The Lot

The vacant parking lot welcomed her in the dark. The dead leave blew around her feet and sounded like anxiously chattering children. The lot lights blinked and buzzed randomly and the headlights of all the parked cars seemed to watch her like silent, hulking guardians.

She stopped, feeling the cold pavement through her thin slippers. Should she call out or would he just know she was waiting? It was funny, she didn’t feel frightened now, at least much less frightened then she’d been moments before in her bed. It had been hours and hours of ceaseless tossing and turning before she’d finally made her tormented decision and slipped softly out into the darkness. On her way down to the lot her head had cleared, her lungs had filled with the crisp air and she’d begun to feel instantly better. This was meant to be after all, wasn't it?

Her thoughts dropped off suddenly. She’d heard a noise coming toward her very fast from the right. Panic bolted her feet to the ground and terror cut off her breath and steeled her limbs. Two small deer crashed out from the brush in front of her and passed so closely by that she could feel their heat. They jumped, crashing into the woods on the other side of the lot. Her next breath came as a loud and painful wheeze.

The cold was beginning to seep through her nightclothes and the pale cotton was growing damp under her arms and between her thighs. She looked up at the sky. It was a resilient midnight blue. Was he also taking the time now to notice how lovely the sky was tonight? She sought familiar constellations, desperately trying to ward off the growing anxiety and nagging doubts tugging at her stomach.

There was another noise. This time not a deer but the certain sound of heavy soles on pavement, not rushing of course, but steadily coming closer. The anticipation had a remarkable effect on her, an almost sexual response. Her hardened nipples brushed up against cold cotton each time she moved and a deep trembling shake moved down inside her most intimate places.

He’d been watching her for over an hour and had finally come to the impossible conclusion that she was there for him. The absurdity of it nearly made him laugh out loud. He hadn’t even felt particularly hungry tonight but the longer he watched her, the more her silent vulnerability enticed and provoked him. He couldn’t tell from this distance if she was pretty but then it really didn’t matter, her sudden accessibility made her flawlessly beautiful. Standing there, so still in the soft glow of the lot lights, her little pink slippers looked like pearls. Her hair was tugged back in a messy ponytail that twitched as she shifted from foot to foot. As he watched her, the sweat ran down between his shoulder blades and the need drove him more urgently forward.

She felt him coming toward her now, faster. If she looked hard enough into the inky blackness she could almost certainly see him. She knew she didn’t want to look. She didn’t want to watch him advancing on her. She wasn’t so sure she wanted to be here anymore at all. If she thought she’d stand a chance, she would certainly bolt back to the safety of her dorm. She knew now, she would not make it. The fear finally solidified in her stomach.

He paused for a moment. What was this? He had picked up on a change. She was afraid. He sensed she wanted to run. He was disappointed. He had hoped this once would be different; after all she had come to him. She had seduced him.
Disheartened, he sank to his haunches and prepared to leap. Perhaps, at least, this little one would not be so loud…

It's Here! Once Upon A Scream - Horror Fairytale Anthology

It is here! HorrorAddicts.net Presents 

Once Upon a Scream

 "Once Upon a Scream...there was a tradition of telling tales with elements of the fantastic along with the frightful. Adults and children alike took heed not to go into the deep, dark woods, treat a stranger poorly, or make a deal with someone- or something-without regard for the consequences. Be careful of what you wish for, you just might get it. From wish-granting trolls, to plague curses, and evil enchantresses, these tales will have you hiding under the covers in hopes they don't find you. So lock your doors, shutter your windows, and get ready to SCREAM."


Paper Version Available on Amazon - click here!
Kindle Version Available May 28th!

I'm very excited and honored to be in the company of such great authors here. Dan Shaurette and entire the staff at HorrorAddicts.net are just fantastic to work with.  I'm extremely grateful they chose to include my work and appreciated their insight and talent at helping me flesh out all the best elements and details to make Lake Tividen all it could be. 

My story is a modern retelling of old legend about Lake Tividen, home to a dangerous creature from Norwegian folklore called a Nøkken. A desperate fisherman strikes a bargain with the manipulative entity. When the cruel Nokken comes to collect his fee, the man discovers that no measure of success and comfort is worth the price the Nokken demands.

I've always been a big fan of those classic fairy tales that feel dark and ominous. I enjoy exploring that old adage, "be careful what you wish for", and the moral debate over whether or not we deserve what we get when we make a deal with the devil.  In the case of Lake Tividen, I really wanted the readers to engage with the characters in way that would allow them to experience their fear and powerlessness in the face of a creature that held every card in the deck.  I do also believe that there is always hope, even in the bleakest situations. In Lake Tividen, that hope comes in the form of the fisherman's brave and clever daughter, Greta.  The ultimate showdown is that familiar but epic battle of good verses evil, steeped in creepy, supernatural horror.

This volume, Once Upon A Scream, is full of creatures like Nokken...evil things that lurk, threaten, terrify and chill. My fellow authors had crafted tales that are all unique in their ability to simultaneously entertain and totally creep you out.  I'm looking forward to curling up with my own copy and spending some quality time reading their creations - with the lights on of course!

Already ordered your copy?  Drop me a line below or visit me on Facebook
at https://www.facebook.com/MDMaurice and let me know what you thought of Horroraddicts.net latest anthology, Once Upon A Scream. 
 
Want more? Visit HorrorAddicts.net to find the other collections they have available.  Be sure to check out their podcast, Episode 124 on Horroraddicts.net, where the editors discuss the authors and stories featured in this collection.

As always, thanks for reading!

 #horroraddicts #OnceUponScream #mdmaurice

Into the Woods...

It wouldn’t be long now. At some moment, very soon, he would burst through that narrow, paneled door and…she squeezed her eyes shut and violently shook her head to erase the thoughts. She replayed the scene of her own death so frequently and with such graphic horror, that it had become unbearable. Shari wriggled her wrists again, the bonds still tight and unforgiving. Her arms ached and the ropes had worn angry welts into her skin. Her tongue felt thick and swollen from hours of trying to loosen the shredded linen gag in her mouth. Sometimes she would feel a strange peace settle inside her, a warm floating feeling and she would be thankful that she was at last dying.  She welcomed the release with thankful tears only to wake up hours later and bitterly realize she was still alive. She was still held captive in a rotting old house by a man she’d never seen but hated so fiercely that in her moments of rage and strength, that Shari fantasized about killing him with her own hands. The primal drive gave temporary life to her fight and she would struggle anew against her restraints until once again she was exhausted and her energy depleted.

Her body jerked awake. She could sense him standing over her in the dark. She shrank back in terror as he leaned down. The eye holes of the white plastic mask were misaligned and thick ropes of matted hair swung toward her face. He reached for her, and hauled her to her feet without a word. He spun her away from him and sliced through her bonds, shoving her forward into the room and toward the open door. Shari's sudden release temporarily stunned her. It took a few moments for her engage her new freedom but as the blood rushed back into her arms, her limbs came to life. Adrenaline propelled her out the open door, up the wooden stairs and out. Into the night. Shari bolted across the clearing, headed for the trees, certain he was at her heels.

She zigzagged through the woods, crashing through the underbrush, her arms windmilling out in front of her. Shari could hear her own breathing, a ragged and frenzied wheezing, punctuated by frightened sobs. "Move", she commanded her feet. After what felt like mere minutes her lungs were on fire. She spied an old tree with a dark hollow that looked just big enough for her body. Shari squeezed inside. It smelled like rot and decay but she was grateful for the respite. She tried to slow her pounding heart, straining to listen in the dark.

The night had gone silent around her. Silent. The strangeness of that silence gave life to a new fear building inside her. The woods weren't just quiet, they were devoid of sound of any kind. Shari began to question her true nature of her situation. Why had her captor suddenly just let her go? After days of threatening her with torture and death, he just cut her bonds and threw open the door, why? She was fairly certain he had not chased her, that perhaps had hadn't even left the cabin at all. She didn't think she had not heard him pounding up the stairs after her. He had stayed behind and just let her run out...into the woods. "Into the woods", as Shari thought those words a cold panic seemed to wash over her. Then she heard it.

It was moving through the undergrowth to her right, slow and deliberate. It sounded bigger than a man, broader somehow. "Bear?" she thought with alarm. Her body began to tremble. It was making a snuffing sound, "No", Shari realized, "not snuffing, it's sniffing."  She heard it draw nearer to her tree, passing around behind it. Every cell in her system told her not to look but Shari had to know what she was up against out here in the dark. She twisted her head to peer out the slit in the bark. She could see sky and ground. She waited, watching the spot of earth within her line of vision, listening to the sound of it moving in the dark. Then, it was there, stepping into view. It was not a bear, not a wolf, not anything she had ever thought possible. It was a hulking, hairy beast that walked on two powerful legs, so broad they looked like logs. She could make out the slope of it's back, saw the tendons in its thick neck twist as it turned its head toward her. Shari felt her sanity fraying at the edges as she got a look at the creature head on.

The werewolf, because that is what she now understood it to be, stared back at her with red eyes. It's muzzle was elongated and its lower jaw hung at an odd angle, as if the impossible number of ragged fangs prevented it from fully closing its mouth. The saliva ran in thick bands from either side, soaking the fur of its massive chest in dark rivers of foul wetness. Shari shrank back against the tree, covering her mouth with both hands to keep from screaming. It sniffed the air again and began to keen, a sound that was ten times more horrifying than it's sniffing had been. All at once, it raised it's ugly head toward the sky and howled. Shari's scream tore from her throat, and echoed endlessly in the woods around her.