Short Story Excerpt: A Requiem for the Damned

 

There was a place where my family used to go camping. A few yards from the place where we would always set up camp, there was a path that descended down to a large creek. The path was shrouded in trees and it really felt like you were descending down into a hidden realm. This path and the daydreams I had of this path served as the basis for A Requiem for the Damned.

From those minimal beginnings, I became fascinated by the idea of discovering a secret village far removed from the rest of civilization. I imagine that such a place would be part paradisaical but with evil horrors unlike anything we see in the modern world.

As for Princesa Moreno, I can’t say what inspired her creation. I do like to see women cast as villains in horror. There are so few examples of female villains specifically in the horror genre and that was starting to change until recently. Today, casting a woman as an unredeemable villain is a no-no, but I have a habit of defying the rules.

Here’s a closer look at Princesa Moreno in A Requiem for the Damned:

 

     He watched her hourglass figure as she departed and the closing of the chamber door obscured his view. Her offer hadn’t gone unnoticed; his stomach howled for sustenance. The sweet cherry tomato burst in his mouth, spreading its juices over his tongue and urging him to indulge himself. However, one of the servants stole his way into the room before he’d had time to fill his belly with one more bite. Between the commotion still growing in the great hall and the appearance of this intruder, he was too shocked to react. The servant easily grabbed him from behind, cupping a large, malformed hand over his mouth, and pulled him into the darkest corner of the room. Employing strength that shouldn’t have been possible for someone so degenerate, the servant spun him around and slammed him back against the stony wall. It was then that their eyes met for the first time. Scar tissue had sealed the slit where the servant’s left eye had been and his right eye was white and cloudy.

     How had this man accomplished all that he had with such limited eyesight?

   Perhaps there were senses at work other than those that Evan relied upon. Regardless, he’d proven himself a formidable enemy, or maybe...He suddenly realized that the man might mean him no harm at all, considering his princess was only moments away. As soon as he stopped struggling, his attacker relinquished the hold he’d held on him.

     “We must be quick for she will return soon. My brother will explain all to you, but, for now…” He faltered and slightly trembled when the princess’ bellowing grew nearer. “…for now, just believe that you must not look into her eyes and you must not trust in her words.”

     “What…”

     The servant tumbled forward and fell to the floor at Evan’s feet, his blood pooling on the floor and sinking into the crevices between the cobblestones. Slowly and fearfully, he looked up from the corpse. Princesa Moreno stood a short distance away, holding the servant’s still palpitating heart in the palm of her reddened hand. Blood dribbled from between her long fingers and over the side of her palm, slowly adding to the puddle upon the floor.

     “My god…”

     “Did he harm you?”

     “No.” Something was definitely wrong here. He recalled the anxious feelings he’d felt on the way to this village and he now believed he would have been much wiser to have turned back when the opportunity had been available to him. “No, you got here just in time. He didn’t have time to do much more than grab me.”

     “Good.” She smiled, though not quite as warmly as before, and finished cleaning her hand in the bubbling pool. It was that hand, now just as dry and flawless as the other hand, that took hold of Evan’s arm and led him back into the pit. “Sometimes they forget their status in our society and it falls upon me to remind them. I’ve found instant death to deviants to be a useful deterrent.”

 

Experience all nine stories in Whispers From Hell: An Anthology of Horror & the Supernatural.

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