by Brian Hodge
The Dream Frontier’s legacy.
He cautiously put the car into gear again and slowly pulled back onto the road, anxiously scanning his surroundings with his newly refined eyesight. He did not want to see the dead; he had no business seeing the dead. Nor should he be able to hear their voices.
A glance upward, and he saw a vague, aqua-tinted shadow crawling slowly across the canopy of blue.
“No!”
The gemstones were gone. There was nothing left to open the way to a new dream realm.
Except for the two people who had borne the second alien object and been subject to its unknown energies. Who had been somehow transformed.
Transformed into what?
“God,” he whispered, and hit the brakes again. Without a care for any oncoming traffic, he spun the car around in the middle of the road and sped back in the direction of Silver Ridge, knowing he had to get to Debra. To get back to her and never leave her again because, if he did…
The car screamed to a stop as his foot shoved the brake pedal nearly through the floor.
Stretched out before him, from horizon to horizon, a vast, gaping chasm had opened in the earth and was slowly filling with swirling gray mist even as he watched. Soon, at the farthest reaches of the gulf, strange, mammoth black shapes were swimming through an endless sea of fog, soaring upward like breaching whales, then quickly sounding again.
He slid out of the car on rubbery legs and surveyed his surroundings.
Above, the sun had turned to quicksilver, the sky a luminous turquoise, and from a great distance the eerie strains of dark, inhuman choral music drifted to his ears.
Beside his car, Copeland dropped to his knees and wept.
-END-
Other books by authors in this collection
BRIAN HODGE
Dark Advent
Deathgrip
Falling Idols
Lies & Ugliness
Nightlife
Oasis
Picking the Bones
The Convulsion Factory
The Darker Saints
Wild Horses
THOMAS SULLIVAN
Born Burning
Case White
Dust of Eden
Second Soul
The Martyring
The Water Wolf
STEVE VERNON
NOVELS
Big Hairy Deal – A Creep Squad Novel
Devil Tree
Gypsy Blood
Tatterdemon
COLLECTIONS
Bad Valentines
Bad Valentines 2
Bigfoot Tracks – A Creep Squad Collection
Do-Overs and Detours – Eighteen Eerie Tales
Nothing to Lose – The Adventures of Captain Nothing Volume 1
Nothing Down – The Adventures of Captain Nothing Volume 2
October Tales: Seven Creepy Stories
Roadside Ghosts
Sea Tales – Seven Eerie Stories of the Sea
Shotgun Christmas: Two Christmas Tales
Steve Vernon’s Special Gift Pack – Volume 1
Two-Fisted Nasty
NOVELLAS
Hammurabi Road
Long Horn, Big Shaggy – A Tale of Wild West Terror and Reanimated Buffalo
Not Just Any Old Ghost Story
Rueful Regret
Sudden Death Overtime – A Story of Hockey and Vampires
Trolling Lures
OTHERS
Haunted Harbours - Ghost Stories From Old Nova Scotia
Maritime Murder – Deadly Crimes From The Buried Past
Sinking Deeper
Uncle Bob’s Red Flannel Bible Camp – The Book of Genesis
Uncle Bob’s Red Flannel Bible Camp – From Eden to the Ark
Wicked Woods – Ghost Stories from Old New Brunswick
DAVID J. SCHOW
Black Leather Required
Black Orchids
Bullets of Rain
Eye
Havoc Swims Jaded
The Kill Riff
Lost Angels
Rock Breaks, Scissors Cut
Seeing Red
Wild Hairs
Zombie Jam
WESTON OCHSE
Appalachian Galapagos (w/David Whitman)
Babylong Smiles
Blaze of Glory
Blood Ocean
Butterfly Winter
Empire of Salt
Scarecrow Gods
Scary Rednecks and Other Inbred Horrors (w/Weston Ochse)
Velvet Dogma
SEAL Team 666 Series
SEAL Team 666
Age of Blood
Grunt Life
Reign of Evil
DAVID WHITMAN
Appalachian Galapagos (w/Weston Ochse)
Body Counting
Deadfellas
Delightful Agony
Harlan
Scary Rednecks and Other Inbred Horrors (w/Weston Ochse)
JAY BONANSINGA
Bloodhound
Frozen
Head Case
Killer-Parade
Oblivion
Perfect Victim
Shattered
Sick
The Black Mariah
The Killer’s Game
The Sleep Police
Twisted
The Walking Dead Series
The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor
The Walking Dead: The Road to Woodbury
The Walking Dead: The Fall of the Governor
The Walking Dead: Decent
RICK HAUTALA
Novels and Novellas
Beyond the Shroud
Cold River
Cold Whisper
Dark Silence
Dead Voices
Follow
Four Octobers
Ghost Light
Impulse
Little Brothers
Looking Glass
Moon Death
Moonbog
Moonwalker
Night Stone
Reunion
Shades of Night
Star Road
The Cove
The Demon’s Wife
The Mountain King
The White Room
The Wildman
Twilight Time
Unbroken
Winter Wake
The Body of Evidence Series (co-written with Christopher Golden)
Brain Trust
Burning Bones
Last Breath
Skin Deep
Throat Culture
Story Collections
Bedbugs
Glimpses: The Best Short Stories of Rick Hautala
Occasional Demons
Untcigahunk: The Complete Little Brothers
WEDNESDAY LEE FRIDAY
A Stabbing for Sadie
Kiss Me Like You Love Me
The Finster Effect
DENNIS ETCHISON
Bradbury/Matheson
Darkside
Fine Cuts
Got to Kill Them All & Other Stories
Red Dreams
Shadowman
Talking in the Dark
The Blood Kiss
The Dark Country
The Death Artist
The Scream
JOE R. LANSDALE
“Hap Collins and Leonard Pine” mysteries
Savage Season
Mucho Mojo
Two-Bear Mambo
Bad Chili
Rumble Tumble
Veil’s Visit
Captains Outrageous
Vanilla Ride
Hyenas (a novella)
Devil Red
Blue to the Bone
The “Drive-In” series
The Drive-In: A “B” Movie with Blood and Popcorn, Made in Texas
The Drive-In 2: Not Just One of Them Sequels
The Drive-In: A Double-Feature
The Drive-In: The Bus Tour (2005)
The “Ned the Seal” trilogy
Zeppelins West
Flaming London
Flaming Zeppelins: The Adventures of Ned the Seal
The Sky Done Ripped
Other novels and novellas
A Fine Dark Line
Act of Love
All the Earth, Thrown to the Sky
Blood Dance
Bubba Ho-Tep
Cold in July
Dead in the West
Edge of Dark Water
Freezer Burn
Leather Maiden
Lost Echoes
Something Lumber This Way Comes (Children’s book)
Sunset and Sawdust
Tarzan: the Lost Adventure (with Edgar Rice Burroughs)
Texas Night Riders
The Big Blow
The Boar
The Bottoms
The Magic Wagon
The Nightrunners
Under the Warrior Star
Waltz of Shadows
Story collections
A Fist Full of Stories (and Articles)
Bestseller Guaranteed
Bumper Crop
By Bizarre Hands
By Bizarre Hands Rides Again
Deadman’s Road
For a Few Stories More
High Cotton
Mad Dog Summer and Other Stories
Private Eye Action, As You Like It
Sanctified and Chicken-Fried
The God of the Razor
The Good, the Bad, and the Indifferent
The King and Other Stories
The Long Ones: Nuthin’ But Novellas
The Shadows, Kith and Kin
Trapped at the Saturday Matinee
Triple Feature
Unchained and Unhinged
Writer of the Purple Rage
Written With a Razor
JACK KETCHUM
Book of Souls
Broken on the Wheel of Sex
Closing Time and Other Stories
Hide and Seek
Joyride
Ladies’ Night
Notes from the Cat House
Off Season
Old Flames
Peaceable Kingdom
Red
She Wakes
Sleep Disorder (w/Edward Lee)
Stranglehold
The Crossings
The Girl Next Door
The Lost
The Woman
Tryptych
Turning Japanese
What They Wrote
WHITLEY STRIEBER
2012
Alien Hunter
Alien Hunter: Underworld
Billy
Black Magic
Breakthrough
Cat Magic
Communion
Confirmation
Critical Mass
Hybrids
Lilith’s Dream
Majestic
Miraculous Journey (w/Anne Strieber)
Nature’s End
The Day After Tomorrow
The Forbidden Zone
The Grays
The Hunger
The Key
The Last Vampire
The Night Church
The Omega Point
The Secret of Orenda
The Secret School
The Wild
The Wolfen
Transformation
Unholy Fire
Warday
Wolf of Shadows
DAVID NIALL WILSON
A Taste of Blood & Roses
An Unkindness of Ravens
Ancient Eyes
Cockroach Suckers
Darkness Falling
Deep Blue
Defining Moments
Etched Deep
Foreman James
Heart of a Dragon
Kali's Tale
Killer Green
Maelstrom
My Soul to Keep
Nevermore
On the Third Day
Roll Them Bones
Scuse Me While I Kiss the Sky
The Call of Distant Shores
The Fall of the House of Escher & Other Illusions
The Not Quite Right Reverend Cletus J. Diggs
The Preacher's Marsh
The Whirling Man & Other Tales of Blood, Pain, and Madness
This is My Blood
Vintage Soul
KATHRYN PTACEK
Blood Autumn
Ghost Dance
Gila
Kachina
Shadoweyes
The Hunted
WAYNE ALLEN SALLEE
For You the Living
The Holy Terror
With Wounds Still Wet
CHARLES L. GRANT
Black Oak: Genesis
Black Oak: The Hush of Dark Wings
Black Oak: Winter Knight
Black Oak: Hunting Ground
Black Oak: When the Cold Wind Blows
Fire Mask
For Fear of the Night
In A Dark Dream
Jackals
Millennium Quartet #1: Symphony
Millennium Quartet #2: In the Mood
Millennium Quartet #3: Chariot
Millennium Quartet #4: Riders in the Sky
Night Songs
Raven
Something Stirs
Stunts
The Bloodwind
The Curse
The Grave
The Hour of the Oxrun Dead
The Last Call of Mourning
The Nestling
The Pet
The Sound Of Midnight
The Tea Party
The Universe of Horror Trilogy
The Soft Whisper of the Dead
The Dark Cry of the Moon
The Long Night of the Grave
Collections
Dialing the Wind
Nightmare Seasons
The Black Carousel
The Orchard
GARY RAISOR
Empty Places
Graven Images
Less Than Human
Sinister Purposes
The Best of Obsessions (editor)
MICHAEL LAIMO
Atmosphere
Dark Ride
Dead Souls
Deep in the Darkness
Demons, Freaks, & Other Abnormalities
Dregs of Society
Fires Rising
Return to Darkness
Sleepwalker
The Demonologist
STEPHEN MARK RAINEY
Balak
Blue Devil Island
Dark Shadows: Dreams of the Dark (with Elizabeth Massie)
Deathrealms
Evermore (with James Robert Smith)
Legends of the Night
Other Gods
Song of Cthulhu
The Gaki & Other Hungry Spirits
The Gods of Moab
The Last Trumpet
The Lebo Coven
The Monarchs
The Nightmare Frontier
Table of Contents
A HAUNTING OF HORRORS, VOL. 2
LICENSE NOTES
DISCOVER CROSSROAD PRESS
Other books by authors in this collection
CONTENTS
THE CONVULSION FACTORY
Original Publishing Credits
CONTENTS
Introduction: From Out Of The Angry Ruins
Godflesh
Childhood At The Lost And Found
Androgyny
In A Roadhouse Far, Past The Edge Of Town
Naked Lunchmeat
Cancer Causes Rats
Mostly Cloudy, Chance Of Kurt
Heartsick
Extinctions In Paradise
The Meat In The Machine
Extract
Liturgical Music For Nihilists
Endnotes: The Ticking Of An Unfriendly Clock
DUST OF EDEN
THE SITE
CREATION
Ariel
Amber
Denny & M
artin
NEW EDEN
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
THE WEIRD ONES
Table of Contents
Plague Monkey Spam
Gnarly Ho-Tep Hoedown Two-step
Hunger Time at the Midnight Mall
The Last Curl of Gut Rope
Afterword
SCARY REDNECKS AND OTHER IMBRED HORRORS
Praise for Scary Rednecks and Other Inbred Horrors
CONTENTS
Introduction
Catfish Gods
Some Things Were Better Off Not Talked About
The Appalachian Easter Outhouse Feud
Carryin’ On Like It Was the End of the World
Ingredients are the Secret to Great Taste
Circus Clowns and Elephant Cracks
A Chorus of Earthly Rage
Them Bats is Smart, They Use Radar
Humanitarians
I Saw Renny Shooting Santa Claus
The Sterility of Earthly Rage
It’s a Sick World
Morty’s Appalachian Amusement Park
Peaches
Sweet Little Piggy
Silence
Scarecrows Scare Demons Don’t They?
Wandering Minds
Fishes Dream of Lonely Things
Night of the Hunters
BLOOD SAMPLES
CONTENTS
FOREWORD
I. THAT OLD BLACK MAGIC
ANIMAL RITES
BLACK CELEBRATION
STEAGAL’S BARBER SHOPPE AND SMOKE EMPORIUM
II. THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT
THE PANIC SWITCH
DEAL MEMO
MOLE
III. KINK
NECROTICA
BIG BUST AT HERBERT HOOVER HIGH
STASH
IV. HAUNTED
THE BEAUMONT PROPHECY
OBITUARY MAMBO
DUE DATE
V. NOIR
MAMA
SOMEBODY DOWN HERE WANTS TO TALK TO YOU