Bedeviled

By Lori R. Lopez

Two happy-go-lucky friends and a young woman with a cat will encounter their worst nightmare when one of the buddies brings an evil Jinn back from the jungle. As the demon hops ear to ear, bizarre behavior and insane events follow. A short story from the collection OUT-OF-MIND EXPERIENCES, part of the Horror Sampler CHOCOLATE-COVERED EYES by Lori R. Lopez, “Bedeviled” is an edgy and horrific walk on the funny side of the street. Cover your ears or you might be next!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lori R. Lopez
• Release date: Dec 26, 2011
• ISBN: 9781465978349

Lori R. Lopez

Lori R. Lopez wears many hats as an Author and Speculative Poet of Horror, Fantasy, Suspense, Humor and more. She illustrates her books and has written songs, while being an Activist for animals and children. Growing up, Lori roamed graveyards and conducted funerals for dead birds, squirrels, insects and spiders. Her offbeat books include The Dark Mister Snark, Leery Lane, An Ill Wind Blows, Darkverse: The Shadow Hours, Odds & Ends, and The Fairy Fly. In 2023 Lori won Third Place in the Long Category for the SFPA Poetry Contest for "Wake Unto Death". Her Poetry Collection Darkverse was nominated for an Elgin Award and a Finalist in the Kindle Book Awards. Her poems "Crop Circles" and "Nocturnal Embers" were nominated for the Rhysling Award in 2020, "Social Graces" and "The Whistle Stop" in 2021, "Biting Sarcasm" in 2022, "The Whippoorwill" and "If Houses Could Talk" in 2023. Poems "The Maw" and "creatures of the macabre" received Editor's Choice Awards among other honors. Stories and verse have appeared in The Sirens Call, The Horror Zine, Space & Time, Spectral Realms, JOURN-E, Weirdbook, Bewildering Stories, Dreams & Nightmares, Impspired, Altered Reality, Aphelion, and anthologies such as California Screamin' (the Foreword Poem), HWA Poetry Showcases II, III, V, VI, and IX, Journals Of Horror, Grey Matter Monsters, Dead Harvest, Fearful Fathoms I, Terror Train I and II, Trickster's Treats #3, Speculations III (Weird Poets Society), and In Darkness We Play. A member of the Horror Writers Association, Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association, and Lewis Carroll Society Of North America. Visit the Fairy Fly Entertainment Website Lori shares with her two talented sons, and their YouTube Channel @FairyFly. They have a Folk Band called The Fairyflies.

Book preview

Bedeviled

by Lori R. Lopez

Fairy Fly Entertainment

All rights reserved

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any

media without written permission from the author, except

brief excerpts in critical reviews and articles.

This is a work of fiction. Any and all references to real persons, events, and places are used fictitiously. Other characters, names, places, events and details are fabrications of the author’s imagination; any such resemblance to actual places, events or persons, whether living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2011 by Lori R. Lopez

Artwork by Lori R. Lopez

Cover Design by Fairy Fly Entertainment

Author Photo by Fairy Fly Entertainment

E-Book Edition (EPUB)

Table Of Contents

Bedeviled

Table Of Contents

About the author and artist

More works by Lori R. Lopez

A delightfully skewed series of disasters as an Ear Demon hops from head to head, leaving chaos and twisted lives in its wake. Two happy-go-lucky friends and a young woman with a cat will encounter their worst nightmare when one of the buddies brings an evil Jinn back from the jungle. As the demon hops ear to ear, bizarre behavior and insane events follow. A short story from the collection OUT-OF-MIND EXPERIENCES, part of the Horror Sampler CHOCOLATE-COVERED EYES by Lori R. Lopez, Bedeviled is an edgy and horrific walk on the funny side of the street. Cover your ears or you might be next!

For Saramaria and her Mushroom Guide

Death twitches my ear. Live, he says; I am coming. — Virgil

THE JUNGLE STEAMED with pungent humidity like a kettle of herbal tea. Damion Wong slapped his neck, bursting a bloated mosquito, and dreamed of home where the most common danger was falling asleep at the wheel during Rush Hour. Soggy textiles chafed. Air suffocated, delivering the weight of an avalanche.

He had been foolish enough to believe a jaunt through this tropical bug blitz might serve as adventure, the remedy for his doldrums. Get out and see the world. Discover an unknown species. Publish an award-winning paper. This is not one of your best ideas, he acridly noted, smacking his cheek, gazing grimly at skeeter shards.

"What’s wong?" joked his annoyingly unrumpled companion, a ponytailed jester named Geo Pitz who talked him into the journey.

Nothing a hot shower and some rest wouldn’t cure, Damion muttered. I miss the comfort of my lab. The Asian biologist’s mottled flesh boasted welts the size of measles. Inflated feet had been scraped raw by stiff hiking boots. And his spine ached under the ballast of an over-stuffed knapsack.

"We’re banned, remember? What part of shredding our access cards