of New Age promises and unhealed echoes of a traumatic childhood. After being haunted by creeping shadows and disturbing visions, she accepts that she was marked at birth—cursed. But when she encounters a cryptic stranger, his riddles penetrate through the heavy veil of darkness and confusion.
In a world of magic and self-help, the brightest light reveals the blackest shadow once a possessed stalker starts hunting Beth and her family. Hell’s fury appears in both the flesh and the unseen realm, where trust is blurred, and deception is a matter of life or death. In an epic showdown to escape the entities seeking to destroy her, Beth must embrace a mysterious and ancient truth. One that will shatter everything she’s ever known.
Watch Beth’s slow burn from fringe to faith—terrorized to triumph—haunted to healed. For fans of novels by Frank Peretti and Ted Dekker. Expect a bumpy but redemptive ride—eventually.
Free but to Subscribers, only: Want the true behind-the-scenes stories from What The Shadows Know? I’ll be releasing a Director’s Cut, periodically—Only to subscribers. It’ll include narrative stories about my supernatural encounters, my Christian faith behind the words, and inspiration for characters, scenes, or events in the episodes.
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Ooh!! I love this!! Such a great story! Look forward to following the journey and reading more!
Can’t wait to read more!