Out Now! On the Edge of Nowhere

 

Cover Image: Erin Dameron-Hill Graphics

Will you venture into Hungry House, a place where few come out? A gauntlet of terror awaits, with a grim Mistress at the top of the stairs. Come one, come all...if you dare.

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Read on for an excerpt. What good is paradise when your other half is gone?

* * * * 

Hours slid by, and Gina remained near the door. During that time, Iz returned to tell her the children’s paradise looked legitimate. There was a campground with adorable bungalows beyond the nearby hill where the kids and their caretakers slept. Or they could stay in tents, near the campfires where they sat around making s’mores and telling ghost stories late into the night.

“The only way it could be better is if Willie Wonka showed up to take them on a cruise down a chocolate river.” She sat down with a pitcher of lemonade and a couple of tumblers and poured them both drinks. “There’s an ice cream store, a candy store, an area to make crafts and play board games, an area for relay races and obstacle courses, a horse farm where the kids learn to ride—it’s a never-ending summer holiday here.”

After their lunch and a stretch of hugging and talking nonstop to Lucille, the twins wandered off with her to explore the wonderland. They invited Gina, but she waved them on. She wouldn’t leave the door.

Iz left her to fetch dinner when it began to grow dark. She brought cheeseburgers, French fries, chocolate cake, a tent, and two sleeping bags.

That night, Gina slept in fits and starts. She pinned the tent flap open so she could see the door when she opened her eyes. When she managed to doze, her dreams were filled with Mattie hanging among the others in the Resting Tree. “No more worries. Join us,” Mattie invited over and over. Her eyes bulged from a face gone blue, and her black tongue lolled between cracked lips.

Gina’s whimpers woke Iz more than once.

Morning brought another perfect sunshine day to the children’s Eden. A grill appeared in the picnic area, where a merry red-cheeked man cooked eggs, pancakes, sausages, bacon, home fries, and toast. The hotdog vender showed up, but this time he handed out cinnamon rolls and doughnuts. Iz fetched Gina one of everything. Gina nibbled a sausage but couldn’t force down anything else. Afterward, she sat staring at the door. Hoping.

Waiting.

 

Days passed in awful sameness. Gina lingered near the door, deaf to the children’s joyful shouts, numb to the sunlit sky. After the second day, she stopped answering Iz’s questions. She ate what was given to her. She didn’t notice Roger and Will when they stopped by to say hello. At night, she crawled into her sleeping bag in the tent and faced the open flap that allowed her to see the door the instant she opened her eyes.

After a framework was erected and a curtain hung, she allowed Iz and a couple of women to lead her within, strip her, and bathe her with pails of warm water. The curtain was left parted just enough for her to watch the door. When someone tried to close it all the way, she rushed out, soapy and naked. They coaxed her back in with the assurances the door wouldn’t be shut from her sight again.

Though Gina was unaware of time passing, a week went by. Then another. And a third. She stared at the door. Hope dwindled to grief. The terrible hollowness in her chest made its permanent home within her. The emptiness was wrenching, worse than pain. Every breath was torture.

Days continued to go by. Mattie did not come.

* * * *

Those who step inside Hungry House never return. But when the abandoned house on the edge of town is ready to feed, it won’t be denied. 

Inquisitive Gina and her impulsive best friend Mattie know better than to enter the abandoned Victorian. The mansion on the edge of Nowhere, Georgia, has a reputation for ‘eating’ those who dare to step inside. Yet when another friend and her younger brother disappear after last being seen heading toward Hungry House, Gina and Mattie have no choice but to follow.

Inside, they find every door is a gateway to a new nightmare. Even death is no escape—it only sends the unlucky trespassers back to the start of Hungry House’s gauntlet. Their only hope is to survive long enough to confront the house’s mistress, an inhuman being whose lust for vengeance is as immortal as she.

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