The Spectral Book of Horror Stories (40 page)

Iris stood up and switched the television off. In the silence she took his gloved hands in hers and kissed them. But in the silence also they could now discern Kelvin’s gentle sobbing from upstairs.

Des moved to get up. “Oh, no…” If he’d woken, then he knew.

“I’ll go,” said Iris. She didn’t relish the prospect, but somehow felt it was a responsibility that fell on her own shoulders. She would know how to break it to him. She would find the words. And she would be there for him to hold, to hug, or to hate, as she would always be.

She was halfway up the stairs when the doorbell unexpectedly rang. (
Ding-dong—Avon calling!
) She turned round but could see only darkness beyond the glass panels.

Des was already on his way. “I’ll get it.” He flipped the light switch for her, illuminating the stair carpet. “It’s probably Elwyn.”

“Offer him a cup of tea.”

As she reached the landing, the door opened below and let the night in. She felt the cold on her back and the rancid tang of sulphur ushered in the memories as if it were yesterday, but of course it wasn’t yesterday—it was today, November the fifth, when the nurses told them her and Des should hold their dead baby. That they’d regret it if they didn’t see how
beautiful
he was. And he
was
beautiful. So
very
beautiful in her arms—and in his father’s. Such a pretty face, a gorgeous, perfect face—but no head… no
head
at all…

She heard voices downstairs but not what they said. If it was Elwyn it was bound to be about rugby, so she wasn’t that interested.

As she entered Kelvin’s bedroom the opening door cast a wedge of light. Her son’s crying clawed at her deep inside, as it always did. That’s why she had to be the one to make it better.

The landing light was on, but she didn’t want to startle him by switching on the bedroom light too. Consequently, while the side of the room behind her was lit, the bed itself was slathered in gloom. She could just about make out the staring eyes of Jon Pertwee in a magician-like pose as the new
Doctor Who
on an old
Radio Times
cover Sellotaped above the bedhead.

Her foot touched something not the texture of the carpet.

She looked down.

The latest issue of
TV21
was pinned down under her slipper.

She picked it up and placed it aside, next to the Airfix Lancaster bomber he and his dad had made together in meticulous wonder.

To her relief she could see that the guy was gone. Its absence finally confirmed, only the slightest indentation remaining in the blanket where it had lain. Kelvin lay flat on his back under the sheets, head sunk in the pillow, wearing the baby mask with the orange curl on the forehead.

She gasped. Then laughed.

“Oh, Kelvin, you monkey! That’s a horrible trick to play on your mam, that is. You gave me a heart attack!”

But wait a minute—wasn’t the
guy
wearing the mask? Didn’t she see it when it was hanging over her husband’s shoulder? No, because it was hanging face down. That was it. The mask must’ve fallen off as Des…

No sooner had she dismissed that worry than something perturbed her far more. Why wasn’t her son answering, now that his prank had had the desired effect? Why was he still
sobbing
? In fact, why was he sobbing
at all
?

She moved towards the bed.

No, ta—we won’t sit down, sir, all the same…
The voices downstairs, though real, sounded as disembodied as those on the TV.
It’s about your son, sir…
The man had more of a Welsh accent than her husband’s, and was older. She pictured him with grey, bristly hair.
I’m afraid there’s been a tragic accident…
She thought he must be talking about something else, not her, not her family, not them.
Doctor there with his family—too late to do anything… Children climb inside bonfires, see—do it for dares or whatnot… Must have got trapped… Fire was roaring, no-one could stop it… Members of the public started screaming, saw his face, his arms waving—trouble was, the more he waved, the more he fanned the flames.
Her pulse was leaping, belting through her body, thudding in her chest.
Mr Edwards—I believe you know Mr Edwards?—tried to call you back, but you were walking away… He said you probably couldn’t hear because of all the fireworks going off…

“Kelvin?”

Iris reached the bed. The smell filled her nostrils—earth, ash, rot, blood, sulphur, decay…

“Kelvin?”

She stood staring down at the child with the mask on, no longer able to tell whether the sobbing was coming from behind it or from the grown man downstairs. The lost, last sky rocked with rockets, thunderous in her head, spiked and buckled by the wounds of gunpowder.

She reached down to take away the mask, because what was a mask if not a face with no head? And she did so not only with dread but with incalculable longing. The two things fought in her violently in that moment as her fingertips touched plastic. And when she saw what was behind, something made of bone and fire closed around her heart, crushing it as if it were no more than a ball of paper.

CONTRIBUTORS

The
Oxford Companion to English Literature
describes
RAMSEY CAMPBELL
as “Britain’s most respected living horror writer”. He has been given more awards than any other writer in the field, including the Grand Master Award of the World Horror Convention, the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Horror Writers Association and the Living Legend Award of the International Horror Guild. Among his novels are
The Face That Must Die
,
Incarnate
,
Midnight Sun
,
The Count of Eleven
,
Silent Children, The Darkest Part of the Woods, The Overnight
,
Secret Story
,
The Grin of the Dark
,
Thieving Fear
,
Creatures of the Pool
,
The Seven Days of Cain
,
Ghosts Know
and
The Kind Folk.
Forthcoming are
Think Yourself Lucky
and
Thirteen Days at Sunset Beach
, and he is working on a trilogy,
The Three Births of Daoloth
.
Needing Ghosts
,
The Last Revelation of Gla’aki
and
The Pretence
are novellas.
His collections include
Waking Nightmares
,
Alone with the Horrors, Ghosts and Grisly Things
,
Told by the Dead
,
Just Behind You
and
Holes for Faces
, and his non-fiction is collected as
Ramsey Campbell, Probably
. His novels
The Nameless
and
Pact of the Fathers
have been filmed in Spain. His regular columns appear in
Dead Reckonings
and
Video Watchdog
. He is the President of the Society of Fantastic Films. Ramsey Campbell lives on Merseyside with his wife Jenny. His pleasures include classical music, good food and wine, and whatever’s in that pipe. His web site is at
www.ramseycampbell.com

ALISON LITTLEWOOD
is the author of
A Cold Season
, published by Jo Fletcher Books, an imprint of Quercus. The novel was selected for the Richard and Judy Book Club, where it was described as “perfect reading for a dark winter’s night.” Her second novel,
Path of Needles
, is a dark blend of fairy tales and crime fiction, and her third,
The Unquiet House
, is a ghost story set in the Yorkshire countryside. Alison’s short stories have been picked for
The Best Horror of the Year
and
The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror
anthologies, as well as
The Best British Fantasy 2013
and
The Mammoth Book of Best British Crime 10
. Other publication credits include the anthologies
Terror Tales of the Cotswolds
,
Where Are We Going?
and
Never Again
. Alison lives in Yorkshire with her partner Fergus. Visit her at
www.alisonlittlewood.co.uk

HELEN MARSHALL
is an award-winning Canadian author, editor, and doctor of medieval studies. Her debut collection of short stories,
Hair Side, Flesh Side
(ChiZine Publications 2012), was named one of the top ten books of 2012 by
January Magazine
. It won the 2013 British Fantasy Award for Best Newcomer and was shortlisted for a 2013 Aurora Award by the Canadian Society of Science Fiction and Fantasy. Her second collection,
Gifts for the One Who Comes After
, will be released in the autumn of 2014. She lives in Oxford, England where she spends most of her time staring at old books.

TOM FLETCHER
was born in 1984. He is the author of numerous short stories and three novels—
The Leaping
(Quercus 2010),
The Thing on the Shore
(Quercus 2011)
,
and
The Ravenglass Eye
(Jo Fletcher Books 2012)
.
His first fantasy novel,
Gleam,
will be published by Jo Fletcher Books in September 2014.
The Times
said of him: “Fletcher… convinces me that there may be some truth at last in those rumours about a renaissance in British supernatural fiction.” His website is
www.endistic.wordpress.com
, and he can be found on Twitter as @t_a_fletcher. He lives in Cumbria.

STEVE RASNIC TEM’s
latest novel
Blood Kin
(Solaris March 2014), alternating between the 1930s and the present day, is a Southern Gothic/ Horror blend of snake handling, ghosts, granny women, kudzu, and Melungeons. His previous novels are
Deadfall Hotel
(Solaris 2012),
The Man On The Ceiling
(Wizards of the Coast Discoveries 2008—written with Melanie Tem, an expansion of their novella),
The Book of Days
(Subterranean 2002),
Daughters
(Grand Central 2001—also written with Melanie Tem), and
Excavation
(Avon 1987). Steve has also published over 400 short stories. His latest collection is this year’s
Here With The Shadows
, a collection of traditionally inspired ghostly fiction from Ireland’s Swan River Press. Other recent collections include
Ugly Behavior
(New Pulp 2012-noir fiction),
Onion Songs
(Chomu 2013),
Celestial Inventories
(ChiZine 2013), and
Twember
(NewCon 2013-science fiction.) In 2015 PS Publishing will bring out his novella
In the Lovecraft Museum
. You can visit the Tem home on the web at
www.m-s-tem.com

GARY McMAHON
is the acclaimed author of nine novels and several short story collections. His latest releases are a collection titled
Where You Live
and the novels
Beyond Here Lies Nothing,
The Bones Of You
and
The End
. His short fiction has been reprinted in various
Year’s Best
volumes. Gary lives with his family in Yorkshire, where he trains in Shotokan karate and likes running in the rain. His website can be found at:
www.garymcmahon.com

REGGIE OLIVER
has been a professional playwright, actor, and theatre director since 1975. Besides plays, his publications include the authorised biography of Stella Gibbons,
Out of the Woodshed,
published by Bloomsbury in 1998, and six collections of stories of supernatural terror, of which the fifth,
Mrs Midnight
(Tartarus 2011) won the
Children of the Night Award
for ‘Best Work of Supernatural Fiction in 2011’ and was nominated for two other awards. Tartarus has also reissued his first and second collections
The Dreams of Cardinal Vittorini
and
The Complete Symphonies of Adolf Hitler
in new editions with new illustrations by the author, as well as his latest collection
Flowers of the Sea
. A seventh collection
Holidays From Hell
is due out from Tartarus in 2015, as is a children’s book
The Hauntings at Tankerton Park
with his own illustrations. His novel
The Dracula Papers I—The Scholar’s Tale
(Chomu 2011)
is the first of a projected four. Another novel
Virtue in Danger
was published in 2013 by Zagava Books. An omnibus edition of his stories entitled
Dramas from the Depths
is published by Centipede as part of its
Masters of the Weird Tale
series. His stories have appeared in over fifty anthologies.

ALISON MOORE’s
short fiction has been published in
Best British Short Stories
anthologies and broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra. The title story of her debut collection,
The Pre-War House and Other Stories
, won a
New Writer
novella prize. Her first novel,
The Lighthouse
, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2012 and the National Book Awards 2012 (New Writer of the Year), winning the McKitterick Prize 2013. Her second novel,
He Wants
, was published in August. Born in Manchester in 1971, she lives in a village on the Leicestershire-Nottinghamshire border. She is an honorary lecturer in the School of English at Nottingham University.
www.alison-moore.com

ROBERT SHEARMAN
has written four short story collections (
Tiny Deaths
,
Love Songs for the Shy and Cynical
,
Everyone’s Just So So Special
and
Remember Why You Fear Me
), which between them have won the World Fantasy Award, the Shirley Jackson Award, the Edge Hill Readers Prize and three British Fantasy Awards. His background is in the theatre—he was resident dramatist at the Northcott Theatre in Exeter and a regular writer for Alan Ayckbourn at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough—and his plays have won the Sunday Times Playwriting Award, the Sophie Winter Memorial Trust Award, the World Drama Trust Award, and the Guinness Award in association with the Royal National Theatre. He regularly writes plays and short stories for BBC Radio, and has won two Sony Awards for his interactive radio series
The Chain Gang
. However he is probably best known for reintroducing the Daleks to the BAFTA winning first season of the revived
Doctor Who
, in an episode that was a finalist for the Hugo Award. His forthcoming collection of stories,
They Do The Same Things Different There
, is to be released this summer.