BLOOD IN THE YOLK: Outnumbed (excerpt)
To celebrate release day...
It’s here! It’s finally here!
This is a bit surreal for me, so I apologize for not mentioning it more than I have. This anthology has been in the works for a lllooooooooonnnnnggggg time. How long? Well, I was invited to contribute to it months before that little Twilight Zone event last fall. Remember that? Anyway, a series of unfortunate events led to its delay, but that’s all in the past, because it’s here! Today is its official birthday!
This is a fantastic collection of stories, featuring the writings of EJ Trask, Author Michele Bardsley, A.P. Murphy, Will Boucher, Jon T, Sean Thomas McDonnell, and myself, all composed with a bird horror theme in mind.
I hope you enjoy! Order now: Blood in the Yolk.
Huge thanks to J. Curtis (Tiny Worlds) and Rob Beckstrom (Spare Press / Spareorgan) for getting this out into the world!
The following is an excerpt from my story Outnumbed:
This is a clean cut. I won’t be thinking of you again.
Edgar leaned back in his seat, but never took his eyes off the page. It seemed to be glowing—no, glistening—there on the surface of his writing desk, from the moonlight spilling in through the window. He’d just written the words, but did he actually mean them? Was any of it the truth?
He crumpled the page and tossed it in the bin, then grabbed his pen and tapped it lightly against his teeth. Four taps later, he was writing again:
You approached me, remember? I’d already told myself I was finished with relationships. I was okay with living alone. For the rest of my life, I would’ve been fine. MORE THAN FINE. But you… you came into my life like a fucking wrecking ball. It may be a cliché, but it’s fucking true. You forced your way in. I tried avoiding this. In the beginning, it was you who pursued me. You can’t forget that. You were persistent and I eventually gave in to your charms. What I guess I’m trying to say is… this isn’t all my fault. How it ended, I mean. It didn’t have to come to that. Things got ugly, to say the least. I got ugly. I don’t like myself when I’m with you. You bring out this… rage… a rage so deep I never even knew it was there until I knew you. That rage, Tara. It isn’t me. The real me, I mean. And now that I’m alone, it’ll never be me again. It’s over. I’m taking my things and moving out of the city. This entire apartment reeks of you, and every bookstore, every coffee shop, every fucking segment of sidewalk will remind me of you. I just want to forget you, Tara. I need to forget.
Without even reading it over, Edgar again crumpled his words and dropped them in the wastebasket at his feet.
The next day, he broke the lease to his apartment, quit his job, and withdrew every last dime of his savings. He called up a realtor and bought the cheapest house they had listed—a tiny, rundown shack, somewhere in the woods, just outside the city. He slept in his car at a nearby campsite until the day he was handed the keys to his new home.
He never moved a single piece of furniture out of his old apartment.
It was just one of the lies he’d written on that day.
[END OF EXCERPT]
Featuring the following stories:
Ouija Bird by EJ Trask
Palimpsest at Hook Wood by Jon T
Outnumbed by William Pauley III
A Feathering by A.P. Murphy
The Tasteless Death of Lance Green by Sean Thomas McDonnell
Corvus and Crater by Will Boucher
Ravens by Author Michele Bardsley