The Haunted Traveler May 2017 Edition

More documents

Recommendations

Info

96 Shaytan is missing a leg and sits awkwardly on the deck, bent at the waist, both hands curled around the handle of a lime green, blood covered chainsaw; the machine’s teeth throw aside the leftovers of Raven’s arm—flesh and bits of bone, the blood hot and wet against my face, and I am a ghost beneath endless rows of harsh, fluorescent lighting. Mannequins stand above me in long rows, stiff and prudent…questioning (drenched in red with parts missing and cries without form, deafening through every pore), and the star, desperate and singular in its depth, explodes frantic with the endless shades, colors and rhythms penned daily in my journals. Dr. Sawyer by my side, classic in her navy V-neck vintage print dress and tortoise shell-rimmed reading glasses, instructing me to use journal entries as a private means of documenting my inner most thoughts. Rating = 7 Shaytan’s finger remains pressed against the trigger of the saw, eyes milky white orbs set deep into the abyss, and his smile the colored stitching of tossed aside fabric. Nigel sits cross-legged on a pallet of plywood, covered in blood and delighting in it all—the screams, the laughing, the dismembered mess that is Raven and Shaytan. Silence follows. Nigel’s hair is damp and matted on one side; when he turns his head, I see his fingers exploring the opening where an ear was recently attached. Raven is pale from blood loss, and her face is shaped into a child’s pout. “Too much fun?” she asks. Niles turns and looks at Shaytan, who’s busy collect-
97 ing his missing limb. Raven kicks her arm to the side. Niles sighs, “I think we went too far.” “Again?” Shaytan answers, “Yeah, I believe so.” Confusion now, disorganized thoughts and the chaos of figuring out which body parts belong to whom, and my head is the pain of a thousand razor blades, and the yellow paper with father’s handwriting is a damp, crumpled up ball in my red hand. Light fades. <strong>The</strong> dark noose tightens. I hear them, around me, whispering, yelling. How it begins, always…each time. Fighting for breath. My legs turn soft, and the world goes sideways. Vison is shapes and a patchwork color wheel— wanting to focus and clear away the blur—and there’s a single voice bedside, soft and familiar. Questions I’ve heard previous, what I know and feel. What I believe. Attempting to discover unison for expressing idea with sound. Thoughts are fog and mist running on instinct (letters becoming words becoming sentences becoming answers). <strong>The</strong> star is reborn and rests, patient in the knowledge that I will again be unable to determine real from fantasy. Cute nurse wraps my left arm in bandages. Circles of pink seep through the white felt. Cute nurse smiles and exists the room. Mother stands in the hallway, her face pale and weary. Tearful. Sadness. Doctors with hands tucked deep into the pockets of their white coats. Nurses’ station. Police officers (all turning in unison, staring with their button doll eyes). I shiver as
Page 3:
The Haunted Traveler
Page 6 and 7:
The Haunted Traveler May 2017 Editi
Page 9 and 10:
7 Beloved Leigh Fisher The chambers
Page 11 and 12:
9 empty, she was resting on her kne
Page 13 and 14:
ed by wrapping both of his arms aro
Page 15 and 16:
Regardless, she just couldn’t mak
Page 17 and 18:
her. She couldn’t quite tell if h
Page 19 and 20:
17 Kristine Brown
Page 21 and 22:
ment was the home of Alvin and Marl
Page 23 and 24:
claim, build her realm, take a fami
Page 25 and 26:
23 portunities to experiment with s
Page 27 and 28:
Every day or so, I dismantled half
Page 29 and 30:
27 at overgrown claws in the absenc
Page 31 and 32:
anished child, though my lack of co
Page 33 and 34:
31 Good Help These Days Gordon Brow
Page 35 and 36:
his business.” “Oh…” I murm
Page 37 and 38:
cate thing. I believe they had come
Page 39 and 40:
Over and over and over whispering,
Page 41 and 42:
39 Kristine Brown
Page 43 and 44:
mind herself that she needed to rem
Page 45 and 46:
43 “Don’t you see the bruising
Page 47 and 48: The Commander and Tou came into the
Page 49 and 50: tape had been taken that they were
Page 51 and 52: 49 one of the pods and someone woul
Page 53 and 54: 51 chopathic part of their personal
Page 55 and 56: 53 Hands & Moons Ryan Dodge Khalis
Page 57 and 58: “An S-class? Those things are gig
Page 59 and 60: My eyes widened as I saw the enormi
Page 61 and 62: some lining the walls and others fo
Page 63 and 64: 61 to rid my mind of what I had jus
Page 65 and 66: his blaster and aimed it into the d
Page 67 and 68: from the Inner Systems. Ships get l
Page 69 and 70: handle it and I ran, I ran until I
Page 71 and 72: grabbed him, pulling him straight i
Page 73 and 74: 71 The Nascent Horror Bryce Simmons
Page 75 and 76: I reached the entrance, she had alr
Page 77 and 78: 75 portending some dreadful, inhuma
Page 79 and 80: throughout my spirit. “From Earth
Page 81 and 82: even butchers of the foulest abatto
Page 83 and 84: ut the wills of my cognition were n
Page 85 and 86: droplets, drenching my over coat in
Page 87 and 88: aspy panic, causing spittle to dang
Page 89 and 90: “Six.” Silence. The old man loo
Page 91 and 92: mound of dirt far over my shoulder.
Page 93 and 94: gasoline and had set it aflame. The
Page 95 and 96: 125 watts per bulb. Rectangular box
Page 97: luminous. The shopping hordes with
Page 101 and 102: “What do I say this time?” Dr.
Page 103 and 104: 101 Kristine Brown
Page 105 and 106: mark beneath her left eye: pink, in
Page 107 and 108: 105 thuds on the pavement. Then I s
Page 109: eye sockets beheld nothing ahead of
Page 112 and 113: in the Winter’s Grasp anthology b
show all

The Haunted Traveler May 2017 Edition

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?