Hora de #TootPause ¡Sed wena gente!

HALL OF FANTASY - THE SHADOW PEOPLE

https://youtu.be/raI4y10fJyI

#TheShadowPeople #Supernatural #Horror #RadioDrama

RELEASE DAY! Out now in eBook, paper, and *FREE* on #KindleUnlimited!

https://books2read.com/starsgoout⠀

#Horror #NoSleep #HorrorBooks #Kindle #supernaturalhorror #weirdhorror #strangefiction #Creepy #CreepyPasta #horrortbr #spookyreads #amreadinghorror

Beware the Ills: Part 43

I look behind me at the shore. It’s just a dark line on the tree washed horizon. In a few moments, it will be gone. I’m getting close to the graveyard. I’ll hit the river, more woods, the valley, and finally the Shingles. I can run a little lighter without the cloak. I might be hit by their arrows, but I’ll just have to be extra attentive. I haven’t run like this for years. My chest feels heavy, and the air coming out of my nose steams back into my eyes. The cold air bites my chin. I cannot feel the ground beneath my feet. I’m rolling past the cold and veiny terrain of this island. In the Diamond Town, I’m sure the land looks much different.

Only in the Diamond Town.

The trees, and their needle-blankets, whip against me annoyed. I scatter them with my sword. Shadows are filling up the spots in-between. Almost to the graveyard, almost. The light really hangs on the trees. I’ve never seen it like this in all my mornings. I will go to the graveyard shortly. I will rest momentarily there. No point in appearing exhausted at the time of battle upon the wall. My lungs feel weak and limp from the poison.

I can see the shapes of the graveyard ahead of me. They’re rather angelic, yet ghastly in this luminous morning glow. The encroachers probably shivered at their appearance. I’m halfway there, the graveyard happens to be the grizzly midpoint to the Diamond Town. I designed it, or it was designed this way, by whoever came before me.

Unfortunately, I don’t truly know my role in all of this, or how many came before me.

I remember, back in the city when I was young, some sort of ceremony was happening. Everyone was there, every citizen of the Diamond Town. There were flags. They were the color red. It was the only time I’ve witnessed that color unmixed with blood and muscle. There were lines of children everywhere, including me. There was some old ghoul of a man wandering along the line. He was gaunt, hunched, and twisted over like the withered corpses in the graveyard.

Speaking of which, I’m here.

Not sure why I’m staring at it. The objects look lonely and ominous. The snow falls peacefully on them, like it’s waiting to jumpstart a tempest. The graveyard waits for me. The machines, skeletons, men, women, animals, they’re all there. Some were before my time. My blade never really touched them. There are even more buried beneath the snow.

How they got there, I don’t understand. 

The shapes, they look more mutilated than usual, more distraught. It might be the morning light. They would be ghosts in the night. They look so real, like they could shake off the ice and come to life.

That day so long ago, I remember the lines of the young on the wall. It was snowing lightly, like this. I remember it perfectly. He was walking so slow along the lines, the old man dressed in red. He was carrying pots, or metal cans. I don’t really care what they were, it’s an annoying detail. They had coals in them, blue coals with specks of red magic. Some instruments were playing, a stringed harmony mixing with faint drums. They were dropping the coals on our outstretched hands. All the other boys would scream and cry beneath their orange glows.

It was quite a pathetic display.

The invaders will reach the city shortly. I’m still far behind them. I’ll kill them at the Shingles, or inside the city. I have never done this before. I feel like it should never occur as such, but my options are limited in this situation. Where’s Haukter I wonder? Did he not expect me to survive?

When that old man got to my line, I was too afraid to look at his face, and he scooped the coal into my hands with a big metal spoon. He didn’t have human hands. The whole procedure looked unceremoniously tedious. The coals plopped onto my small palm, and instead of pulling away, I wrapped my fingers around them. I remember the pain spreading up my hands into my arm. It didn’t bother me at all. When I did this, the music stopped, and the thing stopped moving.

I must leave soon. I simply had to stop by the graveyard before the battle. Blue never really liked the graveyard. He hated it in fact. I’m glad he doesn’t have to concern himself with it anymore. He hated dragging the bodies here. I wonder how many layers of corpses are beneath me. I mentioned it before, but it still vexes me. I wish I could remember how that day ended long ago, how I came to the forest. Those details are lost in the fury of killing. I remember finding the sword, the crawlspace, the armor. My life fashioned itself around those objects.

What choice did I have?

The red in that city, it stands out to me now. Why does it distract my memory? Why do I think of it now? I’ll take a few more seconds to stare at the dead shapes and triumphs. They don’t make me feel anything in particular; I just had to see them. I smile. I can kill Haukter. No more charity. I can kill him. It was just a lucky shot. That’s all it was. Something explodes in the distance. The booming crackles through the air and bounces off the trees.

It makes me sick. Run you fool.

I’ll be releasing my novel Beware the Ills in segments every Friday. You can find out more about the book right here, or check out Amazon’s info. I love this book. Happy to simply share it.

Not far from the end of this one. Things are ramping up pretty quick when it comes to plot. Not that this story really pauses for much. Fast-paced and violent. Haha, enjoy?

#writing #reading #fiction #books #novels #horror #fantasy #darkfantasy #steampunk

https://patrickwmarshauthor.wordpress.com/2026/05/15/beware-the-ills-part-43/

An author whom I know parasocially has a new #Horror #film going into production later this month! It looks just the right combo of funny and scary. #Midgies

Highly recommend his funny sci fi books under his real name, Barry J Hutchison, and his #Scottish #Murder mysteries, published as J D Kirk.

https://youtu.be/bZcJBAxu6hE

Zorro is getting the horror treatment next

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://filmstories.co.uk/news/zorro-is-getting-the-horror-treatment-next/

Recommendable #horror #film from Thailand: "Host" (from 2025)

What I found interesting was the exploration of who is the monster here - the human characters or rather a supernatural threat? And the closed setting on a remote island was scary in itself.

https://www.imdb.com/de/title/tt38624355/

#thailand