Kill Town, USA: Redneck Zombies, The Turn #Horror #Speculative

Kill Town, USA

by Joseph Love


From the doorway, we stared at a heavy woman with her arms tied by leather reins to the bed, her face pale and stained with blood. In fact, the whole room looked to have been sprayed with blood—streaked on the floor, puddled near a washbasin, and spattered across the wall and window. The front of her nightgown clung to her skin. But she writhed. She was alive. She twisted and contorted her body in the restraints. There was no noise except the rustling of the sheets. Her eyes open and lifeless, she must have turned several days ago. I couldn’t imagine the struggle to get her tied to the bed.
“She was ill a few days before she come out the room with a nosebleed. Worst I ever seen. When I tried to wipe it for her she bit me. Like I wasn’t—like she didn’t know me from anything.” Sewell unzipped his jumpsuit and revealed the wide bite mark on his shoulder. It had partially scabbed over and was deeply bruised.

Nothing gets the blood flowing quite like seeing a ghost... #MysterySuspense #Thriller

Buried Secrets

by Brandi Salazar


Coming to a stop below the attic door, James reached up and tugged on the long cord that released the stairs, and pulled them down. On shaky legs, his breaths coming in short, labored bursts, he scaled the stairs slowly until he could just peak his head over the floorboards. From this vantage point, James had a direct line of sight between the many boxes leading a straight path to the dormer window where silver moonlight poured in washing the room in its unearthly glow. And there, sitting in front of the window, sat the filmy apparition of a young girl. She had her back turned toward him, but when James gasped his shock, she slowly turned her head, and when her eyes fell on him, she grinned.
Fear crippled him and James lost his footing. He grabbed for the floorboards, but it was too late. He fell, tumbling backward down the staircase and landing with a thud on the floor below. Panicking, James didn’t need time to recover. He leapt to his feet, and with desperation born of fear, he hauled the steps up, tucking them back into the ceiling and locking them in place. Then he turned and raced back to his room, slamming the door and locking himself inside until morning.

Bringing the Bite Back to Vampires #Horror #Thriller

The Taking of Arianna Grayson - Book Two of the Serial Vampire Series

by JC De La Torre


Detective Arianna Grayson takes us through the harrowing chase for the serial killer known as Allister the Annihilator. When she finally catches up to the fiend, she discovers that there's more to him than being a deranged lunatic. In a struggle for her life, she makes a choice with terrible consequences and her life changes forever.First Pages of the Book:

Death isn’t something to be feared, my dearest. It is the warmest, most welcoming sensation anyone can experience. It’s pure joy, passion and ecstasy rolled into one. As you travel down that tunnel toward the light at the end, you feel the most amazing sensation of belonging. You are finally where you should be - a place with no pain, no horror. There’s no suffering or injustice. There’s just a dazzling light that seems to engulf every single atom of your essence.
Enjoy your death, my friend. Bathe in the light when it comes to you. Be thankful it can come, for not all of us can go down that path. I’ve died. I began my trek down that path but the light was robbed from me; substituted with darkness…terrible darkness that infests you like the worst of cancers.
You see, I was marked by a vampire to become his off-spring – his child of the night. He brought me death but then breathed in an entirely different, terrifying life. Everything that I was and believed in – all that made Arianna Grayson - died with me when my heart stopped and I began my journey to the place of death. It’s gone now. I know and accept it.
All that is left within is a soulless monster that feeds on humans. I never wanted this – unlike so many others. I sought to root out the killer and I became what he was. He raped my soul, robbed me of my decency – my humanity, my ability to die, to love, to have children – real human children.

When darkness falls and the full moon rises, a shotgun is a girl's best friend... #Horror

Monster Story

By McCarty Griffin


He started toward her, but she backed away, growling past him at the thick wall of trees. She glanced in his direction once more, then, tail tucked, disappeared into the underbrush.
“What the hell? Get back here, dog!”
He could hear timber cracking and the underbrush snapping as something huge tore down the trail, coming on like a locomotive straight for him. He turned and fled.
“Sweet Jesus, sweet Jesus, sweet Jesus,” he chanted as he ran, his mother’s long-abandoned religion returning to him in extremis. He could feel its hot breath on the back of his head and gagged from the rank smell it exuded. Jesus God, what was chasing him?

Quick, before some country nukes us, get your copy of The Feud so you'll have something to read in the shelter! #Horror #Fantasy

"The Feud"

by Hubert Williams


Here big brother, while we wait for someone to bring me a torch, let's have a drink.” De Valen squirted some of the contents of the flask into Bertalans mouth. “Is that good? Have some more” he said while squirting some more into Bertalans mouth and down the front of his clothes. The soldier brought a lit torch to the platform. “Hold it out away from you.” the soldier did as he was told and De Valen squirted some of the contents of the flask on the torch, causing the torch to flare up. “Do you see that young woman over there? The one that is with child. Bring her over here so we can drink to her baby.” De Valen squirted some more of whatever was in the flask into Bertalans mouth and onto his clothes. Motioning the guard to give him the torch and remove the woman who was just brought over. “The father of that baby was a friend of mine. I was there when he was born. He died last night. Do you know how he died?” Bertalan shook his head. “Like this!” De Valen tossed the torch onto Bertalan igniting him. Bertalan began screaming louder and writhing in pain. “Is that how my daughter screamed as she died!?!? Is it?!?! Is that how my little girl screamed?!?!

He's going to wish he'd listened to her... #Paranormal #YA

'A Matter of Perception' - a collection of perception challenging urban fantasy and magical realism short stories.

by Tahlia Newland

 Ellen scanned the rocks and gasped. Ragged ethereal bodies floated towards her, staring with the sightless eyes of long dead sailors.
“Ghosts!” she rasped, grabbing Con’s arm. “Con, there’s ghosts. We have to get out of here.”
He looked around, unmoved. “Jesus, Ellen,” he said disdainfully when his gaze returned to her. “You’re imagining things.”
“Con, will you just listen to me for once. Just because you can’t see them, doesn’t mean they aren’t here. We honestly have to get out of here!”
“You never said you had a girl,” a voice croaked from the shadows.
Ellen and Con spun around. An old woman stepped into the growing light. Her pale eyes glittered keenly and her skin had a strange greyish sheen.
Ellen shot a glance at Con. He frowned.
“It’s the woman that told me about this place,” he whispered. “I didn’t know it was a rendezvous.”
“Get ready, now.” The old woman stared at Con with chilling intensity, then turned towards the now glowing horizon. “The sun heralds the winter equinox.”
Con looked at Ellen and shrugged. “It’s what we came for.”
The woman chuckled quietly and Ellen had a strong urge to grab Con and run away, but the ghosts stopped moving and gold suddenly streaked the horizon. A giant fiery orb rose into the sky, splashing light across the land. It gilded the rocks, bringing their jagged forms into stark relief. It kissed their faces with the promise of warmth and illuminated something rising to the surface of the ocean. Ellen peered into the brine. Beautiful white-faced women stared back at her, their long hair flowing on the waves behind them.
An eerie, enchanting song danced on the rising breeze. Con took a step forward. Ellen grabbed his arm.
“No,” she hissed.
.

Young Adult, Horror on Kindle: "The Other Side of Eden" by Ethan Cobb

Carrie, a lone teenage girl, is confronted by her old boyfriend who is now infected with a sickness that attaches to a single emotion (in this case Anger) and becomes the driving force of everything that person does:

“Hello Carrie,” the muffled voice of Derek penetrated the window.  Carrie snapped her head up.  Narrow slits almost hid the purple of his eyes.  Derek grinned.  She stared at him.  He whistled.  Five runners jumped from surrounding positions.

“You can’t run,” he said and laughed.

Carrie punched the gas.  Tires squealed and smoke shot from behind.   She yanked the wheel to one side and her body slammed against the door.  The car tail whipped as she pulled back down.  Derek stood in front of the exit.  The Cavalier shot forward.  She grimaced, certain she was going to flatten him, but he jumped out of the way at the last second.  A flimsy toll gate exploded and the car barreled onto the empty road.   She kept the pedal pushed to the floor, although she was away from the immediate danger.  Her foot felt like concrete stuck to the pedal.  She shot past several stop lights, before beginning to feel her heart beating.  Buster’s head was low.

“I think we lost them.”

She looked behind her.

“Definitely lost them.”

She turned back.  An abandoned car sat crumpled directly in front of her.  She shrieked and swerved. 

"Days of Vengeance" by Tim Kizer

1.

The note read: “Dear Frank, I know you killed your wife, and I can prove it. You are a reasonable person. I’m sure you don’t want to go to prison. All I need is a $20,000 loan. Please think about my request very carefully.”

But before this, the last six years had been wiped from his memory.

Then there were darkness and dreams...

 2.

Owl. Owl. Owl? This word flickered at the edge of his mind for a few seconds and then vanished. Frank somehow knew that it was not the word he’d been trying to recall. His very life depended upon this important word buried deep inside his memory, and he had to fish it out as soon as possible if he didn’t want the one-legged man and his people to cut his throat. He had no idea who the one-legged man was. Sometimes he doubted this man actually existed.

The word sounded similar to ‘owl.’

He would give it another shot later. Right now, he would like to focus on something else. Those dreams. Yeah, on those amazingly vivid dreams.

Frank had been having bizarre dreams while he was in a coma.

"Divine Blood: Semester Start" by Luke Green

Naiki Semezou was just warned by Hel Logesdottir not to bring down the class average...

“Don’t worry too much about her,” he said. “Every week the school puts out the class averages and she’s been comparing us to other classes in our year. Class 3E is consistently scoring better than our class and every once in a while, so does Class 3B.”

“Oh … a competition, got it,” Naiki said. “Yeah, okay, I’ll keep out of her way so she can get all her high grades and stuff and just do my thing.”

“Well, it’s class averages she worries about,” Issa said.

“Okay, so what’s that got to do with me?” the green-haired girl asked.

“You’re part of the class.”

“But I’m not part of the average class, so we’re fine,” Naiki said with a shrug before turning back to her text books. “Next class was history right?”

“That was last class,” Issa said.

Naiki glanced back over her shoulder at the sound of a thump and wondered briefly why Hel was repeatedly letting her head fall against the desk she was sitting at, but shrugged it off and turned back to trying to get out the right book for the next class as the teacher walked in through the door.

"The Harbor" by Al Lamanda

The sheriff of Harbor Island encounters the recorded voice of the anti-Christ for the first time...

The phonograph rose up from its stand and hovered in front of Stuttgart. The record levitated up from the turntable and the phonograph fell to the floor with a crash.

The record continued to spin in the air in front of Stuttgart.

The demon reached out to touch the record with a hideous finger and the very room itself seemed to implode.

Blaine opened his eyes. He felt cold, almost frigid. He could see his breath.

The office was covered in a layer of frost. He stood up and went to the window. It was a beautiful, late summer day, seventy-seven degrees with bright sunshine and a thin layer of ice coated everything in the office. 

Blaine switched the heat on and set the thermostat to eighty degrees. He poured a mug of cold coffee and placed it in the small microwave beside the coffeemaker for twenty seconds.

The office thawed. He could no longer see his breath. He went to the thermostat and turned the heat off. He sat on Blackwell’s desk and lit a cigarette. That is when he looked at the phonograph and noticed that the needle wasn’t on the record, but resting in its cradle.

"Ariel" by Gabriel Madison

One line intro: Angel Santos has just asked the two Archangels in her room, why they are in her room…

Gabriel motioned for me to sit back down. I sat as he moved his long dark hair behind his ears. “We all watched as the
a
ngel Lailah entered the Holy Palace. All of the spirit realms were filled with songs of joy and love. I don’t remember a time before that Heaven itself had been filled with so many angels. They came from all over, Nirvana, Shangri-La, Valhalla and many of the other free spirit realms. Everyone stood in awe as Lailah walked into the Holy Palace. And then…the Palace crumbled into a pile of dust.”

My stomach dropped, my mouth became dry and I balled my hands into fist to keep them from trembling. This couldn’t be happening. Not after everything I’d been through, everything I’d done, everything I wanted to forget. It took all the strength I had, but I took in a deep breath of air while slowly calming myself. “What do you mean crumbled to a pile of dust?”

“He means the Holy Palace is no more.” Michael chimed in. “We searched through the rubble and found the dead body of Lailah. We found no signs of God. It seems he no longer resides in the spirit realms.”

From "The Latch-Key Solution" by Larisa Naples

The homeless nut looked at me with genuine concern.  He placed a gentle, well-manicured hand on my shoulder.

“You know, I really think you should have a glass of wine — or three — before I answer that.  It’s not something a man should see sober.  Why don’t you join me in my cardboard condominium?  I still have that bottle of chardonnay.”

“You are really beginning to irritate me.”

“All right.  But don’t say I didn’t warn you.  Here.”  He dug into his trouser pocket and handed me a lady’s compact.

“I don’t wear make-up.”

“Take it!” he commanded.  “I want you to take a good long look at your eyes.”

“Why?” I said, suddenly nervous.

The nut looked me straight in the eye.  “I think you already know the answer to that.  Now, look!”

I open the compact and slowly — ever so slowly — I brought the mirror up to my eyes.

“Aaack!”  The mirror shattered on the floor.  “What’s wrong with my eyes!  My pupils are…”

“Square?” completed the nut, “With some kind of… something crawling around inside, just behind your cornea?”

I stared at him in disbelief.  “But… how?”

From "The Chloe Files #1: Ashes to Ashes" by Howard Hopkins

Chloe, in her condo, is worried over the disappearance of her finace, Arlo Grimm...

Arms wrapped about myself, I drifted over to the slider doors. The woods beyond the condo were just a black mass distorted by the water streaking down the glass. At least there were no zombies lurking on the patio this time (hey, it happened not so long ago, so don’t get the idea I’m paranoid or crazy).

 

I giggled. Maybe it was more from nerves than anything else, but I got no time to think about it because lightning glazed the dark clouds and washed across the patio.

 

And something jumped at the glass!

From "Render" by EC Roche

The beam of light stretched out in front of me, flooding the blackness with a warm, golden glow. ..

I stalked the long, lonely road, walking quickly and keeping my eyes out for any passing cars. I doubted any would drive down here, anyway. Every time I heard an owl hoot, a twig snap, or a bramble rustle, I was quick to draw my flashlight to the spot where the sound came from. My reflexes and responses were certainly a lot quicker than they used to be. Was this also a part of the curse on me? I’d been walking for about thirty minutes, and was already beginning to feel pretty tired. I’d barely slept the last few weeks, and could feel it taking a toll on my body. I wanted nothing more than to be curled up in my warm bed right now, but I just didn’t want to be locked away from the world, with an empty cushioned room as my only asylum. I couldn’t remember what happened to me, but I had to figure out what was becoming of me. No one would believe what I was going through – they all came to one conclusion: I was stark raving bonkers.

From "Where Darkness Dwells" by Glen Krisch

Knowing he wouldn't comprehend the weight of her words, Greta spoke to her son. "Terrible things will happen to people I love."

From "Amador Lockdown" by Coral Russell

But we’re not alive anymore, are we?

Ahhh, but we’re not dead, either.

From "The Shadows of Echo lake" by Ethan Blake

‘So the only thing tying Sam to the crime’s, is the fact that he knew the location of the bodies, somehow he could discern the whereabouts with like visions or something?

‘He sees their ghosts Ernie; he sees them at the places where they’re buried. What he marked on that map, were places he had seen ghosts, there are over fifty crosses on the map and we have no idea about some of them, there are old Indian graves and early settlers graves dotted all over the county and we have to dig them all up before we get the full picture.’

‘Jesus Abel, this guy is like a metal detector for cadavers, you’d think the feds would be bustin their humps to get him on board never mind trying to nail him for murder.’

‘Just one more thing you need to know Ernie, We got a guy in custody right now,’ Abel hesitated briefly before taking a deep breath and continuing,  ‘and I don’t think he’s the one either,  If they find out they got the wrong guy they’re going to be looking for the first available patsy to take the heat off and I’m guessing it’ll be Sam.’

From "The Side-Effect," as it appears in "I Held My Breath as Long as I Could" by Kristopher Kelly

Just about the time Larry was going to give up, put a gun to his head, and blow his tortured brains out, something else happened that was not zombie-related at all: Larry discovered he had the ability to fly. Why he should suddenly develop such ability at the age of thirty-seven, Larry could not say, but in a land that had been overrun by the living dead for the last six months, he supposed anything was possible.

He discovered his new talent one humid morning in late August when he woke up with his nose pressed against the ceiling, his body floating horizontally, a sextet of hungry fiends swaying and moaning beneath him. They must have broken through the kitchen barricade sometime during the night. By all rights, he should have already been quite well gnawed. When he realized the nature of his predicament, he waved his hands below him, trying to get even closer to the ceiling, expecting any second to drop into the rotting appetites beneath him, like Wile E. Coyote falling into a chasm after a moment of perplexed suspension.

But that moment didn’t come. He stayed afloat, out of reach of the groping zombies ...

From "The Fright Factory" by William R. Potter

Tied to chairs, Robin and Wesley have only minutes to free themselves before a bomb detonates...

Wesley stared at the candle and saw less than an inch of wax above the hole with the dynamite fuse. He began to feverishly kick his feet and tug his wrists hoping for a loosening or the break of a strap. Instead, the rear legs of the chair snapped, sending him over backwards, resulting in a loud crack when his skull met the wood floor.

He shook his head slightly and glanced up at Robin next to him. She was straining to see him as he fought to meet her eyes. He could not see her face.

“You—okay?”

“Um—think so.”

“Half an inch,” Robin said, in a small, childlike voice.

“I know.” They were both quiet for a few seconds. Wesley was able to move enough on the floor to see the candle. He couldn’t see Robin’s face or stand or break free of the chair but he could see that damned candle.

“I’m sorry,” Wesley said.

“Huh, why?”

“For bringing you here.”

“You only did because I was pressuring you for us to get away.”

“I love you, Robin. More than you know.”

“I do know, Wesley. I love you too…I’ve loved you my entire life….”

"Locked Out" by Thea Isis Gregory

Anna and her staff are briefed on their new assignment by Major Cartwright in the wake of riots in the nearby capital city...

“So why us? Where do we come into this?” Anna felt obligated to speak. She needed answers, to glean sense from that scene cut straight from a horror movie. “You have negotiators, police and guns. We research diseases and catalog new microbes.”

“Good question. The answer is, we can't negotiate. Every single person we've managed to capture has been violent and completely uncommunicative.” The major's brow furrowed as he drew in a deep breath. Dr. Grant fidgeted in his high-backed chair; audible squeaks broke the long pause. “What's more, is that every time we've taken somebody into custody, we've lost control of the facility within twenty-four hours. This suggests to my superiors that this is more than a sudden wave of intense political indoctrination.”

Anna stood up and glared at the man. “So you're saying we're looking for an evil bug that makes people go crazy?” The idea was absurd. Anna knew there had to be some kind of logical explanation.