“Keep your secrets,” Stephen yelled, running at the prisoner of the concerto.
“It’s only a family visit,” Herr Doktor Kerner said. He cackled and cawed, his form splitting into a hundred black and flapping crows. The birds flew around the room, fading into darkness, and the lights brightened, free to shine once again.
Stephen picked Martin up off the bed. The respirator tube still lashed the boy to the breathing apparatus. “Whatever he told you, my son, forget it. You will be whole.”
He pulled the tape securing the tube to Martin’s mouth. He knew the boy couldn’t breathe on his own, but the concerto would prevent or heal any brain damage. The transfer of salubrious energy would sustain Martin, as long as he didn’t die before it was completed. Stephen wondered if the concerto could bring the dead back to life. It drained from the living and gave to the dying. Could death be reversed?
“Hold on, Martin,” he said, gripping the tube and pulling it from the boy’s mouth. Stephen tried to be gentle, worrying he’d rip Martin’s trachea. He pulled it clear and dropped the tube on the floor. Martin’s lungs declined to take over, and Stephen carried his frail body to the piano, cradling him.
“This will make it better, Martin.”
The boy’s body hung limp in his father’s arms as Stephen piloted the piano, coming home to be one with his enchanted lantern, his device of life. Balancing Martin on his lap, he activated the audio system and began to play the devil’s music—summoned from memory, now indelibly written into his soul. Before, he’d fused the music into his soul, growing, changing, becoming a greater spirit for the songs. Now, the music dominated him, possessing his eternal element, and Stephen became part of it.
The concerto resurrected to life, and Doktor Kerner emerged from the shadows to stand behind his grandson, the new composer, waiting with such patience, summoned back to the world through the music of a father’s desperation. Kerner grabbed his shoulder, and the icy fingers shocked Stephen’s system. But he played. He played for his son, for his wife, for Father Barlow and all those he’d betrayed.
His fingers found the notes like grooves on a record. Stephen had been born to play this song, made for it, to become a few notes at the end of the music. Blue sparks burst from his fingers. His heart sped. Martin twitched and jumped in his arms. Stephen could feel the energy drain from his listeners, travel through his conduit body and transfer into that of his son. A pink hue colored the boy’s skin. Hair grew back, spilling crimson down his temples and neck. He looked so much like Elizabeth now, and Stephen cried as he played. Midway through the song, Martin’s eyes opened and searched the room.
“Dad,” he said, choking, his throat raw from the respirator tube.
“We’re almost done, my son.”
Stephen’s shirt and pants sagged. His hair fell out in clumps, dropping around the piano bench like autumn leaves. Liver spots grew on his wrinkled fingers. His body aged, decay pinched flesh and bone. He struggled to concentrate through the agony of giving his life and the lives of so many innocents to his son.
“I know what you’re doing,” Martin said. “The German doctor told me.”
“Hush now,” his father said. “This has nothing to do with you. You’re going to live a full life and go to Heaven. Give my love to your mother when you see her.”
“The doctor told me it can’t work. Then he grew black feathers and wings. They’re flapping in my chest. I don’t want to become a shadow.”
Though he nearly stopped playing, he knew he couldn’t. He needed to complete the transfer. Blood dripped from his split fingers, staining the white keys brown and dripping into the instrument’s mechanism. Skin peeled off. “Just be still.”
“Dad,” Martin said, twisting his body, trying to break the connection. “I’ll be a shadow man. And so will you. I don’t want that. I saw green fields and beautiful angels. I saw Mom. I was with Mom again.”
“Just stay in the world for me,” Stephen said.
“This is for you, not for me or Mom.”
Stephen stopped playing, and the sudden halt rocked his body. He looked above his son where shadows dripped and bled from the walls, infecting the boy. The music healed the cancer but then replaced it, stealing him from the world.
Stephen’s heart weakened. He struggled to breathe. His body slumped and he knew he wouldn’t survive the next few minutes.
“God, Martin,” he said, weeping. “I just wanted you to live—the only thing left of your mom, of me. I wanted you to carry my music into the world after. Please forgive me.”
“It’s time to go, Dad,” the boy said. “We need to end it.”
“How?”
“Give it back.” Doktor Kerner whispered behind them, speaking German, then crow-crying, flapping his black feathered arms. He clawed talons down Stephen’s back, shredding his shirt and newly leathered skin.
“Try reversing it,” Martin said.
Stephen recalled the notes, the devil’s music. He closed his eyes. Life slipped from him as he reversed the order of the concerto, reciting it backwards. The current was switching, drawing the energy he’d stolen from his audience and returning it once again to them.
Martin shut his eyes, and his face and body deflated. The cancer devoured him anew, and his chest froze. The last notes—though once the first—chimed a sweet melody, reminding Stephen of Bach’s Goldberg Variations. He and Elizabeth had danced to it at their wedding. The world faded, thinned, and he tore their souls free of the jaws of the devil’s concerto.
* * *
Final words of the journal of SS-Hauptsturmführer Doktor Otto Kerner
I only ever wanted to bring beautiful music into the world. I see now the excrement I’ve made of my soul, and I say now it was not a clear choice but a matter of degrees, slowly sliding into the Hell of my own making. I only ever wanted to serve mankind.
I am Doktor Otto Kerner, rank: SS-Hauptsturmführer. The Red Army approaches, breaking through the camp gates. Little of me still exists, and I will play until I am no more.
Then, I will sleep and hope that I will one day be redeemed.
T. Fox Dunham
Musical Inspiration for “Die Musik des Teufels”
I have always loved classical musical, in love with Mozart’s concertos and operas since seeing Amadeus as a child. The power in such music overwhelms, something we have lost with modern versions. I limned that fury in my story, touching upon the pelagic power deep in the human soul that’s drawn out in classical, it’s purity.
Music can be an anodyne to the spirit, but it can also be dark, a threnody to the human spirit; as with all power, it can enchant evil and depict the penury of light. This was the incipient source of the work: how beauty can be twisted, how life can be distorted and used to wound, all in the name of love.
EDWARD MORRIS
Critically acclaimed author Edward Morris is a 2011 nominee for the Pushcart Prize in Literature and was also nominated for the Rhysling Award in 2009 and the British Science Fiction Association Award in 2005.
Morris’ introspective work has appeared in more than one hundred markets worldwide, including his collaboration with Joseph Pulver, “A Cold Yellow Moon,” having been published in The Lovecraft Ezine, Ross Lockhart’s Tales of Jack the Ripper and Robert M. Price’s The Mountains of Madness. Morris teamed up with Trent Zelazny on the beautifully dark and moving “City Song” featured in Dark Visions: A Collection of Modern Horror – Volume 2 from Grey Matter Press.
KAREN RUNGE
Karen Runge was born in Paris, France. The daughter of a diplomat, her family lived in France and then Gabon before returning to their native South Africa when she was a young child.
Runge is a horror writer, sometimes an artist, and teaches adults English as a Second Language. Her works have appeared in Pseudopod, Something Wicked, Pantheon Magazine and Structo. Her story “Hope is Here” is featured in the anthology Suspended in Dusk, edited by her “High Art” co-author Simon Dewar. “Good Help,” which a
ppears in Shock Totem 9, was the result of an online course with Jack Ketchum, who told her, “Karen, you scare me.”
She currently lives in Beijing, China.
JOHN F.D. TAFF
Having been writing dark speculative fiction for twenty-five years, the Bram Stoker Award-nominated John F.D. Taff has more than seventy stories published in markets that include Cemetery Dance, Deathrealm, One Buck Horror and Big Pulp.
Taff’s exceptional work has also been published in anthologies that include Hot Blood: Fear the Fever, Hot Blood: Seeds of Fear, Shock Rock II, Box of Delights, Best New Vampire Tales and Horror for Good. Over the years, six of his short stories have been selected as honorable mentions by Ellen Datlow in her Year’s Best Horror anthologies.
His work has appeared in Horror Library V, Edge of Sundown, Shades of Blue & Grey, Postscripts to Darkness, as well as the Bram Stoker Award-nominated Dark Visions: A Collection of Modern Horror – Volume One and Ominous Realities, both published by Grey Matter Press.
Taff’s first collection of short stories, Little Deaths, published in 2012, has been fantastically well received by literary critics. His novel, The Bell Witch, was released in 2013. His collection, The End in All Beginnings, received his first Stoker nomination in 2014, and his 2015 novella, The Sunken Cathedral, has been praised as one of the most important horror books in recent time. Both volumes were published by Grey Matter Press.
SHAWN MACOMBER
Shawn Macomber is a writer and noted pug wrangler in the New York City area. His reportage, essays and criticism span one decade, five continents and hundreds of appearances in the pages of a diverse array of publications including FANGORIA, Rue Morgue, Decibel, Stereogum, Magnet, Maxim, The Wall Street Journal, Reason and the Los Angeles Times, amongst other fine and middling publications.
He has covered stories ranging from night raids in the Baghdad suburbs, riots in the Baltics, two presidential elections, the antics of freedom-fighting, stripper-pole-aerobics instructors in rural Pennsylvania, designer cat show devotees at Madison Square Garden, and the Carcass “Exhumed to Consume” reunion tour.
His fiction can be found in Shroud, Despumation and FANGORIA, and he is co-editor of the heavy metal horror anthology The Healing Monsters.
A native of New Hampshire, he possesses intimate experience with the gypsy moth caterpillars.
KONSTANTINE PARADIAS
Konstantine Paradias is a jeweler by profession and a writer by choice. His short stories have been published in AE – The Canadian Science Fiction Review, World War Cthulhu: A Collection of Lovecraftian War Stories, and The Battle Royale Slam Book.
People say he has a writing problem, but he can quit, like, whenever he wants, man. His short story, “How You Ruined Everything,” was included on Tangent Online’s recommended reading list for 2013, and his short story, “The Grim,” has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
JC MICHAEL
J. C. Michael lives in rural North Yorkshire where he spends the majority of his waking hours working in the tourism industry. His wife encourages him to write in his spare time, but his son would rather he played knights and dragons, pirates and wizards, or bears and lions.
His debut novel, Discoredia, was published in 2013. In the absence of the time he feels he needs to concentrate on novel writing, he currently concentrates on shorter pieces. Michael’s short stories have been published in the anthologies Fireside Popsicles, Wishful Thinking, Suspended in Dusk and The Dark Carnival.
When not working, writing, or playing knights and dragons, pirates and wizards, or bears and lions, he likes to chill out by watching movies, playing computer games, and watching football (soccer for those of you in the US).
DANIEL BRAUM
Daniel Braum’s fiction has been classified as fantasy, science fiction and horror, but he prefers the good old-fashioned term of just “fiction” which, when he was growing up, simply meant a story where anything could happen. His stories frequently defy category and reside in the areas between genres, utilizing and combining genre elements to produce tales that are wholly unique.
Much of his fiction is set in the here and now and explores places on the edges of civilization. His stories seek to illuminate the human condition as characters encounter something unexplainable or supernatural and often very dark before achieving some insight, resolution or ray of light. Another line of stories are science fiction tales with speculative elements that border on the fantastic or magical. Setting always plays a prominent role.
His work can be found in Cemetery Dance magazine issues 55, 67, and 71; Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristet #20; Farrago’s Wainscott #9; and issue #4 of Midnight Echo the publication of the Australian Horror Writer’s Association. Audio versions of some stories can be found at Pseudopod.org.
MAXWELL PRICE
Maxwell Price lives in upstate South Carolina where, in addition to writing, he performs and records a variety of music.
Formerly a columnist and music editor for one of those prehistoric beasts known as an “alt-weekly.” “Poor Mal” is his first published piece of fiction.
E. MICHAEL LEWIS
E. Michael Lewis studied creative writing at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma. His short stories can be found in All Hallows; The Best Horror of the Year Volume 1 and Hauntings, both edited by Ellen Datlow; The Horror Anthology of Horror Anthologies, edited by D.F. Lewis; Exotic Gothic 3, edited by Danel Olson; and Supernatural Tales #28.
His novella, Lost and Found, is now available, and another novella, Agony, is forthcoming in 2015.
He is a lifelong native of the Pacific Northwest, where he lives with his two sons and two cats, who are also brothers.
PAUL MICHAEL ANDERSON
Anderson has established himself as both a writer and an editor, his stories, articles, reviews and interviews having appeared in scores of places. “Survivor’s Debt” has been published as part of the monthly One-Night Stands series. His story “In the Nothing-Space, I Am What You Made Me” appears alongside the work of Stephen King in the anthology Qualia Nous. He is Editor-in-chief of Jamais Vu – The Journal of the Strange Among the Familiar, a magazine featuring dark fiction, poetry, factual morsels, criticism and more.
Anderson teaches writing, frequently giving workshops on the mechanics and business of writing.
He has recently bought a very charming house, and Harlan Ellison regularly calls him “kiddo.”
T. FOX DUNHAM
Dunham is both an author and historian who makes his home outside of Philadelphia. He has been published in nearly 200 international journals and anthologies.
His first novel, The Street Martyr, was published by Gutter Books and is being made into a feature film by Throughline Films. Bram Stoker award-winning author Joe McKinney says of The Street Martyr, “It’s tough and gritty, unflinchingly brutal and honest, and a wild ride from start of finish.”
Dunham is a cancer survivor. His friends call him Fox, which is his totem animal, and his motto is: Wrecking civilization one story at a time.
THE STORIES
"To Soothe the Savage Beast" by Edward Morris
Copyright © 2009 Edward Morris
"Going Home" by Karen Runge
Copyright © 2015 Karen Runge
"That Song You Can't Get Out of Your Head" by John F.D. Taff
Copyright © 2015 John F.D. Taff
"Pestilence by Beemahr" by Shawn Macomber
Copyright © 2015 Shawn Macomber
"Killing Noise" by Konstantine Paradias
Copyright © 2015 Konstantine Paradias
"When Death Walks the Field of Battle" by J.C. Michael
Copyright © 2015 J.C. Michael
"An American Ghost in Zurich" by Daniel Braum
Copyright © 2015 Daniel Braum
"Poor Mal" by Maxwell Price
Copyright © 2015 Maxwell Price
"Eidolon" by E. Michael Lewis
Copyright © 2015 E. Michael Lewis
"Crawling Back to You"
by Paul Michael Anderson
Copyright © 2015 Paul Michael Anderson
"Die Musik des Teufels" by T. Fox Dunham
Copyright © 2015 T. Fox Dunham
THE INSPIRATION
The music, songs, albums, artists, bands and/or record companies whose work has served as inspiration for individual author's creative fiction retain all credit and copyright for their music, wherever applicable. As publisher, Grey Matter Press and the contributing authors do not imply artist, band and/or record company endorsement, in whole or in part, of this work of fiction .
"Piggy" - Music by Nine Inch Nails. Written by Trent Reznor. Appearing on the album The Downward Spiral, released on March 8, 1994 from Interscope Records. Copyright Leaving Hope Music Inc.; Penny Farthing Music O.B.O.; Arlovol Music.
"Out of the Body" - Music by Pestilence. Written by Martin Van Drunen, Marco Foddis, Patrick M.J. Mameli and Patrick Uterwijk. Appearing on the album Consuming Impulse, released December 25, 1989 from Roadrunner Records. Copyright Universal Music Publishing Group.
"It's a Small World (After All)" - Music by St. Charles Boys Choir (Disneyland Boys Choir). Written by Robert B. Sherman and Richard M. Sherman. Copyright Walt Disney Music Publishing Company.
"La Faye" - Music by School of Seven Bells. Written by Benjamin David Curtis and Alejandra Estela Deheza. Appearing on the album Ghostory, released February 28, 2012. Copyright BMG Platinum Songs; BMG Platinum Songs US; Sviib Music.
"So Get Up" - Music by Underground Sound of Lisbon (Rui da Silva and To Pereira). Written by Ithaka Darrin Pappas. Released as an original 12" mix in 1993 from KAOS Records, Tribal UK and Twisted Records.
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