by Steve Wands
“The speaker. The sub. Both are trashed man. Did you not remember where to go? You hit both of them.” Dave looked at Steve and saw that he was serious.
“I didn’t hit anything.”
“The hell you didn’t. Come out and look at them.” Dave followed Steve outside. The back of Steve’s truck had a tarp over it. He lifted it up and inside was the floating speaker and the small sub. The speaker was totally trashed. It had looked like it had been run over a few times. “And what was with playing the other tape off the boat? When did you decide to do that?” Dave ignored him and looked at the sub. A whole side of it was crushed. The rubber covering was torn and looked like it had almost fallen off the sub on its way back to the shore. Dave ran his finger over the crushed part of the sub. He realized that the shape his finger was tracing on the sub could very well have been a giant bite mark.
“Steve, we’re officially retiring. I’m never going out on the Loch again.”
*
DARK
A Horror Anthology
About the authors
(In order of appearance)
Matt R. Jones has previously appeared in the Robots Beyond anthology, AlienSkin, and in his own Hollywood Vampires books, as well as the occasional bit of childish graffiti. He resides in central Illinois, getting his IQ regularly traumatized by the inhabitants, but enjoys the endless cheap joke fodder that the rampant inbreeding provides him – despite being viewed with suspicion for being “one ‘o them dang out-breeders.” For tons of free stories and other examples of his work, check out the Realm of the Hollywood Vampires at www.hollywoodvampires.net…he can also be found on Facebook and MySpace.
Bryan Wolford has been an avid horror fan from a young age. He couldn’t explain why these scary things intrigued him but they did. Years later he found himself a co-host of a successful horror themed podcast called Drunken Zombie (found at www.drunkenzombie.com). Through this he has had the fortune to meet a lot of his childhood horror icons, become friends with people working in the horror industry, and even run his own horror film festival in November of 2009. He is a published author with two of his short stories available in horror anthologies and is a hopeful horror filmmaker with his short horror film “Shadows” in post production. For more of his writings and musings head over to http://www.bryanwolford.net.
Casey Criswell Having spent several years writing essays on horror films at his website Cinema Fromage, full time duties writing news and film reviews for Bloody Good Horror, as well as sharing his love and knowledge of horror films with anyone willing to listen, Casey finally decided to stray from the path of other peoples nightmares and invent a few scares of his own. His previously published stories include “Jackboots for Jesus” in The Jack, “A Fine Line” in the Sonar 4 ezine, and “Secret Symphony” for Six Sentences. Casey can be heard weekly co-hosting the Bloody Good Horror Podcast.
http://www.cinemafromage.com
http://www.bloodygoodhorror.com
J.P. Moore writes in southern New Jersey, which is a long way from the settings of his novels and stories. Moore is no friend to his characters. He enjoys forcing them into terrifying situations, and challenging those poor souls to bring their worlds back from the brink of ruin. Once in a while, they do. Not content to limit this sadistic behavior to the low word-count of short stories, Moore wrote Toothless, a zombie apocalypse novel set in the 12th century. The novel has gathered thousands of fans as a free audio-book, and is available at http://www.jpmooreonline.com
Keith Latch is the author of four novels ranging from horror to contemporary romance, to thrillers, and numerous short stories. The imagination of Keith Latch knows no bounds when it comes to storytelling. He’ll take you to the edge of your seat and then knock you off. Definitely not for the faint of heart! Visit http://www.keithlatch.com to keep current on his projects, which include novels, anthologies, and podcasts.
Sal Cipriano Born, bred, and still proudly residing in Brooklyn, NY, Sal Cipriano is a professional writer and comic book letterer. He was initially educated in Film at NYC’s School of Visual Arts, but because he wanted to make far less money, he soon moved into the Cartooning and Illustration Department. Sal’s published creations include The Adventures of Bio Boy, Vengeance of The Vapor, and The Hill. Currently, he is lettering various comics, writing articles of fact and fiction at multiple websites, and working on his first novel.
http://www.salcipriano.com
http://www.besballtalk.com
http://www.flixfiend.com
Desmond Reddick is a writer, podcaster and teacher living on the west coast of Canada with his wife and two little demons. He hosts three podcasts: Dread Media (http://www.dreadmedia.com) about horror culture, Earth-2.net The Show (http://www.earth-2.net) about comics and Married to Movies (http://www.marriedtomovies.com) about…duh…movies. He also enjoys writing about himself in the third person.
Sean Keller writes short stories, movies, comic books and songs. He has performed in films, on Broadway and in various theaters and dive bars across the U. S. of A and has even lost big on Jeopardy. He drinks too much, swears too much and enjoys corrupting the morals of America’s youth.
Dezi Sienty is an artist living in NYC who has a love for all things monsters. He’s done illustration and comic work for a number of clients. This is his first foray into short story writing, so he asked for help from a friend, Cassandra Thomas. You can see his work at:
http://www.dezicnt.blogspot.com
http://www.cavedrawingink.com
Cassandra Thomas spends most of her hours slaving away as a medical resident, but also enjoys dreaming in technicolor, scribbling poems on napkins and inspiring her good friends with her whimsy.
Blake M. Petit is a freelance writer, columnist, reviewer, podcaster, actor, director, teacher, and unlicensed tree surgeon from Ama, Louisiana. He is the author of the novels Other People’s Heroes and The Beginner, as well as the podcast novel A Long November. His weekly comic book column, Everything But Imaginary, has appeared Wednesdays at comiXtreme.com since 2003. In January of 2007 he joined with his longtime friend Chase Bouzigard to host the weekly 2 in 1 Showcase comic book podcast, appearing every weekend at comiXtreme. Blake is a member of the board of directors of the Thibodaux Playhouse theatre company in Thibodaux Louisiana, where his original stage play The 3-D Radio Show was produced in 2004. In a former life as a newspaper editor, his weekly Think About It column won the Louisiana Press Association Award for best column in 2001. In his free time, he teaches high school English, which at the moment pays better than the rest of his more impressive-sounding endeavors put together.
http://www.evertimerealms.com
Corey Graham is a freelance writer, web designer and podcaster. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Communications Media from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and has been writing all his life. He currently resides in Western Pennsylvania in his zombie-proof bunker. His online residence is at:
http://midnightcorey.com
Derek M. Koch Ever since his movie-restrictive childhood, Derek has been fascinated by all things horror. From the Creature from the Black Lagoon to Jason Voorhees, George A. Romero to Patrick Devaney, Derek has spent his post-driver’s-license years catching up on all of them, and by far, his favorite subgenre is the Zombie Film. How to get his wife on board with hundreds of hours of zombie movie viewing? Why, start the Northwest’s premiere zombie movie podcast and invite her to be a co-host! Derek, a.k.a. Brother D, and his wife, Miss Bren, have just celebrated two years of 5-star weekly zombie podcasting at Mail Order Zombie. In addition to producing Mail Order Zombie, Derek finds time to write for websites like Paperback Reader, as well as his own short and long-form fiction (and he often writes about zombies!). Derek’s official website is House Improbabilia.
http://www.mailorderzombie.com
http://www.improbabilia.com
Steve Wands lives in New Jersey with his wife and son. He’s a comic book letterer for DC Comics by day, and an artist and w
riter by night. He drinks massive amounts of coffee, and sleeps very little. He is the author of Stay Dead: The Stranger and Tunnel Rats, Modern Nightmares, and Damaged.
http://www.stevewands.blogspot.com
http://www.pleasestaydead.blogspot.com
*
You can keep in touch with all of the authors of Dark: A Horror Anthology by following the official blog: http://www.darkhorroranthology.blogspot.com
