Horror Stories from Horrified - Volume One (2)

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r esult of r etr eating glacier s fr om the end of the last ice age. I did not mention the lights orthe music for even then, I had a hor r ible feeling that he could neither see nor hear them.I hur r ied back to the small office. It was dar k enough now to r equir e the light to betur ned on w hich gave out a faintly yellow glow. I sat at the desk and unfolded this last leaf.Instead of disclosing the location of any of the mentioned volumes, ther e was adisconcer ting account of an alter cation betw een the vicar and some of the villageinhabitants. The vicar , it seems, was in the chur ch w or king his way thr ough some of thefor bidden texts he had acquir ed, w hen he kept getting distur bed by the noise of childr enplaying. Evidently, the w or k he was attempting was of the utmost impor tance, for his r agewas clear ly expr essed over the page. His usually neat and consider ed w r iting becamelooser and the pen mar ks fir mer and har der. Finally, he gave an account of how he hadstor med into the neighbour ing field w her e he found a dozen or so childr en dancing andlaughing and shouting. He blasphemed at them and cur sed them w ith, as he put it, 'anever -ending dance to the death and beyond'.And that was it, the final paper ended. No r esolution, no indication of his completing thew or k he had set himself. Just an unsatisfactor y full stop. I looked up and star ed into theblackness of the w indow. Then I saw again saw the faint, flicker ing glow fr om the fieldoutside. The fear of w hat I w ould find in that field compelled me to see it. I had to w itnessthe hor r or fir st hand. I stole out into the night and flew to the field. Ther e I saw the glowcoming fr om that inver ted hill the war den had told me about. I walked over to it. Ever ystep br ought the sound of music closer and closer to me. I r eached the r im of the pit andlooked in. A dozen blue-faced childr en stagger ed and danced r ound and r ound the cir culardip. Their eyes w er e empty hollow s, flesh hung fr om their cheeks and their clothes w er e intatter s. They moved aw kwar dly as they danced and I was hor r ified to see that instead offeet their legs ended in bloody stumps. Yet they smiled and seemed to be awar e of mypr esence as they tur ned their dead though still animated heads towar ds me. They began tohobble in my dir ection w ith their ghoulish ar ms outstr etched. I saw then, in the middle ofthem an adult, w ear ing the black r obes of a sixteenth-centur y cler gyman and I knew thathe w hose paper s I had been r eading had been taken by them. I tur ned and fled in my car162
and did not stop until I r eached the safety of the motor way.I do not know w hy I was chosen to see the childr en and the pit they had dancedthemselves dow n into. All I know is that I can never r etur n to Nor folk, for fear of hear ingthe childr en's music once again.About the authorSam Cossey is a writer from the heartland of British folk horror, East Anglia. Aswell as writing fiction, Sam analyses popular culture on his website Very MuchNerd. Sam has been a lifelong fan of horror movies, especially the UniversalMonster pictures from the 1930s. While not scaring himself silly, Sam can befound raising his eight-month-old son and wondering when it would beappropriate to introduce him to Frankenstein, the Wolf Man and the rest of thegang.163
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Christmashorror stories from Horrif
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For my w ife, Sascha, Hor r ified's
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132.140.158.164.181.199.T he D ead
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ter r ifying and occasionally, quit
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9
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anything of impor tance off the oak
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Lily nodded, peer ing back at the o
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Lily asked.The r esponse to her que
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w or ked up. It was common know led
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only a few minutes ago it was mid-m
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Lily took a few seconds to ensur e
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books in the fr ont of the bookstor
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Pointing.Then, a click.The glass do
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About the authorWhen he isn?t at th
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had fallen. One boot sopping w et.W
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Oh, tidings of comfort and joy.The
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33
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I got to see her mor e and mor e, w
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"What ar e you doing, Rose?" Henr y
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After a w hile, I began to calm dow
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A gr and dr essing table sat over i
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as quickly as possible.On the last
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L onely this Christmasby Robert Edg
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six-panelled Geor gian black gloss
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br ow n beer in fr ont of him next
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They w er e falling in and out of t
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53
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youth, in an age w hen class and po
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neither w ill nor excess enough mon
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?I know about its name, ?The Black
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Denholm appear ed unfazed by Le?Ap?
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pr oceed w ith this ventur e. If th
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?Per haps,? they said w hen pr esse
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w ish this casino to r e-open and t
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said, I am a man of business. So, a
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?What do any of us want Denholm?? C
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They w er e not mer e appar itions
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undiminished. It spr ang fr om the
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this. Le?Ap is in debt to us for a
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w or ds? Will you seek some expensi
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Still, just to be on the safe side,
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He felt something snap as he fell.
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Good- N ightby T he Somnambulist So
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I tuck her into bed, in the spar e
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spilling into his br eakfast. My si
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After br eakfast, I mar ch out the
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headstone, w hile my sister holds a
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and the thing in fr ont of me sags
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Ghosts of Kersal Moorby Ellis ReedV
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I shudder ed.?I don?t think I?d lik
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it was my job to walk Din-Dins, and
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O, unless you are a vicarHell will
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that they w er e happy w ith their
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Now we hide on Kersal Moor?Via, ver
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109
Page 111 and 112: and the r apid hammer ing r esponse
Page 113 and 114: closed his eyes against the sun, w
Page 115 and 116: The chur ch was emer ging now , and
Page 117 and 118: ?Photo album.??Oh my God!? Cassy sq
Page 119 and 120: joined like cher r ies w ith a stal
Page 121 and 122: She?d dr eamt of Adam again. He had
Page 123 and 124: Quercu de Cordibus Vestrisby John C
Page 125 and 126: then, I ask you, do you w ish to be
Page 127 and 128: and family, as this stage of the pr
Page 129 and 130: blur r ed eyes, I could see that it
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Page 133 and 134: "This is the house w her e the par
Page 135 and 136: fuzzy at the edges with every drink
Page 137 and 138: "Oh my god," he heard himself say o
Page 139 and 140: About the authorBased in the heart
Page 141 and 142: ?Do you think you should talk to so
Page 143 and 144: I was alr eady tir ed of gr appling
Page 145 and 146: ?Alex??I told him I was fine and th
Page 147 and 148: smear ed w ith r ed. A cold w eight
Page 149 and 150: He nudged my knee w ith his foot, a
Page 151 and 152: mushr oom nesting in r ibcage. Inse
Page 153 and 154: We r eached the end of The Fields a
Page 155 and 156: thr ough the r ooms, putting on lig
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Page 159 and 160: The war den show ed me to a pile of
Page 161: I called for the war den to r etur
Page 165 and 166: the cosy blanket of the cottage? op
Page 167 and 168: ?Wher e is it, then?? Simon said, s
Page 169 and 170: They appr oached the lar ge, pointe
Page 171 and 172: they mind if she built the fir e up
Page 173 and 174: ?It?s not r eally the done thing to
Page 175 and 176: them, although she could not see th
Page 177 and 178: skilfully befor e cocking it r eady
Page 179 and 180: stomach dr enched in the blood that
Page 181 and 182: First Footersby Jim Mount fieldI gr
Page 183 and 184: ?Yous?ll be lucky if yous find anyo
Page 185 and 186: only the bellies of a few r ainclou
Page 187 and 188: w ir e shopping basket, dr essed in
Page 189 and 190: betw een those walls festooned w it
Page 191 and 192: ?What do ye mean???Well, after all
Page 193 and 194: The fur ther -away half ser ved as
Page 195 and 196: and the w or ktable lay not one pie
Page 197 and 198: He leapt off the ver anda and char
Page 199 and 200: T he W ind on the Waterby D avid Pa
Page 201 and 202: And he?d aim a punch at their heads
Page 203 and 204: w er e ther e, and he could see the
Page 205 and 206: Against that, w hat could he do? Wh
Page 207: He does love prophesying a misfortu
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Horror Stories from Horrified - Volume One (2)

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