by Aaron French
Finally I awoke in the darkness to find a slumping shadowy form—not myself—strung up in the noose, dangling beyond my bedroom door. The sight of it sent jolts of panic all through me, the first sensations I’d felt in weeks. I stared at the shape, wondering if I was dreaming it. I’d been having so many dreams lately that it was hard to tell.
The face of the Black Goat, now a constant companion to me, glared back from the walls and ceiling.
I forced myself out of bed, moving toward the door. The room smelled faintly of rot and feces. I wrinkled my nose as gooseflesh usurped every surface on my body. I could almost hear the Black Goat breathing, his exhalations stinging the air. I moved into the living room, where I had attached the noose to the high arched beam. That was supposed to be me dangling from that frayed, coiled end. Not her. It wasn’t meant to be like this.
“No,” I whispered to the darkness. “No, no, no, no, no—”
But the body wouldn’t go away. And the face… oh god her face… looked blankly into that unknown world beyond this one, and I could see how lost, how forsaken she was, and all at once I burst into tears.
“No, Ashley, no!”
Teary salt drained into my mouth, mucus bubbled in my nose, and I reached out to run my fingers along her cold, waxen skin. She was nude, but that grand body, which I had once lived for, now appeared stiff and grotesque. Decay was setting in. Soon she’d be gone. There was no chance of us being together again. Ever.
The truth hit me like a bucking steed, and half crawling, half stumbling, I staggered into the kitchen and grabbed a large knife. My knees felt like jelly, and a bitter taste coated my throat. I stood on a chair and cut down the noose, letting her fall into my arms. She was heavier than I’d expected, and I lost my balance and we both toppled over. Sharp pains ignited in my lower back, like biting insects, and I screamed, still sobbing. But the physical pain was nothing compared to the thought of losing her, of never being able to lie with her again—that what I had treasured so fervently was becoming a feast for maggots.
The Black Goat ran out of the walls, ceiling, and furniture, coalescing into the center of the room. In a moment he stood before me, fully material. I looked over as it stalked within inches of where I lay on the floor. Ashley’s corpse was sprawled on top of me.
Her soul has been added to my book. She will go with me through all the cycles of time, and I will accompany her through every succeeding incarnation. I’ll make sure she suffers sufficiently.
Hearing his harsh words jarred my emotions. I looked into his aquiline face: flat black nostrils, eyes like inkwells, ram horns curling back over his shoulders. He was so close that I could smell the fecal, animal scent of his woolly legs, fibrous muscles, and cartilaginous hooves.
“Why?” I managed to groan.
These are cosmic laws, to which you humans tend to remain ignorant. Which is why you do not think before you act, why you consign yourselves to fates unwished for without realizing it. But everything is natural. I exist for a purpose: to carry out karmic sentences. But there is something unique about your case…
With every second Ashley’s corpse grew heavier. The oppressive terror of the Black Goat seemed to smother me, constricting my thoughts and breath like a viscous gauze. I managed again, “Why?”
At once he turned slick, vicious, and darkly transparent. His eyes shone intensely with red hellfire. The fecal smell wafted ripely as he raised his right hoof—and I saw that, inexplicably, the goddamned thing was bladed.
This time your human love has taken me. I shan’t allow two souls united so decadently to fall away from each other. I’d rather hasten you after her through the Gates of Death. So perhaps it is true what they say about me: that I am just a hopeless romantic after all.
With a lurch his hoof came down on my neck, slicing. In the final seconds I attempted to struggle but Ashley’s corpse kept me rooted in place. I felt a horrible feeling of strangulation then I was being pressed down into the earth…
… falling deeper and deeper…
… falling away…
About the author: Aaron J. French’s fiction has appeared in many publications including Dark Discoveries, Black Ink Horror, Something Wicked, After Death…, Beware the Dark, Chiral Mad, The Lovecraft eZine, and others. His zombie collection Up From Soil Fresh was published by Hazardous Press. “The Order,” Aaron’s occult thriller novella about a Lovecraftian secret society, was published in the Dreaming in Darkness collection. His novella “The Stain” appears in The Chapman Books available from Uncanny Books. His single-author collection, Aberrations of Reality, will be released 2014 by Crowded Quarantine Publications. He is an active member of the Horror Writers Association.
Table of Contents
FOREWORD to the New Edition
Monk Punk
THE SPIRITUAL RIFF, by D. Harlan Wilson
Fistful of Tengu, by David J. West
Don’t Bite My Finger, by Geoff Nelder
The Power of Gods, by Sean T.M. Stiennon
The Key to Happiness, by R.B. Payne
Wonder and Glory, by Adrian Chamberlin
The Just One, by William Meikle
The Liturgy of the Hours, by Dean M. Drinkel
Brethren of Fire, by Zach Black
The Second Coming, by Joe Jablonski
Nasrudin: Desert Sufi, by Barry Rosenberg
Suitcase Nuke, by Sean Monaghan
The Last Monk, by George Ivanoff
The Cult of Adam, by Mark Iles
Snowfall, by J.C. Andrijeski
Xenocyte: A Kiomarra Story, by Caleb Heath
Vortex, by Joshua Ramey-Renk
The Birth of God, by Jeffrey Sorensen
Rannoch Abbey and the Night Visitor, by Dave Fragments
Citipati, by Suzanne Robb
Black Rose, by Robert Harkess
The Path of Li Xi, by Aaron J. French
Where the White Lotus Grows, by John R. Fultz
Monk Punk v. 2.0
Special Bonus Features
Evil Fruit, by Josh Reynolds
Weaned on Blood, by Richard Gavin
Visionaire, by Stephen Mark Rainey
The Perplexed Eye of a Sufi Pirate, by Geoff Nelder
The Bountiful Essence of the Empty Hand, by John R. Fultz
The White Lotus Society, by Aaron J. French
The Shadow of the Unknown
FOREWORD
It Tears Away, by Michael Bailey
Graffiti Sonata, by Gene O'Neill
Blumenkrank, by Erik T. Johnson
To Unsee a Thing, by Richard Marsden
Memories of Inhuman Nature, by Rick McQuiston
What's in a Shell?, by Nathalie Boisard-Beudin
When Clown Face Speaks, by Aaron J. French
The Music of Bleak Entrainment, by Gary A. Braunbeck
The Chitter Chatter of Little Feet, by Fel Kian
Watch for Steve, by Ricky Massengale
Uncle Rick, by M. Shaw
Caverns of Blood, by P.S. Gifford
JP and the Nightgaunt, by Robert Tangiers
Sister Guinevere, by T. Patrick Rooney
Alone in the Cataloochee Valley, by Lee Clarke Zumpe
Quietus, by A.A. Garrison
Amends for an Earlier Summer, by Geoffrey H. Goodwin
Sanctuary of the Damned, by Cynthia D. Witherspoon
The Festering, by James S. Dorr
The Rose Garden, by James Ward Kirk
In the Valley of the Things, by L.E. Badillo
The Devil's Kneading Trough, by Sean T. Page
The City of Death, by Jason D. Brawn
Terror Within the Walls, by K.G. McAbee
The Laramie Tunnel, by R.B. Payne
Amundsen's Last Run, by Nathalie Boisard-Beudin
Antarktos Unbound, by Glynn Barrass
Azathoth Awakening, by Ran Cartwright
The Shadow of the Unknown v. 2.0
Special Bonus Features
The Courtier, by Mike Lester
The First and Last Performance of Varack, by John Claude Smith
Back Acres, by Jay Wilburn
In Silence, by K. Trap Jones
Asleep with the Black Goat, by Aaron J. French
