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Free Read Friday: Destination Unknown
Photo courtesy of Olivier Guillard
Read this story from the beginning HERE!
Destination Unknown
That pretty much summed up my life, living day to day, a nomad on the open road. I’d never had a bank account, didn’t understand the first thing about saving for the future, like I had one. Every dollar I took was wadded up and shoved into my pocket as I moved through life, staying among those I understood, and shunning what I couldn’t comprehend, like the schools of fish from that aquarium so long ago.
I thought I had it figured out, and for me I did, when my cash got low I’d check out a bank, measuring the distance from the street corner to the interior of the vault. That night I’d show up outside, slip in between, and walk into the vault. Most times I was right on target, emerging from the in-between inside the vault where I would fill my pockets with what I needed from the teller drawers stored inside, then be on my way before anything from the in-between got close.
I had to always be aware of that, those creatures on the other side, they were always on the prowl for me. Circling my last known location in a spiral that would bring them to the point where I crossed over. I never waited to see what they were, afraid if I did I might never escape.
I learned early on to ignore the blocks of new bills wrapped in plastic that were just sitting on the shelf in plain sight. Tried to bring one across but was unable to do so, and it fell to the floor of the vault where it lay until the following morning when the manager opened. He must have been the suspicious sort as I learned later when the police pulled me in for questioning. It appears they found my fingerprints on the block of cash and wanted to know how I found my way into the vault.
There was also the matter of the missing cash from the teller drawers. Some of the bills had been marked and of course the police found them wadded up in my pocket. They hammered at me for two days, wanting to know who the inside man was, how did I circumvent the alarm system, and so on. Had I told them the truth they wouldn’t have believed me, besides that was my ace in the hole, when they locked me up all I had to do was slip across into the in-between and be on my way.
Or at least that was my reasoning. The reality of course turned out to be quite the opposite.
After a couple of days they gave up and charged me with grand theft, I’d taken nearly five thousand dollars. A mere pittance really when compared to what many of these banks made in interest and fees. I was tried, found guilty of course, and sentenced to five to ten years at the state prison. The night before my transfer from the city lockup I decided it was time to go.
You know how they say some places give off a certain vibe? Like abandoned mental hospitals that years after their closure are still filled with the despair of their former patients. The terror and fear of these lost souls who appeared abnormal to the general public. In reality they were attuned to things beyond the understanding of the so called sane among us. Secret things and places that existed in a shadowy realm.
Jails are like that, the walls seem to absorb the energy of those incarcerated. Oozing with helpless terror, fear, and sometimes unimaginable evil. I didn’t know the history of the cell I was in, but there must have been some pretty bad shit that went down in there.
When I crossed over it was like nothing I’d ever seen before. The landscape around me was one of shadows dancing in an endless night with the screaming cries of past victims echoing all around me. But that wasn’t the worst of it. I don’t know who had been in that cell before me but they had been one evil son of a bitch. Their presence was in that dark landscape, a predator stalking its prey, and I felt it on a purely emotional level that made me feel like someone had kicked me in the gut.
It moved through the darkness, zeroing in on me almost instantly, scrambling towards me in a shadowy form that resembled a massive spider. It was and it wasn’t, if you catch my drift, I was looking at something my mind could not comprehend, so it created what it was familiar with. It moved through the emptiness in a jerking motion, stopping and starting, then stopping again as it watched me with a multitude of eyes that all said the same thing.
We want you.
I felt its need like a thousand tiny hands clambering all over my body, pulling at my clothes, my flesh, my hair and face. It was the most frightening thing I’d ever felt before or since. I managed to get away, but I’ll never escape the memory of that nightmare landscape. It will follow me to my grave, and that is where the real problem lies.
When I take my final walk, and they strap me down to that gurney, and as the fluids designed to kill me flow into my body, where will I go?
To be continued!
This week in Horror 12/20/2017
Blood in the Woods - J.P. Willie
Click on cover for more info!
Synopsis: For Jody, growing up in the late eighties and early nineties in the small Louisiana town of Hammond with his best friend Jack was filled with wonderful childhood memories.
Time spent playing in the woods, shooting pellet guns, blowing up mailboxes, fighting at school and upon the dawning of interest in the fairer sex, their carefree lives typical of children with few responsibilities and no worries beyond the next pop-quiz or getting to second base.
As they grow older together and experience the joys and pains of life, love, family and friendship, they uncover a grim secret that their home town has kept, and through little more than an innocent, idle curiosity, Jody and Jack stumble upon something horrific in the woods and their lives quickly take a most sinister and dangerous turn as they find themselves hunted by an unspeakable evil...
Seven Seconds - Lisa Compton
Click on cover for more info!
Synopsis: Olivia Osborne is a forensic psychologist and former FBI agent who is blessed (or cursed, depending on who you ask) with unique gifts. Olivia is able to sense what others cannot--the spiritual presence of those who have "crossed over," as well as the living who are influenced, or in some cases possessed, by evil. The passing of her beloved Gran was the catalyst Olivia needed to leave the FBI behind and return to her native San Antonio, Texas. But a familiar evil has followed on her heels. When a series of brutal murders rock her city, Olivia is pulled into the investigation despite her plans to leave that part of her life behind. What if she isn't supposed to run? What if she was always supposed to stand and fight?
Her Suffering - John Athan
Click on cover for more info!
Synopsis: The life of Julie Knight, an eighteen-year-old waitress, crumbles after she's sexually assaulted by a malevolent entity—an invisible intruder. She attempts to hide the first attack, shrugging it off as a nightmare, but then the inexplicable attacks increase in frequency and intensity. Reina Knight, Julie's single mother, attempts to help her by staying by her side and enlisting the aid of doctors, but Julie's agony refuses to end...
Is Julie's suffering the result of a severe mental illness? Or has an incubus targeted her from the supernatural realm? Can Reina end her daughter's suffering before Julie is consumed by her agony?
The Spiders Children - Leah R Cutter
Click on cover for more info!
Synopsis: The corn husk doll Lizzie always carries has promised to teach Lizzie about power. Maybe even enough to grant all her wishes.
Lizzie just wants Pa to smile again. And maybe for Ma to get well. As for her brother being less mean, well, even a magic wish might not be strong enough for that.
But the doll refuses to teach Lizzie NOW, though her need is mighty.
While the spider...the spider also promises to teach Lizzie about power. Today. The spider just wants a home for her and her children.
This historic horror story delves into wild magic and strange relationships, as well as the consequences of wishes coming true. Be prepared to shiver, then be haunted by "what ifs".
The Dead Undone - Ellie Douglas
Click on cover for more info!
Synopsis:
A buried secret has woken and it is hungrier than ever…
Something whispers in the shadows…
Something screams in the dead of night...
Nurse Willa Galton doesn’t believe in ghosts or the paranormal. She never has. But when things start to happen to her, and the others within Tui Asylum, her disbelief in the supernatural is challenged in ways she’s never experienced before.
Willa watches as her world unceremoniously perishes before her very eyes. Determined that she will not let her world die, she leads a team into a dark and dangerous battle.
Faced with a nightmare so raw and so real, they wonder if they have what it will take to defeat the evil on their doorstep.
Willa and her team chop, smash, hammer, stab, shoot and even burned the monsters beyond recognition…but some just don’t stay dead. Why?!
Follow Willa and her team on a perilous journey that takes them on a path of righting a world turned inside out.
If you thought sleeping was safe…think again.
Click on cover for more info!
Synopsis: For Jody, growing up in the late eighties and early nineties in the small Louisiana town of Hammond with his best friend Jack was filled with wonderful childhood memories.
Time spent playing in the woods, shooting pellet guns, blowing up mailboxes, fighting at school and upon the dawning of interest in the fairer sex, their carefree lives typical of children with few responsibilities and no worries beyond the next pop-quiz or getting to second base.
As they grow older together and experience the joys and pains of life, love, family and friendship, they uncover a grim secret that their home town has kept, and through little more than an innocent, idle curiosity, Jody and Jack stumble upon something horrific in the woods and their lives quickly take a most sinister and dangerous turn as they find themselves hunted by an unspeakable evil...
Seven Seconds - Lisa Compton
Click on cover for more info!
Synopsis: Olivia Osborne is a forensic psychologist and former FBI agent who is blessed (or cursed, depending on who you ask) with unique gifts. Olivia is able to sense what others cannot--the spiritual presence of those who have "crossed over," as well as the living who are influenced, or in some cases possessed, by evil. The passing of her beloved Gran was the catalyst Olivia needed to leave the FBI behind and return to her native San Antonio, Texas. But a familiar evil has followed on her heels. When a series of brutal murders rock her city, Olivia is pulled into the investigation despite her plans to leave that part of her life behind. What if she isn't supposed to run? What if she was always supposed to stand and fight?
Her Suffering - John Athan
Click on cover for more info!
Synopsis: The life of Julie Knight, an eighteen-year-old waitress, crumbles after she's sexually assaulted by a malevolent entity—an invisible intruder. She attempts to hide the first attack, shrugging it off as a nightmare, but then the inexplicable attacks increase in frequency and intensity. Reina Knight, Julie's single mother, attempts to help her by staying by her side and enlisting the aid of doctors, but Julie's agony refuses to end...
Is Julie's suffering the result of a severe mental illness? Or has an incubus targeted her from the supernatural realm? Can Reina end her daughter's suffering before Julie is consumed by her agony?
The Spiders Children - Leah R Cutter
Click on cover for more info!
Synopsis: The corn husk doll Lizzie always carries has promised to teach Lizzie about power. Maybe even enough to grant all her wishes.
Lizzie just wants Pa to smile again. And maybe for Ma to get well. As for her brother being less mean, well, even a magic wish might not be strong enough for that.
But the doll refuses to teach Lizzie NOW, though her need is mighty.
While the spider...the spider also promises to teach Lizzie about power. Today. The spider just wants a home for her and her children.
This historic horror story delves into wild magic and strange relationships, as well as the consequences of wishes coming true. Be prepared to shiver, then be haunted by "what ifs".
The Dead Undone - Ellie Douglas
Click on cover for more info!
Synopsis:
A buried secret has woken and it is hungrier than ever…
Something whispers in the shadows…
Something screams in the dead of night...
Nurse Willa Galton doesn’t believe in ghosts or the paranormal. She never has. But when things start to happen to her, and the others within Tui Asylum, her disbelief in the supernatural is challenged in ways she’s never experienced before.
Willa watches as her world unceremoniously perishes before her very eyes. Determined that she will not let her world die, she leads a team into a dark and dangerous battle.
Faced with a nightmare so raw and so real, they wonder if they have what it will take to defeat the evil on their doorstep.
Willa and her team chop, smash, hammer, stab, shoot and even burned the monsters beyond recognition…but some just don’t stay dead. Why?!
Follow Willa and her team on a perilous journey that takes them on a path of righting a world turned inside out.
If you thought sleeping was safe…think again.
Free Read Friday: Destination Unknown
Photo courtesy of Olivier Guillard
Destination Unknown
It was only natural that someone such as myself, from the wrong side of the tracks, with little education coupled with little hope for the future, would find themselves in my current situation. After all my trip to death row was foretold on the night of my birth when my father managed to drag himself to the hospital long enough to see what his seed had produced.
Like father like son they always say, the fruit doesn’t fall far from the tree was another homily that pretty much sealed my fate. From what I was able to piece together my dad had been a drug dealing, pill popping, thrill seeker living along the shadowy edge of our ordered society. A biker with little hope for the future who lived for the moment as that was the only one that mattered. In his world there was little need for 401k’s, bank accounts, or even jobs.
He and his kind lived day by day, feast or famine, constantly on the move, never pausing for a moment except when they were too drunk, or too high to function, and even then they pushed on. Always wandering, moving from one end of the country to the other, living by their wits, accumulating only what wealth they needed for the moment through wheeling and dealing, and in rare cases by sticking a gun in some poor saps face.
They didn’t take from the man, they kept their distance from the more ordered members of society, the nine to fivers who went about their daily lives unaware of the danger lurking just beyond view. They dealt strictly within the family, that loose coalition living in the shadowy realm between good and bad. The pimps, hookers, and dealers who fed on the darker needs of an ordered society that at times became too stifling for some.
They were modern nomads roaming the land in search of a freedom that no longer existed, and they welcomed me with open arms. After being held back for the ninth grade for the third time I decided that school was not for me. There were no scholarships in my future, no invitations to visit the campus of this college or that, and even if by some miracle a college did approach me, our financial situation pretty much ruled that out.
We were nomads in our own right, the woman who gave birth to me and I, living at the very edge of society as she wheeled and dealed her way through one government program after another, her hand always extended, never once offering more than a token effort and just long enough to get what she needed. In that time we moved from one crappy apartment or trailer to the next, each worse than the one before, as we spiraled down the drain to homelessness.
I’ve often wondered as the night grows long and the others on death row with me sleep as best they can knowing at the end of the hall their destination waited. How would my life have turned out if the woman who gave birth to me had been different. Would I be sitting in this lonely cell, counting down the days to my own unknown destination, or would I have built a family of my own.
A loving wife, a couple of kids, a boy and a girl, maybe more. A family pet a dog, or cat, and some fish of course, I’d always been fascinated by fish swimming in their ordered little world. One of my childhood friends had an aquarium when I was growing up and I could sit for hours and watch as they swam back and forth from one end of the tank to the other. Staying in their groups, some holding to the center of the tank while others traveled along the outer edges.
Never aware that there was a wide open world on the other side of the glass that imprisoned them.
Like father like son they always say, the fruit doesn’t fall far from the tree was another homily that pretty much sealed my fate. From what I was able to piece together my dad had been a drug dealing, pill popping, thrill seeker living along the shadowy edge of our ordered society. A biker with little hope for the future who lived for the moment as that was the only one that mattered. In his world there was little need for 401k’s, bank accounts, or even jobs.
He and his kind lived day by day, feast or famine, constantly on the move, never pausing for a moment except when they were too drunk, or too high to function, and even then they pushed on. Always wandering, moving from one end of the country to the other, living by their wits, accumulating only what wealth they needed for the moment through wheeling and dealing, and in rare cases by sticking a gun in some poor saps face.
They didn’t take from the man, they kept their distance from the more ordered members of society, the nine to fivers who went about their daily lives unaware of the danger lurking just beyond view. They dealt strictly within the family, that loose coalition living in the shadowy realm between good and bad. The pimps, hookers, and dealers who fed on the darker needs of an ordered society that at times became too stifling for some.
They were modern nomads roaming the land in search of a freedom that no longer existed, and they welcomed me with open arms. After being held back for the ninth grade for the third time I decided that school was not for me. There were no scholarships in my future, no invitations to visit the campus of this college or that, and even if by some miracle a college did approach me, our financial situation pretty much ruled that out.
We were nomads in our own right, the woman who gave birth to me and I, living at the very edge of society as she wheeled and dealed her way through one government program after another, her hand always extended, never once offering more than a token effort and just long enough to get what she needed. In that time we moved from one crappy apartment or trailer to the next, each worse than the one before, as we spiraled down the drain to homelessness.
I’ve often wondered as the night grows long and the others on death row with me sleep as best they can knowing at the end of the hall their destination waited. How would my life have turned out if the woman who gave birth to me had been different. Would I be sitting in this lonely cell, counting down the days to my own unknown destination, or would I have built a family of my own.
A loving wife, a couple of kids, a boy and a girl, maybe more. A family pet a dog, or cat, and some fish of course, I’d always been fascinated by fish swimming in their ordered little world. One of my childhood friends had an aquarium when I was growing up and I could sit for hours and watch as they swam back and forth from one end of the tank to the other. Staying in their groups, some holding to the center of the tank while others traveled along the outer edges.
Never aware that there was a wide open world on the other side of the glass that imprisoned them.
To be continued!
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