Releasing Tomorrow - On the Edge of Nowhere
Cover Image: Erin Dameron-Hill Graphics
Monsters, monsters everywhere.
* * * *
Thud.
The step under Gina’s feet
vibrated.
Thud.
Startled, the trio above her
whirled, half a dozen steps from the top. Gina turned too.
The corpse creature emerged from
the mist, close to the foot of the stairs. It blinked its hideous arm-eyelids
at the group. Its mouth opened, and a glistening flayed torso peeked out. The
monster used it to lick the legs that made up its lips.
Gina was dimly aware the boys were
screaming. She stared. The creature thudded toward the stairs until it reached
them.
It set its foot on the first
riser, though with its height, it could have plucked Gina from where she stood.
“Gina, come on!” Iz’s voice was
piercing with hysteria.
The corpse creature paused as
another huge shape materialized from the fog.
Bird-man would have been hideous,
had there not been the other monster to compare him to. He possessed the naked
body of a man and a bird’s head. A crow, Gina guessed. The feathers covering
its skull, running down its spine, and growing in a thick patch on its chest
were dull black, as if dusty. Brighter was the ink-drop eye that stared at the
corpse creature. Its beak was curved cruelly, the edges ragged as if chipped.
It came straight for the first
monster, which left the stairs to confront it. The corpse creature swung, and
the birdman feinted and pecked. It plucked a body from its opponent’s shoulder,
darted off, and gulped down the flesh before rushing at its howling opponent.
It jerked to the side before
reaching the other monster. The bird-man instead ran for the stairs. Its
shining eye riveted on Gina.
Corpse Creature unleashed a roar.
It grabbed the bird-man by its feathered nape. Squawking, the monstrosity flew
backward, tossed to the fog-enshrouded edge of the Tingle Trail. Bird-man
jumped to its feet, and Corpse Creature charged. They grabbed each other and
whirled about in monumental struggle. The corpse creature pounded, and the
bird-man pecked.
Gina stood frozen, unable to tear
her gaze from the battle. Perhaps Iz and the twins were similarly mesmerized,
because she no longer heard them begging her to run.
When a gray arm swam out of the
mist near the combatants, she mistook it for one of the corpse creature’s body
parts. But it slithered apart from that horror and wove across the ground, as
sinuous as a snake. A second joined it. They grew long. The hands at their ends
grabbed fistfuls of the soil and dragged themselves forward.
Then there was a third arm, and a
fourth. More slid out from the mist, a weaving crowd of tentacles dragging a
bulbous shape behind them.
It slid into view. Gina’s throat
strained, as if she screamed. If she did, she heard nothing of it. Her
awareness was riveted on the atrocity hauling itself to the stairs and the two
monsters fighting near them.
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.
Releasing tomorrow! Pre-order now: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple, Smashwords.
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