The realization that she had made a mistake, that she should have declined the offer of going deeper—though it did hit her irrevocably—was unremarkable compared to everything else which swept through her, dragging her down, drawing her—deeper. Feeling as though she were soaring again, then as though she were being thrown, then pulled, then as though she were not moving at all, she could do nothing but stare—for whatever species of eyes she was equipped with now, she did not know how to close them—as impressions like none she’d ever hoped to see, none she could understand, washed over her, gripped her—entered her.
All these images.
Not of churches, but of bodies. And of acts. Of crimes so hideous they boggled her as much as they frightened her—mangled limbs, excavated intestines, women and children gagged and tethered to radiators, starved men hanging from ceiling beams—and of scenes so absurd they appalled her even more, so unimaginable that she had no names for what she saw: a fat person crawling naked over a floor infested with scuttling cockroaches, a wall draped with animal skulls and giant male sexual organs, a field of decapitated flowers in which hooded beings poured unidentifiable liquids from head-shaped containers onto a heap of pig feet.
Sounds accompanied the unfathomable pictures: gunshots and screaming and exhalations of agony which could only be the last breaths of the painfully, irretrievably sick; mad laughter and wickedly vulgar exclamations and radioed reports describing crime scenes even more horrendous than any of the visible affronts to life, to hope, to goodness. The visions were cruel, but these noises—they were hell.
True, seemingly everlasting hell.
What was left of her was splintering. She could feel it. It was a condition so horrid that even the images and sounds faded before it. Not that the afterlife was real, not that hell was real, not that she had been cast into hell was what was worst and hardest to stand, but that she should be torn apart like this, this feeling of being pulled in every possible and impossible direction at once. She tried to force herself to stop, to put an end to the misery of being stripped, not limb from limb, not even cell from cell, but thought from thought, piece of soul by piece of soul, if soul was what she was…
She gathered all her strength, all her energy, and willed it into this command both to herself and to this un-world, the command to STOP—
And it was then that she finally realized: she had an ounce of control. A semblance of mobility in this strange place. For it had stopped. Instead of switching to another monstrosity, the last image she had tried and failed to close her sight against, a picture of a man cutting out his own appendix, hovered before her, still and silent. No sound issued from it, or from anywhere. It was then that she knew: the reason the world around her had been altering at such breakneck speed, that every horror was replaced by a new one before she could even begin to try and cope with the first—was her. She wished to flee, she begged, albeit silently, in perceived defencelessness, to escape the terror—and, obeying her, this non-world tossed her right into the next terror. For down here, at this level—deeper—there was nothing but terror.
Staring at the man and the blood gushing forth from the wound he’d opened in his own stomach, Sheila gave herself a moment to cry. But still no tears would come, of course, for there were still no lachrymal glands, no eyes. And what use was crying anyway?
Defying the desire to wish the picture away, ignoring the will to go on even if it meant another horror, more from the soundtrack of Hades, she used the little strength she found within herself to think or speak or hope one word into existence: “… Siri.”
Di-din.
Sheila might have laughed, had she had the body to do so, and had she not been the most exhausted and most scared she’d ever been.
“Please,” Sheila repeated, her gaze never wavering, bravely facing the madman operating on himself. “Take me out of here.”
Di-din. “Certainly. Where do you wish to go?”
Relief surged through her, eradicating the fear. Sheila finally managed to close whatever she had that went for eyes down here, blocking out the revolting sight after all. She knew that she could do that now without fear of the next abomination.
She whispered her final word: “Nowhere…”
Du-dun.
About the Authors
C.W. Blackwell was born and raised in Northern California, where he still lives with his wife and two sons. He has been a gas station attendant, a stock broker, and a crime analyst. His passion is to blend poetic narratives and pulp dialogue to create evocative genre fiction. He writes mostly crime fiction and horror. His recent work has appeared in Pulp Modern, Shotgun Honey, Switchblade Magazine, and Rock and a Hard Place Magazine.
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Harvey Click, author of Realms of Night, Night Conjurings, A Traveler from an Antique Land, Demon Frenzy, Demon Mania, Magic Times, The Bad Box and The House of Worms, earned an M.A. in English from Ohio State University, writing a novel for his master’s thesis. He has written six other novels, four of them in the horror genre, and two collections of horror stories. He has taught English and creative writing for Ohio University, Ohio State University, the James Thurber House, and OSU’s Creative Arts Program.
View Harvey’s Amazon page here: amzn.to/36uKWEB
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Tom Garback (he/him) is currently pursuing an M.A. in Writing and Publishing at Emerson College, where he is President of Wilde Press, a non-profit that publishes four titles a year. His fiction, poems, and essays have been featured in Cabinet of Heed, Blind Corner, Oddball, Polaris, Sonder, and a dozen other publications.
Find out more at tcgarback.wixsite.com/website/writing
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Julie Hiner spent endless hours during her childhood lost in books. The only thing that took precedence was her Walkman. Julie is still a hardcore 80s rocker at heart.
Julie secured a solid education and career in computer science. She switched paths to finish her non-fictional book, an inspirational story of facing fears, cycling, and massive mountains.
Fueled by a long-time fascination with the dark mind of the serial killer and inspiration from a talk by a local homicide detective, she flung herself into writing her first novel. She now runs KillersAndDemons.com – Tales of Dark Crime and Horror.
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Thomas Kodnar, born in 1992, prefers horror in both his reading and his writing. Studied philosophy at the university of Vienna. Has published short stories in a variety of anthologies and magazines, e.g. in &Radieschen, Zwielicht, HORLA – The Home of Intelligent Horror, phantastisch!, and ParABnormal Magazine. Writes stage plays in cooperation with the glashaus collective. Likes coffee, Stephen King, vegan cake, Donna Haraway, Digimon (the TV-series) and Pokémon (the video games). More on his German website and his Instagram
Find out more at thomaskodnar.at or @thomaskodnar on Instagram.
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Daniel R. Robichaud lives and writes in Houston, Texas. His work has appeared in numerous markets, including parABnormal magazine, Eldritch Dream Realms anthology, Hookman and Friends anthology, and more. A portion of his short fiction has been collected in three volumes: Hauntings & Happenstances, They Shot Zombies, Didn't They? and Gathered Flowers, Stones and Bones: Fabulist Fictions. He writes weekly reviews of fiction and film for the Considering Stories website.
Find out more at consideringstories.wordpress.com, or find Daniel on Facebook @daniel.r.robichaud, or on Twitter @darktowhead
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New Jersey born and raised, Paul Stansfield spent decades as a field archaeologist for his day job. Surprisingly, even though he professionally disturbed hundreds of graves, he has yet to suffer a haunting or zombie attack.
By night he likes to write horror stories. He’s had over 20 stories published by magazines, including such publications as Bibliophilos, Morbid Curiosity, Cthulhu Sex Magazine, The Literary Hatchet, and Horror Bites. Currently he has stories available in 11 anthologies, including “The Prison Compendium” (EMP Publishing), “Cranial Leakage V
ol. 2” (Grinning Skull Press), “Hidden Menagerie Vol. 1” (Dragon’s Roost Press) “Welcome to the Splatter Club” (Blood Bound Books), and “Shadowy Natures” (Dark Ink). He’s an Affiliate Member of the Horror Writers Association.
His hobbies include watching professional football and baseball, drinking craft beer, tandem unicycle-spotting, and translating ancient Esperanto books into Silbo Gomero (sometimes all at the same time).
Find out more at paulstansfield.blogspot.com
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J. Thorn has published two million words and has sold more than 185,000 books worldwide. He is an official member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, the Horror Writers Association, and the Great Lakes Association of Horror Writers.
J. co-hosts the Writers, Ink podcast with J.D. Barker and has interviewed some of today's most successful authors including Hugh Howey, Josh Malerman, Joanna Penn, Chuck Palahniuk, Blake Crouch, James Rollins, Steven Pressfield, David Baldacci, and James Patterson.
Thorn earned a B.A. in American History from the University of Pittsburgh and a M.A. from Duquesne University. He is a full-time writer, part-time professor at John Carroll University, co-owner of Molten Universe Media, podcaster, FM radio DJ, musician, and a certified Story Grid nerd.
Find out more at jthorn.net
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Mijat Budimir Vujačić is an economist by trade, storyteller at heart. He is a published author of three horror novels written in Serbian: Krvavi Akvarel, NekRomansa, and Vampir. His stories appeared in SQ, Serial, Devolution Z, All Worlds Wayfarer, DBND, Turn to Ash, Crimson Streets, Encounters, Acidic Fiction, Double Barrel Horror, Creepy Campfire Quarterly, Under the Bed, 9Tales, and Infernal Ink magazines, as well as in professional anthologies Infinite Darkness, Toxic Tales, Silent Scream, The Nightmare Collective, Down With The Fallen, and The Worlds of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Vol1. He believes a strong work ethic is the root of all success, and that it is best to err on the side of action. A fan of all things horror, he is also an avid gamer, occasional blogger, hookah enthusiast, and a staunch dog person. He lives in Belgrade, Serbia.
Find out more at mbvujacic.blogspot.com, or get in contact at [email protected]
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Daniel Willcocks is an international bestselling author and podcaster of dark fiction. He is the CEO of Devil’s Rock Publishing, one fifth of digital story studio, Hawk & Cleaver, co-producer of iTunes-busting fiction podcast, 'The Other Stories,’ as well as the host of the 'Great Writers Share' podcast, and the ‘Next Level Authors’ podcast.
Residing in the UK, Dan's work explores the catastrophic and the strange. His stories span the genres of horror, post-apocalyptic, and sci-fi, and his work has seen him collaborating with some of the biggest names in the independent publishing community.
Find out more at danielwillcocks.com
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Heinrich von Wolfcastle writes by candlelight from the seclusion of his castle in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains. His debut anthology of short stories titled Screams Before Dawn was called “an engaging page turner” by Scream Magazine. He is an affiliate member of the Horror Writers Association and a member of the Great Lakes Association of Horror Writers. Though he lives the life of a recluse, some say he emerges from the shadows for Trick-or-Treaters on Halloween night.
Find out more at heinrichvonwolfcastle.com, or find him on Facebook @HeinrichvonWolfcastle, Instagram @Heinrich_von_Wolfcastle, or visit his Amazon page: amzn.to/3jxpwtT
Devil’s Rock Publishing
A new home for horror
If you enjoyed this title, find more A-grade horror and dark fiction at
www.devilsrockpublishing.com
Other titles by Devil’s Rock Publishing
Serial Fiction, “When Winter Comes”
The First Fall (Episode 1)
Buried (Episode 2)
Black Ice Kills (Episode 3)
Masks of Bone (Episode 4)
Into the White (Episode 5)
Winter Comes (Episode 6)
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Anthologies
The Other Side: A Horror Anthology
Keep up-to-date at
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The Other Side Page 22
