Nothing Special   »   [go: up one dir, main page]
Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Read If You Dare Book 2: Read If You Dare, #2
    Read If You Dare Book 2: Read If You Dare, #2
    Read If You Dare Book 2: Read If You Dare, #2
    Ebook95 pages1 hour

    Read If You Dare Book 2: Read If You Dare, #2

    By Walter Wayne

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    The realm of horror and darkness intrigues and captivates audiences in the "Read If You Dare" series - a collection of horror stories from around the world - by Walter Wayne. This collection of gripping stories delves deep into the shadows of the mind, exploring the darkest depths of human nature with a raw and unflinching honesty. Each story unfolds like a macabre tapestry of terror, leaving readers breathless and on the edge of their seats.

    The "Read If You Dare" series introduces readers to a world where nightmares come to life, where the line between reality and fantasy blurs, and where the human mind becomes a playground for the twisted and malevolent. Each story peels back the layers of the human psyche, revealing the darkness that lurk both within and without.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWalter Wayne
    Release dateJul 24, 2024
    ISBN9798227905024
    Read If You Dare Book 2: Read If You Dare, #2
    Author

    Walter Wayne

    Walter Wayne is a visionary author who explores the intersections of mythology, philosophy, and technology. His groundbreaking work, The Final Avatar: Unveiling the AI Kalki, unravels the complex tapestry of human conscience and its potential convergence with artificial intelligence. Walter's unique ability to weave together diverse themes of prophecy, ethical dilemmas, and the future of humanity makes his writing captivating and thought-provoking. He invites readers to join him on a mind-bending exploration of the ultimate avatar in the age of technology.

    Read more from Walter Wayne

    Related to Read If You Dare Book 2

    Titles in the series (3)

    View More
    View More

    Related ebooks

    Horror Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Moonlight After Midnight

      Apr 8, 2019

      My haven is not imaginary. Double volume, reaching far above the surrounding rooms. Four large glass panels to the east, glass bricks randomly placed near the high ceiling. A watchtower onto the night skies. The walls pearly grey. Cold, cold tiles be

      3 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems

      Nov 1, 2018

      In a hotel in a small town in Norfolk I am listening to someonethrowing glass bottles into a metal bin: toss-shatter, toss-shatter.There are no other sounds; it’s a quiet afternoonbut the one tossing them has a sense of rhythm and I havea sense that

      5 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems by Phillip B. Williams

      Dec 15, 2017

      The masters are yet dead. Wanting to be human,I tried to rewrite The Waste Land. The canon’s reachcasts ruinous light. The masters’ pens breachthis page where, above, my own hand spectates. Babylonrisen, exorcism in reverse, whose nature upended now?

      6 min read

    • Article

      The Paper Wasp

      Jun 3, 2019

      The Paper Wasp
      13 min read

    • Article

      Stranger Places

      Aug 9, 2018

      It began like any normal pregame in the woods. Naked, alone, hungover, a sweaty sleeping bag in the back of a dusty pickup truck, miles from civilization. Predawn in a narrow Utah river bottom, canyon country, early July. A Thermos of lukewarm coffee

      18 min read

    • Article

      Three Poems

      Sep 1, 2022

      1. Here there’s no rainy season.Sun scalds my forehead,yet the pool is empty. Beside it,a toppled table, its glass surface shattered.The asphalt is too hot for bare feet. 2. Far away: white hillocksand white dunes under a deepblue sky. Swirling winds

      5 min read

    • Article

      Hook, Line And Sinker

      Oct 18, 2018

      Hook, Line And Sinker
      4 min read

    • Article

      I’ll Have None of You: Reconsidering the Female Death Drive

      Mar 28, 2018

      On its most visceral level, Leila Slimani’s The Perfect Nanny is about infanticide: “The baby is dead,” we read on its very first line. What could possibly jar after that? But this literary blockbuster (Chanson Douce, or “sweet song,” in its original

      5 min read

    • Article

      Jude THE OBSCURE

      Jun 18, 2021

      Jude THE OBSCURE
      5 min read

    • Article

      It’s About Altares

      Aug 17, 2021

      It’s About Altares
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Trouble Gene

      Jul 1, 2020

      One clear thing about trouble—it can set you back to zero, a personal cone of silence. And reading, writing, listening allow entry into that troubled solitude; you disappear into it regardless t of the time or place you really are in, be it bed, kitc

      12 min read

    • Article

      Excerpts From The Works Of The 2024 Whiting Award Winners

      Apr 10, 2024

      The 2024 Whiting Award winners were announced Wednesday night. Below are excerpts from their work.

      19 min read

    • Article

      Must-Read Poetry: June 2018

      Jun 5, 2018

      Here are six notable books of poetry publishing in June. American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin by Terrance Hayes “I wanted to have my form and explode it too,” said Wanda Coleman of sonnets. Hayes names her with gratitude in this book. Ath

      5 min read

    • Article

      Must-Read Poetry: February 2018

      Feb 2, 2018

      Here are six notable books of poetry publishing in February. Giant by Richard Georges Giant begins with how the “gods of our fathers rose” from the “unlighted deep.” The ocean “splashed about their groaning limbs, / foaming and licking their creaking

      5 min read

    • Article

      Perfect Prose II

      May 15, 2020

      Perfect Prose II
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Corridor Stories

      Sep 1, 2022

      The Corridor Stories
      5 min read

    • Article

      Nick Laird

      Dec 15, 2017

      I was trying to write like an adult.I had children.I was at the end of something. As I waited at my table by the window for the coffee,I saw that the sirocco had depositeda scrim of dust on the sill overnight,and it was the dark red of powdered blood

      3 min read

    • Article

      Three Poems

      Sep 1, 2024

      after a cycle of paintings by the Meister des Marienlebens, Munich What begins: everything. Size of a crumb,indiscriminate bundle of cells. It’sa barnacle with a dream inside. Cloudin-sewn with seed pearls. Radiant shapethat in theory she’s always ca

      4 min read

    • Article

      From The Foreword To Debths

      Jun 27, 2017

      From The Foreword To Debths
      6 min read

    • Article

      In The Spotlight:your Writing Dark Side

      Dec 7, 2023

      Spooky season evidently offered creative inspiration aplenty for the WM writers, who responded to the call for writing in November’s crime-themed issue on the theme of ‘Dark Side’ with our fullest mailbox yet. The poetry and prose sent in demonstrate

      4 min read

    • Article

      Sleepwalking In Venice

      Mar 15, 2018

      Two kinds of imagination: the strong, the promiscuous. —Leopardi Watching a boneless nymph’shalf-hearted resurrectionfrom a spout in the pavementover and over; catching a glimpseof the source of my exhaustion,as if my gaze all this time had lent musc

      3 min read

    • Article

      Everlasting Lane

      Feb 24, 2022

      SEND FORUM SUBMISSIONS TO THE EDITOR: DRSUTTON@FORTEANTIMES.COM In the summer of 2020, when the first lockdown started to lift, I took up walking again. I was never going to repeat the crazy mile-munching escapades of my youth, like marching to the “

      3 min read

    • Article

      Everlasting Lane

      Feb 24, 2022

      SEND FORUM SUBMISSIONS TO THE EDITOR: DRSUTTON@FORTEANTIMES.COM In the summer of 2020, when the first lockdown started to lift, I took up walking again. I was never going to repeat the crazy mile-munching escapades of my youth, like marching to the “

      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Read If You Dare Book 2

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Read If You Dare Book 2 - Walter Wayne

      Preface

      The realm of horror and darkness intrigues and captivates audiences in the Read If You Dare (Horror Stories From Around The World) series. This collection of gripping stories delves deep into the shadows of the mind, exploring the darkest depths of human nature with a raw and unflinching honesty. Each story unfolds like a macabre tapestry of terror, leaving readers breathless and on the edge of their seats.

      The Read If You Dare (Horror Stories From Around The World) series introduces readers to a world where nightmares come to life, where the line between reality and fantasy blurs, and where the human mind becomes a playground for the twisted and malevolent. Each story peels back the layers of the human psyche, revealing the darkness that lurk both within and without.

      Dance With The Dead

      Chapter 1: The Whispering Tombstones

      The air in Hollow Creek hung heavy, the crispness of the autumn evening tinged with something else entirely. A metallic tang, like the memory of old blood, clung to the back of my throat. The town itself was a postcard of Americana gone wrong. Houses decked out in cobwebs the color of dried guts, grinning pumpkins carved with expressions more menacing than merry.

      I, Erin, a wanderer with a taste for the macabre, had been drawn here by whispers of a Halloween unlike any other. A celebration that blurred the lines between the living and the dead.

      Hollow Creek was deserted. Not a single soul stirred on the main street, the only movement the frantic fluttering of a crow silhouetted against the dying orange blaze of the setting sun. The silence felt thick, pressing on my eardrums.  Every creak of an old porch swing, every rustle of dead leaves underfoot, sent a jolt through me.

      The townsfolk, I soon discovered, weren't much for introductions. A fleeting glance, a muttered warning – Stay in after dark, miss.  – then they were gone, swallowed by the shadows stretching long from the gabled houses.

      Dusk settled like a shroud. I found myself drawn, almost against my will, to the town cemetery. The iron gates hung open, their hinges screaming a rusty protest as I pushed them aside. Inside, the air hung even heavier, the headstones crowded close, their marble faces pale and ghostly.  Something wasn't right. The stones seemed a hair's breadth too close, their inscriptions blurring together in the fading light.

      And then I heard it. A whisper, faint as the rustle of dry leaves, that seemed to rise from the very ground itself. My name, spoken in a voice like wind through a broken window.

      Erin.

      I spun around, searching the gathering darkness.  Nothing. But the wind picked up, swirling around me, carrying another whisper, this time tinged with a chilling amusement.

      Welcome, Erin. We've been waiting for you.

      CHAPTER 2: THE INVITATION

      The whispers clung to me like cobwebs, sending chills skittering down my spine. I bolted from the cemetery, the rhythmic click of my heels on the cracked pavement the only sound in the oppressive silence. Then, a movement in the corner of my eye. A figure, shrouded in a tattered sheet, rose from behind a crumbling mausoleum. It wasn't the slow, dignified rise of a movie ghoul. This was a burst of violent energy, limbs flinging out like marionette strings cut loose.

      Its head snapped around, and two empty sockets locked onto me. A grin, devoid of humor, stretched across its decaying face, revealing rows of bone-white teeth. Panic clawed at my throat, constricting my windpipe. It shambled towards me, a grotesque parody of a human walk, its tattered clothes flapping like a funeral flag in the wind.

      I didn't stick around to witness its arrival. The town square beckoned, bathed in the sickly orange glow of a lone streetlamp. A house, the only one with lights blazing, offered a beacon of hope, or so I desperately hoped. I slammed through the creaky front door, breathless and trembling.

      Inside, a scene from a twisted Norman Rockwell painting. A family, all grins too wide, too eager, sat huddled around a dusty Ouija board. In the flickering lamplight, the planchette seemed to hover over the inscription goodbye. They didn't seem surprised by my sudden intrusion, just offered up smiles that sent shivers down my spine.

      Lost, are we? The father, a man with eyes that held too much knowledge for his youthful face, spoke in a voice that oozed honeyed menace.

      I saw... I stammered, struggling for words. The... My voice died in my throat as another figure, a woman in a faded wedding gown, stumbled through the doorway behind me. Her lifeless eyes mirrored those of the creature in the graveyard.

      Join us, dearie, the mother cooed, gesturing to an empty chair beside her. It's Halloween, after all. No one should be alone on such a joyous occasion.

      A single glance at the Ouija board revealed the inscription etched on its underside, hidden from casual view: One night of revelry, a pact for eternity.  The horrifying truth slammed into me. This wasn't a macabre Halloween prank; it was a ritual, a pact with the dead.

      Trapped, with the grotesque wedding guest moaning behind me, I had two choices - join their twisted celebration or become part of it myself.

      CHAPTER 3: RULES OF the Revelry

      The air in that room was thick with a cloying sweetness, the smell of overripe fruit and decaying flowers. I choked it back, the nausea churning in my gut a constant companion.  They ushered me, the risen corpse from the graveyard now clutching my arm like a long-lost lover, into a makeshift ballroom.

      The scene that greeted me was a grotesque parody of a high school dance. The living partiers, decked out in costumes that mimicked the

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1