The swim to the surface seemed to last forever, but the water gradually lightened, and before long, shimmering blue sky and a burning dot of sunlight sparkled above. Jeff could see the dark, hulking wedge of the underside of the Coast Guard boat, and he made his way toward it. When his head broke the surface, he let go a roar as he inhaled a lungful of air. It took a near superhuman effort to swim over to the side of the boat and the diving platform. Several crewmen leaned over to help him get Wes onboard.
“What the fuck?” the captain shouted as Jeff heaved himself up out of the water and climbed over the gunwales and onto the deck. Several crewmen were already tending to Wes, but Jeff feared the worst.
“You guys run into a shark down there?” one of the crewmen asked.
“Jesus!” another crewman said. “Looks like someone went at him with a chainsaw.”
Kneeling down on the deck, Jeff and the men rolled Wes over onto his back. Blood was flowing from the wounds on his neck and face, dripping in large splashes onto the deck.
The captain went back to the cabin and started the engine and revved it. Within seconds, the cutter was speeding across the water, heading back to harbor. Looking down at Wes’ pale, motionless face, Jeff shivered and shook his head.
“No need to hurry,” he said to Mark Curtis, who was still kneeling beside Wes’ motionless form. “He’s gone.”
“Christ on a crutch,” Curtis said, lowering his gaze and shaking his head from side to side. Then he turned to Jeff and pointed at Jeff’s left leg.
Jeff looked and, through the gap in his drysuit, saw the flap of water-puckered skin, already looking an angry red with infection. Blood ran in a thick, single stream down to his ankle and onto the deck.
“Looks like you got cut, too,” Curtis said, frowning as he looked at Jeff’s wound. “What the fuck happened down there?”
Shock hit Jeff when a cold, deep sting reached deep into him, striking all the way to the bone. Within seconds, the coldness radiated up his leg and into his groin and chest until it started to squeeze his heart. His hands and feel were already growing numb.
Jeff stared blankly at the wound, barely aware as Curtis knelt down beside him and inspected it more closely.
“Jesus,” Curtis said. “I’ll get the medical kit so we can get some antiseptic on that and bandage you up. You don’t want it getting infected.”
“Infected,” Jeff said, his voice an empty echo.
“That’s a helluva gash you got there. We should get you to the hospital and have someone throw a few stitches into that to close it up.”
Jeff was shaking his head from side to side as a terrible, sad knowledge filled him.
“It’s already too late,” he said as the dull heaviness spread through his body, dulling his mind.
“Huh? What do you mean, too late?” Curtis asked. “It ain’t nothing but a scratch.”
But Jeff lowered his head and stared at the blood running in a ruby red stream down the slick black surface of his drysuit. Already, it felt like his guts were filled with an iciness that was eating him from the inside out. His vision was getting cloudy, and the buzzing of the boat’s engine was unbearably loud.
“It’s the plague,” Jeff said in a low, hollow tone. “It’s back.”
As the boat sped back to the dock, he gazed across the expanse of blue water at the approaching town. The glaring white steeple of the Congregation Church stood out against the sky. The scene was gorgeous, but an immense sadness filled him. He was tormented by a question: would he be able to do what Old Man Crowther had done?
Would he have the balls to do what was necessary to protect the town?
As soon as the boat got back to the dock, he would have to find a cement block and a length of chain, and head right back out to sea.
About the Authors and Artists
Clive Barker is the worldwide bestselling author of the Books of Blood, and numerous novels including Imajica, The Great and Secret Show, Sacrament and Galilee. In addition to his work as a novelist and short story writer he also illustrates, writes, directs and produces for the stage and screen. His films include Hellraiser, Hellbound, Nightbreed and Candyman. Clive lives in Beverly Hills, California.
__________This story was originally published with the “Infernal Parade” series of action figures from McFarlane Toys.
Peter Straub is the New York Times bestselling author of seventeen novels. His two collaborations with Stephen King, The Talisman and Black House, were international bestsellers. In 2006, he was given the Horror Writers Association Lifetime Achievement Award. Peter and his wife live in New York City.
Jeff Strand’s novels include Dweller, Pressure, A Bad Day For Voodoo, Graverobbers Wanted (No Experience Necessary) and a bunch of others. His cat is staring at him in a creepy manner as he writes this, which is cool, because it gives him an excuse to include a cat reference in his bio. He encourages you to visit his website at www.JeffStrand.com.
__________”Hologram Skull Cover” was written specifically for this collection.
Thomas F. Monteleone has been a professional writer since 1972, and four-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award. He has published more than 100 short stories in numerous magazines and anthologies. He is the editor of seven anthologies, including the highly acclaimed Borderlands series edited with his wife, Elizabeth. They conduct a “boot-camp” for writers at Seton Hall University. He has also written The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Writing a Novel.
__________Rick had been invited to do a story for a local Maine publisher who was doing an anthology about haunted lighthouses, and he called to see if I would consider sending something in. I told him I didn’t think it was my kind of story because, based on the narrow theme, the editors were going to get a lot of very similar submissions. Rick laughed and said: “Yeah, that’s the problem, and I told them you’d come up with something different.” Knowing a challenge when I heard one, I agreed to do a story, and here it is.
J. F. Gonzalez is the author of over a dozen novels of horror and dark suspense including They, Back from the Dead, The Beloved, and is co-author of the CLICKERS series (with Mark Williams and Brian Keene respectively). Over eighty of his short stories and novellas have appeared in various magazines and anthologies. His collection Screaming to Get Out is forthcoming.
__________Knowing Rick's penchant (and gift) for ghost stories, the theme of loss is something Rick and I discussed quite often. While I'd met him in 2002 (after having first shared sporadic correspondence with him), we seemed to grow tighter when our mutual friend, William Relling, Jr., unexpectedly passed away. And while we mourned Bill's passing together and eventually found the strength to talk about other things, that sense of loss seemed to tie us together. He would sometimes open an email to me with the simple line “Thinking of Bill today...” and I was instantly on his wavelength. I don't think Rick ever got over the loss of Bill Relling. ”Devotion” wasn't written with Rick in mind, but it was the first story I thought of for this special tribute anthology. I like to think Rick would have liked it and understood completely where I was coming from when I wrote it.
Stephen R. Bissette, a pioneer graduate of the Joe Kubert School, currently teaches at the Center for Cartoon Studies and is renowned for Swamp Thing, Taboo (launching From Hell and Lost Girls), '1963,' Tyrant®, co-creating John Constantine, and creating the world's second '24-Hour Comic' (invented by Scott McCloud for Bissette). He writes, illustrates, and has co-authored many books; his latest include Teen Angels & New Mutants (2011), the short story “Copper” in The New Dead (2010), and illustrating The Vermont Monster Guide (2009). Bissette is currently completing S.R. Bissette’s How to Make a Monster (Watson-Guptill/Random House) for 2014 publication.
__________My contributions, “Inn Cleaning” and the “Little Brothers” sketches, are here because (1) Rick loved ghost stories, and this is my favorite of the few ghost stories I've scribed; (2) Rick always thought my character Cardinal Syn was creepy, and that's Syn cleaning the inns; and
(3) the “Little Brothers” is explained in my intro for those sketches.
Christopher Golden is the New York Times bestselling author of such novels as Of Saints and Shadows and The Boys Are Back in Town, among many others. As an editor, he has worked on the short story anthologies The New Dead, The Monster’s Corner, and 21st Century Dead, among others. His original novels have been published in more than fourteen languages in countries around the world. www.christophergolden.com
__________Rick was one of my closest friends and I miss him every day. I chose “Breathe My Name” because it’s a ghost story, and he loved ghost stories. More importantly, though, I chose it because it’s a story about fathers and sons, and being a good father was the only thing in the world more important to Rick than writing.
Lucy A. Snyder is the Bram Stoker Award–winning author of Spellbent and Shotgun Sorceress, as well as the story and poetry collections Sparks and Shadows, Chimeric Machines, and Installing Linux on a Dead Badger. Her writing has appeared in Strange Horizons, Weird Tales, Hellbound Hearts, Doctor Who Short Trips: Destination Prague, Chiaroscuro, GUD, and Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet. A Texas native, she lives in Worthington, Ohio, with her husband and occasional co-author, Gary A. Braunbeck.
Sarah Pinborough is an award-winning novelist and screenwriter who is based in London. She drinks wine. Because someone has to. You can follow her on twitter at @sarahpinborough
Brian Keene is the author of over thirty books, including Darkness on the Edge of Town, Dead Sea, Urban Gothic, Ghoul and The Rising. He also writes comic books such as The Last Zombie, Doom Patrol and Dead of Night: Devil Slayer. His work has been translated into German, Spanish, Polish, Italian, French and Taiwanese. Two of his works—Ghoul and The Ties That Bind—have been adapted for film.
Kevin J. Anderson is the international bestselling author of over 120 novels in science fiction, fantasy, thriller, and horror. ”Road Kill” is a new story featuring his popular series character, Dan Shamble, Zombie PI.
__________I met Rick several times, and he was always grinning, goofing around, clapping me on the back. I have warm memories of his big heart and good humor. It seemed appropriate to include this funny horror story, which I hope will give readers a warm fuzzy feeling…just like what I have for Rick's memory.”
Tim Lebbon is a New York Times-bestselling writer with almost thirty novels published to date, as well as dozens of novellas and hundreds of short stories. Recent releases include Into the Void–Dawn of the Jedi (Star Wars), Coldbrook, Reaper's Legacy, and The Sea Wolves (with Christopher Golden). Future novels include The Silence and the Alien tie-in Out of the Shadows. He has won four British Fantasy Awards, a Bram Stoker Award, and a Scribe Award. Find out more: www.timlebbon.net
__________I chose this story because it's about grief and loss. I think some of my best writing covers those areas––even more keenly felt since I lost my mother––and although I didn't know Rick anywhere near as well as I wish I had, his loss is felt so much and so deeply by everyone.
Nancy A. Collins is the author of numerous novels, short stories, and comic books, including DC Comics’ Swamp Thing. A recipient of the Horror Writers Association’s Bram Stoker Award, The British Fantasy Society’s Icarus Award, as well as a nominee for the International Horror Guild, John W. Campbell, James Tiptree, Eisner & World Fantasy Awards, her works include Sunglasses After Dark, Lynch: A Gothik Western, and Magic And Loss.
__________The reason I picked this story is because it mirrors Rick's fondness for incorporating local folklore into his novels and short stories, a la “Little Brothers” and “The Mountain King”.
Kim Newman is a novelist, critic and broadcaster. His fiction includes the Anno Dracula novels and The Hound of the D’Urbervilles; his non-fiction includes Nightmare Movies and BFI Classics studies of Cat People and Doctor Who. He is a contributing editor to Sight & Sound and Empire magazines. His official web-site can be found at www.johnnyalucard.com. He is on Twitter as @AnnoDracula.
__________... whenever I saw Rick at conventions, we’d end up talking about classic horror movies—we both loved the gothic stuff we’d seen as kids; so, when asked for a story for Rick, I thought of this piece, which is a homage to the Roger Corman-Vincent Price-AIP Poe movies of the early 1960s.
Sarah Langan is the author of three novels and many short stories. She's at work writing more as you read this, and lives in Brooklyn with her husband and daughters.
__________I chose ID because it's one of my best, and I figured Rick might appreciate it. The guy was genuinely kind. He also wore terrible jean shorts.
Rio Youers is the British Fantasy Award–nominated author of Westlake Soul and Old Man Scratch. His short fiction has been published by, among others, Cemetery Dance, St. Martin’s Griffin, and IDW Publishing.
__________”The Ghost of Lillian Bliss,” at its heart, is about love, friendship, and the color or our lives—themes that I know Rick would gravitate to, and with all the passion and imagination of the story’s protagonist.
Jack Ketchum is the author of over thirty novels, novellas, filmscripts, nonfiction and story collections. Basically he's stopped counting. His latest is the novella I’m Not Sam (Cemetery Dance Publications, Sinister Grin Press,) written with director Lucky McKee.
__________I chose Hotline because of Rick's dark sense of humor. I thought he'd have gotten a laugh or two out of that one.
John Skipp is a writer who started publishing round about the same time as Rick.
__________This story was written in 1981, and never published until this century. Skipp picked it for this book because he thinks it's beautiful, and therefore just seemed right.
James A. Moore is an award winning author of over twenty novels, including the critically acclaimed Serenity Falls trilogy and the young adult Subject Seven series. His recurring anti-hero, Jonathan Crowley has appeared in half a dozen novels with more to come. You can find him at http://jamesamoorebooks.com/ and he’s normally lurking around Facebook and twitter when he should be writing.
__________I chose “War Stories” because I can still remember talking to Rick about wanting to write that particular story, which was a very different sort of tale for me at the time. Rick was, as always, encouraging and insightful. Damn, I miss him.
Amber Benson is a writer, actor, director and maker of things. She lives in LA and doesn't own a television.
__________I chose this story because it was one I thought Rick might've enjoyed—and because I had some Chris Golden help with the end.
Nate Kenyon is the author of seven novels and dozens of short stories in the horror, thriller and sci fi genres. His novels Bloodstone and The Reach were Bram Stoker Award finalists. Kenyon’s novels StarCraft Ghost: Spectres and Diablo: The Order were based on Blizzard’s bestselling videogame franchises, and his next Diablo novel will be released in 2014. Kenyon’s latest novel is the thriller Day One from Thomas Dunne Books, due in October 2013.
__________I chose “The Dreamcatcher” for this book because it's one of my most personal stories, and that's something Rick would appreciate. He always poured his heart and soul into everything he did, including his relationships with others.
Holly Newstein’s short fiction has appeared in Cemetery Dance Magazine and the anthologies Borderlands 5, The New Dead, In Laymon’s Terms, Epitaphs: The Journal of the New England Horror Writers Association, and Evil Jester Digest Vol. 2. Her collaboration with Rick Hautala, “Trapper Boy” will appear in the forthcoming Dark Duets anthology edited by Christopher Golden, and her story “Silas Yoder” is soon to be a graphic tale from Evil Jester Comics.
__________A few words about Rick and my story: Not only was Rick my husband, but he was a great editor and sounding board. “Kristall Tag” benefited greatly from his knowledge of history, character development, and, as always, grammar. His encouragement and praise for my work will greatly missed, among other things. The world is a little darker without his steady, loving presence.
Rick
Hautala wrote and published more than thirty novels, including the million copy, international best-seller Nightstone, as well as Twilight Time, Little Brothers, Cold Whisper, Impulse, and The Wildman. He also published four novels—The White Room, Looking Glass, Unbroken, and Follow—using the pseudonym A. J. Matthews. His more than sixty published short stories have appeared in national and international anthologies and magazines and several collections. He wrote the screenplays for several short films, including the multiple award-winning The Ugly Film, based on the short story by Ed Gorman, as well as Peekers, based on a short story by Kealan Patrick Burke. Rick passed away on March 21, 2013. After his death his wife, Holly Newstein Hautala, discovered among his papers a memoir he had written in 2009 and it has since been published. His last two books, The Demon’s Wife and Mockingbird Bay, will be published by JournalStone in 2013 and 2014.
Cortney Skinner is a freelance artist, illustrator and conceptual designer working in both traditional and digital media. His work appears in books, magazines and in films. He makes his home in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia.
__________Rick was my “summer pal.” I was able to hang with him and his wonderful wife, Holly only at Necon in July. Because of that, my mind won't picture Rick any other way than in flip flops, T-shirt or Hawaiian shirt, shorts, and a bandana tied on his head to protect his dome from the sun. It was difficult to picture Rick and Holly living up in chilly Maine.
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