Please welcome this week's guest blogger, E.H. James, author of Laura and The Visitor's Room.
Title:
Laura
Genre:
Paranormal (Short Story)
Publisher:
Musa Publishing
Release
Date: January 13, 2012
Laura – Blurb:
George had
seen some pretty strange things over his lifetime, traveling those roads. But
if he had thought he’d seen it all, he was sadly mistaken. For if he thought
finding Laura alone, along some deserted roadside, in the middle of the night,
was strange, then he had no idea that what was to follow would challenge the
very boundaries of everything he’d ever known.
Excerpt:
The road was long and black before him, stretching out
into the night. He hated these rural roads with no street lights, no homes,
nothing but blackness pressing in around him. He strained to see the lines in
the road, swallowed as they were by a heavy black haze.
But the rain had stopped now, and the wipers screeched
in complaint as rubber drew across the dry windshield. He turned them off. The
remaining water formed rivulets that ran together, making their way slowly up
the glass.
At times like these, he wished he had gotten the radio
fixed. He reached for the dial as though it would work this time, but all he
got was a faint popping sound and some static. He turned it off and leaned back
into his seat. “Damn.”
His annoyance wasn’t so much at the dead radio as at
himself. He should have started sooner. He'd had one—no, two—drinks for the
road. Now, here he was with two more hours of driving ahead and already it was
well past midnight. He couldn't refuse a free drink, though. After all, he was retiring
next week, and this was the last time he’d have to make a trip like this—all
the way out here, into the middle of nowhere, holding the hand of one more
client.
He drew his hand across his face as if to pull the
weariness from his mind. Straining against the darkness, he thought he saw
something in the headlights, a movement perhaps, maybe a reflection. He slowed
down, staring out into the blackness. It was then that he saw her, standing on
the side of the road. She turned toward him, staring into the headlights.
Laura –
Buy Links:
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Title: The
Visitor’s Room
Genre:
Paranormal (Short Story)
Publisher:
Musa Publishing
Release
Date: March 23, 2012
The Visitor’s
Room - Blurb:
For although everything seemed normal, well as normal as a place like that could be, there was something that was not quite right. That she couldn’t put her finger on it only made it all the more perplexing.
Don’t go asking questions you don’t want to know the answer to, especially when you're on a psych ward, and even you begin to question your sanity.
Excerpt:
“Today’s
as good as any to get a shock treatment.”
Amy lifted
her head from the pillow to see Larry standing at the foot of her bed.
She waited
as he turned and shuffled out the door, then laid her head back down and closed
her eyes. Sleep began to return.
And then
he was back, the rhythmic swish of slippers on tile as he approached. “Today’s
as good as any to get a shock treatment.”
She sighed
and waited a moment. Silence. Melanie was sound asleep in the next bed, unaware
of the intrusion.
“Today’s
as good as any to get a shock treatment.”
“Larry!”
she said, her eyes snapping open. “Shut up and get the hell out of here!”
Larry
smiled half-heartedly, turned, and wandered again from the room. This time, his
shadow disappeared out of the doorway completely.
That had
done it. She was definitely awake now.
She looked
at Melanie and frowned.
Dead to
the world. Like I should be. That girl could sleep if a freight train came
roaring through here. Then again, who knows what meds they have her on this
week?
She climbed
out of bed and pulled on her slippers — blue terry cloth, just like her
bathrobe, so cheap, her toe poked through the seam.
She padded
over to the window.
The sun
was rising over the horizon, but the building directly across the street was
still buried in darkness. She wasn’t normally awake this early — though someone
did knock promptly at seven every morning to inform her breakfast was ready.
It was
quiet though. Peaceful as a grave. She could get used to this.
And then
she heard it: the sound of water dripping.
Stepping
away from the window, she walked — as she had yesterday and the day before, and
every day for the past three weeks — to the bathroom. The sound wasn’t louder
there, but she couldn’t imagine where else it might be coming from. It wasn’t
muffled, as it would have been inside the wall. No water came through the
collapsible ceiling. It wasn’t raining. No drain pipes ran outside her window.
The sound
was like Larry: it came and went and was irritating.
And now it
was gone.
The Visitor’s Room – Buy Links:
* * * *
Author Bio:
E. H. James is an author writing novels, short
stories, and poetry in the science fiction, horror, thriller and fantasy
genres.
Contact Links for E. H. James
1 comment:
I've read both of these short stories and recommend them. E.H. James has a way with words and writes with little twists and turns and a bit of the eerie that you want in a paranormal/horror story.
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