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I have had to stop writing for a moment because my pain almost got the best of me again. The best way to describe it 99% physical, from my injury, and 99% mental, from all the damage my injury caused in my life. The pain was returning and physically crippling me again and in the past all I could do was hide from the world. So that’s what I did, again. I could say I’m fighting too many battles and I’m tired of fighting the world or that my writing computer broke, but the truth is that I was just scared. Scared of sleeping because I keep dreaming of the life I once had or should have now but don’t, so I don’t sleep much anymore. Scared of talking to people or seeing anyone because I don’t want people to feel sorry for me, I don’t like the word sorry because it’s proved meaningless in my life and has only served to hurt me. And to the opposite, people can say some pretty mean shit and it does add to the pain, just because I don’t see the people talking doesn’t mean I can’t hear. Anyway, I’ve had a lot of time to think about writing and the whole horror thing. Since too many people have their own definition of just what horror is, I’ve decided to just write under Dark Fiction because that’s what it really is. Just dark stories and people can call it whatever they want from there. I have stories that range from science-fiction to supernatural to who knows what the hell to call it, but they are all a dark and a little screwed up. My real life is a psychological horror in itself with the way out always being just out of reach and the only way to truly get out is to keep trying, to keep writing.

In Darkness Hides

Have you ever been alone in the dark, I mean really alone with no one in the house but you? Are you afraid because you are alone? Or is it because you can’t see what’s in the shadows? Monsters, snakes, an escaped lunatic, anything could be hiding in the darkest of shadows and you would never know, just watching and waiting. The fear becomes terror when you know what’s hiding there, just toying with you, waiting for the perfect moment to jump out at you.

Some say it was mass hysteria while others simply refuse to believe it, as if it never happened. Others just don’t talk about it, but it did happen and it will happen again. All we can do is be prepared and never forget. It started with a series of earthquakes throughout the night, everyone on Earth had to have felt them. They were nothing major but they were big enough to get your attention. I remember I had just woken up my daughter so she could get ready for school when a larger earthquake hit. After checking up on her, I ran outside to see if it caused any major damage to the house or neighborhood. Something was different. I noticed the sun was not rising, like it wasn’t there. I ran back inside to look at the clock and it was around 7:00 AM. This time of year the sun should have been at least brightening the sky in the east.
“What the hell? I must be dreaming.”
Then my world went black.
When I came to, it was hard to breathe and I could hardly move. For three days I was stuck to the floor, the only way I could tell was by the old grandfather clock we had sitting in the corner of the room. I didn’t know what exactly had happened or how but the gravity I felt on my body was immense, not normal. It seemed maybe ten times what it should be, I can’t be sure. All I knew for sure was that I was pinned to the floor and getting up was not an option. The sun was not rising and setting as usual, it started to set at about eleven AM. I also remember the sun would set though the picture window in the front of the house where as now, it would rise. The first day everything felt like a dream. I was disoriented and dizzy, in and out of sleep. It was very quiet and from what i could tell there was no electricity, the only sound I heard was that of my lungs gasping for air. I tried to move but nothing happened, my body squirmed a little so I knew I wasn’t paralyzed. I tried to figure out what was happening but my mind kept drifting away from the subject and nothing made sense. It was as if this was all some strange dream or nightmare. It didn’t really matter because it’s not like I could have done anything about it anyway.
By the next day the storms came in. I could hear trees falling and branches snapping but the wind didn’t sound that strong. Every drop of rain seemed to pound on the roof as if it were raining small rocks. I was still constantly drifting in and out of consciousness when a large tree from the neighbor’s yard, crashed into the garage and woke me. I tried to move again but the weight was still too much for me. I began to wonder if this was happening everywhere and at the time I just couldn’t comprehend that with the Earth being in a new position, it indeed affected the entire planet. My mouth was drying out and I remember wishing I had water when a strong wind pushed through the crack in the glass on the picture window. The glass shattered and the pieces nailed themselves into the hard wood floor. It scared me so much that I lost control of my bladder. With the added weight, that glass could have killed me. All I wanted to do was sleep.

Part of chapter 2 from Life Once Was

I’ve had to slow down the work on the short stories so I could get to work on the novel. I’m still writing the short stories only I won’t be able to post them as much as I normally do. I have so many ideas and can only type so fast (which is actually very slow). I’m doing my best and I’m sure that you writers out there know that writing a story worth reading takes time. This is only about 1/3 of the chapter but it starts to point you where the story is going…. Kind of.

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James stared for just a moment peering out of the sliding glass door and as soon as he saw movement he looked at Mr. Brown and nodded, then ran into his bed room. Mr. Brown and David stood up instructing the girls to go into James’ room and hide while they find out what was going on. As they were going into the room, James was running back out with his shotgun. When they crossed paths, he handed Michelle her own pistol and told her to call the police. Then all of a sudden, they began to hear shots going off around the neighborhood. An uneasy empty feeling entered the pit of their stomachs. The kind of feeling that everyone gets when they think they are ready for something but deep down they know they’re not. Scared and panicked, Michelle’s bottom lip quivered as she mewled out, “What the fuck is going on out there?” To which James gave her a quick kiss and replied, “I don’t know but I’m going to find out. Now you two stay in here and call the cops. Anyone else tries to come in here, shoot. Don’t bother asking questions, just fucking shoot.” Shots still continued to randomly ring out, along with screams and cries for help as the three cautiously moved towards the sliding glass door. They expected to just scare someone off but, after hearing the gunshots, they really didn’t know what to expect anymore.

Work on “In Darkness Hides” the First story for V1#3

So the story I’m working on right now, In Darkness Hides, was originally two different stories from the same dream. That’s where the title Dark Dreams (now a completely different story in Fate’s Darkened Beauty V1#1) came from and the other title was A New Day. When I started writing the story outlines as a teenager, most of my stuff was very apocalyptic and this was one of them. The poles shifted on the Earth’s axis and the research at the time (around 1990-91) stated that if something like that did happen, gravity would be out of whack for a few days. But there where two elements to the story which is why I split them in the first place, the dark element that made surviving an apocalyptic event worthless, it’s like being up shit creek without a paddle then you get a big hole in the boat. Now the two are joined once more and it’s heading into a direction I never thought it would. As I write, sometimes not even I know the outcome when I start so of course like the readers I want to know what’s going to happen too.

Horror in My World

I write horror, though today people seem to have a different opinion of just what horror is. It creating a character that the reader or viewer can relate to then putting them through some kind of horrific event, that’s where the name horror comes from, at least that’s how I see it. It’s not dumping buckets of blood on some naked girls, yes that gets viewers and readers but, that doesn’t make it horror. You don’t need death or blood or some kind of supernatural event for example: A girl stands up to accept an award for school and goes up on stage. When she takes a bow , she farts and the microphone picks it up. Then the sound echoes throughout the hall. What she feels and what readers and viewers pick up on is the terror coursing throughout her. That is horror. Today most people try to make the bloodiest, goriest thing they can, throw in some nudity and slap a horror label on it. Then they wonder why, if they have so many viewers they have a crappy rating. That’s because after the viewer gets their cheap thrills, they don’t care about the story and can’t relate the the characters. To me that’s not horror. Don’t get me wrong, I know some great erotic horror writers out there and a lot of them are right here on WordPress but I’m not talking about them. They create great characters that are the main focus of the story and they are put through some hell. You can’t help but to follow their torment, that’s Horror! I do use supernatural events and blood and some gore in my stories but the main focus is on the characters and what happens to them. I try getting the reader to feel the terror that the characters are experiencing, I want them to follow the story line and not get caught up with, “Are there boobs and blood?” I going to put an end to this rant because I need to get back to my books. I just hope this give some insight to the true nature of Horror that we all love.

The entire first chapter of Life Once Was

Here it is, the entire first chapter of my novel.

Dreams can be quite strange , they can be good, bad or both. They can be your most amazing fantasy or be your worst nightmare, reflect what happened during your day or bring out your worst fears from the past. The strangest things about dreams is that they can be deceptive by giving you a truthful glimpse of what is to come. Dreams are strange indeed.
As David walked down the street with his thick leather boots and olive drab jacket, he had no emotion of any kind on his face. He just moved with a purpose. All was dark and quiet except for the little bit of liquid sloshing around in the gas can he had with him. The moon was dim but gave off just enough light for him to see his surroundings. There were no people around that he could see, the streets were empty, lifeless and silence was cold. He wasn’t sure where he was or how he got there though the neighborhood felt eerily familiar. Still, he didn’t let it bother him, he just kept on walking with the wind seemingly following him. The houses around him were abandoned and falling apart but not enough to conceal their former charm and composition. He could still tell that this was once a beautiful neighborhood that was full of life. The once white picket fences were now in disrepair, charred and broken, plants that had been vibrant were shriveled and dried up and dead, lawns once neatly manicured were spotted with overgrown weeds with trash and debris blowing around them.
When he came to the middle of the block he stopped and thew the near empty gas can at a house. Reaching into his pockets he pulled out a lighter and some crudely fashioned sticks wrapped in and oil soaked rags. David spoke under his breath, “It’s time to start anew.” Then without thought and still emotionless, he lit the rags on fire then threw them at the nearest house. Almost instantly the house took to the flame and spread up and down the street jumping from house to house following the trail of gasoline he had laid out.
David kept walking down the empty street, houses now ablaze, like nothing was wrong. Just watching the houses burn as if the neighborhood was still in it’s prime and covered in Christmas lights. This brought David comfort and somehow made him feel safer. He gave himself false memories of children that once played there, laughing and chasing each other up and down the street. Of people pulling into their driveway and waving at their neighbors. He thought of an old woman that took pride and loved working in her flower garden. He just wanted to picture that neighborhood they way it might have been. Continuing on, the fire from the burning houses lit up the sky with it’s orange glow, lighting his way through the night. Then something in one of the houses caught his attention, pulling him out of his daydream. He noticed some kind of movement coming from behind the flames. When he got a better look, his eyes widened as he saw the burning silhouettes running around erratically inside the inferno. David began to panic. He started waving his arms and running toward the burning figures trying to get their attention. He began shouting, screaming, calling for anyone who could hear him but something was different, something wasn’t right. As he shouted his voice was not there, instead only silence was emitted. His mouth was open but the only sounds were that of wood crackling in the fires.

Dream sequence for my novel

I had posted the original dream sequence back in September but have since revised and edited it on Sunday. I had a chance to take a break from writing when I went to Camp Bullis with my unit this past weekend. I had time to reflect on my writing as apposed to just writing what my imagination tells me. I looked more than listened and want to bring that description to life. The revised version is twice as long and in my opinion, much better.

Dreams can be quite strange , they can be good, bad or both. They can be your most amazing fantasy or be your worst nightmare, reflect what happened during your day or bring out your worst fears from the past. The strangest things about dreams is that they can be deceptive by giving you a truthful glimpse of what is to come. Dreams are strange indeed.
As David walked down the street with his thick leather boots and olive drab jacket, he had no emotion of any kind on his face. He just moved with a purpose. All was dark and quiet except for the little bit of liquid sloshing around in the gas can he had with him. The moon was dim but gave off just enough light for him to see his surroundings. There were no people around that he could see, the streets were empty, lifeless and silence was cold. He wasn’t sure where he was or how he got there though the neighborhood felt eerily familiar. Still, he didn’t let it bother him, he just kept on walking with the wind seemingly following him. The houses around him were abandoned and falling apart but not enough to conceal their former charm and composition. He could still tell that this was once a beautiful neighborhood that was full of life. The once white picket fences were now in disrepair, charred and broken, plants that had been vibrant were shriveled and dried up and dead, lawns once neatly manicured were spotted with overgrown weeds with trash and debris blowing around them.
When he came to the middle of the block he stopped and thew the near empty gas can at a house. Reaching into his pockets he pulled out a lighter and some crudely fashioned sticks wrapped in and oil soaked rags. David spoke under his breath, “It’s time to start anew.” Then without thought and still emotionless, he lit the rags on fire then threw them at the nearest house. Almost instantly the house took to the flame and spread up and down the street jumping from house to house following the trail of gasoline he had laid out.
David kept walking down the empty street, houses now ablaze, like nothing was wrong. Just watching the houses burn as if the neighborhood was still in it’s prime and covered in Christmas lights. This brought David comfort and somehow made him feel safer. He gave himself false memories of children that once played there, laughing and chasing each other up and down the street. Of people pulling into their driveway and waving at their neighbors. He thought of an old woman that took pride and loved working in her flower garden. He just wanted to picture that neighborhood they way it might have been. Continuing on, the fire from the burning houses lit up the sky with it’s orange glow, lighting his way through the night. Then something in one of the houses caught his attention, pulling him out of his daydream. He noticed some kind of movement coming from behind the flames. When he got a better look, his eyes widened as he saw the burning silhouettes running around erratically inside the inferno. David began to panic. He started waving his arms and running toward the burning figures trying to get their attention. He began shouting, screaming, calling for anyone who could hear him but something was different, something wasn’t right. As he shouted his voice was not there, instead only silence was emitted. His mouth was open but the only sounds were that of wood crackling in the fires.
He began looking around for anything to put out the fires and rescue the people inside until the burning figures fell out of sight. He tried to shield his eyes as the wind picked up. The road became covered in ash, blowing around in the breeze then falling to the ground like gentle snow. He thought to himself, How could the ash pile up this quickly? The gray powder was almost 5” high and coated his entire body. Wiping the soot from his eyes he was frightened and confuse when he was able to focus on what now lay on top of the accumulated dust. They were everywhere, bodies just scattered all around him. They weren’t here before, I know they weren’t. Where did they all come from? They looked as if they had been dead and decomposing for quite some time but oddly, they were not covered in ash like everything else on the street. It seemed as though they were just plucked from where they had died, unknown and left to rot, and placed there so lightly as not to disturb the ash. But how was the question he couldn’t answer. Questions ran through his mind and he began to wonder what happened to those people and why was he burning the houses.
Puzzled, David thought, Was there some kind of accident? Did they cause all this or did I?
One of the bodies started to twitch then began crawling towards David with great difficulty. The mans legs were completely paralyzed, just dead weight dangling behind a burnt torso. His arms were missing some flesh but still the man used them to inch closer and closer to David, reaching out towards him as if he were asking for help. As he ran over to see if he could help the injured crawling man, the figure just stopped moving and plopped down on the gray powdery road. Avoiding the burning debris that spread to the trees, he reached the man and flipped his body over only to see it was as lifeless as the rest. Suddenly the man’s eyes popped opened and locked with David’s. Then the man grabbed hold of David’s arm and spoke, “Only time can kill us David!” he was startled and jumped back, struggling to free himself from the man’s unyielding grip that only seemed to get tighter. The burnt man started laughing at David’s attempts to break free. As the fear and adrenaline rose in his blood he felt something different come over him, something cold and heartless. The emotion was drained from his face. He twisted the mans arm arm, grabbed his wrist and shoved his boot onto the bone on his exposed elbow. Staring at his face, he leaned forward putting more and more pressure until he heard a loud snap that vibrated up his own leg. The man let off a resounding shriek that resonated in his head causing his ears to bleed. The neighborhood began to quake violently sending David to the floor and he man’s scream continued to echo up and down the street. Suddenly, his voice returned a he could hear his own frightened cries, waking him from his dream.

He awoke screaming, panicked and covered in sweat with his heart pounding. “What the hell kind of dream was that?” he asked himself.

Finally got #2 up

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.

The Lingering Scent

Just a short one today but It explains a little more on one of the characters in Heart Broken
A very handsome man named Aaron, had just returned home from a late night meeting for the local magazine he writes for. Like most others like him, he just wanted to have a snack and relax on his couch. As he entered the kitchen he caught a whiff a strange odor. It was a rancid stench that made him gag a bit. “What is that?” he asked himself, “And where the hell is it coming from?” He tried to keep his apartment tidy because he never knew when guests would be coming over and was just a clean person in general. With this foul smell, this emanating stink coming from the kitchen, who know what they would think. His first reaction was to check the sink. There were no dishes in it so he put his nose close to the drain to see if that was the cause of the offending odor, but there was nothing. He then moved over to the refrigerator to see if maybe something had gone bad or somehow fell out. He opened the door and sniffed around, inspecting every empty shelf for some kind of smelly residue, but again there was nothing. He even went so far as to move the refrigerator to see if maybe something fell under or behind it without him knowing, nevertheless it was spotless. A thought occurred to him, maybe some smelly man broke in to the apartment and was waiting for his chance to strike. He checked every room, every nook and cranny, any place that could possibly conceal a body. He checked behind the shower curtain, under the bed and even his closet but the smell, that horrible smell was coming from the kitchen. He returned there to investigate further, looking under the counter and table, in the cupboards and cabinets but they were all immaculate. The only place left to check was the oven. “No it can’t be,” he said to himself, “I haven’t used the oven in weeks.” Aaron crept over to the oven wrapping his fingers around the handle, slowly pulling the door down. “Well,” he told himself, “It’s not coming from here.” Then he pulled the door all the way down and the rancid smell filled his nostrils. His mouth filled with bile as tiny roaches scattered off of a woman’s putrid head sitting atop one of the oven-racks. Aaron ran to the living room to collect himself and when he finally caught his breath, his phone rang. “Hello?” he answered. It was an old friend of his that seemed to notice he was breathing heavy, “What’s wrong? You sound out of breath.” Aaron replied, “Roaches, oven, head! I must have forgotten a head in the oven and now I have these filthy little disgusting roaches running around my apartment! ….Oh, you want me to meet this girl at The Written….Amy … Sure, I’m free. I’ll be there soon.”

Cruel Young

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, …..

The Silent Walk

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.