Short Story Excerpt: Night Terrors

 

This was another story that I had written years ago and lost when an earlier computer crashed. I’ve rewritten the story and I’m still amazed by how much of it I remembered. The plot and characters all seemed to flow from my fingertips just as though they would have if I’d had the first copy as a reference.

Night Terrors is more of an urban horror, dealing with the consequences of moving people in and out of tract housing as though there’s never anything left behind. Lydia and her neighbors quickly discover that some things do get left behind. When that happens in Night Terrors, Lydia quickly finds that it’s the new occupant who is left to deal with the ethereal fallout.

Get a glimpse of that which gets left behind in Night Terrors here:

 

     Her first glance told her that everything seemed normal. Jacob was sleeping soundly and everything else in the room appeared still and silent. Releasing a sigh of relief and silently chiding herself for letting her emotions get so worked up, she started backing out of the room. Then, just as she started to turn her head away from the quiet scene, she saw them.

     Her vision locked upon those two, narrow, yellow eyes and they, in turn, fixed upon her. The hideousness of the creature belonging to those eyes was apparent even in the dark night and still darker shadows. It was a large, black thing, nearly seven feet, judging by the awkward crouch it had taken upon Jacob's headboard. Its shiny, black claws dug into the soft wood. Its arms, nearly twice as long as its legs, rested upon its muscular thighs. As the creature grinned at Lydia and bared its jagged teeth, blood or saliva (it was difficult to tell which in the darkness) drooled from the fangs. The thing was covered in fur from head to toe and even its wings, visible only when it moved one of its arms, was cloaked in that same short, coarse hair.

     It leapt from its perch with such speed and stealth that Lydia was nose to nose with the beast before she even realized it had moved. It circled her, always keeping its black lips close to her neck, and flicked its thin, forked tongue at her quivering flesh as it hissed.

     "What do you want?"

     She was terrified, but she tried to sound forceful. Even so, she was certain it still sensed her fear.

     "Yes-s-s, I do want s-s-something from you. Until I get it, the boy sleeps-s-s."

     "If you hurt my son..."

     It attacked from behind, wrapping its long limbs around her body and digging its talons into the flesh of her face just deep enough to draw blood.

     "What will you do, Whore-Pig? This-s-s is-s-s not your world. This-s-s is-s-s my world. S-s-so be wis-s-se." It lowered its already soft yet unmistakably masculine voice to a whisper. "Be s-s-silent."

     "Just tell me why you're here."

     The creature released its grip on her, but only so it could resume the steady circling of its prey. This time, however, its tongue did not flicker at her flesh. Instead, the sound of the beast lapping her blood from its talons, much like a kitten slurping cream from a saucer, echoed throughout the room. It stopped just behind Lydia, resting its pointed chin upon her shoulder while its long, bony fingers reached around the right side of her face. The creature dipped its talons into the fresh gash it had left in her cheek. How many times had she smacked Jacob's hand for dipping his fingers into a freshly iced cake in just that same manner? She wanted to do more than simply smack him and she would have...had she known more about him or what he meant about being in his world.

     "Our homes-s-s were des-s-stroyed to make room for your homes-s-s. We're now los-s-st. It's-s-s plain. Lead us-s-s to our new res-s-sting grounds-s-s."

     "If I do?"

     "Your s-s-son will awaken from his s-s-sleep."

 

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

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