Authors: Jonathan Maberry
Scary Out There (45 page)
Let me.
An arm that is only bone suddenly emerges from the dark waters, and then the Avery-thing is rising from the bog like some prehistoric behemoth.
He's mine.
Her father screams, a high keening wail. There is a jolt as the leather cord snaps. The pressure around Sarah's neck is suddenly gone. By all rights, she should swoon into the water, and yet she feels somethingâa hand? A
claw
?âshove and send her sprawling back onto solid ice.
In the water, above her father, the Avery-thing unfurls. Tipped with razor talons, its massive wings stretch to their full length. It is
huge
, awesome and beautiful and terrible all at once, something that lives only in a high-fever dream. For the first time, Sarah clearly sees the spirit as it now is: all bone and glass-skin and hot scarlet eyes so bright they ought to boil away her sight.
“SARAH!”
Her father's face is a white mask of terror. The owl's skull still dangles from his left fist.
“SARAH, DON'T LET IT TAKE ME, DON'T LET IT . . .”
â¢Â  â¢Â  â¢
Except for Hank, no one will believe her. They will make her see a psychiatrist who will decide that she was delirious with fever and fear and very lucky to escape, what with such thin ice. She and Bethie will bury their parents and, eventually, live with a distant cousin of their mom's.
When Sarah asks to go to Ms. Avery's funeral, the shrink thinks this will bring
closure
, a ridiculous shrink-word for
forgetting
(as if nightmares can be wrapped with a bow and slotted onto a high back shelf). The casket is shut on account of how long Ms. Avery, wrapped in the linked chain she'd been strangled with and then secured to weighted muskrat traps, had been submerged. Even though the deep water was frigid, the fish and muskrats were hungry. Instead, Ms. Avery will smile from a picture surrounded with red geraniums, and never once throw Sarah a wink.
But that is the future she doesn't know yet.
For now, this one instant, she still clings to hope the way a drowning man, like her father, clutches at a strawâor a tiny, fragile skull, in the belief that he still might cheat destiny.
“W-wait!” Eyes streaming, Sarah crouches, shivering like a small, frightened animal. She is so cold, as if the long fever of her guilt has finally broken, and she is fated to live after all. “Please! C-can't he . . . maybe I can . . .”
No. Some things are beyond repair. Let him go, Sarah
. Wrapping its skeleton's arms tight, the Avery-thingâ
Manidoo, Maji-aya`awish
,
Baykok, Murderer, whatever its true nameâfolds her screaming father close in a last, fatal embrace.
Let this evil go, and live.
Then the Avery-thing slips beneath the bog's black surface, drawing her father away from the light and her lifeâdown deep and into the dark.
Ilsa J. Bick
is a child psychiatrist as well as a film scholar, surgeon wannabe, former Air Force major, and an award-winning, bestselling author of dozens of short stories and novels, including the critically acclaimed Ashes Trilogy,
Drowning Instinct
, and, most recently, her Dark Passages series:
White Space
(long-listed for the Stoker) and
The Dickens Mirror
. Currently she lives on a mountain in Alabama with several furry creatures and her husband. On occasion she even feeds them. Follow her, as well as the cats, the backyard, assorted wildlife, Friday's Cocktails, and Sunday's Cakes:
Website:
ilsajbick.com
Twitter
and
Instagram
: @ilsajbick
Facebook:
facebook.com/ilsa.j.bick
JONATHAN MABERRY
is a
New York Times
bestselling novelist, five-time Bram Stoker Award winner, and comic book writer. He writes the Joe Ledger thrillers, the Rot & Ruin series, the Nightsiders series, and the Dead of Night series, as well as standalone novels in multiple genres. His comic book works include
Captain America
,
Bad Blood
,
Rot & Ruin
,
V-Wars
, and others. He is the editor of many anthologies, including
X-Files: Trust No One
,
Out of Tune
, and
V-Wars
. His books
Extinction Machine
and
V-Wars
are in development for TV, and
Rot & Ruin
is in development as a series of feature films. A board game version of
V-Wars
will be released this year. He is the founder of the Writers Coffeehouse, and the cofounder of the Liars Club. Prior to becoming a full-time novelist, Jonathan spent twenty-five years as a magazine feature writer, martial arts instructor, and playwright. He was a featured expert on the History Channel documentaries
Zombies: A Living History
and
True Monsters
. Jonathan lives in Del Mar, California, with his wife, Sara Jo. Visit him at
JonathanMaberry.com
and on
Twitter
(@JonathanMaberry) and
Facebook
.
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Also by Jonathan Maberry
The Rot & Ruin series
Rot & Ruin
Dust & Decay
Flesh & Bone
Fire & Ash
Bits & Pieces
The Nightsiders series
The Orphan Army
Vault of Shadows
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author's imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Introduction and compilation copyright © 2016 by Jonathan Maberry
“The Doomsday Glass” copyright © 2016 by Brenna Yovanoff
“What Happens to Girls Who Disappear” copyright © 2016 by Carrie Ryan
“The Mermaid Aquarium” copyright © 2016 by Cherie Priest
“As Good as Your Word” copyright © 2016 by Ellen Hopkins
“Invisible Girl” copyright © 2016 by Rachel Tafoya
“Death and Twinkies” copyright © 2016 by Zac Brewer
“Secret Things: Poems” copyright © 2016 by Linda Addison
“Danny” copyright © 2016 by Josh Malerman
“Make It Right” copyright © 2016 by Madeleine Roux
“Shadowtown Blues: Poems” copyright © 2016 by Lucy A. Snyder
“Beyond the Sea” copyright © 2016 by Nancy Holder
“The Whisper-Whisper Men” copyright © 2016 by Tim Waggoner
“Non-player Character” copyright © 2016 by Neal & Brendan Schusterman
“Falling into Darkness: Poems” copyright © 2016 by Marge Simon
“What Happens When the Heart Just Stops” copyright © 2016 by Chistopher Golden
“Chlorine-Damaged Hair, and Other Pool Hazards” copyright © 2016 by Kendare Blake
“The Old Radio” copyright © 2016 by R. L. Stine
“Rites of Passage: Poems” copyright © 2016 by Jade Shames
“Corazón Oscuro” copyright © 2016 by Rachel Caine
“The Boyfriend” copyright © 2016 by Steve Rasnic Tem
“Bearwalker” copyright © 2016 by Ilsa J. Bick
Jacket photograph copyright © 2016 by Ali Smith
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Jacket design by Laurent Linn ⢠Interior design by Hilary Zarycky
The text for this book was set in Warnock Pro.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Maberry, Jonathan, editor of compilation. | Addison, Linda (Poet), author.
Title: Scary out there / edited by Jonathan Maberry ; stories by Linda Addison [and 21 others].
Description: First edition. | New York, New York : SSBFYR, [2016] |
Summary: “Multiple Bram Stoker Awardâwinning author Jonathan Maberry compiles more than twenty stories and poemsâwritten by members of the Horror Writers Associationâin this terrifying collection about worst fears”âProvided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015044921| ISBN 9781481450706 (hardback) | ISBN 9781481450720 (eBook)
Subjects: LCSH: Horror tales, American. | Horror poetry, American. | Short stories, American. | Poetry, American. | CYAC: Horror stories. | Short stories. | American poetry. | BISAC: JUVENILE FICTION / Short Stories. |
JUVENILE FICTION / Horror & Ghost Stories. | JUVENILE FICTION / Monsters.
Classification: LCC PZ5 .S325 2016 | DDC [Fic]âdc23
LC record available at
https://lccn.loc.gov/2015044921