by Dino Parenti
“Pappy, I made something for you,” Luna managed between hard breaths.
“My child . . . ?” Pappy said.
Ash echoed with growled inquiries.
Luna jammed the spiked ends of the torches into the ancient glass of the Way before taking Ash from Pappy and putting him on the ground. She unclipped the badger’s leader from her grandfather’s belt and clipped it to her own. She then redrew her freshly-made concoctions and handed them to Pappy.
“Do not worry,” she said. “This is not my blood. Not most of it, anyway.”
Pappy swallowed back a fear and a love that threatened to root him to the Way for all time. It had not been so long ago that he thought her irrevocably innocent of spleen and craving, when his only worth in the world was her unsullied awareness. And now she stood before him, having not only crafted a new, inexplicable light the likes of which had not been witnessed since the epochs of power, but at the cusp of womanhood and leadership.
“Go and do us proud now, Pappy,” she said, beaming. “Let them all know we thrive.”
Pappy glanced up at the infernal glow growing from the Way’s summit.
“You will not be the same if you see,” he said.
Luna nodded. “I know. I am eager, but I am also afraid.”
“We all are, child. That is why we should not be.”
“You could die,” she said.
“Yes. But many more may live.”
Luna reached down to stroke Ash, still soft and pliant under her touch. So much power for so small a thing. And as if Ash too sensed the burgeoning power in her, it swelled itself and groaned its own form of appreciation.
Only after she stood again did Pappy see her wearing the ancient locket. She bore it with majesty, as if it had only ever belonged to her.
She lay her head against her grandfather’s shoulder pads, and Pappy kissed the top of her red crown and whispered into her ear what he used to hum to her as a child to get her to sleep: “It is not new continents the earth needs, but new people.”
Together, they stared into the glow above before cresting the hilltop and descending beyond view.
GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT IS MADE TO THE PUBLISHERS OF EARLIER VERSIONS OF THESE STORIES:
“Entropy,” “Visitation Rights,” and “Incarnate” in The Lascaux Review.
“Surge” in The Sinthology: An Anthology of sin
“Umbilicus” and “Stratum” in Cease, Cows.
“Two Boys in a Diner” in Shotgun Honey.
“Mojito” in Revolt Daily.
“Dead Reckoning” (appeared as “Beyond the Eye”) and “The Mother-of-pearl Way” in Pantheon Magazine.
“Muir Woods” in Pithead Chapel.
“Tooth” in Menacing Hedge.
“Savior” (appeared as “Stalker”) in Blood on the Bayou: Bouchercon Anthology 2016
“Puffer Fish,” “Petrichor,” and “On the Fickle Nature of Germination” are unique to this collection.
”Visitation Rights” won the 2012 Flash Fiction contest in The Lascaux Review.
”Entropy” was a finalist in the 2014 Short Fiction contest in The Lascaux Review.
Special thanks to the following people for their help and inspiration:
First and foremost, my close friends and family. There are too many of you to name, and you know who you are.
Richard Thomas and Heather Foster for being readers and kick-ass editors—along with fellow Gamut troublemakers Mercedes Murdock Yardley and Casey Frechette for their most excellent support and friendship.
The many editors and writing cheerleaders I’ve met in publishing and Litreactor: Emma Clark, Sarah Read, Jonathon Riley, Andrea Taylor, Leah Rhyne, Matt Pucci, Heather Wiscarson, Matt Garcia, Justin Weeks, CM Franklyn, Jessica O’Neill, Allie Marini Batts, Craig Wallwork, Amanda Gowin, Stephen Parrish, Renee Pickup, Rebecca Jones-Howe, Matt Andrew, Xach Fromson, Amelia Bennett (I knew you were too late for this one!), and of course, Joe Mynhardt at Crystal Lake Publishing for taking a chance with this motley group of stories. There are so many others, and if I missed you here, blame my memory and not your contributions and influence!
Last but not least, the gang at HWA in Los Angeles . . . and Rod Serling.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
When not scribbling twisted musings into spiral notebooks, photographing the odd puddle or junk pile, or building classy furniture, Dino Parenti earns a little scratch drawing buildings. He’s also one of the fiction editors at Gamut Magazine. When not plowing through slush, he writes. His work can be found in a several anthologies, as well as the following journals: Pantheon Magazine, Cease-Cows, Pithead Chapel, Menacing Hedge, and the Lascaux Review, where he won their first annual flash fiction contest. Dead Reckoning and Other Stories is his first collection.
THE END?
Not quite . . .
Dive into more Tales from the Darkest Depths:
Novels:
The Mourner’s Cradle: A Widow’s Journey by Tommy B. Smith
House of Sighs (with sequel novella) by Aaron Dries
Beyond Night by Eric S. Brown and Steven L. Shrewsbury
The Third Twin: A Dark Psychological Thriller by Darren Speegle
Aletheia: A Supernatural Thriller by J.S. Breukelaar
Beatrice Beecham’s Cryptic Crypt: A Supernatural Adventure/Mystery Novel by Dave Jeffery
Where the Dead Go to Die by Mark Allan Gunnells and Aaron Dries
Sarah Killian: Serial Killer (For Hire!) by Mark Sheldon
The Final Cut by Jasper Bark
Blackwater Val by William Gorman
Pretty Little Dead Girls: A Novel of Murder and Whimsy by Mercedes M. Yardley
Nameless: The Darkness Comes by Mercedes M. Yardley
Novellas:
A Season in Hell by Kenneth W. Cain
Quiet Places: A Novella of Cosmic Folk Horror by Jasper Bark
The Final Reconciliation by Todd Keisling
Run to Ground by Jasper Bark
Devourer of Souls by Kevin Lucia
Apocalyptic Montessa and Nuclear Lulu: A Tale of Atomic Love by Mercedes M. Yardley
Wind Chill by Patrick Rutigliano
Little Dead Red by Mercedes M. Yardley
Sleeper(s) by Paul Kane
Stuck On You by Jasper Bark
Anthologies:
Welcome to The Show, edited by Doug Murano
Lost Highways: Dark Fictions From the Road, edited by D. Alexander Ward
C.H.U.D. Lives! – A Tribute Anthology
Tales from The Lake Vol.4: The Horror Anthology, edited by Ben Eads
Behold! Oddities, Curiosities and Undefinable Wonders, edited by Doug Murano
Twice Upon an Apocalypse: Lovecraftian Fairy Tales, edited by Rachel Kenley and Scott T. Goudsward
Tales from The Lake Vol.3, edited by Monique Snyman
Gutted: Beautiful Horror Stories, edited by Doug Murano and D. Alexander Ward
Tales from The Lake Vol.2, edited by Joe Mynhardt, Emma Audsley, and RJ Cavender
Children of the Grave
The Outsiders
Tales from The Lake Vol.1, edited by Joe Mynhardt
Fear the Reaper, edited by Joe Mynhardt
For the Night is Dark, edited by Ross Warren
Short story collections:
Things You Need by Kevin Lucia
Frozen Shadows and Other Chilling Stories by Gene O’Neill
Varying Distances by Darren Speegle
The Ghost Club: Newly Found Tales of Victorian Terror by William Meikle
Ugly Little Things: Collected Horrors by Todd Keisling
Whispered Echoes by Paul F. Olson
Embers: A Collection of Dark Fiction by Kenneth W. Cain
Visions of the Mutant Rain Forest, by Bruce Boston and Robert Frazier
Tribulations by Richard Thomas
Eidolon Avenue: The First Feast by Jonathan Winn
Flowers in a Dumpster by Mark Allan Gunnells
The Dark at the End of the Tunnel by Ta
ylor Grant
Through a Mirror, Darkly by Kevin Lucia
Things Slip Through by Kevin Lucia
Where You Live by Gary McMahon
Tricks, Mischief and Mayhem by Daniel I. Russell
Samurai and Other Stories by William Meikle
Stuck On You and Other Prime Cuts by Jasper Bark
Poetry collections:
WAR by Alessandro Manzetti and Marge Simon
Brief Encounters with My Third Eye by Bruce Boston
No Mercy: Dark Poems by Alessandro Manzetti
Eden Underground: Poetry of Darkness by Alessandro Manzetti
If you’ve ever thought of becoming an author, we’d also like to recommend these non-fiction titles:
Where Nightmares Come From: The Art of Storytelling in the Horror Genre, edited by Joe Mynhardt and Eugene Johnson
Horror 101: The Way Forward, edited by Joe Mynhardt and Emma Audsley
Horror 201: The Silver Scream Vol.1 and Vol.2, edited by Joe Mynhardt and Emma Audsley
Modern Mythmakers: 35 interviews with Horror and Science Fiction Writers and Filmmakers by Michael McCarty
Writers On Writing: An Author’s Guide Volumes 1,2,3, and 4, edited by Joe Mynhardt. Now also available in a Kindle and paperback omnibus.
Or check out other Crystal Lake Publishing books for more Tales from the Darkest Depths. Or follow us on Patreon for behind the scenes access.
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With unmatched success since 2012, Crystal Lake Publishing has quickly become one of the world’s leading indie publishers of Mystery, Thriller, and Suspense books with a Dark Fiction edge.
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We do not just publish books, we present you worlds within your world, doors within your mind, from talented authors who sacrifice so much for a moment of your time.
This is what we believe in. What we stand for. This will be our legacy.
Welcome to Crystal Lake Publishing—Tales from the Darkest Depths
