Chapter 1. Ronny *ring ring ring* BILLIE: Welcome to ‘shopNshare’, this is Billie speaking, how may I be of assistance? RONNY: Yeah, uh, the microwave I got from you guys is broken. I want a refund. BILLIE: Alright sir, can I please have your customer ID? RONNY: Nah. Forgot what...
The Fool Stepping off the gravel path onto the grass, I stop to let my eyes take in the trees draped in vines all around me. Pedro, my youngest grandchild, takes my hand and helps me hobble over to a small stone bench, almost hidden under...
Shorty Small, a man neither short nor small, sat in the far corner of the coffee shop, his back to a wall. He was, for a change, the first one to arrive for a hastily arranged meeting with Homer LaCroix. With a half empty mug...
Chapter 1 “Hey, Donovan!” Colin yelled as he walked into his corner office with his hand held out for a shake. “My man! I cannot believe you brokered that deal! I didn’t think there was any way Richard would sell.” Donovan smiled as he reached out to...
1 “Dump the fuckin’ tiles out on the table, boy.” Billy John Cader said gruffly to his son of only fourteen years old who sat shaking in the chair with fear. Billy Jay had just celebrated, if that’s what it could be called, his birthday only two...
1 Olive woke up suddenly from her usual restless sleep. At nearly 65, she was now accustomed to never sleeping very soundly. After all, she knew they were out there—all slimy with stinking skin drowning in their own warts. Warts that would easily pass on to...
Sebastian’s hand adjusted on the gun. His palms were sweating. A year ago he wouldn’t have even imagined things like this were real. A year ago the whole world seemed different. It was different. Horrors like the thing in front of him were the stuff...
Part One: The Wallachian Csejte Castle, Hungary, 25 May 1605 Blood dripped from the Wallachian’s blade like macabre gemstones of garnet and ruby shimmering in the sunlight. His preternatural hearing alerted him to the charge of a Hajduk raider from behind; he twirled, guiding his blade to...
Early Monday Morning The creature paused. Sensing her prey’s agony, even from afar, brought her satisfaction. She had become the embodiment of obsession, and she would greet whatever fate awaited her with the wild passion of her kind’s primitive demoniac spirits. The creature paused and took...
“Donnie, when are we gonna stop? I’m tired, and I need to pee.” Shannon and Donnie, her sometimes boyfriend, had been driving for hours. They’d left Georgia for Arizona two days earlier and still had a ways to go. The trip was more of a...
Ryan and Nicole Sullivan parked their SUV in front of the badly weathered Victorian house. They had purchased the old home sight unseen at a bank auction for pennies on the dollar. Unbeknownst to them, the price reflected the house’s curious history, but as successful...
“I’m late. I’m late for a very important date. No time to say hello, goodbye, I’m late, I’m late, I’m …..” – The White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland “…laaate!” thought Bryan as he sped from his third-floor apartment. He pressed the down button at least...
“Peter? Oh, Peter? It’s time to wake up, sleepyhead.” The quiet voice drifted through the blackness of the small enclosure, like a fall leaf looking for a place to land. Peter lay sprawled across a concrete floor. His eyelids fluttered as the sing-songy voice pulled him...
Annabelle awoke to complete and impenetrable darkness, as she did every evening, although that was perfectly normal for a Vampire Lady of the Forsaken Coast. The Hematocrats, as they were affectionately known, did not hide from the sun in coffins, but in ornate inner sanctums...
I live in a picturesque little housing development overlooking the Avalon River, just a short drive away from Sombermorey. It's surrounded by enough woods to muffle out the sound of traffic on the adjacent highway, and the road leading into the neighborhood is so discreet...
It was that time of year when ‘fresh corn’ signs along the rural roadside are a common sight. Not being a big connoisseur of either fresh produce or farmer’s markets, I had never pulled over for one myself. But it was one particularly attention-grabbing sign...
If you’ve heard of Overbrook, it’s probably because of The Overbrook Impaler. What a way to put your hometown on the map, right? He’s why half the world heard about our quiet coastal town. Tommy-Lee Rawlings. That’s how he was eventually identified. He preferred girls. The...
When I was growing up, we had an amazing toy store in our town. It was designed to resemble a medieval castle with multiple floors and took up an enormous portion of a nearby strip mall. You wouldn’t find national toy brands like Mattel or...
Chapter 1 A loud screeching noise interrupts my shower. Reaching for my towel, I hear it again, only louder. I get out of the shower and towel off quickly. Listening carefully, I don’t hear the screech I heard earlier, and think to myself it must be nothing....
Valan forest, Derbyshire 1984 I sat in the driver's seat of my aging Ford Granada and listened to the rain pound relentlessly on the car's metal roof, a sound I had always found strangely soothing. Once the torrent subsided, I looked outside to watch late afternoon...
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