Gazing up the subway stairs, Stefani pictured Carla’s delicious curves. Maybe it wasn’t too late. Four minutes? She could make it back to Chickadee if she ran fast. Jewel and Manisha must have gone home, or gone somewhere. They’d wake up tomorrow realizing how stupid they’d been and crawl away with their tails between their legs. Why should Stefani let their sordid night ruin New Year’s Eve?
Stefani told her stockinged feet to move. She actually looked down at them and said, “Move!” But they didn’t. They pressed into the concrete like two blocks of ice frozen to the floor.
11:57.
“I don’t have time for this!” Stefani cursed her feet, but couldn’t for the life of her persuade them to move. She threw herself down on her knees, which panged when they met the cold concrete. She strained against the pain, trying with all her might to pull herself toward the stairs.
Suddenly, her feet started throbbing, getting hotter and hotter until they blazed against her wet socks. When she rolled to take them off, a rumble shook the subway station. There was nothing unusual about that—whenever the trains came in, the stations rumbled a little bit—but Stefani watched the platform and nothing happened. Nothing.
Until she turned around and looked up the stairs.
That’s when Stefani saw it: a glistening wave, like a tsunami made of metal, barreling down the stairs. Her body went stiff and her hot feet throbbed as she dragged herself in the other direction, toward the turnstile.
Scrambling to her hands and knees, Stefani crawled away from the thunderous wave of plinking, clinking subway tokens. Surging down the concrete stairs, they might have looked beautiful if she hadn’t been so terrified.
The earth shook beneath her body as Stefani crawled under the turnstile. The flooring changed, concrete to tile, and she slipped in a pool of slush. When she landed hard, her chin smacked the ground and a bolt of lightning pain streaked along her spine. She bit down so hard she was sure she’d broken all her teeth. Her front was soaked from the wet floor. In an instant, Stefani’s skin ran so cold it ached.
What time was it? Two minutes to twelve. Could she make it back to Carla if her feet cooperated and she somehow managed to climb up the sheet of subway tokens barrelling down on her? Stefani reached for the transfer machine and let it steady her as she turned around.
Subway tokens hissed, flowing like a waterfall down the stairs. When they struck the floor, a crash rang out, so loud it echoed in her ears. The station shook so hard the turnstiles started to vibrate and crack. The transfer machine trembled in Stefani’s hands, and a vision of her last minutes on earth raced across her mind.
The big red machine fell forward, almost like someone was pushing it from behind. She tried to fight it, but her body was too aching and contorted. She pushed back against the machine, but it fell down, down, down, glaring the numbers 11:59 at her as it pinned her to the floor.
Stefani thought of her sister, and her friend, and sweet Carla, as she opened her mouth to scream. No sound came out, of course. The river of tokens ran so fast she was covered before she knew it. They filled her mouth and dropped into her throat, stretching it to bursting.
This time, when Stefani heaved, it was no use. The transit authority is ruthless.
Author Bios
JAMES DORR’s prior publications with Untreed Reads include the steampunk/mystery Vanitas, Christmas horror I’m Dreaming Of…, and, just this fall, his dystopian science fiction novelette Peds. Print books include the collections Strange Mistresses: Tales of Wonder and Romance and Darker Loves: Tales of Mystery and Regret from Dark Regions Press, and the all-poetry Vamps (A Retrospective) from Sam’s Dot Publishing, tentatively to be joined next spring/summer (in electronic form as well as print, hopefully in time for World Horror Convention 2013!) by a new prose collection from Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing, The Tears of Isis. An active member of SFWA and HWA, Dorr invites readers to visit his site at http://jamesdorrwriter.wordpress.com.
RICHARD GODWIN is the author of crime novels Mr. Glamour and Apostle Rising and is a widely published crime and horror writer. Mr. Glamour is his second novel and was published in paperback in April 2012. It is available online at Amazon and at all good retailers. Mr.Glamour is Hannibal Lecter in Gucci. The novel is about a glamorous world obsessed with designer labels with a predator in its midst, and has received great reviews. Apostle Rising, in which a serial killer crucifies politicians, is available for the first time in ebook on all readers with some juicy extras, an excerpt from Mr. Glamour and four deliciously dark Noir stories, like the finest handmade chocolate. You can find out more about the author at his website www.richardgodwin.net.
NICKY PEACOCK is an English author living in the UK. She writes YA and adult horror as well as paranormal romance. If you enjoyed this story and would like to learn more about her work, please see http://nickypeacockauthor.wordpress.com/or follow her many supernatural ramblings on Twitter:https://twitter.com/nickyp_author.
JOHN STEWART WYNNE is the author of the horror tale The Needles Highway, recently published by Untreed Reads. His other works include the novel Crime Wave and the upcoming novel The Red Shoes. His acclaimed collection of dark and disturbing stories The Other World is soon to make its digital debut as individual stories published by Untreed Reads. His writing has won praise from numerous publications and from such award-winning authors as Kate Christensen, Hubert Selby, Jr., Rebecca Brown and Paul Monette. John Stewart Wynne is also a Grammy-nominated producer of spoken word recordings and the author of The Listener’s Guide to Audio Books.
STEVE SHROTT is an award-winning writer whose fiction has appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies. In addition, he has created comedy material for well-known performers, and written a book on how to write humour. Some of his jokes are in the Smithsonian Institute.
LEAH GIVENS’s writing and photographs have appeared in a variety of online and print journals, but this is her first horror story. She is a member of the St. Louis group Writers Under the Arch, and recently completed a fictionalized memoir. Her educational background is primarily in medicine; she received her M.D. from Washington University in St. Louis and has been involved in medical research.
GEORGE SEATON and his partner, David, live in Denver with their Alaskan Malamute, Sarah, and their quarter horse, Shy. He is the author of three novels, several novellas and numerous short stories.
KATHRYN OHNAKA is a teacher, tutor and writer. After living in Japan, she moved to northern Colorado, where she lives with her husband and daughters. She spends her spare time writing, cooking, crafting and playing video games. To contact her, please send an email to [email protected].
JEREMY TYLER was born and raised in the Tampa Bay Area, immersed in its multicultural way of life. He grew up hearing stories of mafia wars, Cuban refugees, and cigar factory workers, rather than fairy tales. He has carried those stories with him all his life. He currently resides in upstate New York with his wife and stepson.
BETSY MILLER writes fiction that spans several genres including speculative, suspense, and literary. She is the author of two books, The Parents’ Guide to Hip Dysplasia and The Parents’ Guide to Clubfoot, and is currently working on her first novel, Dance, Interrupted. Miller lives in Silicon Valley where she writes for high-tech companies.
BYRON BARTON received his Ph.D. in biology from the University of Vermont in 2007, and is currently living in Aruba. His science fiction novel, X349, can be read in serial format at Jukepop Serials. Recent short stories have appeared in Remembrances of Wars Past: A War Veterans Anthology and Penduline Press.
STEVE BARTHOLOMEW, being a refugee from the Big City, resides in a small town in northern California. He likes best to make up fantastic stories. However, he has come to realize he can invent nothing more fantastic than the tales that really happen.
ALI MALONEY is a slam poet, physical-theatre playwright and vocalist with CHURCH OF WHEN THE SHIT HITS THE FAN. He also makes some multimedia art-terrorism under the name Harlequinade
and has several albums of plunderphonica, noise and post-rap available (for free download—fact fans) on Black Lantern Music. He has lived in Edinburgh, Scotland since he was 3 years old but is originally from outside New York and is vaguely unsure about whether or not he is technically allowed to be here. “Missing Pieces” was written while his partner was in labour with their first child, Eliott Titus.
FOXGLOVE LEE writes LGBTQ fiction for freaks, geeks, dorks, dweebs, and the cool kids too! This former aspiring Broadway Baby tries not to be too theatrical, but her characters often take over. Follow Foxglove on Twitter @foxglovelee and stay tuned to her blog foxglovelee.blogspot.com.
Year's End: 14 Tales of Holiday Horror Page 15
