*****
The world had always been a scary place.
All one has to do is survey the last five-hundred years to see that. Wars. Famine. The human race had always been set to self-destruct; it was just a question of when and who exactly would be the one to press the big red button. From the outside looking in, at this point in the year 2030, at least – and only for a few select people in the whole world who were in the know – that question had been answered eighteen years before.
The saddest part of it all, however, was that ninety-nine-point-nine-nine-recurring-percent of the population had no idea that the start of the end of the world had even occurred.
That could be explained by the simple fact that the world hadn’t actually ended. The planet had kept spinning; the sun rose and fell in the same place every day. But who was acting as the caretaker of the planet now? Depending on who you asked, many would give you a variety of names of those they saw as the leaders of the free world. Men who ran their offices – their countries – how they saw fit, in order to justify their more-than-substantial wage packets each year they served. Leaders. Heroes to some, dictators to many.
They all had their own agendas, never really working with or for anyone but themselves. For millennia, however, millions and millions had looked towards an invisible force in the sky to answer their problems, to one day restore peace and order to their world.
And they still did. Little did they know that their unseen deities were no longer there. What happened in Wildermoor on the night of December 21st 2012 saw to that. An entire existence snuffed out in an instant, almost every living soul that inhabited the borders of Wildermoor at that moment vanquished.
And there was no higher power who could save them, for the closest thing to a God that the human race had, had gambled with their souls.
And lost.
Because in the end, as it turned out, good and evil never truly existed. Yes, there was a battle waged between two opposite forces, but it was not upon the fields of hellfire-and-brimstone that many would have expected. Mankind’s future was decided on a simple task. A bet, no less. It simply came down to two men at odds over a common goal; for complete control over those that roamed the planet.
Nothing more than a game.
The game – in one form another – had been played for centuries, each force making their moves, with the human race the pawns. It just so happened that one of the men – an underworldly con-man known as the Trickerjack – wielded a much more fruitful power than the others. He promised things. Wonderful things. Things that would make other men feel like they were gods themselves. When in truth, they were nothing more than puppets.
The Council of Eternal Light was born from hatred for those that shunned them, government forces – and then even their own villagers – that dismissed their holy beliefs as heretic. Seemingly overnight, they had lost their peers, their people, their flock. And then their homes. Their faith, however, never faltered. It just simply shifted tracks.
One night, after years and years of failed plans and re-writes, the Council’s leader succeeded in summoning from the depths of Hell a force that could eradicate all that had wronged them. And so, the gears of their new war started to turn. They prayed to a new deity now, one that appeared as real as flesh and blood to their leader.
The Reaper embodied everything that they believed was just and good; a power that could wipe away the smudge of human existence around them and allow them to bring forth their own vision, their own new world order.
However, behind their heroic leader stood a well-dressed man pulling marionette strings; The Trickerjack. What happened in Wildermoor was simply another scene in his new puppet show, something to amuse him through a few dark moments of boredom.
Elijah Strong and the Trickerjack had engaged in one final game together. The winner would rule over the human race and their tired little planet. Elijah Strong failed to deliver and the Trickerjack failed to receive. This one final throw of the dice was dependant on one being; a new-born baby boy only hours old, born from the purest strains of good and evil that each party had conjured up.
Many in the process had failed. Countless souls perished that night within the tree-lined boundaries of Wildermoor’s final embrace. One man had changed the course of history.
Dean Morden.
A man who, like millions of others, did not even know Wildermoor existed. That was until a couple of days before it no longer did. In the eyes of the two masters who were gambling for their future, with Wildermoor the prize, Dean Morden swooped onto the playing field with as much fanfare and welcome as an unwanted fly at a picnic table, picked up the one crumb of life they were fighting over, and simply flew away from the wreckage that was left behind.
Dean Morden had rescued the child that night, with no clue as to why or plan as to what would follow. He raised the child as his own.
And now it was time for that child to return home.
About The Author
Chris Tetreault-Blay
A lifelong fan of horror cinema and heavy metal, Chris Tetreault-Blay first tried his hand at writing as recently as 2013. Before then, his only literary efforts were in the form of song lyrics, which still remain scrawled in a notebook somewhere.
His debut novel Acolyte was first published in 2015 and was followed by two sequels over the next two years to complete the Wildermoor Apocalypse trilogy.
Horror remains his prominent genre of choice, and expanded in 2019 when he founded Dead Men’s Tales Publishing. Later that same year saw the release of a new title, A Necessary End.
Chris has also recently broken into the children’s book market with his first picture book release; It’s A Long Way To The Moon.
He lives in Newton Abbot, Devon with his wife and twin children, whom he often cites as his main source of strength and inspiration.
Books By This Author
Acolyte - The Wildermoor Apocalypse: Book One
Wildermoor 1684:
An old man hunts for his daughter Evelyn, who was abducted in the middle of the night.
Wildermoor 2002:
Detective Truman's life is turned upside down when Dexler makes a fatal decision.
Wildermoor 2011:
Meet Colin Dexter a man plagued by visions of a monster. He turns to a priest for help but the priest is not who he seems.
What connects these people over hundreds of years? Who will unlock the secret?
Something is coming. Something big. And light must face darkness.
The end is just the beginning...
The Sowing Season - The Wildermoor Apocalypse: Book Two
The chilling sequel to Acolyte.
Wildermoor 1684:
After witnessing a brutal ritualistic murder, Katrina Childs returns home a shell of her former self. Her only hope is of the child growing inside of her.
A mysterious old man appears in the village one night with a warning for her brother, Ewan: Protect Katrina and her child at all costs.
Wildermoor 2012:
Jacob Crowe is living a simple life, surrounded by the tranquillity and protection that only Wildermoor can bring. Until the night that his wife is torn away from him by dark spirits.
To find the answers to save their future, they must all look to their past.
A Necessary End: Curse of Courtenay
The Courtenay family is cursed, and doomed to repeat their cycle of despicable acts against their fellow man, all in the name of continuing their lineage. The curse comes in the form of the figure known as the Trickerjack, who serves the Devil to steal souls from the living. The family he was born from are far from normal. Fear, obsession, torture. They all exist as everyday activities for them. For the first time, the short stories that were featured in past releases 'House of Courtenay' and 'Blackgang: The Trickerjack Trail' are brought together to tell the Courtenay origin story from a new perspective, along with three brand-new tales. The backdrop is provided by the story of teenager Zack Charley, whose unquenchable curio
sity takes him to a mysterious eerie-looking house above the deary town he lives in, owned and inhabited by one of the last-surviving Courtenay descendants. Once inside, he is taken on a journey he will never forget. And one he will likely never escape from.
It's A Long Way To The Moon
Chris Tetreault-Blay's `It's a Long Way to the Moon' is a heart-warming, inspirational rhyming picture book that follows the exploits of a moth with just one dream - to fly to the moon. Along with help from some lovable animal friends, he discovers an easier way to accomplish his goal, and invites children along for the ride. Taking its cues from the works of such greats as Julia Donaldson and Eric Carle, Tetreault-Blay's creation is set to become a classic in itself.
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