Everyday For A Month: Day 18

Womp. Womp. Womp. 

That's how it started. Everyone in the world could hear it, I think. And if they didn't actually hear it, then they felt the vibrations associated with it.

Womp. Womp. Womp. 

A sound so loud, it became hard to breathe. Like the noise was vibrating the air and making it impossible to suck into your lungs. 

When you hear something that loud. That big. It makes your heart drop into your stomach. The tips of your fingers tingle. You start to shake and contemplate what it is to die. To stop existing.

And where would I be at the beginning of the end of world? Delivering groceries to an asshat named Brad. Which is kinda funny because my name is also Brad. Except for when I deliver groceries to Brad, then my given name morphs to Other Brad. 

I hate my job.

So I knocked on the door and Cool Brad (his idea, not mine) answers. Of course he's shirtless. As if to remind me of my own bony chest and he says: “Sup Shitty Brad.”

Ah, so I've devolved to Shitty Brad.

Beautiful. Just what I needed today.

Everyday For A Month: Day 11

Tongue

“That was wonderful.” Tonya gasped as she lay bare chested with a swirl of silken sheets just barely covering the area between her legs. She took a drag from her cigarette. Her manicured nails glistened in the halflight and Robbie was pleased that he had pleased her. “You're well worth the $6K you cost me, dear.” She added with a half lidded smirk.

“I should hope so.” He chuckled.

“Your touch is magical. Your massages are to die for… and your tongue. Robbie, you have the tongue of a… of a…” she didn't have the words. “Well, I don't know.” She giggled. “There's simply nothing on Earth quite like it.”

Tonya was giddy, high off the sexual energy they'd just shared.

“This tongue loves the taste of you.” Robbie whispered as he plucked the cigarette from her fingers, then leaned over her seductively to stub it out in the ashtray beside the bed.

“Does it?”

“It does.” He caressed her bare shoulder. “Fancy letting me have another taste?” He asked, mischief in his eyes. Tonya was delighted. To be the center of such a handsome man's attention was divine.

Robbie kissed her collarbone, letting his forked tongue slide from between his lips and wrap itself twice around her neck.

As her eyes widened with fear, his tongue squeezed until the skin around it turned blue. As she slipped away, Tonya thought to herself, “I knew he was too good to be true.”

The ones with the good tongues often are.

Everyday For A Month: Day 10

“Murderous Intentions; Honorable Mentions.”

“Don’t you think that’s a little long for a rapper name?”

I shrugged. “MIHM isn’t.”

Kit rolled her eyes and poked fun at me by miming the letter ‘L’ across her forehead. “How many raps you got?”

“Several.” I said, looking away. Across the street, there was a man sitting on a bench, and he was staring straight at me. I felt a chill.

“Beats too?”

“Yup.” The bus pulled to a stop in front of Kit and I. “Some are even on the radio.” I added.

“Well, I guess that’s not so lame then.” Kit didn’t know that the radio station was being run out of someone’s basement, and even then, only on Tuesdays, when the guy was off work. She got up and waved goodbye as the bus doors squeaked open. “See you later brother MIHM.”

“Toodles.” I shot her the peace sign and she laughed at my weird goodbye. “And I’m not your brother Kit, I just happen to like ya.”

“Whatever,” she said walking backwards towards the open doors. “You may as well be, you're the only one who looks out for me anymore.”

I shook my head ‘no’ and tapped my ear like I couldn’t hear her. The sad reality of what she’d said was true. I was the only one who looked out for her anymore. She was only twelve and she lived across the hall from my apartment with her crackhead mother. I basically just walked her to the bus stop every morning and made sure she got on okay; for that, she called me her brother.

As the bus pulled away, the dude from across the street was standing just on the other side of it. He warbled aimlessly in the middle of the road, staring at me. He was well dressed, for the most part, and wore a bluish gray bowler hat.

He took a few more steps towards me. The man moved slow, so I tried to wrap my head around how he’d gotten all the way from one side of the road to the other so quickly when the bus pulled up. Still, he stared at me.

Everyday For A Month: Day 8

"We Belong Together"

It was convenient having this gift. She could keep an eye on Roger more easily now than ever before. It was nothing for her to dematerialize and slip between the cracks of a closed door, or slither down a gutter pipe and come out on the 'safe side' of Roger's fenced in backyard.

Knots

 

Have you ever had a knot in your hair when you woke up? 

Not ‘tangled hair’. A real, honest to god knot.

One morning, I woke up with several of them tied deliberately into my hair.

I sleep alone. In a locked room with my dog.

I never forget to lock my bedroom door. Ever.

I hardly think my dog is tying knots in my hair while I’m asleep.

Dewclaws tend to make it hard for animals to do things like that.

It had to be done by something else.

Had I been sleepwalking, or sleep tying knots in my hair?

It didn’t seem likely, but I was willing to set up the camera at the foot of my bed the next night to find out. 

Cycles

My step dad goes through cycles of inflicting horror and abuse. When he and my mom first got together, he seemed OK. (I will admit, there was never a time I thought he was a ‘normal’ human being; but when they first got together, I still assumed he had some semblance of humanity…)

I was wrong.

Less than a month after they ‘fell in love’, he ‘cycled’.

Today Is Not The Day ★ Hollie Hausenfluck

What if I told you all those tales from your childhood were real? Vampires only come out at night, werewolves shift at the full moon, zombies eat brains, and ghosts still linger on this earth.

You'd probably think I was crazy.

Hell, sometimes I think I'm crazy.

It all started last year. When I almost died.

Troll ★ Trigram Origins

I hate using public restrooms. I always have to line the seats with paper and perform acrobatics to not touch the porcelain.

So, when I’m forced to use a public lavatory, it takes me forever. 

On one such occasion, I was setting up the flimsy squares of thin toilet paper just so… and I heard this…thing.

Walking around outside the stalls.

I froze. 

Wondered why something that sounded like a horse was clod-hopping through the women’s bathroom. In Houston, Texas no less.

I immediately stood up straight and listened.

I tried not to breathe.

I considered standing on top of the commode itself, but I was almost sure I wouldn’t have time to hide myself. 

The Newest Me ★ (Flash Fiction)

Every morning I wake up to a new identity. 

I get up and my skin feels all rough, so I take a straight razor and cut it. I peel it off of me like tape and throw it in the garbage. I shower, then I start my day.

It’s not bloody or gory in the least.

I just make a small incision at the top of my forehead with the razor to start it off. 

The rest comes off quickly and easily. 

As soon as I start peeling, I’m able to see my new hair color. 

It’s different everyday when I wake up.  

Blood Bird ★ Benjamin Shelor (Part Two)

Something screeched in the distance.
It was a hollow wail, like a bird’s call, but not a nice melodic bird.
The sickly screechy kind.
It was the only sound that traveled.

I swallowed thickly.

“What was that?” Bob aimed his flashlight sky bound. “It came from above us, to the west.”

Ernie’s face went pale. He didn’t answer.

“It’s that bird ol’ Bill used to talk about before he died,” someone said.

Blood Bird ★ Benjamin Shelor (Part One)

It was a Sunday.

The day the kids down the lane went missing.

It was sunny, but cold; sunlight flitting through the trees like racing pixies. The fall air full of wood smoke and whimsy, changing leaves and magic.

The smell of it all would wrap around you whenever you stepped outside.

They were all kin, you see. The kids.

Two brothers and a sister.

There was Judy, Jack and Gene.

I supposed their parents thought themselves poetic, but couldn’t quite grasp what they were going for with the names was witty alliteration.

I think the beast gets a taste for a bloodline, and after that--- well, any future you might've had becomes a whisper of smoke, because your days are numbered.

Two Things

Do two things each day that you wouldn't normally do. 

It seems like such a simple concept, but it changed my life.

The first thing I did different was have my morning coffee at a new shop. 

My regular haunt in the a.m. was “L.A.’s”, a trendy joint where millennials gathered every sunrise to take their coffees full of soy and sugar.

Shadow On The Wall

       

“Dad, there’s something in my room.”

My seven-year-old son pushed at my shoulders trying to wake me up.

I’d heard him, but I couldn’t get my body to respond as quickly as I’d hoped. I’d been steeped in slumber and it’d stuck to me.

A little drool sat on my cheek.

I sat up, wiped it off.

“I’m coming, Cade.” I grunted and rolled out of bed. It was dark, I could barely see, even after I had my glasses on.

"Mr. Thorne" (Snippet from Chapter One)

Hi everyone,

I hope the Halloween season is treating you well this year... It's been pretty good to me, so I can't complain. I'm still excited about the paperback version of "13 Wicked Tales Of Witches", even though it may not be available for a while longer. I can't help but swoon over actually seeing my book in print... 

*clears throat* 

Forgive me...

Today, I wanted to talk about #NaNoWriMo. I've wanted to participate in National Novel Writing Month for a while now, but every time it rolled around, I was ill-prepared with no idea what to write about. This year wasn't much different except for one thing: I know I can finish a story if I put my mind to it. I've done it before. 

You know, I never understood what was so hard about starting a story until I tried to decide what the hell I was going to do for NaNo this year. 

Well, I think I've made a decision, and I've dropped the first chapter of what I'm tentatively dubbing "Mr. Thorne" for now, in the bottom half of this post. So give it a read. Hopefully, you'll be intrigued. I know I'd like to read past the first chapter, (lol) I just have to write it first!

P.S. Sorry for all the ellipses, I'm feeling ellipsis-y today... Yikes.

It's Here!!!!

Whether it's around Halloween time, or one of the other 11 (boring) months out of the year; you are going to love these 13 stories from Avrin Kelly...

Dear Reader,

I present thirteen stories to horrify you, make you question existence, and even those around you. Thirteen tales of treachery, magic gone wrong and spells done right. Stories about people, just like you, who had a run-in with a Witch... or who are Witches themselves. 

You won't know who the villains are until the end. You won't know who the monsters are until they strike, but isn't that the best part about horror? 

The unknown? 

If you are feeling particularly brave, I encourage you to explore the uncanny world of Witches, with me as your guide. Snuggle down with this creepy read, and come with me into the depths of wickedness and strange magic. To a place where nothing is ever as it seems, where the danger could be lurking in the shadows behind you or right beside you, in the light. 

Thirteen tales of terror; every one of them involving a Witch...

Small Bones

[ A Have Tools, Will Travel Story]

She called about tiny bones being stacked against her window sill.

"I want them gone," she said.

Clara Guthrie was not a happy woman. In fact, she seemed livid. "These damn neighborhood kids. Screwing around, pushing tiny parts of mangled chipmunks through my windows at night." Miss Guthrie huffed. "If I could catch them, I'd spank 'em. I'd take the lawsuit that followed."

When she was finally done with her speech, I asked her what it was she actually wanted us to do.

The Rift

There's a corner in my kitchen, over where I keep the coffee pot, that seems to be part of another dimension. I know it sounds absolutely ridiculous for me to say that. I'm not crazy. I live in the real world, but I also know that a small part of my kitchen opens up to… somewhere else.

It began when I started pouring my coffee over by the coffee pot every morning. 

My morning routine goes a little something like this: without fail, I get up, come downstairs, smoke my morning cigarette, then come back inside and pour myself a cup of coffee. When I pour the coffee next to the coffee pot, the cup is nearly full. When I take the  mug over to the other end of the kitchen to add sugar and the creamer, it's half empty.

 At first I thought it was kind of cool. I figured it was a trick of the mind, or just me not being able to rely on my own eyes within the first hour of being awake every morning; but neither theory proved to be true. 

COVER REVEAL YA'LL!!!!!!

I'm excited to report that "Feud" is finished. (Well, it's being edited now...) Thierry Adler is my favorite Warlock and I love to tell his stories. "Feud" is about Thierry's not-so-graceful run in with a rogue Magician named Mathis...

To be perfectly honest, "Reassignment" was supposed to come out first, but the Witch Goddess Hecate has seen fit to present me with other information... So, "Feud" it is.

Mathis Celsius has a tendency to play dirty, and with ugly things. He's been leaving a wake of trouble in his path through the South East Empire.

Thierry Adler has a penchant for thinking quickly in a sticky situation, but there's a limit to everyone's abilities, especially when things are falling apart for him back home in Galway, Ireland. He's got people bugging him to get back home and an otherworldly infestation to take care of in Gilkey, Louisiana, before people get hurt. But rather than cleaning up mess after mess, Thierry sees fit to go after the source. A Magician with way too much power at his fingertips.

Will Thierry be able to catch him before he brings the entire supernatural Community out into the open with his reckless abandon for demon magic? 

Can he complete the puzzle, cut off the Magician's power source and stop demonic hybrids with a taste for his flesh before he gets dead? I sure hope so.

Read it and see! July 15, 2017

Happy Reading

Avrin

P.S. I'm going to be posting the first chapter for a limited time in the very near future, so stay tuned, and thanks for reading!!!!

What I'm Working On Now...

Closet Light

There is something that hangs out in my bedroom closet at night. Yesterday evening, I was dozing off, when I thought I heard something rustle on the other side of the door. I ignored it, and forced myself to close my eyes.