Actor Peter Haskell in the 1972 film “The Eyes of Charles Sand”
“You should be relieved, Brian. Your vision is perfectly normal, which frankly is pretty extraordinary for a man of your age.”
“Then what the hell is going on, Mallory? Why do I get these episodes or visions that make me feel like I’m going blind?”
© James Pyles
This is the direct sequel and conclusion of part one of this story, which was based on a plot developed by my eight-year-old grandson.
Chapter 4: Glowing Red Eyes
Little Dan was having a hard time sleeping. Every little noise woke him up and reminded him of the horrible things that had happened and the evil toy giraffe.
Then, at the foot of his bed, he heard a familiar voice.
“You didn’t think you could get away from me that easily, did you Dan?
Dan looked and saw the stuffed giraffe Baby with the terrible glowing red eyes.
He jumped out of bed like a shot and started running for the bedroom door. “Mom! Mom! Baby’s back!”
Photo: Diane Picard/Shutterstock – found at Mother Nature Network (MNN)
Yesterday, I wrote a short story called The Wolf’s Mate, a werewolf tale that’s actually a romance. Gwen is married to Larry and is pregnant. Larry is also a werewolf who even recognizes his “mate’s” scent while he is the wolf.
I started thinking of different ways to spin the story, and the night Gwen Talbot becomes pregnant sprang to life. I want to warn you right now this story contains some significantly “adult” content, so if you aren’t okay with that, stop reading now.
I’m also considering writing a story about their romance, how they met, fell in love, his proposal of marriage, and upon Gwen’s acceptance, Larry’s revealing his secret to her and how, amazingly, that resulted in them getting married, even in the face of the curse of the wolf.
I just wanted to let you know what you were in for.
I remember the night I became pregnant, both the ecstasy of it and the horror.
The story of my courtship with Larry, how deeply we fell in love with each other, his proposal and my joyous acceptance, and then the terror of the revelation of the wolf is for another time.
I did marry him, knowing exactly who he is, what he is, the curse he carries within him, and what it means for our children, especially any sons.
Poster from the film “Under the Bed” (2012)
Carrie heard the strange scratching sounds in the walls of her bedroom again.
“Mommy! Daddy!” She screamed out to her parents for the third time that night.
Daddy trudged into her bedroom. It had been an exhausting week. For the past five nights, Carrie kept swearing something was making scary noises in her walls. For the past five nights, her parents Bill and Sandy came in, but they could never hear anything.
Sandy thought there might be a mouse in the walls. Bill thought that moving to the new house a month ago was harder on their seven-year-old daughter than they thought it would be.
“Daddy, I’m so scared.” Carrie leapt out of her bed and jumped into his arms. He held and comforted his little girl.
I’ve been devoting the vast majority of my fiction writing lately to my own blog, but I do have two of my stories published elsewhere. They don’t appear on my blog because one of the conditions of publication was that they be totally unique works.
Both of them are at Theme of Absence.
The first story, The Anything Box was published last September, and tells the tale of a lonely teenage girl’s encounter with a strange object and how it connects her to her deceased Father.
The second story is called The Stalker, and it portrays another teenage girl’s meeting with something incredibly horrible while hiking in the woods. I had originally written it for a Halloween contest (I lost), but it ended up being published in general stories.
I haven’t mentioned them in a while, so I thought I’d dust them off and present them again. Each story is just under 1,000 words so they’re pretty fast reads.
If you have a moment or two, click the links, read my stories, and let me know what you think.
Thanks.
© James Pyles
My eight-year-old grandson Landon has been reading books from R.L. Stine’s “Goosebumps” series and wanted to write one of his own. This is the first part of his first novel (probably more like an extended short story). The first parts he narrated word for word. Then it made more sense for him to tell me how he “plotted” out the story, and then I paraphrased what he was telling me.
He asked if I’d publish his story here on my blog so my readers could have a look. I think he’s really looking forward to your comments, so don’t be shy (do be kind, though).
Remember, this is a child’s first attempt at writing a horror story.
Chapter One: The Birthday Present
One day a kid named Dan was playing with his family on his birthday. “It’s time to open presents”, said Dad.
I said, “Okay, Dad.”
First, Dad gave me his present. I opened it. It was a little stuffed animal. There was a tag on it that said “Baby”.
It was a giraffe he found at a garage sale. It’s head was facing the wrong way. I awkwardly said “Thank you” to Dad.
Then my Mom gave me her present. I opened it up and it was a bow and arrow. I hugged my Mom and said, “Thank you.”
Then, a while after the birthday party, for a second I thought I saw the tail of the giraffe move, but I thought that maybe it was just a breeze making it move.
And then, I looked at the giraffe and it’s head went up and it looked at me. And I started screaming and running for my life.
from Llvescience.com
The Eleventh Story in the Adventures of the Ambrosial Dragon: A Children’s Fantasy Series
It had been almost a week since Landon had first encountered The Mysterious Mummy, and in spite of the initial scare he had gotten, the eight-year-old’s visit to Cairo seemed more or less ordinary.
Okay, it wasn’t ordinary. He was visiting a foreign country for the first time in his life, and he was playing with Dr. Salib’s grandchildren Adjo, a nine-year-old boy, and Nuri, a seven-and-a-half-year-old girl.
They spoke only broken English, and Landon couldn’t speak Arabic at all, but they managed to communicate and have fun playing with each other.
They couldn’t play right now, though. They were at The Egyptian Archeological Institute in Cairo. Grandpa’s friend Dr. Salib was the Director of Archeology at the Institute. Adjo and Nuri were really proud of their Jaddi or Grandpa. He was so important. Landon started feeling a little jealous because his Grandpa didn’t have such a big, important job like that.
Maybe the kids couldn’t run around and play, but today was still an exciting day. Three days ago, the lid of the sarcophagus was removed, and today, Landon would get to see the Mummy!
Image: mookychick.co.uk
From the Unlife and Curse of Sean Becker
This is an open police investigation, so why am I involved? Because my boss, private detective Aidan Burke is paying me to be involved. More to the point, Conrad Grey, a wealthy commercial real estate tycoon, hired Burke to find his only granddaughter, thirteen-year-old Marianne. The kid went missing almost two weeks ago. LAPD thinks she’s a runaway. Grey thinks she’s been abducted. That’s why I’m walking the streets, contacting my informants, trying to get a lead.
Oh, by the way, my name is Sean Becker and I’m a vampire.
Officially, I can’t be licensed as a private detective because I’m dead. I work as Burke’s assistant by night, and sleep in his spare bedroom by day.
Being a vampire, I can cultivate information sources the police would never get close to. A few are other vampires like me, some with legit night jobs, others living on the edge of society, making it anyway they can.
Promotional image for the iZombie television show
Sally used a rock to crack it open and get at the yummy, gooey center. She took her spoon out of her rucksack, licked off the leftovers from last meal, and dug in.
“Mmmm. Still warm.”
The sun had just set as she pulled her already dead prey into the ravine. Sally liked privacy when she ate. He’d been an easy kill. Lone hikers usually were. Hide in a bush, leap from behind, and then a quick head twist to snap the neck.
She never realized how much fun being a zombie could be. Sally loved the taste of brains.
I’ve probably violated all kinds of zombie lore by making my zombie intelligent, but dumb zombies aren’t really interesting.
Some people have found it disconcerting that I’ve made my vampire Sean Becker so human and reluctant to feed on human blood, so I thought I’d create Sally in this 100 word piece of flash fiction.
She likes the taste of brains and doesn’t mind killing at all.
I wonder if Sally and Sean should meet?
The photo is taken from the iZombie TV show and is of actress Rose McIver in the role of zombie Olivia Moore.
Buck was a strange old man, but he had the best collection of vintage science fiction and horror paperbacks and comics in Las Vegas. Every Saturday, I ride my Schwinn Sting-Ray to “The Fantasy Express” looking for rare or out-of-print books. I’m only twelve, so my budget is small, but one of the things about Buck is that he gives big discounts if he likes you.
“I see you’re staring at the Demon’s Cup. Interested?” Buck jerks his thumb up at the object of my interest on a shelf behind him. He takes it down and puts it on the counter.
“What is it?”
“Legends say it’s made from a pigmy skull sacrificed to demons.”
“How much?” I picked it up. It was really metal and maybe bone and it was heavy.
“Ninety-nine cents.”
One of Buck’s special bargains. I had the money, but how would my folks react?
“Not today, Buck.”
“Your loss. Someone else will buy it soon.” He picked up the skull goblet and put it back on its shelf.
I finished shopping and felt relief as I walked out.
Buck had a week to sell the artifact before the curse of the Demon’s Cup claimed him.
This flash fiction story was inspired by a photo prompt at Sunday Photo Fictioner. You can read other submissions to this writing challenge at InLinkz.com.
When I was twelve years old, I really did ride my bike to a used comic book and paperback store in North Las Vegas every Saturday. I don’t remember the name of the place or the owner, but in retrospect, he wasn’t that old, maybe in his early 50s. He talked a lot about serving in the Navy during World War 2.
He didn’t sell cursed artifacts, which is lucky for me, but my comic book and paperback collections swelled thanks to my shopping there.
When I saw the photo, imagination collided with memory, and here we are. I just hope Buck makes it okay, but I feel sorry for the person who buys the cup. And to think my friend tried to foist it off on me.
The word count limit for this challenge is 200, and I just barely made it.
