by Gary Fry
Then, after telling Nina he’d pick her up in a few hours and driving away in the gloomy afternoon, he headed for The House of Canted Steps.
What would happen to the place now? His ex-wife’s lover was a businessman, and Mark knew the building would have to be sold before long. And could he prevent that? He knew he wanted to. Even now, staring at the property from a safe distance at the head of the cul-de-sac, he felt deep unease.
Maybe the next people to call it home would be a natural family, would be left alone, and might even be protected by the crazy old house. If Addisons handled the sale, Mark could persuade Gayle and Justin to make this an eccentric stipulation in the sale. But even in those conditions, Mark felt unhappy about anybody living there, most of all children. A family should be a haven, regardless of its history or bloodline. And a home should reflect this basic truth. Times had changed, and there was no room in this difficult world for outdated attitudes.
On this occasion, Mark spotted no figures lurking behind the windows in the property he’d come to think of as The House of Canted Steps. Then, after starting his engine, he glanced away.
He thought he ought to visit his mother; he certainly owed her more of his time. Maybe they could go and visit his dad’s grave—his real dad, regardless of biological factors.
Mark depressed his accelerator and then drove on, away from the house to which he realized, in a truly unsettling way, he owed his existence.
But he didn’t look back even once.
EPILOGUE
Kevin was fed up of the neighborhood boys picking on him. It wasn’t his fault his mom now lived with another man. None of his so-called friends’ parents were divorced, but it was no big deal these days, was it? But ever since he’d moved to Nester Street, they’d all called him names because his real dad wasn’t around. And despite knowing this was unfair, he was determined to win them over somehow.
That was why he’d decided to enter the garden of the house the boys had told him was haunted. This property had been unoccupied for several months, ever since another family had left it in a hurry. Kevin had heard that the estate agent dealing with the sale was being awkward with buyers and demanding more money than it was worth, but it was surely only a matter of time before it sold. It commanded a great position at the head of the cul-de-sac. Kevin’s step-dad had claimed that if he’d had an extra twenty grand, he’d have bought the place instead of theirs nearer the junction.
But Kevin wasn’t sure he’d want to live in this building, particularly if his friends’ stories were anything to judge by. Each boy had a different tale to tell. One had seen a red figure walking back and forth behind the windows at night. After daring to approach one morning, another had heard someone coughing behind the front door. A third had refused to talk about his experience, other than claiming that it had involved an old man lurking in the greenhouse around the back of the building.
Nevertheless, Kevin was eager to show the gang that he was unafraid of the house. It might even stop them all teasing him about his absent father. And so one winter evening, with the sky filled with grey clouds and the air possessing a nasty bite, he moved away from the boys on the pavement and headed up the property’s empty driveway. There was either an awed or terrified silence behind him, but he resisted the suspicion that the others had departed in fright. He glanced up at the building’s façade and saw nothing in the windows his friends might have been frightened of.
Kevin cut along the path alongside the house and entered the back garden. Weeds occupied soil in the borders and dandelions had pushed their tipsy heads through a lawn as bald as an old man’s scalp. The greenhouse looked full of similarly untended vegetation.
And then he saw the figure.
Although it was gloomy where this person stood, it was clear that it was a man. He was dressed in a full military outfit, khaki-camouflaged pants and a jacket whose pale brown matched the large weapon he had slung over one shoulder.
Disarmed by the sight, Kevin felt his heart swell with pride and joy. The person standing yards ahead was his dad.
Kevin was about to rush forward and ask how the man had returned home so quickly from his service in Afghanistan (he’d written home only three days earlier) when he hesitated. If his dad had come back from war, he thought, why was he still wearing uniform, let alone carrying a gun? Weren’t such weapons illegal in this country?
Something wasn’t right here. Even though Kevin was only twelve years old, he knew that well.
“Canted step,” said the entity wearing more than his dad’s clothing, and then pointed its gun directly Kevin’s way. It hadn’t been a man’s voice the figure had employed; the words had sounded rotten, husky, dead. And moments later, flesh began slipping from all this dad-thing’s angular bones.
Panicked, Kevin turned and fled. After reaching the front of the house, he hoped the bang he heard from behind was neither a shot being fired nor the building’s main door opening to let out more deceptive demons. In response to his terrified cry, all the other boys had run away, presumably headed for their happy homes and stable parents.
Kevin possessed no such luxuries, but continued racing for his own property anyway. But moments later, after briefly looking back over one shoulder, he realized what terrible news from a distant country awaited him when he arrived.
The house at the head of the street appeared angry…very angry. Indeed, as night descended upon a changing world, the building’s windows looked as if they were filled with crazed red blood.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Gary Fry lives in Dracula’s Whitby, literally around the corner from where Bram Stoker was staying when he was thinking about that character. Gary has a PhD in psychology, but his first love is literature. He is the author of many short story collections, several novellas and two novels, including The House of Canted Steps. He was the first author in PS Publishing’s Showcase series, and none other than Ramsey Campbell has described him as “a master.” His latest book is the short story collection Shades of Nothingness (PS Publishing). Gary warmly welcomes folk to his web presence: www.gary-fry.com.
ABOUT THE PUBLISHER
DarkFuse is a leading independent publisher of modern fiction in the horror, suspense and thriller genres. As an independent company, it is focused on bringing to the masses the highest quality dark fiction, published as collectible limited hardcover, paperback and eBook editions.
To discover more titles published by DarkFuse, please visit its official site at www.darkfuse.com.
Table of Contents
THE HOUSE OF CANTED STEPS
Connect With Us
Other Books by Author
Prologue
Part One: On The Market
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Part Two: Settling In
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
Part Three: Moving On
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
Epilogue
About the Author
About the Publisher
