by Gerald Rice
“Leave my son alone!” Sarah screamed.
Mr. Poo Poo grinned. He reached into the trash can and tossed the head at her. It landed at her feet and she dropped the frying pan in shock.
She looked at Bobby’s head and then at Mr. Poo Poo, her face pallid and her eyes dim and watery.
His eyes met her eyes and his expression suddenly faltered. “You have the gift, too.”
She only looked at him with unblinking animosity.
“You can animate the imagination. You can create life!” he said. “I want you to take that hatred I see wrinkling your face. Take that blackness seeping through your veins and think of someone or something ripping my head off. Think real hard and visualize it happening.”
Sarah’s face reddened and she could see a monster, scales like daggers protruding from his chiseled chest slamming into the abomination that grinned at her, the scales puncturing his blubber. Yellow fat oozing from the wounds. She saw this thing—its wings extended from one side of the kitchen to the other—slowly wrap those black leather instruments of death around Mr. Poo Poo. She saw the fat fucker disappear in that embrace and she could hear him screaming for his life.
Sarah grinned and a sudden pain in her stomach caused her to fall to the floor. She squeezed her stomach and felt movement. And suddenly a black egg shot from underneath her nightgown and rolled on the floor to the wall. The egg was covered in blood and shone like obsidian underneath the kitchen light.
Mr. Poo Poo laughed and walked to Sarah. He lifted his massive foot and brought it down upon her head in one fluid motion. He looked down at the woman, blood splattered upon her caved-in face like cracked glass, and laughed.
He walked to the egg and stared at it, wondering what creation would spring forth from its black shell. He wondered if it would resemble him. Would it be as evil as him? Could it be controlled? The egg shuddered and the shell cracked.
“Come to Daddy!” Mr. Poo Poo said.
A small hand emerged from the egg and he could hear laughter from somewhere inside. It was a high-pitched laughter and it made him nervous.
“Are you ready to consume this fucking world?”
Another hand emerged.
AUTHOR BIOS
Tim Curran hails from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. He is the author of the novels Skin Medicine, Hive, Dead Sea, Resurrection, Hag Night, The Devil Next Door, Long Black Coffin, Graveworm, Skull Moon, Nightcrawlers, and Biohazard. His short stories have been collected in Bone Marrow Stew and Zombie Pulp. His novellas include Fear Me, The Underdwelling, The Corpse King, Puppet Graveyard, Sow, Leviathan, Worm, and Blackout. His short stories have appeared in such magazines as City Slab, Flesh&Blood, Book of Dark Wisdom, and Inhuman, as well as anthologies such as Dead Bait, Shivers IV, World War Cthulhu, and In the Court of the Yellow King. His fiction has been translated into German, Japanese, and Italian. Find him on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/tim.curran.77.
Armand Rosamilia is a New Jersey boy currently living in sunny Florida, where he writes when he’s not sleeping. He’s written more than 100 stories that are currently available, including a few different series: Dying Days (extreme zombie series), Keyport Cthulhu (horror series), Flagler Beach (contemporary fiction series), and Metal Queens (nonfiction music series). He also loves to talk in third person . . . because he’s really that cool. He’s a proud Active member of HWA as well. You can find him at http://armandrosamilia.com for not only his latest releases but also interviews and guest posts with other authors he likes! And e-mail him to talk about zombies, baseball, and Metal: [email protected].
Jeff Strand is the four-time Bram Stoker Award–nominated author of such books as Pressure, Dweller, A Bad Day for Voodoo, Kumquat, Dead Clown Barbecue, and a bunch of others. You can follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/JeffStrand, or friend him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/JeffStrandAuthor, or visit his website at www.JeffStrand.com. He drinks too much soda as an adult because it was usually withheld from him as a child.
Rebecca Besser resides in Ohio with her wonderful husband and amazing son. They’ve come to accept her quirks as normal while she writes anything and everything that makes her inner demons squeal with delight. She’s best known for her work in adult horror, but has been published in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry for a variety of age groups and genres. She’s entirely too cute to be scary in person, so she turns to the page to instill fear into the hearts of the masses. Find out more about her at www.rebeccabesser.com and www.rebeccabesser.wordpress.com and on Twitter @BeccaBesser.
MontiLee Stormer is a troublemaker, writing acts of mayhem and despair for her own selfish pleasure. Her interests wander from abnormal psychology and serial killers to lost loves and the storied Paradise Valley of Detroit. MontiLee has found herself published in strange and wonderful places like Daily Nightmares, The Sinister Bedfellows Anthology, Black Ink Horror, Murky Depths, and Necrotic Tissue. She’s an active member of GLAHW, contributing to their annual charity anthology Erie Tales every year, and is a Supporting member of HWA. MontiLee employs a “well-compensated” sniper to keep the growing but disturbingly dedicated legion of fanboys at bay. She lives in the Detroit metro area with her husband, two cats, and several knitting projects, which keep her safely off the streets. You can follow her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/montilee.stormer or on Twitter @MontiLee.
Lee Moan grew up in the seaside town of Torquay, England, the birthplace of Agatha Christie. His stories have appeared in numerous print and online publications. He has a number of longer works also available, including Lazarus Island and The Infernal Realm, and a short story collection, The Midnight Men and Other Stories. His Twitter is @LeeJMoan and FB is https://facebook.com/lee.moan.
Tonia Brown is a southern author with a penchant for Victorian dead things. She lives in the backwoods of North Carolina with her genius husband and an ever fluctuating number of cats. She likes Fudgsicles and coffee, though not always together. When not writing, she raises unicorns and fights crime with her husband under the code names Dr. Weird and his sexy sidekick Butternut. You can learn more about her at: www.thebackseatwriter.com.
Jake Bible, novelist, short story writer, independent screenwriter, podcaster, and inventor of the Drabble Novel, has entertained thousands with his horror and sci-fi tales. He reaches audiences of all ages with his uncanny ability to write a wide range of characters and genres. Jake is the author of the bestselling Z-Burbia series, the Apex Trilogy (Dead Mech, The Americans, Metal and Ash) and the Mega series for Severed Press, as well as the YA zombie novel Little Dead Man, the teen horror novel Intentional Haunting, the middle-grade sci-fi/horror ScareScapes series, and the Reign of Four series, which he calls “medieval space fiction,” for Permuted Press. You can follow his tweets @jakebible on Twitter and find full info at jakebible.com.
Faye McCray is the author of Dani’s Belts, a Kindle collection of short stories that follow a young college student turned unlikely heroine of the zombie apocalypse. She is also an essayist whose work has been featured on a number of websites, including For Harriet, Madame Noire, Rachel in the OC, Graveyard Shift Sisters, and Black Girl Nerds. Faye was born and raised in New York City. She is currently braving the Mid-Atlantic suburbs with her southern husband and two young sons. You can find Faye’s updates, thoughts, and ramblings on her blog at www.fayemccray.com. You can also connect with Faye on Facebook at www.facebook.com/fayewrites and Twitter @fayewrites.
Gerald Dean Rice, a lifelong fan of horror, has published several short stories in various anthologies, magazines, and ezines, such as Where the Monsters Are, The Butterman Cometh, The Little Door, and Mona. He is the author of Fleshbags, The Zombie Show, Tales from an Apartment, and the YA novel Vamp-Hire. He lives in southeast Michigan with his wife and two children.
Jimmy James “M.F.” Pudge was born into this world on 6-9-1979 in a truck stop toilet at a TA Travel Center in the backwoods of South Georgia. An honest and conscientious man, Jimmy served several prison sentences beca
use he refused to give in to the federal laws that impose on independent spirits’ rights to be entrepreneurs. An expert in the art of pruno, shank construction, and paper-dart blowguns, Jimmy briefly served as a leader in his dorm room before being released early for good behavior. He is the author of several poorly written novellas, including Bad Billy and Kitty’s Revenge.
We hope you enjoyed reading this Atria Books eBook.
* * *
Join our mailing list and get updates on new releases, deals, bonus content and other great books from Atria Books and Simon & Schuster.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP
or visit us online to sign up at
eBookNews.SimonandSchuster.com
An Imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2015 by Gerald Rice
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information, address Atria Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.
First Atria Books ebook edition May 2015
and colophon are trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event, contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com.
Designed by Paul Dippolito
ISBN 978-1-5011-0229-5