by Somer Canon
I just hoped that that psycho fairy would let me go home.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
It was a long drive home, but it was also an uneventful drive that saw both Anais and me arrive safely. A few days later, after a few phone calls to the police (Sgt. Blaniar refused to talk to me anymore), I sat down and recorded my next entry into the file on Killer Chronicles. I was surprised at how emotional I became recounting what happened to me and what eventually happened to Terry.
Life blew up for us then. The local paper interviewed us again, with more emphasis on me this time and we got a journalist who wasn’t as interested in discrediting us as before. It was great. We looked like serious investigative journalists. I looked like a woman who maybe takes her career too seriously, but ultimately still a victim. That newspaper article was the start of a million big things for Anais and me.
I got offered a book deal from not one, not two, but three publishers who wanted to pay me to write about my experiences. People were eating it up. Young, attractive female journalist goes to small town West Virginia to investigate a series of horrible murders and mutilations and ends up involved with the very murderer and nearly becomes his next victim. Anais took on the role of my manager/agent. She was able to negotiate a five-figure bonus on my book deal as well as a great percentage of per-unit sales. Anais, of course, got a great cut of this and when movie studios came sniffing around after the book made it onto all of the best seller lists, she was able to negotiate another monumentally sweet deal. On top of all of that, Killer Chronicles, our beloved little site, was bought out by a major media corporation and is still functioning smoothly to this day. Anais stayed on as a moderator and editor and I do guest posts on it every once in a while so that people don’t forget where I got my start.
Needless to say, Anais and I were finally able to afford getting our own places. Ana moved to a part of town that is seeing mostly new construction. Her family came to Reading from New York and they knew only meager homes, so moving into a place where everything is all new really appealed to her. I cried when she moved, and I missed having her just a room away at all times, but we’ve stayed close. I bought and restored an old brick house that is walking distance from some great restaurants so that I can eat well and still make sure I get all of my footsteps in.
I also made sure to take care of my mom. I moved her out of that trailer park and into a small but well-insulated home with central air. To her, it’s fancy as hell. She also gets a monthly check and I try not to let it bother me that she’s using it to buy Misty’s and beer. My mom should spend the twilight of her life in comfort, I guess. It’s no real hardship on me to just cut a check anyhow. What really matters to me is that that crap Grenadine said to me is no longer true.
Terry. Poor Terry was proven to be incompetent to stand trial for his crimes and will live the rest of his life in a mental hospital. It’s a shame, but bad luck swung his way. There’s really not much I can do for him except try to make sure to mention what a gentle and kind man he was before he attacked me. It doesn’t mean much, especially since that version of events has made me a fairly wealthy woman. At least he doesn’t know better. This way he can’t hate me. Or discredit me.
I haven’t been visited by that fairy again. I guess once she paid me my “favor” she was done with me. I’m not complaining. It wasn’t exactly fun listening to her talk about being a superior being before her deteriorated mind short-circuited and she’d smack the hell out of me. I’m just happy to be out of her sights.
I’m a success. Terry is locked up and I’m in therapy, but my reputation is set, and I will live my life as a person with a respected name in my field. That is important to me. I want to be respected and successful. It had a price, but what doesn’t in this life? It wasn’t like I set out to look for a favor from a crazy fairy. It landed in my lap and even though some of the consequences were steep, I’m still going to milk this opportunity for all it’s worth. It would be a shame not to.
So, who’s the monster in this situation? My first answer, and the one that I would think is most obvious, is Grenadine. But I stop sometimes, and I think about how things played out and how this story actually played out for me and I have to wonder if that’s true. What kind of person is thankful to have met a supernatural being because, even though several lives were ruined, it meant success and validation? A monster? A sociopathic narcissist? Whatever the label, I’m terribly afraid sometimes that it’s me. I’m that thing. My therapist tries to assure me that I’m just numbing myself to the horrible guilt I feel, but what the hell does she know? I can’t tell her the whole story. It’s not guilt that numbs me. It’s the fear of an absence of guilt.
When I think back to the last time Grenadine spoke to me, her face inches from mine and her black eyes practically laughing at me and my pain, I understand that she knew me better than I’d ever want to admit out loud. All of that torturous time that she took in thinking about what would be an appropriate favor to pay me in response to the Nummy Nellie snack cake that she stole from me was well-spent. That supernatural being set out to pay me a hell of a favor and she did. She asked the question, but she knew the answer.
I wanted it real bad.
And I still eat and enjoy the hell out of my Nummy Nellie cakes. No one can take that from me.
END
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Somer Canon is a minivan-revving suburban mother who avoids her neighbors for fear of being found out as a weirdo. When she’s not peering out of her windows, she’s consuming books, movies, and video games that sate her need for blood, gore, and things that disturb her mother.
ALSO FROM
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From a crater lake on an island off the coast of Bronze Age Estonia...
To a crippled Viking warrior's conquest of England ...
To the bloody temple of an Aztec god of death and resurrection...
Their presence has shaped our world. They are the Riders.
One month ago, an urban explorer was drawn to an abandoned asylum in the mountains of northern Massachusetts. There he discovered a large specimen jar, containing something organic, unnatural and possibly alive.
Now, he and a group of unsuspecting individuals have discovered one of history's most horrific secrets. Whether they want to or not, they are caught in the middle of a millennia-old war and the latest battle is about to begin.
Available in paperback or Kindle on Amazon.com
http://amzn.to/1peMAjz
FINALLY IN PRINT AFTER MORE THAN THREE DECADES, THE NOVEL MARK MORRIS WROTE BEFORE TOADY
EVIL NEEDS ONLY A SEED
Limefield has had more than its fair share of tragedy. Barely six years ago, a disturbed young boy named Russell Swaney died beneath the wheels of a passenger train mere moments after committing a heinous act of unthinkable sadism. Now, a forest fire caused by the thoughtless actions of two teens has laid waste to hundreds of acres of the surrounding woodlands and unleashed a demonic entity
EVIL TAKES ROOT
Now, a series of murders plague the area and numerous local residents have been reported missing, including the entire population of the nearby prison. But none of this compares to the appearance of the Winter Tree, a twisted wooden spire which seems to leech the warmth from the surrounding land.
EVIL FLOURISHES
Horrified by what they have caused, the two young men team up with a former teacher and the local police constabulary to find the killer, but it may already be too late. Once planted, evil is voracious. Like a weed, it strangles all life, and the roots of the Winter Tree are already around their necks.
Available in paperback or Kindle on Amazon.com
http://bit.ly/TreeKindle
There’s a monster coming to the small town of Pikeburn. In half an hour, it will begin feeding on the citizens, but no one will call the authorities for help. They are the ones who sent it to Pikeburn. They are the ones who are broadcasting the massacre live to the world. Every year, Red Diam
ond unleashes a new creation in a different town as a display of savage terror that is part warning and part celebration. Only no one is celebrating in Pikeburn now. No one feels honored or patriotic. They feel like prey.
Local Sheriff Yan Corban refuses to succumb to the fear, paranoia, and violence that suddenly grips his town. Stepping forward to battle this year's lab-grown monster, Sheriff Corban must organize a defense against the impossible. His allies include an old art teacher, a shell-shocked mechanic, a hateful millionaire, a fearless sharpshooter, a local meth kingpin, and a monster groupie. Old grudges, distrust, and terror will be the monster's allies in a game of wits and savagery, ambushes and treachery. As the conflict escalates and the bodies pile up, it becomes clear this creature is unlike anything Red Diamond has unleashed before.
No mercy will be asked for or given in this battle of man vs monster. It’s time to run, hide, or fight. It’s time for Red Diamond.
Available in paperback or Kindle on Amazon.com
http://bit.ly/DiamondUS
January 12, 1888
When a day dawns warm and mild in the middle of a long cold winter, it’s greeted as a blessing, a reprieve. A chance for those who’ve been cooped up indoors to get out, do chores, run errands, send the children to school… little knowing that they’re only seeing the calm before the storm.
The blizzard hits out of nowhere, screaming across the Great Plains like a runaway train. It brings slicing winds, blinding snow, plummeting temperatures. Livestock will be found frozen in the fields, their heads encased in blocks of ice formed from their own steaming breath. Frostbite and hypothermia wait for anyone caught without shelter.
For the hardy settlers of Far Enough, in the Montana Territory, it’s about to get worse. Something else has arrived with the blizzard. Something sleek and savage and hungry. Wild animal or vengeful spirit from native legend, it blends into the snow and bites with sharper teeth than the wind.
It is called the wanageeska.
It is the White Death
http://bit.ly/WDKindle
ON THE HORIZON FROM
BLOODSHOT BOOKS
2018*
Victoria (What Hides Within #2) – Jason Parent
2019-20*
Bleed Away the Sky – Brian Fatah Steele
The Devil Virus – Chris DiLeo
What Sleeps Beneath – John Quick
The Cryptids – Elana Gomel
Dead Sea Chronicles – Tim Curran
Midnight Solitaire – Greg F. Gifune
Dead Branches – Benjamin Langley
The October Boys – Adam Millard
Clownflesh – Tim Curran
Blood Mother: A Novel of Terror – Pete Kahle
Not Your Average Monster – World Tour
The Abomination (The Riders Saga #2) – Pete Kahle
The Horsemen (The Riders Saga #3) – Pete Kahle
* other titles to be added when confirmed
READ UNTIL YOU BLEED!
