Paranormal Anthology With a TWIST
Rene Folsom
Michael Loring
Bart Hopkins
Anthony Lance
Magen McMinimy
Jason Brant
Penelope Bartotto
Jon Messenger
Nicki Scalise
S.L. Dearing
Eaton Thomas Palmer
Copyright for each story is held, all rights reserved, by the individual authors.
Edited and Compiled by Cynthia Shepp
www.cynthiashepp.com
Cover Created by Rene Folsom with Phycel Designs
www.phycel.com
License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only.
This ebook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like
to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for
each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase
it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own
copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of these authors.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places
and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used
fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons living or
dead, is entirely coincidental.
This started out as a contest but grew into an idea. This is the
second anthology that was created out of a contest on my Facebook page. The
authors and readers were given the opportunity to write a short story using the
guidelines provided. This go round I received over twenty-five entries. Only
eleven were chosen, but every story deserves a moment of recognition. I want to
thank everybody for their time and their wonderful imaginations. The eleven
chosen are what you will find in this anthology, a collection of short stories
that left me in awe at the talent of these amazing authors. These stories come
from already published authors as well as readers who aspired to write.
The guidelines used to write these short stories were ones that I
thought would appeal to the audience. They were also a lot broader and
open-ended than the previous anthology. This left a collection of shorts that
will take you all over the paranormal genre.
*This anthology will be paranormal in nature but can
cover as broad a spectrum as you can imagine: Vampires, Weres, Shifters,
Ghosts, Witches, Demons, Fae, whatever mythological creature you can imagine.
Your story can be Romance, Horror, Mystery, Time-Travel, whatever sub-genre
that tickles your fancy … the ONLY requirement is that your story contains a TWIST.
It has to be unique, unexpected, beyond imagining, shocking—AWESOME. I
have complete faith that y’all can deliver stories that will wow me, shock me,
and leave me gasping for more.*
I believe that the authors of these short stories more than met
the guidelines; they exceeded even my expectations. I hope that you enjoy
reading these as much as I did. Please leave a review when you are finished on
Amazon or Goodreads and let us know what you think. Also, please take the
opportunity to connect with these amazing authors. Author links are included on
the individual title pages of the stories.
Enjoy your read!
Cynthia
Shepp
www.cynthiashepp.wordpress.com
First and foremost to my husband, Scott. You are my
everything. Without your love, your support, and your willingness to help with
“inside” jobs, none of this would be possible. As always, to my children: Jake,
Colee, and Spencer. I love you all very much.
It is also dedicated to the wonderful people that helped me
get this anthology out there. All of the fantastic authors that submitted their
work, to Rene Folsom—my weirdo/freak internet twin—for her fabulous
cover artwork and for helping me through each and every process of putting this
together…
again
, and to every person
that helps me make my blog and page a success.
Y’all are all Rock Stars in my eyes.
Cynthia
Shepp
Voices of the Soul by Rene Folsom
Truth or Dare by Jon Messenger
Suburban Zombie by Anthony
Lance
All I Want for Christmas by Jason
Brant
In the Eyes of the Beholder by
Penelope Bartotto
Little Tchotchkes by Nicki
Scalise
Metronome by Eaton Thomas Palmer
of the Soul
Rene Folsom
Author Dedication
I have to give a huge thanks to my freak cyber-twin, Cynthia
Shepp. Without her, my inspiration for this story would be non-existent. She is
my life raft and has kept me afloat more often than she realizes.
I would also like to give a shout out to my sister, Michelle, for
constantly putting up with my writing ADD and character addictions.
Lastly, I want to mention my online family for all their support:
Natalie, Jayce, and even the douche, Jason. I’m so glad y’all haven’t gotten
sick of me yet.
Being a mother of three and wife of one, Rene has had to juggle
career, kids, family, grocery shopping, and stain removal. Years of experience
have provided her plenty of creative material to work with. While her artistic
side as a graphic designer will always be a source of inspiration, using both
words and design to take these very different experiences was just the next
step in her journey.
Residing on the beaches of sunny Central Florida, Rene is now
branching out into the literary world, combining her love of art and reading by
providing contemporary and paranormal romance stories to her readers.
Website:
www.renefolsom.com
Facebook:
www.facebook.com/renefolsom
Amazon:
www.amazon.com/author/renefolsom
Goodreads:
www.goodreads.com/author/show/6949037
Heart You:
www.amzn.com/B00BUU4WJY
“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even
touched. They must be felt with the heart.”
– Helen Keller
Chapter One
Throughout my entire life, I’ve heard voices. Voices inside my
head. I’ve never given much thought as to why I have this gift… or this curse,
depending on which way you look at it. At least, not until a few days before my
fourteenth birthday.
My mom and I were out shopping. She always made sure she handled
every detail of my birthday herself with loving care. She enjoyed planning and,
most of all, making me happy. She always used to say, “A happy Ella makes a
happy mama!”
Corny, I know. But the words always tugged at my heart.
On our way home, we were listening to music and singing when they
say a large truck hit us. I don’t remember anything about the accident. I just
remember I broke both of my legs and wasn’t allowed to see my mom afterward,
the latter being the most painful.
Then one day they wheeled me into my mom’s hospital room. I don’t
remember how many days had passed since the accident, but it felt like forever
since I had seen her. All the machines made it seem like it wasn’t really her.
My dad couldn’t talk to me through the tears that stained his face.
I didn’t cry. Not right away anyway. Actually, I was a bit
confused at first. Maybe in denial. I didn’t know why I needed to cry until my
aunt explained, in a rather roundabout way, that my mom was no longer living.
Machines had been keeping her alive because her body couldn’t any longer.
I could hear the voices… the sad voice of my dad murmuring
I love you
and
don’t leave me
through incoherent sobs. My aunt’s voice saying how
much I need my mother. Another man’s voice, I’m assuming the doctor’s since he
was the only other person in the room, saying we should end the inevitable.
Several other inaudible words and voices, confusing my brain and making me
dizzy.
Curse. It was definitely a curse.
Grabbing my head and massaging my temples with my thumbs, I
squeezed my eyes shut and wished for all the voices to stop. I pretended these
voices were just my screwed up brain imagining what people were thinking. I
knew I was cracked. As much as I suffered, I never wanted to be labeled as the
crazy girl who heard voices. So, I kept my madness to myself.