The Listed

Chapter Three

Miguel Winter slugged the alarm clock at 5:00 a.m. exactly, a micro-second before the buzzer sounded. The clock flew across the room and slammed against the wall as he sat up in bed. He yawned and scratched his face; he needed to shave. Damn morning again, he grunted. Damn clock. He'll have to buy a new one after work, one that didn't wake him up, one of those that tell time but don't buzz or wail or ring. 

Shaving took all of eight minutes; he had the bloody toilet paper wads to prove it. Men with craggy faces know his pain. So do women with craggy legs, he laughed. No wonder he was divorced twice, with no prospects in the foreseeable future. Like any good single man, he prepared his own breakfast: black coffee and black toast. He skimmed the morning newspaper, but stopped to read the latest on the Campus Killer. The bastard had claimed another victim. 

Number twelve, if memory served. College girls, blonde, attractive. Met with the killer on campus most likely, thus the name, and its seems the vics knew the person, which would account for trust issue. Why would the vics go with the killer?! He either knew him or trusted him. Maybe they did some escort work on the side to supplement their income. After all, higher education was expensive these days. Seems the police weren't pursuing that angle though, at least according to the paper. 

And maybe the girls just deserved it. He understood that motive. His exes sure understood that motive. He didn't mind putting them in their place if they questioned his whereabouts. Maybe the killer was doing everyone a favor. In his heart, he felt an affinity with this motive the killer may have. 

He imagined wetting a small towel and rolling it into a "rat's tail". Think you're better than me, college girl? He laughed at his morbid thoughts. Better get to work and write that article that will win me the Pulitzer Prize. 

The Editor called Miguel into his office as soon as he walked in. "I have a good reason for being late," lied Miguel.

"Who cares?!" Dennis Butler snarled. He handed the hungover reporter a piece of paper with a name and address on it. "Go here, interview that person, come back here, and write me second page piece on the Campus Killer."

"Now?" Miguel wondered. He hadn't even checked his messages. 

"Now! Everything can wait. You want the story or not."

Miguel nodded like an idiot. 

"Then get the fuck outta here."

Miguel didn't even notice that he was headed for Maitelin University to talk with the Head of the Psychology Department. For some reason, that gave him chills. 

The Seven Orbs

Chapter One

Wisdom and Winsome

4.

Wisdom, of the Jenri Clan, was 10 years old. His older brother was Winsome, just two years elder, he liked to say, and his mother, Jade, made up the Jenri home. The young lad never knew his father, but his mother was strong of body and spirit, both mother and father to the two lads. Wisdom was too young to remember the War of the Three Kings, but he always favored and loved King Terria, and couldn't wait to grow to manhood so that he could join the King's Guard. He placed his tiny hand over the wooden sword he kept tied to his side, just as the soldiers wore their weapons. 

From his hiding place in the Counsel Chambers, he heard the heated exchange between the two Governors and the King. When all the shouting was done, all but The Counsel remained. In whispers loud enough for the young boy to hear, the words "What have we done?' were heard. Then footsteps and the chambers door was shut. The Counsel had left. From behind the curtains, Wisdom emerged and saw the great throne of the King before him. He circled the great seat of power and plopped himself upon the chair. "I am King," he announced to the empty room, then looked around cautiously as he didn't mean to speak so loudly. He bowed his head as if to a mighty knight, removed his wooden sword from the handmade hilt his mother made for him, and tapped the wooden blade on each of the knight's shoulders. "Rise now, brave warrior, a worthy King's Guardsman." 

Someone was at the door, so Wisdom darted back behind the curtains, found the vent leading to a series of larger passageways, which in turn led outside the castle. It was a secret tunnel system used by the Queen to hide the children and provide them escape during the War of the Three Kings. His mother told him the story of how the Queen had helped her escape that night the castle was under siege and how she saw the terrifying dragon defend the castle of the attackers. That battle alone changed the tide of the War and placed King Terria on the throne as the sole King of the Three Kingdoms. He wondered who had entered the Counsel Chambers. 

Captains and Lovers

5.

Alone in the Chambers, Theo and Abora embraced. Theo broke the silence, "So, it's war."

"Yes." She grew sad as Theo pushed away from her. 

"Then this will be the last time we meet," he said.

"Don't lose hope. Please don't lose hope." She tried to touch his shoulder, but he pulled away. 

"You lead your father's forces in The East, I, Captain of the King's Guard. What little hope I had was to meet you once more before we meet on the battlefield. I knew the day was coming. The freedom of The East and The West was always at hand. It was my father who wouldn't, no, couldn't accept it. His Guardsmen, his Wizard, that damned Dragon. He always believed that this made him invincible. Warriors, magic, and that demon beast won him the kingship all those years ago, and they've kept the peace all these years. His pride brings to war." Theo dropped into the throne.

"Theo," Abora scolded him, "don't disrespect your father's throne."

"Wood and Iron don't make a throne," he answered. "The man does." He gazed into Abora's teary eyes. "Father would have loved you, would have loved his grandkids."

"Don't speak of the future as if it were past." She grabbed Theo's hand and pulled him up from the throne. "There's still a small chance. If the War should be short, maybe we could still...".

"Still what?" he asked when she couldn't even finish her sentence. "Have hope?"

"Don't laugh at our one chance," she said, wiping away the tears she could no longer control. "My father and Governor Aquell have been busy these past years. Blacksmiths, carpenters, engineers, and more men tearing up the forest, dragging the river, hammering and clanging into the night, every night. They are building. What? I do not know. The Forces of The East, my warriors, know not what machines are being readied. But we will soon know, when they are ready."

"What machines can stop a dragon?"

"Please, let's escape to the mountains." Abora pressed her face and cheek into Theo's chest. "Let them destroy themselves. We'll start anew." 

"Where's your hope, now, my love? We cannot abandon our duties, or our fathers. What life could we start together without their blessings?" Theo's words sounded hollow. Even he did not believe them. As much as his heart yearned to run off to the mountains with Abora, he knew he wouldn't nor would she. "I once abandoned my duties for love when I was younger, but that was but fancy. Ours is true, and there's our hope. That we may survive to rekindle what this war would take from us." 

"To a short war, then, Theo, my prince," Abora said. 

Abora hooded her head to hide her identity as Theo escorted her out of the castle. But it wasn't hope or love that filled his thoughts. It was Abora's concern. The machines.

Coming soon

The Guardsmen Grumble

6

Coming soon

The King and The Prince

7

 

The House at Black Tooth Pond

Reviewed by Anthony Servante

The Author

Stephen Mark Rainey is the author of numerous novels, including BALAK, THE LEBO COVEN, DARK SHADOWS: DREAMS OF THE DARK (with Elizabeth Massie), BLUE DEVIL ISLAND, THE HOUSE AT BLACK TOOTH POND, and others, including several in Elizabeth Massie's Ameri-Scares Series for Young Readers. In addition, Mark's work includes six short story collections; over 200 published works of short fiction; and the scripts for several DARK SHADOWS audio productions, which feature members of the original ABC-TV series cast. For ten years, he edited the multi-award-winning DEATHREALM magazine and, most recently, the best-selling anthology, DEATHREALM: SPIRITS (Shortwave Publishing). He has also edited anthologies for Delirium Press, Chaosium, and Arkham House. Mark lives in Martinsville, VA, with his wife, Kimberly, and a passel of precocious house cats. He is a regular panelist on the weekly Lovecraft eZine Podcast and an active member of the Horror Writers Association.

A Summary

AIKEN MILL, VIRGINIA… A legend-haunted town in Sylvan County, located in a remote, mountainous corner of the state. With its long history of countless deaths and disappearances, Aiken Mill has become known to law enforcement as “The Cold Case Capital of the World.”

Now, an unidentified, mutilated body has turned up in the town. During his investigation, Sheriff Bryce Parrott discovers frightening clues that lead him to believe some ghostly force—or entity—may be responsible for the killing.

While exploring the darkest corners of Sylvan County, psychology professor Martin Pritchett and his brother, Phillip, happen upon a crumbling, century-old house beside a body of water called Black Tooth Pond. A strange compulsion leads both men back to the house time and time again, but neither can remember any of the events that occur there.

As both Sheriff Parrott and the Pritchett brothers attempt to solve their respective mysteries, their paths begin to converge—paths that lead inexorably to the ancient, foreboding house at Black Tooth Pond.

The Critique

Stephen Mark Rainey writes literary horror like it's nonfiction. Don't get me wrong. His work is fiction, but the story structure, the characters, and the believable supernatural aspects just seem real. It's this realism that elevates Rainey's stories to a literary level.  

Rainey employs a classic three act story structure that is tight and well developed, with each act driving the story to the next act with seamless transition. And not just seamless but suspenseful and damn entertaining as well. Most horror novels tend to save the third act for the major frights, but Rainey makes three acts seem like one, building tension and suspense in equal measure from the first page to the last. 

And by the time you get to the end, you are invested in the lives of each of the story's characters and how they intertwine with each other, as well as the supernatural element. You care just as much about their personal problems as you do with their connections to the horror aspects. You cheer them on to succeed personally and narratively. You care who will live and who will die. You watch lives unfold amidst a growing mystery. In other words, these characters are real to the reader.

Not only do you meet real people, you travel to real places, scary houses, foggy lakes, as well as bachelor pads that feel like what a bachelor would live in. That's how well-written this horror narrative is. It is real, verisimilitude real. When the monster finally appears, we're there too. 

I see other reviews calling this Lovecraftian. I think we're past calling Mark Stephen Rainey's work "Lovecraftian". It's time to use the more applicable moniker: Raineyan, for Real Horror.

Funereal Plots

Horror Cinema reviews

Matthew M. Bartlett

Honey Bunch

Writer/Director: Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli


At the beginning of Honey Bunch, Homer (Ben Petrie) takes his wife Diana (Grace Glowicki) from her wheelchair and carries her into the ocean. He tells her he loves her, then lowers her into the roiling waters.

Cut to earlier days. The pair are driving through woods on a sunny day. Grace looks healthier than in the opening scene, but evinces memory loss issues and confusion—we learn that the couple was in a car accident. They arrive at an experimental trauma center. Then the fun begins.

Honey Bunch is a throwback in the best way. It’s shot like the cinema that of earlier decades that it frequently (and overtly) references. There are touches of The Stepford Wives, Rebecca, even Don’t Look Now. Paranoia reigns as Diana catches Homer in secretive conversations with the head of therapy, sees an enigmatic blonde figure staring at her, and the fleeing into the woods. All of this is deepened and made more real by flashbacks of the characters arguing and being silly with one another.

The plot thickens as new arrival Josephina (India Brown), accompanied by her father Joseph (Jason Isaacs), meet the couple and begin her therapy, with her father’s vocal and enthusiastic and hopeful encouragement. Homer and Joseph confer in secret—they know something we, the audience, do not.

And here we enter spoiler territory. Diana discovers that the mysterious blonde woman she’s been spotting is, in fact, a clone. She then discovers other patients sitting in groups with multiple doppelgangers of themselves. The facility is, in fact, attempting to replace deceased people with clones. Most of the doppelgangers are the failed versions. At one point, she sees Homer caring for the clones, showing deep love for each of them, and he is redeemed in her eyes—mostly, anyway.

Meanwhile, when Joseph’s daughter fails to respond to the treatment, his enthusiasm and devotion turns to disappointment, and then rage, and the desire for revenge. Diana, who seems whole again, escapes with Homer in the confusion of the conflagration after trying and failing to save her clones. The denouement mirrors the opening of the movie in an unexpected and satisfying way.

So, in the end, Homer is revealed to be less of a creep than we might have expected, the couple more solidly in love than we might have originally thought. There are countless horror movies that explore people trying to bring back from the grave people they loved. This is one of the more effective ones. Dripping with atmosphere and intrigue and soundtracked by ethereal dreamlike music and curious old songs, Honey Bunch looks and feels like a classic.

And the pun in the title is the cherry on top of the sundae.