The Haunted Traveler December 2017 Edition

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86 Rainy days are the worst. As she pulls the curtain over the window, movement catches her eye. It takes a moment to figure out what she has seen. Down by the drainage tunnel, where she always tries not to look, something is moving against the current. She automatically takes a step back and looks away; habit. Don’t be stupid, she thinks to herself, and forces herself to look back down into the stream. A clump of mud is moving, the wrong way, uphill and up stream. Something looks off about it, aside from the physics. She presses her nose against the glass. The mud is sticking out in all directions, as if it’s absorbed a ball of grass. She wipes away the steam from her breath that frosts the glass. The mud turns, it looks at her, and suddenly half of a black ear pokes out from the mass. A cold feeling goes through her and settles around her heart, as if she is back outside in the rain. She feels soaked through with fear. The clump stops moving and waits, still and unmoving, water streaming all around it. Anne does not want to go look, even as she moves towards the door. She feels her lunch moving inside her, and she walks as slowly down the hill as she can, the dread growing with each and every step. The lump is getting larger now; Ri sized. But Anne is bigger now. She bends and picks up a branch from under the tree, just in case. And then the mass begins moving, towards her, exiting the water just below where she stands. Bones protrude from the stumps of the legs, chunks are missing, where the hollows show rib lines and the fur sticks in tangled patches. There is mud everywhere, and the eye sockets are empty, and even as Anne starts to scream she hears her own voice as a little child asking her puppy to come play. One ear is missing. The tail drags on the ground in a straight line, whisping from side to side rhythmically. “Good girl,” Anne whispers, taking a step back. “Good puppy.” Riri looks at her, head cocked to the side but too far; impossibly cocked to the side and neck tendons showing. Anne realizes with sickening certainty if the creature doesn’t restraighten itself the head is about to roll off, permanently. “Go play, Riri,” She whispers, pleading, praying the thing will return into the water. The thing does a little hop, ankles cracking and twisting to the side as it comes back down, and the back legs land back in the water. There is a rumble of thunder and a sudden cracking sound. Something hits Anne in the back, hard, and she falls to her knees, hands splayed and landing in the water. The current is up to above her elbows. There is pain in the back of her head, and as she puts a hand up to exam it her fingers catch on something rough. A tree branch has fallen, into her. She feels wet stickiness where the twigs reach down into her skull, and pulls away blood. The thing swims before her. Her elbows give out. She can’t turn her head to either side. Water streaks past her nostrils, and she can barely breathe. “Riri, get the stick,” She whispers. Her nostrils catch water this time. It fills her nose and she coughs it out, fingers slipping deeper into the mud. The creature touches her cheek gently with the tip of its nose; a chunk missing. Annie remembers her mother on her hands and knees in the stream, trying to catch the puppy. Failing. Dying.
87 Drowning. She is. The rain is stagnant in the yard, spreading muddy pools across the grass. When Amelie pulls around the corner, she slams on her brakes and jumps out of the car, engine still running. Anne is face down in the ditch, not moving. As she dials 911 with her cell phone, she sees a set of muddy pawprints leading out of the ditch and across the road, back towards the river. They are tiny pawprints, and bloody. She heaves Anne’s body out of the water. She is too late again. Miles downstream, Riri splashes in a puddle, her stick in her mouth. She wags her tail. Now she will have someone to play with again.
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The Haunted Traveler December2017 E
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Table of Contents Highland Fling Ma
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The Haunted Traveler A Roaming Anth
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8
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10
Page 14 and 15:
12 The Gas Station Jenna Heller “
Page 16 and 17:
14 “It just amazes me that we’r
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16 At the top of the short staircas
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18 up her face and then lowered it
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20 There was a list of prohibited i
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22 “The girls are here, too,” M
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24 THE BONES Stephanie Bucklin “T
Page 28 and 29:
26 “Then?” “Survival.” The
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28 “Lady Mordemag—” Darya sta
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30 could hear Lady Mordemag’s oil
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32 he had to curb his normal method
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34 paused again, listening and wait
Page 38 and 39: 36 complete as it had at the top of
Page 40 and 41: 38 It Is the Ache that Dwells Withi
Page 42 and 43: 40 “Mary? Come on, please open th
Page 44 and 45: 42 Leah Oates A BOLT FROM THE BLUE
Page 46 and 47: 44 there people were always around
Page 48 and 49: 46 before the storm hits. Once you
Page 50 and 51: 48 “Car spell nargelette,” Ben
Page 52 and 53: 50 It’s poison, the witch said. B
Page 54 and 55: 52 “Sir, if you don’t come peac
Page 56 and 57: 54 was all he had seen on the day
Page 58 and 59: 56 “So…Ax, is it?” Scott aske
Page 60 and 61: 58 you came all the way from out of
Page 62 and 63: 60 of thought; a bright flash, foll
Page 64 and 65: 62 It took a few minutes of brisk w
Page 66 and 67: 64 games.” James punched the wall
Page 68 and 69: 66 conjured of kicking it in the fa
Page 70 and 71: 68 mom, but she wouldn’t answer.
Page 72 and 73: 70 with a dull thump-thump-thump. J
Page 74 and 75: 72 Jim Zola The Blind Piano Player
Page 76 and 77: 74 Jim Zola
Page 78 and 79: 76 across their fur and between the
Page 80 and 81: 78 Cadie’s Missing Mike Oberly Th
Page 82 and 83: 80 “Rascal is as rascal is,” th
Page 84 and 85: 82 The Flood Anna Kaye-Rogers The r
Page 86 and 87: 84 the girls. “She’s your dog,
Page 90 and 91: 88 Jubydream turtle: falls in love,
Page 92 and 93: 90 The Moon Alexandria Cope Margare
Page 94 and 95: 92 early. She packed her things in
Page 96 and 97: 94 some ninja turtle action. Noah s
Page 98 and 99: 96 That’s why even though she was
Page 100 and 101: 98 Belinda slipped off the wet coat
Page 102 and 103: 100 “I liked Pretty Pretty Prince
Page 104 and 105: 102 The black-eyed doll approached
Page 106 and 107: 104 STALKED ON A WINTER’S NIGHT B
Page 108 and 109: 106 is, the playground is dangerous
Page 110 and 111: 108 exposed and the floors were lin
Page 112 and 113: 110 Jason and his fling heard the d
Page 114 and 115: 112 was divided into fifteen minute
Page 116 and 117: 114 Essentially, her home in Belle
Page 118 and 119: 116 Samantha had inherited the chai
Page 120 and 121: 118 For Death’s Amusement Rollin
Page 122 and 123: 120 wore white gloves on its enormo
Page 124 and 125: 122 process of extracting another f
Page 126 and 127: 124 Running Amber Cook They were fo
Page 128 and 129: 126 Witchery Kerry E.B. Black Tia i
Page 130 and 131: 128 Scream Megan Whiting It was a s
Page 132 and 133: 130 terrifying ease, then vanished
Page 134 and 135: 132 Send that thought packing, too.
Page 136 and 137: 134 Tyler switched on the radio. An
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136 veins. Then it stopped. She was
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138 “She showed up at that church
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140 Bear Trap Feivel Wolff He saw t
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142 “I made you dinner, did I not
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144 the windshield. A bit longer an
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146 Now he could make out the tune.
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148 “Tell your momma! Tell her I
Page 152 and 153:
150 Black Swan On the Water Side Co
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152 They looked like Latinas, but I
Page 156 and 157:
154 BROTHERLY LOVE Diane Arrelle Na
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156 Terror carrying her beyond hyst
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158 wonder you’re imagining thing
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160 Listening Neal Steichen Oh, Chr
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162 I drop the mostly empty glass o
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164 Brenda, I swear to God, one of
Page 168 and 169:
166 Brbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrrrr… Yup. M
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168 or two of dust, out of the door
Page 172 and 173:
170 Biographies T. Thomas Abernathy
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172 Brett Grinnell lives and works
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174 Real Art Ways, Tomasulo Gallery
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