From the #1 bestselling author in Horror, Men's Adcventure, War, and Techno-thrillers, Carolyn McCray, comes a horror collection to keep you up all night long if you dare!
**Warning, this collection is not for the squeamish or faint of heart. There is graphic violence, rough language, and blood to spare. Please do not buy this book if you are easily offended or terrified! However if you enjoy Saw/Hostel-style horror and a good slasher flick, read on!
Praise for Carolyn's Horror Stories...
“Oh, unless you have a strong stomach, you probably will not want to eat anything while reading this book. It is very, very graphic and will most likely give me nightmares. Supper is about a group of college kids who go out on a fact-finding vacation during spring break. They find more than they're looking for when they run out of gas on a dark deserted, creepy part of nowhere. Deliverance and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre comes to mind. But things aren't always what they seem. Get's ya in the mood for a ghoulish Halloween. Baaahaaaahaaaha!”
Rileybug
Amazon Reviewer
“I am an avid reader always looking for something original and fresh. Well, Carolyn Mcray is it!! By accident I came across this author, she may have been recommened to me by Amazon itself. This summer she was my go to author could not get enough of her books, or short stories!!! With this short story you have the Texas Chain Massacre family meets the 2012 Cannabalistic Tullocks Farm. It's faced paced, gory, and at times a funny, especially when the "tables" are turned. That's when it becomes twisted!!! This is all I will say. Some of the reviews I've been reading lately are telling me the whole entire story. What's the point??? Could not put it down. This short story actually leaves a possible opening end for a sequel. If you like this then next step is to buy her novel "Plain Jane" You will love it!!!!”
Robin Lee
Amazon Reviewer
“Scary and smart, All Hallow's Eve is perfect for anyone who wants to read a horror story that hits them in the gut. From the intricate psychopathology of the serial killer, to the hair-raising tension, to the skewering of pop culture, All Hallow's Eve is simply a great read.”
Your Need To Read
Book Reviewer
“This was surprisingly creepy. Usually by about half way through a book like this you know who the killer is. I really didn't connect the dots on this one... Just what a demented serial killer needs to round up a group of teens for the slaughter. The author did not pull any punches in the way the victims died... But what I liked best was that the killer was completely unrepentant, there was no oh gee moment at the end where the killer realizes he was doing something wrong and is sorry. If it is a horror book, horrify me. This one did.”
Avid Reader
Book Reviewer
If you enjoy Stephen King, John Saul or Clive Barker or films such as Saw, Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Hostel, Don't Read After Dark should keep you up all night!
Main Menu
Don’t Read After Dark
Fresh Meat
What do you get when you put nine serial killers in a dungeon together?
Widowmaker
A thriller for horror fans
All Hallow’s Eve
The one night it is BAD to be good…
Rook
Let’s stop the apocalypse, people!
Club Death
Come for the dancing, stay because, well, a madman has you trapped inside
Supper
The Texas Chainsaw-style horror short story
Start Reading
About the Author
Afterword
Other Works by Carolyn McCray
Copyright
Table of Contents
FRESH MEAT: An intense horror novella
PROLOGUE
She couldn’t breathe. Not with the chloroform rag crushed against her face. Evelyn Montgomery hadn’t heard him. She thought she was being vigilant, but he had grabbed her from the alley, put the rag to her face, and now she was fighting for her life.
Evelyn tried to turn her head around to see her attacker, but he was wearing a ski mask. Everything about the man screamed serial killer.
Vision swimming and her lungs burning, how had she ended up this way?
CHAPTER 1
If the bar had been crowded, the sidewalk outside the bar was jammed with partiers who had stepped out for a cigarette. It was like walking through a labyrinth of smoke stacks.
Evelyn coughed into her hand, trying to let the smokers know that secondhand smoke was not her friend.
The rest of her co-workers seemed to revel in the smoky chaos.
“Let’s split a cab to Dietrich’s,” said Phoebe, the heir apparent to their little clique.
Evelyn stepped away from the group. “I should get home.”
“Oh come on,” Nancy, the elder, designated wise member of their group said. “It’ll be fun. So Sex in the City decadent.”
Although, right now, she wasn’t showing much wisdom at all. She was as bad as Phoebe and Cassidy.
Evelyn shook her head. “No, I should walk.”
Cassidy, with her bleach-blonde head tilted back laughing at something only she found funny, said, “Ride tonight. Go to the gym tomorrow.”
Why, oh why did she agree to go out to drinks after work with these three? It was like high school all over again, only without the acne. Evelyn had never fit in before. Why did she think she could now?
“Actually,” Evelyn explained, “I wasn’t thinking about my cardio. I only live a few blocks away.”
She tried to walk away from the group, but Nancy grabbed her arm. “Come on, Evie, let loose a little.”
Evelyn jerked her arm back.
Before she could apologize to Nancy, Phoebe jumped into the gap. “Okay. Buh-bye then. Walk safe.” She gave that annoying wave you give to someone you wished was already gone.
* * *
Evie never should have left the other women. In this part of town? Walking home alone? She might as well have had a target on her back. “Look here. Easy victim. Come abduct me.”
The man was so much stronger than she was. How could she get away before the chloroform took full effect? The world in front of her eyes was wavering back and forth like a mirage.
Instead of fighting, though, Evelyn let herself relax. She just went slack. The man loosened his hold. Just as she had planned. Hoping he had let his guard down, she pushed off from him, trying to run away.
As fate would have it, the man had a steel grip on her coat. Evelyn struggled to get the garment off. Once freed, she lunged forward, choking and crying.
The man, though, spun on his heel and backhanded her. The force snapped her head around and a stream of blood, her blood, streaked the grimy brick wall.
She couldn’t fight any more as he put the rag over her nostrils again. Between the chemicals and the blow to the head, she didn’t have any fight left in her. This time, when she slumped to the ground, it wasn’t a fake-out.
* * *
Nancy hated to watch Evie walk away. This was supposed to be a fun night out for all of them. They had been working hard on a big case and this was their chance to blow off some steam. Although bar hopping wasn’t Nancy’s thing either, it wasn’t all bad.
Phoebe, apparently having none of the guilt that Nancy felt, was busy hailing a cab. Nancy reached down to get her wallet out when she felt the soft cashmere of her scarf. Actually, not her scarf, but Evie’s scarf. Nancy had gotten a chill in the bar and Evelyn had loaned it to her.
She trotted to catch up with Evie, but the younger woman shook her head. “Keep it,” Evelyn said, nodding back to the other women. “It looks like you are going to have a long, cold night ahead of you.”
“And what?” Nancy asked. “You are allergic to those? To fun?” Evelyn didn’t respond. Instead, she just looked at her feet. “Have you even gone out since you moved to town?”
Evie’s darting eyes told Nancy the answer she needed. “So, for over three months you’ve been cooped up at home? It’s time, hon.”
“That bar,” Evelyn explained. “It’s just a meat market. Men interested in your bra size rather than your IQ.” Nancy tried to argue, but Evelyn barreled right over her. “Besides, I have to get up early tomorrow.”
“On a Saturday?” Nancy challenged, but Evelyn just nodded. “Oh, you mean for the women’s shelter?” Nancy was all about volunteerism and all that, but Evie was taking it to the extreme. “You can’t just let them call you up whenever someone bails on a shift.”
Evie shrugged. “I’ve got the time.”’
Nancy sighed. “Only because you don’t have a life. Even Jimmy Carter got laid every once and a while. Lust in his heart, and all.”
“Yeah, well, lust isn’t what I’m after,” Evelyn answered, sounding pretty resolute. And given the caliber of guys that were probably going to be at Dietrich’s, Nancy really didn’t have much to argue about.
As Evie went to walk away, Phoebe grabbed Nancy’s coat and tugged her toward the curb. “Nanc! Come on. You’re so much better at getting us a cab!”
Nancy didn’t budge, though. “Maybe we should walk her home?”
Phoebe shook her head, sending her perfectly straightened hair fanning all around her face. “Are you kidding me? We finally got rid of the black hole of happiness. “
Nancy tried to interrupt, but Phoebe was on a roll. “Look, now we can have a caramel appletini without a black cloud circling over our heads.” With that, Phoebe raised her arm and shouted, “Taxi.”
A yellow cab pulled up to the curb. Cassidy got in, but Nancy cocked an ear.
“Did you hear something?” she asked Phoebe.
“No,” her co-worker answered in a huff. Then she tugged Nancy toward the cab. “If that girl lives as close to the bar as she said, then she’s already at home watching elimiDATE, or whatever else losers like her do on a Friday night.” With one more tug, which felt more like a shove, Phoebe urged Nancy into the cab. “If we get there in ten minutes, it’s still no cover charge.”
Nancy looked back down the street. Evie was long gone. Probably already at home, like Phoebe said. As much as Nancy wanted to mother hen Evelyn, she was a grown woman and could make her own decisions.
As could Nancy. With one last glance down the empty street, she got into the cab.
* * *
The jostling of her feet as the man dragged her down the alley stirred Evie to consciousness. He had his arms under her armpits, hauling her like a sack of potatoes to a waiting van. This was her last chance to get away before he had her completely subdued.
Leaned over like this, he didn’t have great leverage. Trying not to reveal that she was awake, Evelyn gathered her feet under her. Then, when he went to lift her into the van, she sprang forward.
“Help,” she cried, but it only came out as a croak.
She might have gotten away if it weren’t for her ponytail. The man grabbed it, jerking her back into his rough embrace.
With her cheek against his ski mask, she begged. “Please, don’t.”
He rubbed the wool against her skin. “Oh, if you think this is bad, just you wait.”
Thankfully, the chloroform went over her mouth again. Just as her eyelids got too heavy to keep open, Evie spotted a taxi filled with her co-workers, laughing and having a carefree time.
Was the waiting van that much worse than her life?
CHAPTER 2
The first thing that made Evie realize that she was still awake was her throbbing headache. It was like she had a hangover on top of a nasty head cold. For a moment she just lay there, grateful she wasn’t as dead as she assumed she would be.
Then the cold from the cement floor crept into her bones. As did the chanting that echoed off the walls. A deep baritone was quoting from the Bible.
“Even though I walk through the valley of death, because you are with me, I will fear no evil.”
If only she had that much faith. Almost not wanting to, Evelyn cracked open her eyelids, but the room was pitch dark. Even though she couldn’t see beyond her nose, she could hear the subtle shuffling of feet. The dripping of water. Someone breathing heavily beyond her sight.
This was definitely not where she wanted to wake up.
“It’s a girl, right?” A male voice asked from the abyss.
A harsher voice answered. “Or it’s a drag queen wearing white diamonds.”
“Does it look like she works out?” a younger, more excited voice asked.
Who were these people? Where was she?
“Does she seem injured?” an elderly, concerned voice asked.
All through it, the raspy voice, the kind you only got after smoking for several decades, kept up his scripture.
Were the lights coming up, or were her eyes just adjusting to the lack of light? From her position cheek-down on the ground, Evelyn began to make out bars, like in a prison, and feet. Behind the bars.
“Look, people, I’m the closest, but I didn’t just pull out night-vision goggles from my ass,” the meaner voice said.
“But it’s a girl, for sure, right?” the first voice asked again.
“Even if it was,” the mean voice said as he snorted, “you wouldn’t know what to do with her.”
“Hey,” the higher pitched voice squeaked, “How many times do I have to tell you I am the original Back Door Rapist? And that you are the pale, uninspired copycat?”
Evie’s vision cleared enough for her to tilt her head. The cell nearest her contained a mid-30’s man with a scowl on his face. The kind of guy that looked like he would get into a bar fight at the drop of a hat.
Across from him was a younger man, a teenager, even. Scrawny with light acne, he didn’t look like he belonged in a bar, let alone a place like this. But like the other men, he was behind bars. There were several other men down the row, but she couldn’t make out their faces. Only one cell didn’t have a man’s face plastered to it. Evie couldn’t make out exactly what was going on down there, but there seemed to be a figure on a cot toward the back of the cell.
“She’s breathing, right?” the teen asked. “He wouldn’t throw her in here if she was dead already, would he?’
A man with a heavy hick accent added, “Unless she’s supper?”
* * *
Nancy squirmed on the small bar stool. A very large pink and orange drink sat in front of her, with brightly colored umbrellas sticking out, and a section of pineapple. She hated pineapple. Why she let Phoebe convince her to buy the damn drink, Nancy wasn’t quite sure.
As the other two girls laughed at a young financial executive’s jokes, Nancy checked her cell phone again. Nothing.
She’d called Evie a dozen times now, each message begging her co-worker to call her back and let her know that she got home safe and sound.
Apparently twelve times wasn’t enough, as she hit speed dial number four again. The phone didn’t even ring, it went straight to voicemail just like it had the other dozen times.
“This is Evelyn Montgomery. Thank you for calling. Please leave a message and I will get back to you as soon as I can.”
Nancy waited for the beep, then stated, “Evie, I am getting worried. Please call me back, like right now.”
She flicked off the phone to find Phoebe looking at her.
The younger woman patted Nancy’s hand. “She’s curled up reading Fifty Shades of Grey on her Kindle or The Notebook, whatever loser
s like her do on a Friday night instead of getting laid.”
Nancy was not all that certain about that statement. “I think I should go by and check on her.”
Phoebe’s face scrunched up as Cassidy moaned, “You can’t go Nancy. You’re our wing girl.”
As much as Nancy might appreciate the fact that she could socialize with women much younger, she had a feeling in her gut that something was wrong.
“I’ve got to go,” Nancy said, and stepped off the stool, gathering her things.
“No, no, no,” Cassidy moaned, but Phoebe pulled her friend back toward the bar.
“Let her go. She’s just bringing down the energy, anyway.” Once Phoebe got Cassidy reseated, she yelled toward Nancy, “But mark my words, Evelyn is fine.”
Oh, how Nancy wished that were the case.
* * *
Evie could no longer keep her body still, praying that this was all just a nightmare. It had been going on too long, and she could feel the grainy texture of the cement against her palms.
This was real. Which meant she was going to need to face it.
With a groan, she pushed herself up off the cold floor.
“She’s alive!” the teen exclaimed.
“Goddamn it!” a wiry older man from the back of the room cursed. Evelyn was pretty sure it was the voice that had been chanting scripture. “Forgive me, Father, for I have taken your name in vain.”
The rise and fall of scripture began again.
“Yeah, but she ain’t moving much,” another voice from deeper within the dungeon said. He looked like the type of guy that you did not want to meet in a dark alley, or a darkened dungeon.
Evelyn curled up, wrapping her arms around her legs and wondering what she had done in a previous life to deserve this.
“Maybe she’s paralyzed,” the teen said, sounding surprisingly sympathetic.
The meanest of the bunch, and also the closest, spat a big thick loogie into the common area. “Then she’d be right up your alley, wouldn’t she, Andrew?”
“Hey!” Andrew squealed. “That’s not fair!”
Don't Read After Dark: Keep the lights on while reading these! (A McCray Horror Collection) Page 1