As the sheriff’s voice faded to an inaudible mumble, Jenny gazed out the room’s window. To the large house on the hill in the distance.
If they didn’t find his body, Jenny thought, then he must be still alive.
***
Within the cold, silent, subterranean level of the Matheson house, a spot was cleared on the cluttered tabletop by a filthy, pudgy hand—its fingernails painted fire engine red.
A large charred skull—containing a single front tooth—was placed in the open space and surrounded by burning candles.
The crimson-nailed hand patted the blackened skull and a female’s voice growled, “Cleannn...meee…Jennyyy…”
And with those three words, a twin sister’s quest for vengeance was born.
THE END (?)
About the Authors
Gary Buettner lives in Indiana with his family. His fiction has appeared in the anthologies Rotting Tales, Gone With The Dirt: Undead Dixie, Dark Things V, Daily Bites of Flesh, Powers: A Superhero Anthology, and online at Eschatology Journal. To be fair, he can’t read hieroglyphics either.
Chris Lewis Carter was born and raised in Newfoundland, Canada, where he currently lives with his wife, Melissa. His work has been featured in 3AM Magazine, The Cuffer Anthology: Volume Two, Word Riot, and multiple Pill Hill Press anthologies. He is currently working on his first novel, and can be reached at [email protected].
Graduating with a degree in English from WVU in 2004, Lesley Conner lives near Hagerstown, MD with her husband and two beautiful daughters. She started writing with the intent of publishing in 2005 and since then has had a handful of stories included in various anthologies; the most recent being “Adaptation” in Ruthless: An Extreme Shock Horror Collection and “Walking the Path” in Dark Tales of Terror, both published in 2010. To keep up to date with all of Lesley’s newest writing news, check out her website at www.lesleyconner.com.
Jeni Decker lives on a farm in rural Michigan with her husband, two autistic sons, some chickens, the occasional pig, her dog, and an albino frog named Humbert Humbert. She is the co-author of Waiting for Karl Rove (available on Amazon.com) and has two books coming out in the fall of 2011; her memoir I Wish I Were Engulfed in Flames (Skyhorse Publishing), and Far From Happy (PD Publishing). You can find her blatantly exploiting her children and the occasional politician on her blog: http://closetspacemusings.blogspot.com.
Emma Ennis hails from Ireland—the land of poets and scholars, leprechauns and legends. She currently lives in Norway but frequently returns to her beloved home for some fantastical inspiration. In her downtime she likes to play computer games, watch movies, or to spend time with her partner and friends, maybe having ‘a sociable few’ in the local pub where she works; you can take the girl out of Ireland but you can’t take the Irish out of the girl!
M. S. Gardner resides in Virginia. He writes when he can, and plays guitar in “The Day of the Beast.” His short stories have been published in several anthologies by Wicked East Press, Pill Hill Press, and Library of the Living Dead/Horror Press. He often interviews fellow authors at www.livingdeadcorner.blogspot.com.
Richard Jay Goldstein lives in the mountains just east of Santa Fe, New Mexico, where it’s nice and quiet, thanks. He’s a retired ER doc, has been writing for about 20 years, and has published 40-some stories, essays, and poems in the literary and sci-fi/fantasy/horror presses, including a few anthologies.
Vic Kerry lives in Alabama with his wife, three dogs, and two cats. He doesn’t have a mullet, at least when the moon isn’t full.
Matt Kurtz grew up on a steady diet of horror films. “Don’t Go in the House!” is his homage to the “Killer Halfwit in the House” horror subgenre found in such classic films as HELL NIGHT (1981), MADMAN (1982), THE FUNHOUSE (1981), THE UNSEEN (1980), and HUMONGOUS (1982), which also carried the classic tagline of, “It’s loose, it’s angry…and it’s getting hungry!”
Gary McKenzie is the author of quite a few short stories. House of Horror was the first to publish his horror stories while his venture into the superhero genre can be found in Static Press’ Powers. His crowning achievements are his two ‘Gingerbread Kingdom’ children’s books which can be purchased on Amazon. He is still waiting on that elusive ‘deal with the devil’ so that he doesn’t have to continue working his day job. You can keep up to date on his stories at www.facebook.com/garymckenzibooks.
Shane McKenzie is going to kill you. Really hard. If you have a problem with that, you can contact him at [email protected]. If you feel like reading about the things in his head, you can go to www.shanemckenziewriter.blogspot.com.
Kara Race-Moore lives in Massachusetts and enjoys stories about all kinds of monsters, from mythological beasts to advanced computer programs. She studied History at Simmons College with a focus on Tudor England to have a legitimate excuse to read about sex and violence that took place in gorgeous clothes. She got an English minor in Children’s Literature, and thoroughly enjoyed reading the gruesome stories the Victorians told their children. She gives many thanks to everyone in her writing group, the Buzzards Bay Writing Project, who all encouraged her to write about the Zombie Civil Right’s Act. Some of her favorite authors include Anne McCaffrey, Kage Baker, and Alison Weir.
Graeme Reynolds has been called many things over the years, most of which are unprintable. By day, he breaks computer programs for a living, but when the sun goes down he hunches over a laptop and thinks of new and interesting ways to offend people with delicate sensibilities. He lives somewhere in England with two cats, a flock of delinquent killer chickens, and a girlfriend that is beginning to suspect that there is something deeply wrong with him. Visit him at http://www.graemereynolds.com.
Alva J. Roberts (pronounced Al-Vee J. Roberts) lives in Western Nebraska with his wife and his dog. When he is not writing he works as a librarian. He writes in all genres of speculative fiction but his passion is writing fantasy. For a full listing of his published works visit: http://alvajroberts.blogspot.com/.
Eva Glynn Stephens is the author of several short stories of horror. She lives in a small northern Ohio village with her husband and three children. Readers can visit her on the web at www.evaglynnstephens.com.
A.J. Sweeney is a freelance writer living in Brooklyn. She is aware that this is a cliché. She lives with her husband across the street from a cemetery and a high-voltage ConEd substation, and hopes that one day, maybe during a thunderstorm, this combination will result in some really cool zombie action.
Kevin Wallis wrote this story for his brothers after his younger brother Matt started working in a warehouse on Congress Ave in Austin, TX. A few weeks after starting the job, six of the women who worked there became pregnant. Around this same time, Kevin realized that his own sperm were larger than those of a lesser man. To his knowledge, however, his sperm have never killed anyone. Intentionally. His darker, less-utterly-ridiculous works can be found in his collection “Beneath the Surface of Things,” available on Amazon.
Heather Whittington lives in Alaska with her husband, three cats, and two dogs. She teaches fitness classes and martial arts by day. She performs in local musical theatre productions and writes stories by night.
Joseph Zieja is a world traveler, Air Force officer, and pizza connoisseur from New Jersey. He has always been a storyteller, dabbling in prose (or something like it) at a very early age. Now, some years later, he lives with his wife and cat as he continues to pursue the art. Joe has several short stories in publication and is currently working on his fourth novel. You can visit his website at http://josephzieja.wordpress.com.
Table of Contents
***
by Graeme Reynolds
Table of Contents
***
by Graeme Reynolds
eading books on Archive.
It Was a Dark and Stormy Night... Page 25