Ghost Light (48 page)

With a sudden, loud cry, Billy dashed over to the bed, leaped up onto the mattress, and wrapped both arms around Cindy as he released his emotion in a raw, barking sob. His body was shaking violently as Cindy raised her one good arm and wrapped it around his heaving shoulders, pulling him all the closer to her.

“There, there,” she whispered softly into his ear. “It’s okay, honey. Let it out… let it all out.”

But Billy no longer needed encouragement. His cries came in long, warbling howls that shook his body and filled the room. The position she was in was hurting her, but Cindy didn’t care a bit as she hugged Billy to her and tried to soothe away all the confusion and grief she felt was bottled up inside him. She was so concerned about comforting him, that her body stiffened, and she let out a tiny, surprised shout when she looked over and saw Krissy staring back at her. The little girl’s face was split by a wide grin that showed a row of beautiful teeth. Her blue eyes were sparkling, but not with tears. She looked for all the world like she was about to leap into the air and start squealing with joy. Confused and more than a little unnerved, Cindy beckoned to her with a wave of her hand.

“Krissy… honey,” Cindy said, shuddering wit deep emotion. “Come here, too.”

For a moment, Krissy eyed her with a steady gaze. Then, in a voice that sounded much more mature than her years, she shook her head and said, “Oh, Aunt Cindy. Don’t be silly. You don’t have to worry about me.”

Cindy choked back a sob and held her hand out to the little girl. Finally Krissy relented and took her hand, giving it a bracing squeeze that seemed almost to tingle with energy.

“Seriously,” Krissy said, and her smile widened all the more, “you don’t have to worry about me. I’m doing just great, and she—”

Krissy cut herself off sharply, and a guilty expression clouded her face for a moment.

As Cindy stared at the little girl, her figure still backlit with the light coming in through the window, another image rose up in her mind. This was of a lady—a woman who had been standing above her, lookin down at her as she lay on the ground, trembling an weak with fear and exhaustion as she bled from the arrow wound in her leg. She remembered seeing a soft vibrant glow of blue light that surrounded the figure. Although Krissy was nothing but a little girl, Cindy thought that the light edging her silhouette now looked almost exactly the same. She inhaled deeply, held her breath for a moment, and then let it out slowly.

“So tell me,” she said in a tremulous voice. “What about…
her?
”

“Well…” Krissy said. She shrugged and looked up at the ceiling. “I saw her again.”

She folded her hands together in front of her and twisted them together like a little kid who was nervous about revealing a long-held secret. “I saw the blue lady and for the first time she was… she was smiling.”

“Oh, really?” Cindy said, nodding her head up and down and feeling like a senseless puppet.

“Yup,” Krissy said. “I really did. And she even talked me.”

“You don’t say,” Cindy replied, fighting the impression that her voice sounded hollow and mechanical. She still found the image in her mind a bit disturbing, at she also felt a deep gush of warmth wash through r chest and stomach.

“Uh-huh,” Krissy said, “and she told me not to worry anymore. She said we’re all safe, and that things are gonna be just fine from now on.”

Krissy smiled and gave a cute, almost careless shrug. “You don’t say.”

“Uh-huh. So, you see? We don’t have to worry about anything ever again. That’s what she told me.”

UNTCIGAHUNK: THE COMPLETE LITTLE BROTHERS

It has been five years since Kip Howard saw his mother killed horribly by a blur of "little brown things." Five years of nightmares and a terror of dark places. Five years of struggling to overcome what must have been just his imagination…But the "untcigahunk," the Indian word for "little brothers," are no one's imagination. Hideous forest creatures who feed every five years on human flesh, the little brothers are about to emerge from underground once again. Only this time, there will be no escape for the young boy who witnessed their last feast.

Untcigahunk
—
The Novel is an updated version of Rick Hautala's classic novel Little Brothers. Also included are seven short stories about the
U
ntcigahunk:

Little Brother

Little Brother Speaks

Redman

Chrysalis

Love on the Rocks

Deal with the Devils

The Birch Whistle

Oilman

OCCASIONAL DEMONS

This collection, from an acclaimed Master of Dark Fiction, consists of twenty-one tales with some being straight genre entries, others psychological terror and finally a few shorts that include science fiction elements. The first eighteen are short stories written solely by Rick and the final three are collaborations with Jesse and Matti Hautala, Matthew J. Costello, and Jim Connolly.

The stories included in this collection are:

The Nephews

Nightmare Transcript

Non-returnable

Dead Legends

I’ve Been Thinking About You

The Man Who Looked Like Murphy

Toxic Shock

The Call

Getting the Job Done

Every Mother’s Son

Knocking

Hotel Hell

The Compost Heap

Iron Frog

Setup

The Gates of Dawn

Off the Cuff

The Screaming Head

Abduction (written with Jesse and Matti Hautala)

And the Sea Shall Claim Them (written by Matthew J. Costello and A. J. Matthews)

Scared Crows (written with Jim Connolly)

BEDBUGS

From the subway tunnels of Boston to the rain-swept streets of Quebec City to the deepest snow-filled forests of Hilton, Maine, no one in these chilling stories by horror master Rick Hautala is safe from the darkness or the dangerous things that lurk in the shadows. Waiting for us. Reaching for us...

Over the years, Rick Hautala's stories and novels have terrified and captivated millions of readers around the world. Bedbugs is a career-spanning collection of stories that whisks you away on a guided tour of the darkest reaches of the human maind and soul — a tour that could only be conducted by someone with Rick Hautala's ability to make your blood run cold.

The stories included in this collection are:

The Back of My Hands

Schoolhouse

The Voodoo Queen

Surprise

Tunnels

. . . from a Stone

Crying Wolf

The Sources of the Nile

Silver Rings

Colt .24

Bird in the House

Cousins’ Curse

Speedbump

Rubies and Pearls

A Little Bit of Divine Justice

Karen’s Eyes

Master Tape

Breakfast at Earl’s

Closing the Doors

Worst Fears

Winter Queen

Late Summer Shadows

Hitman

Perfect Witness

Piss Eyes

Served Cold

MOONBOG

THE EVIL GLOW OF THE MOON...

lit the path as twelve-year-old Billy Wilson walked past the bog. He knew he shouldn't have gone near the inky shadows of the swamp — but something forced him to come closer to the yawning darkness, the suffocating tangle, the flesh-tearing brambles of Holland Bog.

THE MURKY DEPTHS OF THE BOG...

sucked the boy into its fetid earth and claimed its human sacrifice. But one child wasn't enough. It needed a second, a third — and then nothing could stop the unquenchable hunger, the raging bloodthirst of the MOONBOG.