TONIGHT IS THE NIGHT

 

(Prologue)

The most beautiful places on the planet can hold the darkest secrets.

Good thing for humans that they usually have to see out the darkness!

RLJ

TONIGHT IS THE NIGHT

(Moultonborough Falls, NH)

The odd sounds creep out from the countless darkened places wet with cold waterfall mist!

This ancient place is as old as earthly time, mostly appearing today as it did a million

 years ago!

There are horrors to be found here if you are brave enough to follow the ominous sounds...

 at night!

Robert Sands has decided that tonight is the night to trek where modern man has not dared

 to explore... let the horror commence! 

RLJ

THE WOODS WE KNOW

(Prologue)

Bears do not sleep the was they used to, 

therefore they are always hungrier than they should be... 

and humans are on the menu, too!

RLJ

 

THE WOODS WE KNOW

(Anchorage, Alaska)

The woods around and through this great American city are dangerous and scary!

People have to live and move about the landscape in order to live out their lives!

Just around and corner, just behind any tree, just on the other side of a car can hide brutal

 death!

Alaskans reminisce about the good old days considering the woods they know... but today,

 with so much warm air and hunger out there, it's the woods they once knew!

RLJ

UNDER THE COVER OF DARKNESS

(Prologue)

Where does horror begin to exert itself?

Why, look down at the very earth beneath your feet!)

 

UNDER THE COVER OF DARKNESS

(Erin, Tenn.)

The caves have been carved into the limestone by centuries and centuries of eroding water!

Unbeknownst to the residents, the sand under their feet sits perilously over only a few yards

 of deep blackness and cold water!

Maw like entrances are visible from a boat off the river, hiding their darkness in plain sight!

Ancient things of nightmares are hidden down in the limestone caves... and all they need is

 one sacrifice to bring them back to the surface!

RLJ

THINGS IN THE SEWERS

(Prologue)

Rivers give people power, food, recreation and sometimes HORROR!

RLJ

 

(Sample)

THINGS IN THE SEWERS

(Fort Smith, AK)

The Arkansas river is another ancient river navigated over time by all kinds of life!

Wild places like this part of North America are filled with memories of life long hidden!

Take the toothed ancient water creatures the Native Americans battled and tamed and ate!

They are still out there in the woods and lakes and rivers... and they are the things in the

 sewers, too!

RLJ

IF I COULD TOUCH A CLOUD

 

(prologue)

The river water of the Potomac flows fast and relentlessly! 

But even eons of river flow cannot wash away the memories of the dead!

RLJ

IF I COULD TOUCH A CLOUD

(Leesburg, VA)

All along the bank of the Potomac River rests the bones of the forgotten dead!

All of the songs and the poetry, the very memories, of the lives lost saturate the sand!

Someone at some time must have looked up into the sky and asked, no, pleaded to God!

He must have said, God, if only I could touch a cloud would I be delivered from this

 sufferable existence away from my homeland and the people I know!

RLJ

OFF THE OCEAN (3)

(Prologue)

Paradise right there on the beach, off the ocean, is heaven on earth! 

Does heaven extend into the ocean?

RLJ

OFF THE OCEAN (3)

(Kure Beach, NC)

Another angry storm is blowing in off the warm ocean between Myrtle Beach and

 Wilmington!

Todd Bryant is standing on the awesomely huge Kure Beach pier standing monolithic-like 

on the beach and in the water!

Are there Redfish, Fluke, Spot or Mackerel swirling in the agitated water way down 

beneath his bare feet?

 Or are there monsters down there with sharp teeth, strong suckers or poisoned barbs blown 

in from... Off The Ocean!

RLJ

REVENGE

 

(Prologue)

What else is left, except revenge, when the zombie hoard has murdered your only 

living companion!

RLJ

REVENGE

(Cedar Grove, NC)

Betty Ostrander last re-killed another soulless zombie yesterday afternoon!

The infected shambler was wearing a police uniform... with handgun and uniform!

Now armed and dangerous with a gun, Betty now felt empowered enough to seek revenge!

The only supermarket in this small town was zombie filled... and full of canned food... and

 hid the monster that killed and ate Joel!

RLJ

THE LEGAL SERIAL KILLER

(Prologue)

Give the devil you know lethal power over you,

do not act shocked when they become the legal serial killer!

RLJ

 THE LEGAL SERIAL KILLER

(Washington, DC)

You voted me to be the leader of your police force... now I can kill you at will.

You voted me to be the leader of your armed forces... now you will suffer my bloody

 madness!

You, by proxy, voted me into the Supreme Court... now watch me kill you, by proxy!

And like many other examples of Americans voting into power human monsters they

 already know are psychotic, it is the legal serial killers haunt this Horrorwalker World 

the most!

RLJ

SO SAYS THE MIRROR

((prologue)

Look into the mirror and the truth will be told!

RLJ

SO SAYS THE MIRROR

(Princeton, NJ)

Standing in his steamy bathroom, Matthew Peters has finally realized, and accepted, his 

reality!

Now staring in the bathroom mirror, at 75-years-old, he is so, so close to meeting death!

As of the next second of his life, as to any second in his future, fear is now in him!

The surprise death has for him as he ages out... the surprise death tolls... is right there in the 

bathroom mirror, staring back at him!

RLJ

AFRAID OF A MOUSE

(Prologue)

Margo West cannot call the exterminator until tomorrow morning!

Tonight will be a long night, indeed!

RLJ

 

AFRAID OF A MOUSE

(New Orleans, LA)

There is a mouse in Margo West's house and tonight she can hear it squeaking, again, behind

 the wall!

As she now sits bolt upright in her bed with all the lights on, how can she possibly sleep?

She is not going to track that little monster down so that it can jump up and get in her hair!

And, "Damn it," she just whispered as she focused on another squeak on the other side of

 the room... oh, the horror in this upcoming very long night!

RLJ

TALES FROM THE OLD OAK TREES (3)

(Prologue)

Sometimes even Ghosts need to vent to someone!

RLJ

 

TALES FROM THE OLD OAK TREES (3)

(Manassas, Virginia)

Perry Langley has owned his home on his six acres of Virginia land for forty-one years!

Two ancient Oak Trees, spaced twenty feet apart, occupy an impressive area in the backyard.

He estimates the trees to be over two hundred years old... and they have lived through some

 things!

He knows that because the ghosts in the hanging limbs talk to him at night, every night, and 

cry for the Virginia blood spilt from their limbs!

RLJ

WHERE ARE ALL THE DANDELIONS

Ecology, in this Horrorwalker World!

RLJ

WHERE ARE ALL THE DANDELIONS

(Herndon, Virginia)

This summer, the Horrorwalker World appears to have experienced an unexpected horror

 shift!

The hard evidence is right there on the ground, in the green grass, beneath every person's

 feet!

The world is very stressed right now and... and the plant life and humankind feel that stress!

All the tough Dandelions fled the soil this year, they are all gone... and the horror in this

 horror world is now coming from the ground up!

RLJ

WAY UP HERE NEAR THE BORDER

(Prologue)

Isolation, cold and forests hides all kinds of horror things. 

Ask the hardened Northern people of this state filled with horrors!

RLJ

 WAY UP HERE NEAR THE BORDER

(Allagash, Maine)

Way up here on the map of the United States, one might as well be a Canadian as be an

 American!

Other than the few battered hardened souls, who knows what goes on up here in this feral

 land!

All these ancients woods, on both sides of the borders, shares all kinds of old world horror

 and things!

We up here are fearless, hard and chase down the horrors that emerge from the icy forests...

 things regular Americans will never know exists!

RLJ

HALLOWEEN WEATHER

(Prologue)

Better Halloween weather, Cold or rainy or drab or warm!

Debate!

RLJ

 HALLOWEEN WEATHER

(Plymouth, Mass.)

The season is changing during this early October week and you can sense it coming off the 

harbor!

The harbor water smells a little different, the fish are slowing their dangerous games and the 

waves crest with less invitation.

And all the horror things, both large and small and human or not, know the changes mean

prey will soon arrive!

Halloween season, when all horror fantasies and horror realities clash and interact, hoping 

for the best Halloween weather!

RLJ

THE LAST CAN OF TUNA

(prologue)

Dear diary, today's entry is titled: THE LAST CAN OF TUNA

RLJ

 

THE LAST CAN OF TUNA

(Wilmington, N.C.)

Food is widely available in this Horrorwalker Zombie Apocalypse, but it is canned foods to

 be found!

Oscar, my German Shepard best friend, loves his particular canned food... canned tuna!

Wilmington is a huge costal city with vast amounts of other types of canned food, but we

 need tuna!

Now, as we finish this last can of tuna, Oscar and I will make our monthly trek into the 

heart of Wilmington to battle our way to what makes him happy!

RLJ

THE SONG OF THE FULL MOON

(prologue)

In the darkness, they sing... and danger and hunger is the reason why!

RLJ

 

THE SONG OF THE FULL MOON

(Lamar Valley, Montana)

"They are singing our song tonight," whispered Anton lovingly to Maria as they awaited the

 transformation!

This awesome wilderness was the perfect off-the-grid hide-away sanctuary for this long time

 lycanthropy couple!

The hunting is a diner's delight, the woods is a natural obstacle course and the air is sensory

 overload!

Tonight the wolves sing because humans are about and they can smell them... as do Anton

 and Maria... and that smell is fresh human meat!

RLJ

ONE ZOMBIE SATISFIED

 

(Prologue)

The Zombie Apocalypse of southern North Carolina was profound and destructive. 

Feral humans prey on other humans. And zombie surprises are everywhere.

RLJ

(an edited snipped from the short story)

ONE ZOMBIE SATISFIED

(Wilmington, N.C.)

Alton Smith, the rare sentient undead zombie, is confronting the sniper who murdered him

 for fun, one year ago today!

Alton does not understand why or how he is alive/dead... but he knows his purpose is

 revenge!

In his dry croaking voice, Alton declared, "You shot me from a distance as target practice

 and I now am going to bite out your neck!

The surprised shooter lifts up his handgun and shoots Alton between the eyes... seconds

 before Alton proceeds to rip him apart with his hungry teeth!

RLJ

TALK MURDER TO ME

(prologue)

In the Horrorwalker World, 

the dead might never really die. 

And some of them want retribution!

RLJ

 TALK MURDER TO ME

(Quinn, South Dakoda)

Quinton Winchester is sitting on the edge of his bed, distraught over the dead voices

 whispering to him!

The voices speak to him in Lakhota, the language of the Native American Lakota people 

of this land!

When Quinton was a child, he learned a little of the language from the kids from the

 reservation!

And now, as an adult man, the word he knows means murder is whispered to him every

 night... and he knows the spirits in the dust want revenge!

RLJ

THE SWEET TASTE OF BLOOD

 

(prologue)

Even the undead can have its dreams interrupted by death!

RLJ

THE SWEET TASTE OF BLOOD

(Killeen, TX)

Adolf Paxton is in a hard sleep as he is lying on his back, snug in the tight safe space of 

his coffin!

He sleeps with his arms by his side to affect the snugness of the tight space as he recharges!

There is a smile on his face because his best rest comes when he dreams of the sweet taste 

of blood!

But someone just swung open the coffin lid and a hand places the wooden stake over his

 heart and the other hand raised the heavy metal mallet! 

RLJ

I WILL NEVER SEE MYSELF AGAIN

(prologue)

Even a two hundred year old vampire desires to, again, see her face in a mirror!

RLJ

I WILL NEVER SEE MYSELF AGAIN

(Salem, Mass.)

Every time Gretel looks into the reflective depths of a mirror, a pervasive sadness overtakes

 her!

Moments ago, she finished draining her latest victim of his blood, quenching her bloodlust

 thirst!

And so, now staring into his bathroom mirror, the blood does not gain her back any of her

 long lost youth!

Of course, she cannot reflect an image back from the mirror... so all she has is her continued

 sad, soulless realization that "I will never see myself again!"

RLJ

CREEPY TOWNS

 

(prologue)

Death takes many forms in the Horrorwalker World! And sometimes death commands

 wrongs to be made right!

RLJ

CREEPY TOWNS

(Bellaire, Ohio)

Arnold Taft had researched/heard some very creepy things about Bellaire, Ohio... and he

 cannot wait until he moves there!

That place is supposed to be a very haunted city in a haunted county of a strange state... of 

which he will find out why in one month!

He is on a very serious mission, of which he is compelled to engage, because he has deep 

mystical secrets of his own!

Arnold died two years ago and he is on a mission to find his murderer and kill every 

monster he meets along the way... especially in Creepy towns!!

RLJ

DARKNESS CALLING

(Prologue)

I, Ann Sue Masterson, left West Virginia a decade ago because the darkness there is a horror

 too raw and visceral for my soul!

RLJ

(an excerpt)

 DARKNESS CALLING

(Charleston, West Virginia)

The night time in the darkened, lightless, pervasive West Virginia forest is darker than

 blackness!

Imagine the living things haunting these human-less tree filled valleys and peaks in the

 darkness!

Daytime here is primordial, ancient and dimly lit... and the darkness calls for the day to die!

Denizens know their stories of myth and horror live in the darkness... and they would rather 

keep that horror in the darkened forest!

RLJ

THE MOORS AT MIDNIGHT

(prologue)

Civilized British humankind knows the haunted secrets in the hinterlands of England.

And they stay away, especially at night!

RLJ

 

THE MOORS AT MIDNIGHT

(North York Moors, England)

What a beautiful place, be the Heather carpeted moors of this wonderful mystical land!

This is old wooded moorland in an equally old country of myth, mystery and fire breath!

In the daytime, the purple flowers reach up to the sky and ask the gods above for yesterdays!

And in the darkest night, in the moors, sounds and shadows and fur and fangs step out to 

stalk their land... like they have done for centuries!

RLJ

THE ACCIDENTAL VAMPIRE HUNTER

 

(prologue)

"When did you first decide you wanted to become a vampire hunter, mommy?"

RLJ

THE ACCIDENTAL VAMPIRE HUNTER

(Central Park, NYC)

Linda Russ thought she was losing her mind because of what she just saw!

She incredulously asked herself, "Did that bat just shimmer and then turn into a naked

 man?"

Whatever she saw, it/he immediately turned and ran into the dark forest of this part of the

 park!

She gathered her two kids, cleaned up the picnic site and told her husband to take then all

 home... she secretly needed to take a deep dive into vampire lore!

RLJ

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

(Prologue)

It is a shock to the nervous system to first meet the Horrorwalker!

And then comes the horror that is forced upon you!

RLJ

 

(another excerpt)

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

(Detroit, Michigan)

Minnie Stanley awoke in a panic because something large, dark and scary was in her

 nightlight lit bedroom!

"Goddamn it," she nervously whispered as she realized who/what was standing at the foot of

 her bed!

It was the Horrorwalker creature standing silent and ominous extending that Horrorwalker

 story book for her to accept!

As stated, upon a visitation you are compelled to read a particular tale of horror catered for

 you... her title is YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED... and the horror begins!

RLJ

 

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

(prologue)

Find a note in a bottle, think twice before reading the words on the pages!

You have been warned!

 

(an excerpt)

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

(Montvale, N.J.)

Jan Rohm could not believe her luck when she discovered the huge piece of jade.

In all of her days cleaning out old homes, she had never found something like that!

The former owner died here one year ago... and the gem was in a small organza bag under a

 loose floorboard.

She pocketed the Jade, even though the note attached to the organza stated, "Do not take

 possession of this cursed stone, for death will surely visit you!"

RLJ

OFFENSE OVER DEFENCE

(prologue)

Driving along dark roads at night is fun for some people! That is, until it is not fun at all!

RLJ

 

(an excerpt)

OFFENSE OVER DEFENCE

(Sumpter, S.C.)

Jackson Freely has made this run from Sumpter to Columbia many times over the decades.

Driving on the 378 to Columbia, listening to The Big DM, is a simple trek that gives him 

a little time to himself!

Halfway to his destination, off the dark main road, he saw the darkened shack for the first

 time ever!

He was compelled to stop and investigate, the light in the single window went dark, the door

 slowly opened... and hell on earth began in five minutes!

RLJ

OUT THE CORNER OF MY EYE

(prologue)

Mental illness is in the mind of the victim! It is all real to the victim! Why can't anyone else see what the victim sees?

RLJ

OUT THE CORNER OF MY EYE

(Little River, S.C.)

Tavon Harris believes he caught another glance at the thing that hides behind him in plain

 sight!

Since childhood, something monstrous has lived behind him, just out of sight but invisible to

 others!

His parents had him psychoanalyzed and heavily medicated as a child, but it did not make it

 go away!

And so now, as he sits quietly in the chair, strait jacket on tight, darting eyes trying to see it,

 the horror of his life continues!

RLJ

SAVAGES LIKE YOU

(prologue)

What better place for old western horror to hide and fester than Nebraska!

RLJ

SAVAGES LIKE YOU

(Bellevue, Nebraska)

Way out here in the middle of Nowhere, USA is this little isolated place of one kind of

 people!

Darkness is here when the light is brightest and the smiles are wide and fake and scary!

Guns and God and bullets, some of them made of silver, target the evilness that crawls!

Old horror lives out here, coming out in the black sky night, and it is taken care of by

 savages like you!

RLJ

MISUNDERSTOOD

 

(prologue)

Every human you meet wants you dead! Obviously, you are very misunderstood!

RLJ

MISUNDERSTOOD

(Yukon, Canada)

The wolf monster of the dark screaming woods crouched behind the Mulberry bush

 attempting to not be seen!

The humans in the encampment were fully armed and ready to pounce upon it with swords

 and arrows and fire!

Despite their obsessive attacks, the creature was actually intelligent and lonely, being one-

of-a-kind!

 It was self-aware of its size and its fangs and its growling voice, but what could it do to

 convince these humans not to kill it on sight?

RLJ

IT ONLY HURTS WHEN I DIE

(Prologue)

Sandy Travis doesn't even know she is an immortal!

She never gets sick and often wonders why it only hurts when I die!)

(an excerpt)

IT ONLY HURTS WHEN I DIE

(Grand Island, Nebraska)

Dear diary, today I am journaling about another death and the pain that brought me back!

I was walking from work, on my lunch break, to go to the sandwich shoppe down the street!

And as fate would have it, again, a speeding car smashed into me and killed me right there!

And then the pain woke me and I ran back to the office to change my cloths, again, as I

 watched the commotion at the savage wreck outside my window!

RLJ

THE GHOST IN HER BED

(prologue)

A presence has attached itself to this young woman.

Soon she will have go to war with THE GHOST IN HER BED!

RLJ

(an excerpt)

THE GHOST IN HER BED

(Washington, DC)

 For as long as she can remember, Robin Paxton has never slept alone in her bed!

One day, as a young child, a ghost appeared in her bed and refused to leave.

At first the presence was something silly... until, on her sixteenth birthday, it warned her that

 it would kill any boy she tried to date!

And now, on her twenty-first birthday, she has met Joe Jones at the gym... and she now fears

 that to love him is to murder him!

RLJ

ALWAYS HUNGRY

(Prologue)

Always remember,

She is a meek little flower... until the sun goes down!

RLJ

 

ALWAYS HUNGRY

(Kansas City, MO)

Sandy Moss is haunting the seedy parts of the city on this dark and humid night!

The hunger has burned her entire body for a couple of hours and, so comes the madness!

The red in her eyes matches the red curtain blanketing her sanity, making her a dangerous

 monster!

She will feed tonight and then comes afterward... where she becomes that sweet old widow

 living alone down the block!

RLJ

IN DEATH COMES QUESTIONS

(Prologue)

What comes after death, actually? Only the haunted come close to realizing that question!

RLJ

(an except)

 IN DEATH COMES QUESTIONS

(Flagstaff, Arizona)

I should state my name, Lance Porter, to remind myself of who I am because my memory is

 fading fast!

I am dead and desiccated and long since buried underneath the hot dry sand and rock of this

 burial plot!

Somehow, I have become aware and am now looking down at my grave and wondering why

 I am here!

In life I thought I had all the answers... but now, in death, comes the questions of just what

 does it mean to die!

RLJ