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A Haunting of Horrors, Volume 2: A Twenty-Book eBook Bundle of Horror and the Occult

Page 485

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

 

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