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.

I Love Halloween

Scott loved Halloween very much. He remembered having such fun as a child with people in his neighborhood doing their best to frighten everyone with masks and haunted houses. But it was the jack-o-lanterns that brought it all together. That was the symbol for Halloween itself, what he thought was the greatest day of the year, and his was the only house in the neighborhood that didn’t have one. He started his search just the day before Halloween looking in pumpkin patches all over town, trying to find what would make the absolute perfect jack-o-lantern. Sadly, the day was coming to an end and his search for the perfect pumpkin was fruitless. He felt so beaten by this and began his journey home with his head hung. Then there it was on the side of the road, the perfect jack-o-lantern waiting to be made and place on his steps. He was overcome with joy as he brought it home and placed it in his kitchen, staring at it carving out what will be it’s new face in his mind. The perfect image came to him, it was the classic jack-o-lantern with the triangle eyes and nose and crude crescent mouth. That was the image that represented Halloween to him and that was what he was going to do. He went looking through his fathers old tools and found a keyhole saw, the perfect tool to carve the perfect jack-o-lantern. Sawing, sawing, sawing, he removed the top and started to hollow out the inside. Sawing, sawing, sawing, he carved out the triangles for the eyes and nose. Sawing, sawing, sawing, he carved out the jagged teeth and mouth. There it was, the perfect homage to Halloween, the perfect jack-o-lantern. Scott placed it on the steps leading up to his porch, placed the lit candle inside and then replaced the top of the poor woman’s skull, completing his perfect jack-o-lantern. He took a few steps back and with a smile from his childhood he said, “I love Halloween.”

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.

Family Eternal

This will be last story in V1 #2. It’s based on something my daughter told me when she was only two years old and it disturbed the hell out of me. She said, “Daddy, when I was six, my mommy broke all my bones and threw me in a dumpster.” I was shocked because that’s not something you would normally hear from a two year old and what got me more was that she had never even heard the word dumpster before. So how could she know what that was or that bones could be broken, i mean she was just learning how to count to ten. I don’t know what to believe about that but even though my daughter is much older and doesn’t remember anymore, it still bothers me. As with dreams that bring out emotion and stay with me, I figured I would make that into a short story too. Here is a part of it.

---

Chelsea began having strange dreams that started on her sixteenth birthday. They were of a little boy that looked about eight or nine years old. He had a little trickle of blood that came down the side of his face and it seemed to come from a small fissure above his temple. He told her his name was Brandon and in her dreams, the two would always play at a beautiful park surrounded by trees and flowers, and there, next to a swing set was a picnic basket sitting in the middle of a quilted blanket. For weeks she had lucid dreams of nothing else but being at the park with Brandon and sometimes they would just talk.
One night, she decided to ask him what had happened to him and why was his head bleeding. A sadness came over Brandon’s face when he looked down and said, “My mommy, she pushed me down the stairs and then she put me in the trash can.” She was instantly taken to the top of a staircase and felt a hand push her from behind. Chelsea felt the pain of hitting each stair on the way down, then she was taken back to the park where she now understood what had happened to him. Feeling his anguish, she wanted to make him feel better so she smiled and grabbed his hand then said, “Hey, how about I push you on the swing for a little while.” His sorrow seemed to disappear and his smile that she had grown to love was back. When the sun would set there, in reality the sun was rising and she knew it wouldn’t be long before she awoke. “I’ll be waking up soon,” she told him, “but you know I’ll see you again.” He jumped off the swing, held her hand and looked up at her. “You are so nice Chelsea,” he said, “I want you to meet Hallie and Heather soon.” Becoming curious about them, she asked, “Oh really, are they your friends?” He replied, “They are my sisters.” Then he smiled again and wrapped his arms around her before stepping back and disappearing.
Chelsea awoke to mixed feelings about her dream. She was looking forward to meeting Brandon’s sisters but she was also very disturbed by what had happened to him. “Who could do something like that to their own kid?” she mumbled to herself.

Singing Thoughts

My name is Kevin Holt and hopefully I have found a way to die before this is read. I have no idea what I am but it must have something to do with my father, whoever he is or was. I can’t be around people, I can’t lead a normal life and I can’t die. My thoughts are dangerous and I just can’t seem to control them. The first incident that I can remember, happened when I was in high school. My writing teacher said I didn’t have an imagination and the first thought that came to mind was her breaking her leg. She tripped on the chair right in front of me and ended up with a compound fracture, she almost lost her leg. How’s that for imagination. She had it easy if you ask me, I never saw her again because she had to take medical leave and school would be out by the time she returned. I started to notice bad things happening to the people around me that just couldn’t be explained. I remember this one kid bumped into me then shoved me while we were walking down the stairs, like it was my fault. He was an asshole but still, I had never seen someone’s spine come out of their neck like that. And that was the problem, that’s what I was thinking when he fell down the stairs. The poor kid died instantly.
Things started getting weirder, like on the last day of school. I loved science, but not my teacher. Before the last bell rang he decided to do a little sendoff experiment that involved some kind of flammable soap bubbles. It might have turned out alright except he had to throw my name in there saying I could never be as bright as the flaming bubbles he had created. Well, needless to say, the students were sent off traumatized. The teacher caught on fire and his head inexplicably popped like one of the bubbles and showered the student in the front of the class with little burning chunks of Mr. Chambers. I know it’s bad but I still think that was kind of funny, well now that I’ve been desensitized to all this. Things got worse when two of my friends came over. We were talking about video games on minute and the next, a blue light passed through my room and splattered them against the wall. What was left of them was comparable to what you might find in a chum bucket. When the cops came, they had scoop them up into little Jake and Erick soup baggies. That’s when the real trouble for me began.
Of course I was taken in for questioning and they put me in this little white room without windows that had a camera up in the corner. They asked some pretty stupid questions like were we playing with explosives and planned on making a bomb or something. I got bored and imagined that the roof collapsed. The roof never came down but the officers that were in there were crushed by some kind of invisible force, it was terrifying to watch at the time. I can remember every snap, crackle and pop there bones made. I freaked out and ran home crying. My mom, she was great, she wasn’t worried that I just left a police station and had blood on me, no, she wanted to know why I was crying. When I tried to tell her, a random thought entered my mind, and my mother was cut in half. I panicked and tried to imagine her whole again but it wasn’t working, I even tried to push the pieces back together. The cops kicked down my door and they were pissed, they had their guns drawn and everything. The realization that I was the cause of all this got to me and I wanted to die. When I was ordered to lay on the ground, I instead lunged at them, figuring they were trigger happy thinking I somehow had the super strength it would take to crush the officers back at the station. I heard the loud bangs as they opened fire and welcome the rounds I took to the chest, but it wasn’t what I expected. They didn’t hurt as they entered my body, I felt the pressure but there was no burning, no stinging, no holy shit I have a big ass hole in my chest kind of pain. It was more like getting hit with a stream from a dollar store water gun. They looked at me like I was the devil, one of them screamed something and ran while the others kept barking orders at me. I don’t think they knew what the hell to do. They should have run off with the other guy because none of them made it. It started with a trickle of blood coming from their mouths, then led to coughing up gallons of blood. While they were coughing, a thought entered my mind, it was the saying, to cough up a lung. It was one of the grossest things I had ever witnessed. They started gagging then began to throw up random organs it seems. How the hell can you throw up your kidneys? I just wanted out of there before I started vomiting too. When I left the house I saw the officer that ran, hiding behind his car door with only his gun exposed. I had to start singing to keep my mind occupied long enough to get away from him, he survived by the way.
It became difficult to go shopping for food while I was on the run. One poor guy at a gas station sneezed and his head exploded, all I wanted was a microwave sandwich. I figured I deserved to starve to death and stopped eating for a while, again, nothing. I didn’t feel hunger anymore but missed the taste of food. I started thinking, this not being able to die thing just might have something to it. I made my way to the Grand Canyon and got to see sights that no one else has. When I was on the top of the canyon and wanted to see something at the bottom a little closer, I jumped. It felt great, for a while it felt like jumping out of a plane without a parachute, the rush, the thrill, without a doubt it was great. Then more and more tourists would show up and it became harder and harder to avoid them. Those around me took a vacation they never came back from. I remember I must have spent a whole month climbing then jumping, climbing then jumping, trying to punish myself for all that I have done.
The singing only helped so much but it was my thoughts that can’t be controlled. My only option was to go as far away from people as possible and I did just that. I moved to northern Canada where most couldn’t handle the cold and where I had no luck in freezing to death. On my way up there, I must have been hallucinating because I swear I saw zombies running around. I couldn’t be sure because as soon as they got close my thoughts ran wild and they were dog food. I don’t know how long I’ve been up here trying to isolate myself from the world, the sun rises and sets very differently way up here. I can’t tell from my reflection either because I stopped aging somewhere in my twenties. All I know is that I’ve been here for a very long time. It’s been getting warmer around here and I’ve been noticing houses being built in the woods where I stay. I do my best to avoid them but, they just keep popping up. Just the other day, I was exploring and there, at the edge of a cliff was an entire city. People are spreading out way too far for their own good so I decided to take a stroll through town and make sure my sanctuary stays preserved.

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 Moment Tree

Erica and her son, Ethan, had just moved in to an old farm house after the loss of her husband. The house belonged to her close friend, Sara, that had no use for it and rather than just let it sit there, she let Erica move in. Her heart weighed her down as she unpacked, thinking of how unprepared they were for any kind of tragedy. When the first set of bills came in after Mark’s death, she didn’t know what to do. They had no life insurance and no savings, so she would put the bills on the kitchen table and hoped they would just disappear. Eventually, her only choice was to sell their house.
Everything she took out of the boxes brought back memories of Mark, so some things just never got unpacked. One day while she was searching for a job on her computer, Ethan went to her begging for the toy he had just seen on a commercial. “Mommy, mommy” he said tugging on her sleeve, “I want the new Gojijo Man toy. Can I have it please mommy, please.” In a very consoling voice she said to him, “I’m sorry baby but we just can’t afford it right now.” Ethan gave her the saddest face he could conjure up hoping that she would change her mind. He was still very young and didn’t have much of an understanding of how money works yet. She felt so bad that she couldn’t get him the toy so she made a deal with him, “I’ll tell you what, if you let mommy look for a job, then as soon as I get one we will go to the store and get you the new Gojijo Man. Does that sound ok to you?” He smiled wide and did his little happy dance. “I’ll take that as a yes, for now you can go play outside, ok baby,” she said before continuing her job search.
Erica and her son, Ethan, had just moved in to an old farm house after the loss of her husband. The house belonged to her close friend, Sara, that had no use for it and rather than just let it sit there, she let Erica move in. Her heart weighed her down as she unpacked, thinking of how unprepared they were for any kind of tragedy. When the first set of bills came in after Mark’s death, she didn’t know what to do. They had no life insurance and no savings, so she would put the bills on the kitchen table and hoped they would just disappear. Eventually, her only choice was to sell their house.
Everything she took out of the boxes brought back memories of Mark, so some things just never got unpacked. One day while she was searching for a job on her computer, Ethan went to her begging for the toy he had just seen on a commercial. “Mommy, mommy” he said tugging on her sleeve, “I want the new Gojijo Man toy. Can I have it please mommy, please.” In a very consoling voice she said to him, “I’m sorry baby but we just can’t afford it right now.” Ethan gave her the saddest face he could conjure up hoping that she would change her mind. He was still very young and didn’t have much of an understanding of how money works yet. She felt so bad that she couldn’t get him the toy so she made a deal with him, “I’ll tell you what, if you let mommy look for a job, then as soon as I get one we will go to the store and get you the new Gojijo Man. Does that sound ok to you?” He smiled wide and did his little happy dance. “I’ll take that as a yes, for now you can go play outside, ok baby,” she said before continuing her job search.
While Ethan was outside, he tried to find ways to entertain himself. He dug a hole and threw rocks at an ant pile, then he saw the perfect tree for climbing. Towards the bottom of the tree, there was a big dark knot and branches that led all the way up like a ladder. He climbed the tree and pretended he was Gojijo Man’s sidekick fighting off evil monsters and saving the world. Then he slipped and fell out of the tree landing on his knees. He gave the tree a mean look and rolled up one of his pant legs to inspect his knee for any cuts or bruises. He had some blood that formed around a small cut but it was nothing too bad. He wiped the blood off his knee and smeared it on the knot of the tree then ran inside. After finding a bandage for his scrape, he decided that playing inside would be much safer and he played until it was time for bed.
The next morning when Ethan woke up, to his surprise, there next to his bed was a brand new Gojijo Man still in the box. He jumped up and did his happy dance then took it down the stairs to play with it. Erica was awakened by Ethan stomping around the living room screaming about killing monsters. She smiled when she saw him be cause he hadn’t been that happy since his father died. “What are you doing Ethan? You look so happy this morning.” He ran over to her, toy in hand, gave her a big hug and said, “Oh thank you thank you thank you mommy. You’re the best mommy ever.” She giggled and ask, “Oh really, and why is that, baby?” He held up his new toy and said, “Because you got me Gojijo Man!” Ethan spread the toy’s wings and began flying it around the room. Erica was confused and puzzled with a hint of concern because she knew she didn’t buy him that toy.