Finally got #2 live, as soon as I uploaded, Amazon was having problems with the publishing. This issue has the complete versions of Bone Deep, Family Eternal and Cruel Young. It also has When Light is Gone, something take control of an island leaving everyone in the dark, and Chuck, he’s a paranormal investigator but he does things a little different from the rest.
Just a part of this story, the rest is part of Fate’s Darkened Beauty V1 #2
School can be a difficult time for some. Kids can and will be cruel to others but once school is over with and you’re out in the real world, none of the social life that once existed there matters any more. Annie Collins wasn’t one of the cool kids, she wasn’t popular and she didn’t have many friends. Actually she only had one, and she was moving away leaving Annie to face the popular kids by herself. As soon as she would get to school, her torment would begin with other kids knocking books out of her hands claiming it was an accident. Others would say she smelled bad and would pretend to gag, while others would just use her in there jokes. Annie learned to stay hidden and keep to herself for most of the time. She began to wear darker clothes and would often put her feeling down on paper rather than keep them bottled up inside her. She also fell in love with a cartoon called Taco the Rabbit’s Horrible Life. It was about a poorly drawn rabbit who just couldn’t seem to catch a break. Annie love Taco the Rabbit because no matter how bad her day would be, his day was always worse and his character would always make her laugh.
She had gotten a plush toy of him for her birthday over the summer and would always keep him in her backpack at school to remind her that things can always be worse. Sometimes, during lunch, she would pull him out and pretend that he was real to make up for her one friend that moved away. She learned very quickly not to talk to him out loud and draw attention because the popular girls could use that as another excuse to torture her. One day during lunch, Gracie Dice who was the worst of the popular girls, walked by and kicked Taco the Rabbit into some mud saying, “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t see your stinky little friend there.” Gracie and her friends just laughed as she pushed Annie into the mud too while she was trying to retrieve Taco. “Oops!” Gracie said snickering, “Sorry again!” Annie tried not to cry, she didn’t want to give them the satisfaction of knowing they got the best of her. She kept her chin up, wiped the mud from her face and went to the restroom to clean herself and Taco up.
She place Taco in the sink and turned on the water. Shedding as little tears as possible, she washed him off then placed on the counter to dry while she washed off her own face. Annie was startled when she heard a very polite monotone voice say, “That was rude of them wasn’t it?” She slowly removed her hands from her face to see her Taco plush shaking off the water like a dog. She slammed her back against the wall in fright saying, “Oh my fucking god, he’s talking to me. You’ve lost it this time Annie, you have completely lost your mind.” Taco hopped off of the counter and said, “You haven’t lost your mind Miss Annie, I’m quite real.” Still frightened she said, “Why the hell are you talking to me, you’re just a stuffed toy.” “Well,” he spoke as he approached her, “You can think of me as a familiar of sorts. My name is MAK TAH, it means servant of…, well for now, you.” Her fear began to subside when she said, “That’s cool, just give a minute to calm down here. So I have my very own talking Taco the Rabbit? Can I just call you Taco for now? You know, just until I get used to you.” “I don’t see this as being a problem Miss Annie,” he said, “I can see into people’s thoughts and this is the form you would be most comfortable seeing me in. I am here to help and serve you.” She excitedly shouted, “Awesome! I have a real Taco the Rabbit!” He touched her hand saying, “Let’s get you cleaned up now shall we.” All the mud that once covered her was instantly gone. “Come on now,” he said, “put me in your backpack and let’s get you to your next class.”
On her way to class, she couldn’t help but smile about what had just happened. While being lost and excited in her own thoughts, she didn’t see the group of girls heading towards her. Gracie slammed her shoulder in to Annie sending her flying to the floor. She looked down at Annie and with her hand over her mouth she said, “Oops again, I’m so clumsy today.” Then her sinister smile disappeared when she noticed that Annie was no longer covered in mud. “Well,” she said sounding as snobby as she was, “You seemed to have cleaned up nicely, but you’re still an ugly little bitch.” They put their noses in the air and walked around her. As she got back to her feet, one of the girls, Cindy, knocked the books out of her hands saying, “And you still smell too,” then she scoffed before joining the others. Annie collected her books and just under her breath, with her teeth clinched tight to fight off the tears, she said, “I fucking hate you all.” Then she hung her head and made her way to her next classroom.
When the final bell rang, she became excited. Not because she could go home and watch the show that always made her feel better but because she could play with the actual character she had hidden in her backpack. Upon her return home, she opened her backpack and placed him on her bed. “Well now,” he said, “that was quite uncomfortable. Let’s get to it shall we.” She turned her head to side and asked, “Get to what Taco?” “To planning your revenge to get back at them Miss Annie,” he said, “That is why I’m here, to help you.” “Ok, I’m in. Now how do we do this” she said eager to hear the plan. He walked over and sat next to her saying, “I can get in to peoples thoughts, like I did yours. I can see what they fear most and we can use that against them. From what I’ve seen, most fears come from something that happen during childhood. Take Cindy for example, the girl who knocked the books out of your hands, she is terrified of ants. She once fell into a large pile when she was seven and froze out of fear, they tore her up quite a bit before anyone got to her. We can use that against her.” “Ooh,” she said with wide eyes and delight, “We can lead a trail of ants into her room so when she wakes up she will see them crawling everywhere.” “Yes Miss Annie, something like that.” Later that night, Annie and Taco when to Cindy’s house and began leaving crumbs of food leading from an ant pile in the yard to a tiny crack in her window. When everything was in place, Annie kicked the ant pile and ran home. “Oh my god!” she said smiling, “I can’t believe we did it! She is going to be so scared when she wakes up, she’ll probably pee herself. I wish I could see her face when it happens.” Back at Annie’s house, as excited as she was, it was getting late and she was getting tired. She made her bed and set up a place next to her pillow for Taco. “Goodnight Taco,” she said, “you made today awesome.” After about an hour, Taco made sure she was asleep then slipped out of the house.
Morning arrived and a groggy Cindy began to wake. She felt a slight pain in her right foot, only enough to make her wiggle her toes. “That’s weird,” she thought to herself, “my toes are numb”. She paid it no attention until she removed her blanket. She was in such a shock that she couldn’t even scream, just a deep tone sounded at the end of every exhale. Half of her foot was missing and there was very thin layer of a clear plastic like membrane covering the wound. Where her big toe should have been, was an ant trail leading inside of her foot. The pain began to set, she could feel them crawling inside her leg as far up as her thigh. Still she could not scream. Cindy finally passed out when she saw the ants carrying eggs into her body. Her mother found her and called for an ambulance, when they got to the hospital, she was in and out of sleep from the combination of shock and the drugs the doctors had her on. Cindy could hear her mother arguing with the doctor. “Look you son of bitch,” her mother said, “You better save her leg. You have any idea how important we are to this town.” “Yes ma’am, I’m sorry,” the doctor said groveling, “But the ants have blocked up and destroyed the blood supply to her leg. All of the tissue is dead or will be before we could even operate on her. There was a queen already laying new eggs in there, the leg has to come off.” “Fine! Take the leg! How could this have even happened?” “I don’t know ma’am,” he replied, “The tunnels they built should have taken them days, not to mention there was no blood loss. I don’t even think it’s possible. And there’s something else.” “Oh what now!” exclaimed the mother. “These ants had some sort of bacteria on them that has entered Cindy’s blood stream. We have her on antibiotics but, well, even if with amputation of the leg, there’s a strong chance she might not make it.” Cindy pass out again.
Annie went to school with her head held high and a big grin on her face in anticipation of seeing Cindy’s reaction to the prank, …..
Jennifer, Brian and Stacey were walking to a friend’s house after a night of clubbing. There was supposed to be an after-hours party going on and all of their friends were going to be there. Becky’s house wasn’t too far from the club they were at so they all decided to walk to the party. While they were walking, they were reminiscing about what happened that night, talking about who they saw, who they didn’t want to see and discussing which rumors they thought were true. Then out of nowhere, Brian jumped in front of the girls to shield them. “Oh my god Brian,” a puzzled Stacey said, “What the hell are you doing?” Brian was confused because he knows he saw something and said, “I swear I saw this…this, I don’t know, this dog in the corner of my eye.” Jennifer being very sarcastic said, “Wow, really? Thank you! Oh wait, there is no dog. You doing alright Brian, because you had a lot to drink and we don’t need you acting like an ass at Becky’s party.” Feeling a little embarrassed but still trying to defend himself he said, “Hey, at least if there was a dog, you know I would jump in front of it for you.” They all just laughed and continued walking.
After a few minutes, there was a very quick flash of light. “Brian? What was that?” a worried Stacey asked. “Um, I don’t know,” he replied, “maybe lightning. Who knows?” Jennifer happened to blink at that moment so she didn’t get to see what Brian and Stacey were talking about. “Did I just miss something? What are you guys talking about?” “Jennifer!?” she cried out, “Don’t tell me you didn’t see that bright light. How could you not see that?” She just shrugged her shoulders saying, “Whatever, it was probably a street light blinking or something, doesn’t matter. Let’s get to the party! Whoo!” While walking, they all started to notice that it was very quiet. There were no cars driving, no other people walking and there was no wind. It was so quiet they could hear themselves breathe. Brian was the first to bring it up, “Hey, have you guys noticed how quiet it is? It’s kinda creepy.” Jennifer chucked before she said, “Yeah, so don’t fart Brian.” He shot her with a mean look while Stacey agreed with how quiet it was. “Jen, this is kind of creepy. I can’t even hear the wind, let alone feel it. Maybe it has something to do with the flash.” “See!” Brian said feeling full of himself, “I told you it was lightning. It’s always quiet before a storm.” They began to believe that it could be possible until they heard the growling coming from behind them.
They slowly turned around to see what looked like a large dog snarling at them from the shadows. “Um, Brian,” Jennifer said trembling, “Is that the dog you were talking about? Because I would really like it if you got in front of me again.” As soon as she finished talking, the dog bolted towards them. They turned and ran as fast as they could and they kept hearing the dog’s nails clacking on the sidewalk, getting closer and closer. They turned into a blind alley hoping to escape only to find it was fenced off, they were trapped. Stacey began to climb the fence hoping she could get out of the dogs reach and the others followed. When they got up as high as they could the panic they felt dissipated while the fear remained, the dog was no longer there. “Shit! Brian!” Stacey shouted, “Is it gone!? Is the dog gone Brian?” Out of breath, he replied, “How the fuck should I know? I don’t hear it if that’s what you mean.” One by one, they slowly climbed off the chain link fence looking around, hoping their eyes wouldn’t meet with the dog’s. Brian crept through the alley towards the street leaving the girls behind in case the dog showed up again. As if he wasn’t scared enough, when he neared the entrance to the alley, he heard someone whistle a creepy sharp tune. Continue reading
A horror rock band by the name of Drowning Glory, set out on their first tour. They weren’t very well known yet but had already put out a few albums at their own cost and were gaining popularity. Darren ‘Hells’ and Matt Ryder were brothers that started the band in high school, they played lead and bass. Their close friend Damon, who at times went as ‘Demon’, took interest in the band and started singing for them. When they found a drummer, John ‘Murders’ Wheeler, they began to play shows and picked up a good following. It wasn’t until they brought in Jared Burns on rhythm and Karla ‘Kills’ Smith with keyboard and backing vocals that they really took off. The six of them maxed out credit cards and emptied their savings to buy an old school bus to go on tour with the determination of getting their music out to the world.
In the middle of their tour, their path led them through a mid-west town by the name of Staff. The town was small and the buildings seemed to have been very old. Something struck them as very odd; there were cars around but no people. Right away Damon exclaimed, “This town is so damn creepy, we’re staying here tonight.” Of course, as they were fans of all things creepy and morbid, they all agreed.
As they pulled up in front of an old inn and entered, Karla grabbed her camera and started snapping pictures. The inn looked like it was an old mansion at one point in time and had paintings of the original owners hanging up. It had many rooms and the wall panels and doors were all crafted out of a hardwood. “Look at this place!” Karla said with such enthusiasm as she continued taking photos, “I bet this place is haunted!” When they reached the front desk, they noticed it was covered in a fine layer of dust and had cobwebs hanging off the pen to sign the guest book with. Repeatedly ringing the bell, Damon called out, “Hello? Anybody here? Hey! We need a room! You bastards, there’s no one here guys.” “But there’s got to be someone around, I mean the place just can’t be empty, can it?” Jared said with a slight concern. Darren smiled and jumped over the counter. He then grabbed some room keys and handed them out saying in horrible spooky voice, “Here are your room keys. Please, enjoy your stay. Oh, and be very careful my friends, this place is known to be haunted.” He trailed it off with a creepy laugh then signed his name on the dusty guest book before jumping back over the front desk to join his band mates in getting settled in. Continue reading
She had never been this excited or nervous at the same time, it was her wedding day. She had the perfect dress, rented the perfect hall and would soon have the perfect husband. As she looked in the mirror touching up her makeup, she was reminded of her parent’s objection to the wedding. They loved Mike and wanted him live at their house with Viotta, they even offered to rent them their own house as long as they just lived together and not get married. Viotta could not understand what the problem with getting married was and was still feeling hurt by the fact that her parents said they would not be attending her ceremony. “Come on girl,” she said to her reflection, “today is going to be the best day of your life and nothing is going to ruin it.”
The wedding ceremony was just absolutely flawless. All of her friends were there, all of Mike’s friends were there. Everyone was getting along and having the best time of their lives. No expense was spared, from the decorations to the many live bands that played not to mention the food and drinks, the many, many drinks. Five years of struggling and saving up for the greatest night ever was worth it.
At the reception party, where the real fun began, Viotta wanted to play a little girls only drinking game so Mike had to search for his own fun. “Come here my husband,” she said throwing her arms around him, “me and the girls are gonna play for a little bit so why don’t you go find Sean and hang out with him for a bit, then later on I’m all yours my love.” He smiled, gave her a kiss and said, “I love you girl, don’t you get too drunk and pass out me now. You hear me girls? I’m counting on you to keep her sober-ish.” Still smiling he went off in search of his best man Sean.
He finally found him in the men’s restroom relieving himself at a urinal and figured while he was there maybe he should empty his tank as well. “Hey Sean,” Mike said while unzipping, “You having fun?” He replied, “Hell yeah, I got so many numbers these girls won’t know what hit them. Hey man, Viotta’s looking hot in that tight black dress, I’m just saying.” “She’s my wife now,” Mike said, “and that my friend is one of the many reasons I married her.” They finished their business and went to the bar for another drink. “Hey uh Mike,” Sean questioned curiously, “You know there’s only one security guard here right? Well, what do say to exploring the other floors a little.” “Viotta is having fun with her friends, everybody is having a good time, why the hell not.” They clinked their glasses together and headed for the staircase.
When they got to the second floor, they learned they weren’t the only ones that strayed from the party going on beneath them. The upstairs hall was broken up into smaller rooms for smaller gatherings but the owners didn’t count on Viotta and Mike’s friends breaking into them and having parties of their own. Mike was in awe, “Shit! I’m gonna have to pay for all this.” Not letting that bother him too much he yelled out, “ENJOY THE ROOMS, assholes,” then continued exploring with Sean drinks in hand. After exploring enough of the second floor, they decided to go to the top and see what was on the third floor. Continue reading
j.r.fate 