The rank aroma of something rotted, like maggot-infested roadkill underneath the blistering summer sun, slams into his nostrils. No, it smells like the spoiled packages of hamburger he discovered in the refrigerator after his mother’s death. Stifling the gag reflex, he waves his arms to...
1 Shad Hankins pushed the tavern’s shutters open, and stepped through, leaving them swinging behind, as he stopped just inside. His dirty off-white canvas riding coat hung nearly to the floor, dripping rainwater from the cold wet storm he’d been riding in. While his eyes adjusted...
The meteorite that hit Southdale wasn't especially spectacular. In the middle of one spring evening, it lit up the sky for a brief moment. It didn't turn night into day by any means. It merely streaked across the horizon and settled with a distant popping...
Manny “Rico” Esparragoza was a petty thief with big dreams and aspirations. He had never amounted to much. He was unable to hold down a steady job or otherwise. His luck with the women was the same. He had a tendency toward anger and violence. ...
“Devilish dolls, haunted houses, ghoulish ghosts, freaky frights, dreadful demons, bloodsucking bats, peculiar pumpkins, bizarre bridges, fiendish phantoms, atrocious apparitions, maleficent monsters, wicked witches, and all things that go bump in the night! Welcome to Untold Tales Of Horror Now Told. I am your host,...
Edward MacAllister enjoyed reading. He was avid about it. He was a borderline bibliophile. He read books, newspapers and magazines. Ever since he was a child he read. He could not remember a time when he could not read, nor could he remember who taught...
Bo woke to something wet dragging across his face. It took him a moment to realize where he was. “Duke, cut it out!” he mumbled, trying to shield himself from his dog’s slurpy affection. His muscles screamed in protest. “Pee on him, Duke,” his Mam-maw groused. “Maybe...
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...
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...
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...
“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...
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...
There are very few absolutions I have in this life. But leave it to me to ensure that I absolutely had three. Firstly, there is no one on this planet who knows the workings of the St. Magisford national park as I do. Woven through...
I’m afraid of the moon. Stupid as I know that sounds, I am, I’m afraid of the moon. I’m afraid because of what it can do to people. “Lunacy,” “Lunatic,” both have two things in common. They both mean insane or crazy, and they both have...
“That can’t be what I think it is,” I said out loud to myself. My friends and I had decided to get together at my place for some good old-fashioned fun. Our version of such includes competing in college drinking games. I’ll tell you right now...
I can hear them right now. Scuttling and scampering about. I can hear them whispering, debating on who’ll get the first bite. On which parts of me they’ll want to eat first. I can hear them from under me, under my bed. The floor and the...
Before we get into things here, let me ask you a question. What would you say if you were told by a close friend of yours that you’ve known all your life that they encountered something strange in the ocean while on a cruise? Would...
I just wanted to make her happy, that’s all. I just wanted to make her happy with me again. Was that so wrong? I mean, what’d I do to deserve this? Okay, so maybe I cheated. But I felt horrible for it and wanted to make...
