The Disembodied

By John Grover

In the trees. In the mist.

An apprentice mortician moves his family to the small town of Sotherton to provide them with a better life. Little did he know the dark secret the town and its people harbored.
The town sat on the edge of a mist-shrouded forest with a deadly secret. Something lives in the trees, in the mist and it’s jealous. Jealous of all those who have flesh.

Disembodied is a free preview story from the author’s upcoming collection Creatures and Crypts due out in late 2011. Creatures of the living and the dead gather in a volume of over 70,000 words to stalk their prey...humans. 20 stories set the scene for a cast ranging from the Grim Reaper, shambling zombies and restless spirits, to unimaginable monsters that only inhabit the shapeless darkness and the author’s imagination. Join them as they wreak havoc on their unsuspecting victims and celebrate with a victory dance on hollowed bones.

• Language: English
• Publisher: John Grover
• Release date: Oct 12, 2011
• ISBN: 9781005434182

John Grover

John Grover is a dark fiction author residing in Massachusetts. John grew up watching creature double feature with his brother on Saturday afternoons. This fueled his love of monsters, ghosts and the supernatural. He never missed an episode. In his spare time he loves to cook, garden, go to the theater to watch horror movies with his friends, read, talk about food, bake amazing desserts, play with his dog Buffy (yes named after the character in the TV show) and draw-badly.Some of his favorite TV shows and influences are The Twilight Zone, Tales from the Darkside, Space 1999, Battlestar Galactica, X-Files, Night Gallery, Monsters, Star Trek, and much more.He completed a creative writing course at Boston’s Fisher College and is a member of the New England Horror Writers, a chapter of the Horror Writers Association.Some of his more recent credits include Best New Zombie Tales Vol 1 by Books of the Dead Press, The Book of Cannibals by Living Dead Press, The Vermin Anthology, The Northern Haunts Anthology by Shroud Publishing, The Zombology Series by Library of the Living Dead Press, Morpheus Tales, Wrong World, The Willows, Alien Skin Magazine, Aurora Wolf and more.He is the author of several collections, including the recently released Feminine Wiles, sixteen tales of wicked women as well as various chapbooks, anthologies, and more. Please visit his website for more information.

Book preview

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The Disembodied Copyright © 2021 by John Grover

Shadowtales Publications

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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

First edition

Cover art by Rocking Ebook Covers

Book Design by KH Koehler Design

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

About This Story

Also by John Grover

Biography

Read an Excerpt from Underground Book 1: Revelations

Read an Excerpt from The Fetch: The Retro Terror Series Book 1

disembodied_chapone

The town sat on the edge of Murk Woods. The woods were believed to be cursed. But, that was only the half of it.

Shrouded in darkness and shadow, the woods stood ominous, vast, and all-encompassing, like a wall barring anything from escaping the small town of Sotherton. A perpetual mist hung in the pines and evergreens that towered there—thick, white, and stirring like a fog of ghosts.

It was not ghosts the town feared.

The mist of Murk Woods glowed with an unearthly radiance. A single stream of this strange mist parted from the rest and vanished into the night air, reappearing in front of a funeral home. And there it squirmed like a tendril, sniffing out a crevice in the foundation of the house of the dead. Soon, it slipped inside.

* * *

You forgot to sew her mouth up, the old mortician said, his fear laced with anger. My God in heaven!

The young apprentice blinked, his face draining of all color. He had forgotten the most important thing he’d been taught to do as a mortician in Sotherton.

I’ve told you over and over. The old mortician leaped from the table, a stack of papers fluttering to the floor. We’ve got to get downstairs now!

The two men raced down the stairs, making their way to the basement. The embalming room doors waited at the end of what seemed to be a never-ending hall.

I’m sorry, Gerald, the young apprentice said. I forgot. This is only the second one I’ve done. I just forgot.

You can’t ever forget Matthew—ever! Gerald said as they approached the door. Can’t have it happen again…

"What happen again? I don’t understand. Why do we sew up the mouths of the…?"

Matthew’s words fell dead as they rushed into the room and realized they were too late. All sanity nearly drained out of Matthew when he gazed on the most abominable sight of his entire life.

The