Shadows

By Larry Mike Garmon

A demon is stalking the most innocent of Junebug, Oklahoma, and only one man knows how to stop it.A rock-n-roll psychological white horror tale from the small Southwest Oklahoma town of Junebug, Oklahoma 74666--Where Hell Comes Sweeping down the Plains.Edwin A. Dark (Larry Mike Garmon) presents a tale of terror in the tradition of Edgar A. Poe and Shirley Jackson.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Larry Mike Garmon
• Release date: Jun 6, 2010

Larry Mike Garmon

Author of 14 YA novels of mystery, horror, and adventure. I began my writing career at 16 writing sports and news for the Wyoming State Tribune. I soon became a photojournalist and by the end of high school I had worked as a stringer for UPI, AP, Rocky Mountain News, LA Times, New York Times, and the National Editors Association. My book publishing career began with the Hardy Boys Casefiles mysteries series, writing five, including one Nancy Drew-Hardy Boys SuperMystery set at Quartz Mountain, Oklahoma. Because of my experience with the Hardy Boys series, Universal Studios and Scholastic Books, Inc., contracted with Garmon to develop and write a six-book YA series based on the classic Universal Studio monsters: Dracula, Wolf Man, Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, The Mummy, and The Creature from the Black Lagoon. I have also written for the RollarCoaster Tycoon middle grade series. I am presently working on a Middle Grade-Young Adult transitional post-apocalyptic novel entitled NEVЯLAND--http://www.NEVRLAND.info. I work best in the Speculative Fiction arena: science fiction, horror, fantasy, and dystopia. The history of tell-tale story makers begins with speculation about the gods, the universe, and everything. The earliest story tellers didn't waste their time with "everyday" affairs, but told great tales of heroes, gods, monsters, heaven, hell, death, and all the other mysteries about which Humankind shares a collective consciousness. I have been a teacher for 27 years. I created and teach the courses Comparative Mythology and Speculative Fiction as well as teach Creative Writing, and British Literature.

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Edwin A. Dark

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2010 Larry Mike Garmon

Full Active Member of

Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America

Horror Writers Association

Dear Cha Cha,

I hope you don't think me rude and tardy in waiting so long to reply to your letter. I have had concerns of my own.

Now the way is made clear for me to free my mind. I can concentrate on the important matter of sitting straight the record concerning my trial and the guilty verdict.

How are things in Junebug? Can you believe I actually miss that one-horse town? This is only the second time in my life I've been away from Junebug for so long. You know that.

I am glad the insanity defense failed. I had not wanted to use it, but my lawyer insisted. By all reasonable accounts, I should have been found insane. Perhaps the jury thought the defense – my story – so unbelievable that they themselves would have to be crazy to believe such an argument. I saw their faces when I related the story while I was on the stand. They didn't believe a word of it.

I also saw their shadows. Their shadows, however, understood completely. A couple of their shadows even smiled at me. They understood.

Perhaps I will find a more attentive and less critical heart with you.

Actually, I didn't want to plead insanity. My lawyer was adamant about entering the plea so I amused him. I never wanted it. What I did, I did rationally and in the heat of the moment with full knowledge of the difference between right and wrong. Or at least as much rationale as one can have in my circumstances.

Right and wrong.

That's a subject about which I could drone on in tome after tome.

To your query though:

I feel no remorse. How can I? Yes, I committed murder, but I was tried for committing the wrong murder. I did not kill my wife. I love – loved – my wife. I would not have harmed her in any way. I did not kill Officer Simon. Si was an old family friend as well as my brother's best friend. I have a great respect for law enforcement officers. Ell and Si had joined the JPD together, remember?

And I did not kill those children. Those children were my friends, and I was protecting them from the dark and the loneliness and the cruelty of this world.

Why was I tried for murders I did not commit?

I know who murdered my wife and the officer and the children, but the judge and the lawyers and the jury and everyone else (including you, I think) would not – do not – believe me. You – all of you – chose not to believe me because to do so would mean you would have to admit to the merit of my story and question your own sanity.

This is my only protest, my only regret. I have no feelings about the murder I did commit. How can I? How can any ordinary, rational person have any remorse about killing his own shadow?

But to the subject and nature of your last question: Why?

If you have done your research – I can't remember if you're writing a book about unusual murders in general or about my case in particular (I ate your letter months ago) – then you know that I began having trouble with It on a regular basis soon after I had married Sharon.

Remember? – I had had trouble with It only one other time when I was got caught playing in the red room in the gardener’s shed. After that one time – that first time – I had kept It hidden away – a secret friend who would play with me.

It didn’t want to a secret any longer. It began acting strangely after I had married Sharon.

About a year after we were married by Judge Darby, I awoke one morning and got up to get ready to go to the office. I was at the bathroom door when I felt a draft and then cold fingers softly drumming on my back. I turned. It was still in bed – even in the dimness of the room, I could see Its dark eyes staring at the ceiling.

Come on, sleepy head, I murmured so as not to awaken Sharon. Got a case to prepare for. I put my hand on the bathroom doorknob.

It lay still.

It lay still. I walked back to the bed and placed a gentle hand on Its shoulder and shook It to see if perhaps It had not yet awakened. (I mentioned I could tell Its dark eyes were staring at the ceiling. What you must realize is is that shadows sleep with their eyes opened, even in the dark.) A cold thought entered my brain – perhaps It had died in the night!

Remember? – I had given