Coffin Hop #8 The final installment of Feeding

This is a long piece, but I had to finish up. Thanks for Coffin Hopping with me, I will be contacting the winner of the contest next week.  I had fun with this story, and I didn’t know where it would end until I typed that last line. I hope you enjoy it and that you have enjoyed the story as a whole. Happy Samhain. Happy Halloween. Happy Friday.

L. E. White

Feeding

Clare held her head in her hands, shaking and crying. She was hurting so much, like she had just been punched in the chest. She knew Josh was dead. She knew all the others were dead.

She knew something was coming for her.

When she had walked into this house, she had felt a tension in the air. As everyone took their places for the investigation, she had felt the building fill up with energy from their living presence.

When the first one died, Clare felt like she had fallen into a pan of hot water. She had flushed with it before it went away and she could feel the loss of presence. She knew someone died, and she had scrambled up the stairs to get help.

Of course, the door was stuck.

Now, she was crouched down at the bottom of the stairs. Clare rocked back and forth, from heel to toe, hugging her knees while hot tears streaked down her cheeks.

They were all dead.

Josh was dead.

She stared into the darkness around her, at the ghostly shapes of posts in the darkness of the basement. Faint light trickled in through dirty little windows, but she didn’t look away from the darkness. As far as she was concerned, the darkness was all that was left.

Clare raised her head and turned to face the door to the kitchen. She could feel something moving around above her. It wasn’t the warm glow of a person. To her, it felt more like a spoon stirring a pot. It was the just a lump moving around, leaving a ripple in its wake.

A soft green light began to glow in the kitchen above her. It outlined the door, and was getting brighter as she felt the presence getting closer.

As she looked at the light, she felt a soft touch on her arm. When she looked back down, she saw a small black spider step off her shirt sleeve and onto her arm.

Clare jumped up, slapping the nasty, crawling thing off of her. She clicked on her light and spun in a tight circle. There were spiders everywhere.

Clare jammed a hand into her pocket and grabbed the big rosary that she had slipped in. The moment that she touched the beads, the spiders disappeared. She looked and the floor and the ceiling, shinning her light around the empty room, but finding nothing. She let go of the rosary, and a spider crawled into the beam of her flashlight.

She touched it again, and spider vanished. Something was trying to scare her. The spiders weren’t real.

Then she heard the lock click.

Clare knelt back down, and shifted the rosary deeper into her jacket pocket. When the door began to open, she pulled her fingers away. The spiders came toward her, and the green light at the top of the stairs vanished.

She listened to the soft foot falls on the stairs while fighting to keep from screaming as the spiders began to crawl over her. When she felt like her heart would explode, one touch to the rosary reset the nightmare.

Connor stepped onto the cold concrete, and looked at the tiny ball that Clare had squeezed herself down too. He smiled, as the spiders worked their way around her, drawing in a deep breath, inhaling the cloud of fear that surrounded her like he was sampling flowers in a vase.

He began to whisper to her. His voice was soft and almost musical when she was touching the rosary, but when she released it, she felt like she was telling herself that she had been abandoned by the others. She didn’t fight the voice, but continued to break it whenever she felt overwhelmed. He was trying to fill her with despair and to increase her fear. He was trying to get her to do something stupid.

He wanted her to kill herself.

Clare jumped up and ran to one of the basement windows. She swung her arm back and forth, trying to dislodge the spiders so that she could open it and crawl out but the harder she fought, the bigger and more aggressive the spiders became.

She stumbled back, and the voice inside her head became stronger. It was getting more insistent, and she began to hyper ventilate. She darted towards the stairs, weaving and ducking to avoid the spiders before pounding her way up to the top. She knew that the door was open, she had been touching the rosary when Connor came down, but now, it looked like it was closed and covered with spiders.

When she got to the top of the stairs, Clare jammed her hand into her pocket and pulled the rosary out. The moment she touched it, the spiders and the closed door disappeared.

She turned around and faced Connor. His stood near the bottom of the stair, his mouth hanging open as he looked at the cross and beads hanging from her fist.

“You killed them all, didn’t you?”

He smiled and licked his lips, leaving a trail of glowing spittle droplets on his lips. “You can’t blame me. I haven’t eaten in almost a year.”

Clare curled her lip but didn’t move. “You are finished.”

“Really? And what, may I ask, are you going to do to me?” He crossed his arms above his distended stomach. “You can’t kill me, but I can kill you.”

“Not from down there you can’t,” she said.

“Are you going to stand there, barring my way until I die?”

Clare took the rosary in both hand and pulled. The strand broke and she laid the beads in a line across the doorway. She made a few small adjustment to straighten it, and then she backed into the kitchen by a step.

The moment she backed away, Connor flew towards the door. His hands reached for her, but couldn’t cross the threshold. Connor roared and pressed his face against the invisible barrier, making him look like a child pressing his face against a window. “This won’t hold me. I will find you and rip your skin from your bones.”

Clare backed further into the kitchen, watching Connor beat against the invisible wall for a moment before turning and running to the study.

She screamed when she saw the body at the foot of the stairs. She screamed again when she saw Josh’s body. He was lying face down in a pool of blood but she couldn’t bring herself to roll him over. Clare couldn’t touch his body.

She looked around the room. Her eyes darted from place to place, searching for anything that might help. She had seen the beads of the rosary jiggle as Connor pounded on the barrier that they formed. He wouldn’t be in that room long.

She looked at the single window, looked back at Josh’s body and then towards the stair. She took a deep breath, and then headed out of the study.

***

Connor hammered his fists against the lower corner of the door frame. He felt the skin on his knuckles split, and saw the flecks of glowing green that landed on the landing, and he continued to hammer away.

The beads were shifting, wiggling and rocking, but not enough to move away from the door frame. He had to get out. He couldn’t handle being locked away again. As he thought about the box he had been stuffed into when he was a child, he shifted and slammed his shoulder into the door frame.

The beads shifted.

Connor slammed his fingers down towards the gap that had opened. He couldn’t fit through.

Yet.

***

When Connor stepped into the doorway of the study, he leaned against the frame. His head hung as he looked around the room, and glowing drops of blood fell to the floor. “I know you are in here,” he said. “I can feel you.”

Clare didn’t answer him.

There was an old desk and two chairs that had been left in the house. Josh’s body was still lying in front of the desk. Connor looked at the bottom of the desk, but he could see only its legs beneath it. The same was true of the chair that was standing upright.

He moved toward the chair that was lying on its side. As he approached, he noticed a small bump that extended out from the bottom of the chair.

Connor smiled.

“I see you.”

He flipped the chair into the air. It came down on top of the desk with a crash as he kicked the huddled form that had been behind it.

Todd’s body rolled away with the force of the kick.

Connor snapped around to see Clare heading through the doorway. He shot towards her, green light flaring, screaming as he went.

He ran into the barrier with so much speed that he could not stop himself. His arms collapsed a moment before his face hit. Connor felt his nose crunch a second before his vision flared in bright, multi-colored bursts of pain. He collapsed on the floor and howled while holding his face with his stinging, throbbing hands.

“Got ya.”

After a couple of minutes, he wiped his eyes and looked at Clare. She stood on the other side of the doorway, arms crossed over her chest. He lowered his eyes, and saw the two thick white bands of salt that went along the door frame. A little pile of salt on each side surrounded the edges of the doorjamb.

“The window is the same,” she said.

“I will get out of this and when I find you I will tear you to pieces.”

She lifted her hand up, and he began to scream.

As she walked out, orange light creating a halo affect around her head, she dropped the lighter, and crossed the threshold.

***
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Coffin Hop #7

October is winding down and so is the Coffin Hop. If you haven’t visited all of the other wonderful blogs that are participating this year, you need to get on the ball. Go look around, enter some contests and leave a comment so they know you were there.

The story is also winding down. There are only two investigators and one monster left. If you missed any, you better go catch up before reading tomorrow’s explosive finale.

L. E. White

Feeding

Josh sat in the lotus position, his back against the wall. He kept his eyes unfocused, trying to visualize the aura of the room. Inside this image, the room was filled with a light fog and Josh was watching for something to move inside it.

Josh had been meditating and practicing magic since his junior year of high school. He had found Buckland’s big blue book on witchcraft at a second hand store and grabbed it for a couple of bucks. At that time, he thought it would be cool to have, until he met Katherine.

Katherine had been one of the only Goths in his tiny high school. She was dark and beautiful, but untouchable for most of the backwoods farm boys that went to school with her. She had seen the book in Josh’s locker and pounced on him. They started practicing together a couple of days later. They started sleeping together a couple of weeks later.

Josh kept practicing after he and Katherine split up. It helped him focus and kept him calm. Tonight, he thought that it might even help get the proof of the supernatural that they were supposed to be searching for.

There was a soft click from the door that almost knocked Josh out of his visualization. He assumed that it was Clare, but decided not to move. She could come in on her own, and if what she had told him about being a sensitive was true, he might get a glimpse of her aura as she entered.

The hinges creaked as the door was pushed open. A single, long, screeching sound bounced around the room, as the door slowly swung away from the wall.

In the door way stood a tall figure, bloated like an old road kill that had sat in the sun. A soft green glow spread out from the form, and it pushed Josh’s fog away as it lit the room. Josh felt the power of that light as the image in his head cleared. He did not turn, but he still stared at Connor’s face as their organizer floated into the room.

“Relax,” Connor said.

Josh felt the waves of power in Connor’s voice crash into him like a wave on the rocks. He felt a prickle of fear, and fought to keep his mind clear. Connor had only spoken a single word, yet it had made Josh feel like he should just slump down and take it easy.

Connor hung in the air, just inside the door way. He felt the pressure of Josh’s mind in the room, but he didn’t know what it was. He had never felt anything like this before and that scared him a little. The man was sitting on the floor, and Connor noticed that he did not turn to look in his direction. He cursed under his breath, and entered the room.

“You are different,” Connor said in a whisper.

“So are you,” Josh answered. “What are you?”

“A thing of troubled dreams.”

“You are fat.”

“Yes.”

“You weren’t when we came in.”

“No.”

Josh turned his head and looked at Connor. “What have you done?”

Connor smiled, and the light inside his body made his teeth glow. “I have fed well.”

Josh felt like someone had dripped ice water onto his back. He could feel the cold crawling down, making his skin prickle and his muscles tighten.

“You are finished feeding.”

Connor shook his head. He came to rest a step in front of Josh and settled onto the floor. He lowered down, assuming the lotus position, his distended belly resting in his lap so that he looked like a statue of the Buddha.

“You,” Connor said, curling his lip into a disgusted snarl, “cannot stop me. You don’t have the strength.”

“I will find it. I have to protect another.”

Connor’s mouth closed and his face relaxed. He took a deep breath, and when he exhaled, the light inside him flared. His veins lit up and his eyes began to shine like flashlights. The light was focused on Josh, and he began to shake as he felt his bubble of concentration collapse under the weight of the psychic attack.

“I usually fill my victims with fear and feed on their emotions until they die and I devour their souls,” Connor said. “But you have the mental fortitude to fight back, so I will show you respect by meeting you head on.”

Josh stared into the things eyes, squinting as the light grew brighter. He tried to visualize a circle of protection, and when that didn’t work, he tried to imagine a wall between them. He tried one thing after another, but each time, the green light would melt away the image in his vision.

Sweat broke out on Josh’s brow. He felt his pulse hammering in his temples, and started worrying that his head would explode from the force of his one heart. Pain stabbed in from his temples and he grunted from the strain.

“You are losing.”

Josh bit his lip and reached a hand into his pocket. He touched his index finger against the chunk of selenite

 

 

Connor grunted like he had just been hit in the stomach.

The pressure Josh felt relaxed and he sighed. He shifted, pulling the stone into his hand and squeezing his fingers around it.

Then, Connor hissed, and Josh rocked backward from the force of Connor’s will, smacking his head against the wall with a sharp crack.

“You cheated,” Connor said. “You weren’t supposed to bring in anything that might mess with our investigation.”

Josh whimpered and lifted his hands up to his temples. Blood started dripping from around his eyes and his body started seizing. The stone fell from his grip and bounced on the floor.

Connor stared at Josh, but didn’t move.

Josh continued to shake. His body jerked and blood dripped down his face. His last thought before the darkness closed in, was of Clare on the night that he had asked her to marry him.

Josh sat in the lotus position, his back against the wall. He kept his eyes unfocused, trying to visualize the aura of the room. Inside this image, the room was filled with a light fog and Josh was watching for something to move inside it.

Josh had been meditating and practicing magic since his junior year of high school. He had found Buckland’s big blue book on witchcraft at a second hand store and grabbed it for a couple of bucks. At that time, he thought it would be cool to have, until he met Katherine.

Katherine had been one of the only Goths in his tiny high school. She was dark and beautiful, but untouchable for most of the backwoods farm boys that went to school with her. She had seen the book in Josh’s locker and pounced on him. They started practicing together a couple of days later. They started sleeping together a couple of weeks later.

Josh kept practicing after he and Katherine split up. It helped him focus and kept him calm. Tonight, he thought that it might even help get the proof of the supernatural that they were supposed to be searching for.

There was a soft click from the door that almost knocked Josh out of his visualization. He assumed that it was Clare, but decided not to move. She could come in on her own, and if what she had told him about being a sensitive was true, he might get a glimpse of her aura as she entered.

The hinges creaked as the door was pushed open. A single, long, screeching sound bounced around the room, as the door slowly swung away from the wall.

In the door way stood a tall figure, bloated like an old road kill that had sat in the sun. A soft green glow spread out from the form, and it pushed Josh’s fog away as it lit the room. Josh felt the power of that light as the image in his head cleared. He did not turn, but he still stared at Connor’s face as their organizer floated into the room.

“Relax,” Connor said.

Josh felt the waves of power in Connor’s voice crash into him like a wave on the rocks. He felt a prickle of fear, and fought to keep his mind clear. Connor had only spoken a single word, yet it had made Josh feel like he should just slump down and take it easy.

Connor hung in the air, just inside the door way. He felt the pressure of Josh’s mind in the room, but he didn’t know what it was. He had never felt anything like this before and that scared him a little. The man was sitting on the floor, and Connor noticed that he did not turn to look in his direction. He cursed under his breath, and entered the room.

“You are different,” Connor said in a whisper.

“So are you,” Josh answered. “What are you?”

“A thing of troubled dreams.”

“You are fat.”

“Yes.”

“You weren’t when we came in.”

“No.”

Josh turned his head and looked at Connor. “What have you done?”

Connor smiled, and the light inside his body made his teeth glow. “I have fed well.”

Josh felt like someone had dripped ice water onto his back. He could feel the cold crawling down, making his skin prickle and his muscles tighten.

“You are finished feeding.”

Connor shook his head. He came to rest a step in front of Josh and settled onto the floor. He lowered down, assuming the lotus position, his distended belly resting in his lap so that he looked like a statue of the Buddha.

“You,” Connor said, curling his lip into a disgusted snarl, “cannot stop me. You don’t have the strength.”

“I will find it. I have to protect another.”

Connor’s mouth closed and his face relaxed. He took a deep breath, and when he exhaled, the light inside him flared. His veins lit up and his eyes began to shine like flashlights. The light was focused on Josh, and he began to shake as he felt his bubble of concentration collapse under the weight of the psychic attack.

“I usually fill my victims with fear and feed on their emotions until they die and I devour their souls,” Connor said. “But you have the mental fortitude to fight back, so I will show you respect by meeting you head on.”

Josh stared into the things eyes, squinting as the light grew brighter. He tried to visualize a circle of protection, and when that didn’t work, he tried to imagine a wall between them. He tried one thing after another, but each time, the green light would melt away the image in his vision.

Sweat broke out on Josh’s brow. He felt his pulse hammering in his temples, and started worrying that his head would explode from the force of his one heart. Pain stabbed in from his temples and he grunted from the strain.

“You are losing.”

Josh bit his lip and reached a hand into his pocket. He touched his index finger against the chunk of selenite

 

 

Connor grunted like he had just been hit in the stomach.

The pressure Josh felt relaxed and he sighed. He shifted, pulling the stone into his hand and squeezing his fingers around it.

Then, Connor hissed, and Josh rocked backward from the force of Connor’s will, smacking his head against the wall with a sharp crack.

“You cheated,” Connor said. “You weren’t supposed to bring in anything that might mess with our investigation.”

Josh whimpered and lifted his hands up to his temples. Blood started dripping from around his eyes and his body started seizing. The stone fell from his grip and bounced on the floor.

Connor stared at Josh, but didn’t move.

Josh continued to shake. His body jerked and blood dripped down his face. His last thought before the darkness closed in, was of Clare on the night that he had asked her to marry him.

***

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Coffin Hop #6

So far, all the stories, pictures, posts and contests in this years Coffin Hop have been fantastic. I am having fun and really am glad I decided to be a part of it. If you haven’t visited the other blogs, you should. It is worth your while.

Don’t forget to comment on the pieces of the Feeding serial that I am posting. For each story you post on, you get an entry into the drawing for an e-book ARC of my first novel, Double Occupancy. I hope you enjoy it more than the agents I have been querying. So far nobody has taken the leap to represent it.

If you are one of those agents, I will give you a copy if you ask for it. No contest for you. 🙂

Until tomorrow

L. E. White

Feeding

Todd sighed, curling his lip into a snarl as he looked at his watch. It had only been two minutes since the last time he had looked. “This sucks,” he said as he looked around the kitchen again. “This suck more than that nasty queen at the library.”

He stood up and stretched, trying to pop his back. It didn’t happen, but he had just managed to do it a few minutes ago. So he started rocking back and forth on his heels, almost dancing, almost moving.

This was going to be a long night.

“Why the hell did I think this would be a good idea,” he said. The whole point had been to go out with Kyle. This was just standing in an old house alone.

He reached into his pocket and felt the sharp edges of the condom wrapper he had brought with him. When Todd thought of a ghost hunt, he thought of walking around in the dark, grabbing the hand of the person you were with when things got scary. He thought of the haunted hay rides and haunted houses he had visited in high school. That was what he had wanted to do.

That was not how his night was going.

He turned in a slow circle, wobbling as he moved, and wondered how Kyle was faring in the attic.

“I bet he’s alone,” Todd said as he looked around the kitchen again. “I bet Kyle would appreciate some company.” He smiled, felt the edges of the wrapper in his pocket again, and then headed for the stairs.

Kyle was going up the stairs, a spring in his step, when he heard a loud squeak. He stopped, resting his hand on the banister and crouched down. He looked through the spindles that surrounded the landing and the stairs to see who else was sneaking about.

Connor walked down the hall towards the bedroom he had chosen to set up the equipment in. Todd looked at him, and swallowed the lump that formed in his throat as he watched the organizer float down the hallway. His stomach was bloated so that he looked like a pregnant woman and the tips of his toes drug the ground. Connor was glowing. His veins were lit up like dying neon bulbs, winding their way under his skin like some kind of glow in the dark map. His eyes pulsed with the sickening light, and Todd guessed the flashing was in time with the beating of Connor’s heart.

Connor stopped in front of his door and put a hand on the knob. He stood there for a second before smiling and saying, “I know you’re there.”

Todd gasped, but didn’t move. He was still a couple of steps from the top, so he wasn’t sure that Connor had seen him. Maybe the fat guy in the next bedroom had peaked out from his room.

Connor lifted back into the air and glided to the head of the stairs.

Todd could feel his hand shaking on the banister. The way the edges of the wood rubbed his palm reminded him of scratching at a bug bite. His other hand was out to the side, and even though he wasn’t touching anything, he could feel his watch wiggling on his wrist.

“I see you.”

Todd looked up at Connor, who was now at the head of the stairs. He was still floating, toes resting on the carpet. He was surrounded by some kind of power that made the air look like hot air rolling out of an open car door on a winter morning.

“I told you to stay in the kitchen, Todd.”

Todd’s breath began to catch in his nose, wheezing and sputtering as he tried to breath. He stared at Connor’s face, unable to break away, and watched as the muscles underneath shifted and rolled like a cat under a blanket.

“Go back to the kitchen Todd,” Conner said. He bent at the waste, lowering his shoulders so that he was almost eye to eye with Todd.

Todd began to raise up. He slid one foot back and down, reaching for the next step in slow motion.

“Now!”

The sudden yell made Todd jump. The toe of his shoe brushed the step enough to make him think he could put his weight backward, but he had missed most of the step. Todd’s back straightened and he swung his arms in cartoon like circles as he overbalanced. He watched the world spin in front of his eyes like time lapse photography until he his shoulders hit the stairs. Time sped back up when his head snapped backward and hit another stair.

Todd got to watch his feet sail over his head before his body pulled his head away from the step. That was when Todd’s world went dark.

***

Connor cringed with each of the four crashing booms that Todd’s body made as he rolled down the stairs. He had to hope that the last two people hadn’t heard it. He wasn’t finished eating and he didn’t have enough to make it through the winter yet. If they ran, he would be stuck.

So he stood still, waiting for a sound from the door or the down stairs study. He counted off the seconds in two full minutes, without hearing a voice or a door, before he began making his way down the stairs.

***
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Coffin Hop Update #5

I hope you are having fun keeping up with the Coffin Hop. Today, let’s get right to the story.

L. E. White

Feeding

 

Connor walked out of the upstairs bath, rubbing his stomach and smiling. He could see the green light coming out of his eyes, but he was so happy to have fed that he couldn’t control it. At this moment, his life was good.

He walked past the bedroom that Frankie was in, and paused to listen to him telling himself that the world would be better off without him. “Almost,” Connor said before continuing down the hall to the attic entrance.

He felt a sudden rush of power, but wasn’t ready for it. Conner fell to his knees as his eyes flared like a camera flash.

Frankie had just killed himself.

Connor closed his eyes, struggling to control himself, and wondered how the big guy had managed it. Frankie couldn’t have fit through the window and the ceiling didn’t have a fan.

Once he was in control again, he got up and headed into the attic.

It was time to visit Kyle.

***

Kyle sat in an old rocking chair. He had moved boxes and trash to empty his spot, but it was worth it. He imagined the others, sitting on the floor or against the wall, butts hurting and legs stiff.

He wiggled his butt on the seat, wishing for a cushion, and decided that it wouldn’t hurt to look around. The attic didn’t have any windows, so Kyle flicked on a tiny flashlight and began to rummage through the trash that had been left in the attic. Kyle tried to be quiet. He knew you were supposed to be quiet while hunting deer, so he figured it was the same for ghosts.

Each time he moved something, he would stop and listen. He moved a couple of dusty boxes and old books before finding a yellowish blanket on a little table. “Sweet,” he said as he picked it up.

That was when he heard a tiny squeak.

Kyle dropped the blanket on the floor and trained his light on it. The edge closest to him began to wiggle, and he backed away from it a few steps.

Kyle’s breath began to come in short gasps as he watched the blanket move. A small black shape emerged from between the folds and stretched out soft, dark grey wings.

Kyle put his hand over his mouth, fighting to keep the scream inside so that he wouldn’t startle the bat into flying. He had searched the room when he came up here, being careful to check every corner before agreeing to stay in the attic.

He had looked Todd straight in the eyes and said, “I ain’t staying up there if there are any bats. I hate bats,” before climbing up the ladder to the attic.

Now, he was looking into the beady black eyes of one.

Shit like this is why he hadn’t wanted to come on this stupid ghost hunt in the first place. He hated mice and bats and all things tiny and furry. The only reason he was here was to try and get into Todd’s pants when they left.

No matter how cute a guy’s butt was, it wasn’t worth bats.

Kyle backed up another step when it flexed its wings. There was another tiny squeak which made him try to back up again, but Kyle bumped into the rocking chair and fell backward into it. The chair tipped forward and he fell onto the floor with a crash. The little LED flashlight smacked into the arm of the chair and the room went black.

Kyle screamed, and it was answered by a loud screeching sound.

And then by another.

And another.

Kyle grabbed his wrist with his other hand and traced the cord to his flashlight. The screeching of bats became louder and faster as the little beasts began to answer each other.

Kyle bit his lip as he tried to get the light to switch on. His thumb worked the button so fast that the clicking sounded like someone drumming their nails on a table. He pauses his clicking long enough to smack the light into his palm a few times, then he went back to work on the button. He was trying so fast, that when the light did start working, he flashed it a few times before he realized that it was on.

The flashing was like a strobe light in a club. In those bursts of light, Kyle saw bats everywhere. They were on the ceiling, the boxes, the back of the chair and some were even crawling across the floor. When he stopped fighting with the light and sat still in the darkness, he listened.

He could hear his heart pounding like a drummer during a solo. He could hear his breathing, short, fast gasps that sounded more like a little kid fighting back tears than a grownup.

He could hear the flapping of wings, the scratching of claws and the squeaking of many, many, bats.

Kyle clicked on the light and shined it around the room. He found so many pairs of black, colorless orbs, that he started crying.

There was a sudden flurry of movement, the light went off again, and Kyle screamed.

***

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Coffin Hop #4

Welcome back. With the beginning of a new week, I think we should go back over the important historical points of the recent past.

1. You are currently in the middle of the 2014 Coffin Hop. This is a blog tour dedicated to horror fiction. It started on the 24th and will end on Halloween.

2. Every blog in the tour is hosting some sort of giveaway. To enter mine, just leave me a comment on a part of the story. You will receive one entry per post for each comment. The winner will receive an e-book copy of my first novel, Double Occupancy.

3. This is a fantastic blog tour with a lot of talented people. Go enjoy yourself as they all share their own tales for the Halloween season.

4. Happy Samhain

I also want to say thank you to all the hoppers that are visiting. I love seeing everyone and hope you will come back throughout the coming year.

L. E. White

Feeding

Megan sat in the bathroom with her back against the wall. She had started out sitting on the toilet, but it wasn’t comfortable enough to keep doing it all night. She was twirling her hair with two fingers, tying a knot in the long, blonde strands that she would cuss herself for the next time she brushed it.

The bathroom itself was huge. Two sinks, a big garden tub and a separate shower. She wished she had one like this.

Megan looked over at the toilet. “Why did I have to get this room,” she said. “Every time I look at that I feel like I have to go.”

She puckered her lips, pouting for no good reason, until she heard it. There was a soft popping sound from bubbles working their way up the drain. She remembered her grandmother’s sink doing that whenever they did the dishes.

She looked at the tub and whispered, “Maybe somebody flushed the downstairs toilet.”

That didn’t make any sense. The house looked like it had been abandoned for years. There shouldn’t have been any water in the pipes.

Megan was looking at the toilet when she heard the metal rub along metal. She turned to look the other direction, and watched the shower curtain slide along its bar.

“Oh fuck.” Megan whispered the words until the curtain had reached the opposite wall. She held her flash light in her hands, the beam off since she could see from the moonlight. Her hand slid up the shaft, putting her finger on the button, ready to turn it on, when a soft light began to glow on the other side of the curtain.

“Ohfuckohfuckohfuck,” her litany sped up as the light grew brighter. Megan could see a ball of green coming up from the floor, rising slowly, like an old helium balloon. She scooted along the floor, away from the shower until her shoulders touched the toilet bowl.

The edge of the curtain shifted, and it began to slide open. Megan’s teeth began to chatter and she rolled around the front of the toilet. She put the porcelain between her and the light, watching over the top of the lid as the shower opened.

When it was about half way across the bar, the curtain jerked and ripped the rest of the way open. The old plastic material tore free of the rings that held it in place and Megan screamed.

At nothing.

The moment the curtain ripped, the light winked out and the room as dark again. Megan’s scream continued for a moment before she peeked through one eye at the empty room.

“What the hell,” she said as she looked around.

A few minutes later, Megan stood up, turned on the flashlight, and walked over to check the curtain. It was torn from all the rings that held it to the rod, but she couldn’t see anything else wrong with it. The shower was the same as it had been when she walked in. She was alone in the room.

Megan turned, letting the light work its way around the room to show her that it was the same dingy, old off white that it had been a couple of hours ago.

She exhaled a deep breath, and turned back to the mirror.

Standing behind her, was a tall, thin man with glowing green eyes. His mouth was open wide, like a snake who was about to eat a mouse, and the green light flickered in the back of his throat.

Megan screamed again and spun around to face the creature. She stumbled backward, tripping over her herself before falling. Her head hit the edge of the bath with a thud before she bounced off the floor.

Connor closed his eyes, left his mouth hanging open, and sighed. “Delicious.”

The radio on his hip clicked and he listened to Megan check in. As he looked down at the expanding poll of blood under her head, Connor smiled, and patted his stomach.

***

Click here to continue alone the 2014 Coffin Hop

Coffin Hop #3

Welcome horror hounds and crazy chasers. Things in this story are about to get weird, but considering that this is part of the Coffin Hop for 2014, that should have been expected. I hope you enjoy the story and come back for more tomorrow.

And don’t forget to leave me a comment. That is how you can enter to win a free ARC of my first novel, Double Occupancy.

L. E. White

Feeding

 

Frankie looked around the bedroom, frowning at the peeling paint and the curtain of cobwebs that filled the window.

He reached down to his pocket for what seemed like the millionth time, and brought his arm back up with a disgusted sigh. He couldn’t understand why Connor had insisted that they not bring in any electronics besides the ones he gave them. What harm could there be in playing a game while he waited.

It wasn’t like he was going to miss something.

“Why the fuck did you let her talk you into this.” He said the words out loud, but not loud enough for anyone to hear him. Megan had asked him to come along and he never said no to Megan.

Frankie leaned his head back against the wall with a thud. He considered doing it again, but figured it would start hurting.

He closed his eyes, and the memory of Megan at her last birthday party made him smile. She had just turned 21 and he had offered to take her out for her fist drink. A lot of guys bought her drinks, and she ended up dancing on the bar. Her cloths stayed on, but not by much.

“I wish you had taken your top off,” he said.

“Why didn’t you ask me to?”

Frankie rolled away from the sound, knocking the tripod over with a small crash. He looked up, and Megan was standing there, leaned against the door frame.

“You alright there big-in?”

Frankie hated it when anyone else called him that, but with her Texas accent, he didn’t mind.

“Yeah,” he said as he heaved himself up. “What are you doing in here? I thought we were supposed to stay in our rooms.”

“I didn’t want to,” she said. “I wanted some company.”

The sound of him swallowing rang out in the room like a gunshot.

“I can leave if you don’t want me … here.”

“Oh no, that’s fine.”

“Are you sure?” She reached up and rolled the little gold charm on her necklace between her fingers. “Because if you don’t want me, I can go.”

Frankie watched her roll the charm between her fingers. He didn’t see it very often, she kept it in her shirt most of the time. After a second, he realize he could see it because her top few buttons were undone.

“What?”

“You… You weren’t wearing that earlier.”

“I wasn’t?” She smiled at him and let go of her necklace. Frankie watched her put her fingertips on either side of her chin before dragging them down her body. “I didn’t know you paid that much attention to what I wear.”

“I don’t.” He didn’t think that sounded convincing at all. “I just thought you were wearing black.”

“Nope,” she said. “I wore this on purpose. Do you remember the last time I wore this outfit?”

Frankie’s breathing became shallow as he wet his lips. “Y-y-y-yeah.” He said. “You wore that on your birthday.”

“That was so much fun,” she said, turning her back on him and beginning to dance in place. “I loved it when everyone was watching me dance.”

Frankie watched Megan move. Her hips were making tiny circles and her hands worked up and down her sides, just like she had done that night.

“I loved my last birthday.”

“I’m,” he cleared his throat. “I’m glad you had fun.”

“The only bad part of the night was you.”

He blinked.

Megan turned her head and bent at the waist. She kept shifting her hips while looking at him and he felt like her eyes were turning him to stone.

“You could have had me that night, but you didn’t try,” She said. Megan slid her feet apart and rolled her head once, tossing her hair before looking back at him again. “You chickened out and hurried me home so that none of those guys could touch me. You took me home and didn’t crawl into my bed.”

Frankie sat with his mouth hanging open.

Megan straightened up and squeezed her ass with both hands. “I come in here, start dancing and half way take my shirt off, and you still don’t move.”

She turned to face him, and he felt hot. Her shirt was unbuttoned to the waist, and he could see her chest through the skimpy lace bra she was wearing.

She moved closer, putting less than an arm’s length between them. “Well?”

He looked at her, his eyes moving from her face to her chest and then back. “I – I – I …”

Megan rolled her eyes and began buttoning her shirt up. “My god you are a loser. I throw myself at you and you are still too lazy and backward to do anything. You won’t even take pity sex when it gets served.”

Frankie’s felt his body heat up. “What do you mean pity sex?”

“You didn’t think I was doing this because of how great a guy you are did you?”

He closed his mouth and ground his teeth together.

“You did.” She said the words with so much shock. “You actually thought I might want you. Oh. My. God.” Megan was smiling from ear to ear as she headed towards the door. “You are so …”

Her words cut off when she tripped on one of the cords and fell. There was a cracking noise when her face hit the case, but she didn’t make another sound.

Frankie dropped down on the floor, sitting on his feet as he stared at her. He crawled over, rolled her onto her back, and looked at her smashed nose and busted mouth. A crease on her forehead was bright red and starting to turn into a black line. She gasped for breath before opening her eyes a little to look at him.

“No mouth to mouth,” she whispered before closing her eyes.

Frankie lowered his head and tears dripped off his cheeks.

Connor stood behind Frankie, watching, as the fat man sat on the floor, crying into his hands. In between sobs, he would reach out, running his hand over empty air, as if he was touching someone lying on the floor.

Connor bent down, closed his eyes and whispered, “How could she treat me like that? I can’t go on without her? She was the only one I ever really wanted. She was my everything.”

Frankie rocked back and forth, mumbling to himself as he repeated Connor’s words.

***

Click here to continue alone the 2014 Coffin Hop

Coffin Hop #2

For all of you that are here for the Coffin Hop, I hope you enjoy my story. I will be giving away an electronic ARC copy of my novel, Double Occupancy. To enter, just leave a comment on the Coffin Hop post. You will be entered once for each comment you leave per serial installment.

L. E. White

Feeding

Frankie huffed and wheezed as he made his way up the stairs. The two tripods he carried weren’t the problem, his extra 150 pounds were.

“I. Hate. Stairs.” Each word ended with the slap of his sneaker on the next step. He panted and puffed before finally slumping against the wall at the end of the hall. “Here. You. Go.”

Connor turned to see the red faced man waving a short tripod in his general direction from the door. He tried to hide his smirk as walked over and took the gear. “You gonna be alright?”

“Fine.”

Connor walked back to the computer he used to monitor all of the remote camera’s. With his back turned, he could smile. He had picked the big guy to bring equipment up the stairs on purpose. Watching him pant and sweat was fun.

“That is the last of it right?”

“Yeah,” Frankie said between gasped breaths. “I think, …,think so.”

“Good,” Connor said. “Now it’s time to set up the second floor.”

Frankie sighed, but didn’t complain.

***

All six of them stood at the foot of the stairs. Connor stood one step up.

“Alright everyone, here is the way this needs to work.” He held up two pieces of paper. “As you can see, each of your names is written in a room. We will split up and monitor the equipment in each room. I will be monitoring the computer feed as well as the bedroom at the end of the hall.”

“Why are we splitting up and monitoring the equipment,” Josh asked. “If you are already monitoring it, what’s the point?”

“Good question. It seems like there is a tendency for phenomena to occur with single people. I want to spread us out so that it is more likely we can pick something up.”

The group nodded.

“You all have radios that are on the same channel. If you have a problem, just yell and we will come get you. Any questions?”

Connor took the silence as his answer and headed to his computer.

“Don’t forget to stay of the radios to keep the channel open. We will do checks to be sure that everyone is okay, but it should be quiet otherwise.”

Connor pressed one of the keys on his computer and watched as the progress bar showed him that the file was converting. He smiled and stood, stretching, as he looked at the files.

The group had checked in like clockwork, and now he had recorded each of them. Three files for each member of the team. Three files, so that the computer could pick the one it wanted to send out so that everyone would continue to check in.

No matter what happened to them.

His smile shifted from something that made his face look happy to something that made it look like he was a mad scientist in an old movie.

As he walked towards the door, he whispered to himself, “Time to come out and play.”

***

Click here to continue alone the 2014 Coffin Hop

Coffin Hop #1

Hello and welcome to my first post of the 2014 Coffin Hop.

Now, one of the things that I have been doing recently is looking into paranormal investigation shows. In doing so, I managed to find out about The Paranormal Knights. This is a group that is trying to raise enough money to film their pilot episode. They are wanting to create a show that leaves all the trumped up drama behind. The IndieGoGo site says that they will be focusing on the historical significance of the place that is being haunted.

This has inspired me to write the serial that I am posting for the Hop. I hope you enjoy it.

Don’t forget to follow the links to the other wonderful horror writers taking part in the Coffin Hop. Everyone is giving away something cool as an extra incentive to get you to visit them. For my give away, you will get an entry for each comment you leave on a piece of the story. The winner will receive a free ARC of my novel, Double Occupancy.

L. E. White

Feeding

 Connor was leaning against the front of the van, back arched and elbows resting on the hood. He smiled when he saw three sets of headlights coming toward him. Each set was dimmer than the one before it as clouds of dust from the gravel billowed out like a smoke screen from a spy movie.

A few moments later, all three vehicles were parked in the lawn beside Connor’s van. Another minute, and six people were standing in a semi-circle around him.

“Good Evening,” he said, using his best Transylvanian accent. “I am your guide for this adventure.” He stopped talking and looked at the group but his smile was replaced with a frown when nobody smiled back at him.

“You guys have got to relax and have some fun with this,” he said. “If you stay this stiff, it is going to be a hell of a long night.”

A couple nodded their heads, but there still wasn’t much of a reaction.

“Alright, you are all here because you signed up for a night of ghost hunting. I will inspect your packs to be sure there isn’t any contraband and then we can go in.”

“Wait a minute,” A tall thin woman said. “What do you mean contraband?”

“Simple really,” Conner walked over to her. “We can’t be taking anything inside which might influence our results. So, no drugs, no booze and no religious paraphernalia. As agreed, I have recorders, cameras and stuff so all you needed to bring were flashlights.”

A short blonde girl with a number of piercings on her face looked up at the pale man beside her. “Josh, why he wants us to leave all our stuff behind?”

Josh shook his head. “I don’t know, but I don’t like the idea of walking in there unprotected. Even if there isn’t much chance of anything bad happening.”

“I don’t like this.”

“Don’t worry Clare,” Josh said. “We can probably slip a couple of things in with us.”

While Connor was lecturing the heavy set guy who had a bottle of whiskey in his pack, Josh and Clare walked back to the car and put most of their stuff in the back seat. Bottles of oil, slender candles, boxes of salt and a variety of crosses, stars and statues all ended up on the seats.

“Just pick one or two things to hide in your coat or shirt,” Josh said. “That will be all we can do.”

They walked back to the group and allowed Connor to look through the pack they now shared.

“Alright everyone,” Connor said as he handed the pack back to Josh. “Let’s get this equipment set up and see what the old girl has to show us tonight.”

***

Click here to continue alone the 2014 Coffin Hop

Coffin Hop 2014

Welcome, both the brave and the foolhardy, to this year’s Coffin Hop.

If you are not familiar with it, the Coffin Hop is a blog tour that occurs around Halloween. It is full of horror blogs and everyone involved is giving away something. Take your time, follow the links and enjoy yourself. Tis the Season to be Scary.

For this year’s event, I will be posting a new story each day, starting on the 24th, until the end of October. I hope you will come back by and let me know you were here.

Because if you do, you might get the treat. To participate in this contest, all you have to do is leave a comment on one of the stories that I post. I will count up the entries and pull one of them out of the hat. Each commenter is given one tab in the drawing per story. So, if you comment on every story, you will have your name in the drawing a total of 8 times. I will announce the winner in the regular blog post on November 5^th.

I will be giving away an ARC copy of my novel, “Double Occupancy”.

I may also see what else I can find to throw into the goody bag, but this is the very least that I will be giving away.

I don’t know if I am going to try to put up a serial or just individual stories, but one of the two will happen. Either way, I hope you enjoy reading along with me and all the other bloggers this Halloween season.

** EDIT **

I should mention that all new content will go live at my regularly scheduled time. 11 A.M EDT. Those posts will be numbered to follow along with the serial and are located on my main page. I hope you enjoy it.

L. E. White

Louder Than Your Heartbeat

Robbie took off down the hall, running harder than he ever did in gym. He didn’t know where he was headed and he didn’t care. All that mattered was that he didn’t stay here.

There was a scream chasing him up the hall. He heard it, and that was what had started him in this direction in the first place.

When it cut off, he was at the doors, hands on the bar, shaking and shoving, trying to open it.

He could hear his heart hammering in his chest. He could also hear the growling, and it was coming closer.

Click here to continue alone the 2014 Coffin Hop

Let’s Investigate

With the onset of the Samhain season, my family has submerged itself in Halloween television programing. Since we watch over the net, that gives us a lot of options. We have a Netflix account and have been watching stuff on there.

My children, while looking for something to watch, stumbled upon a ghost hunting show that is supposed to be a reality and documentary style of program.

For me this is a problem, because I am not getting a whole lot of documentary out of it. I love details and educational programming. This show doesn’t really deliver. I don’t see a lot of science and I feel like it is lacking on history.

So, I went looking for more and the universe answered. I received a message asking me to support a new project to create a less dramatic, more historically educational paranormal investigation show.

This looks cool.

The Paranormal Knights, are currently attempting to raise money to fund their pilot episode. They intend to show the audience the history of the haunting and to avoid the sensationalized dramatization that is ruining so many other supposedly educational programs.

They have a campaign to raise funds on IndieGoGo. Check it out. I plan to watch the campaign as it progresses. I like their ideas, so you will be hearing more about this in the next few weeks.

L. E. White

Let’s Investigate

The little camcorder hit the wall with crack that sounded like a batter hitting a home run. Mike looked over at the wall beside Terry’s head to see the bits of plastic that were sticking out of the drywall.

Terry looked down at the tiny pile of debris that was sitting beside his boot before he went pale. The big man’s lips turned blue and began to tremble as his eyes widened. He let out a long, shrill scream and bolted out of the room.

Mike heard all two hundred and sixty pounds of electronics technician hit the front door on the way out of the Schneider House. He watched as the cords and gadgets that they had brought with them began to spin around in the air. They bumped and twisted together until a tornado of plastic and electronics stood from floor to ceiling like an upside down Christmas tree.

A figure floated in the center of the maelstrom. A tiny female with whipping hair and glowing eyes who stared at Mike without blinking. She stared at him, all sound in the room drowned out by the roar of her storm.

A mischievous smile sprouted on her face. Mike’s legs shook so much that when he tried to get up, he couldn’t. So he sat there, leaned against the wall, watching her float closer.

He heard someone giggling, felt a cold hand grab his ankle, and then he was dragged from the wall.