Bone Chillers

By John McDonnell

Do you like to feel afraid? Do you like that feeling in the pit of your stomach when you hear an unknown sound in the dark? When you hear footsteps in an empty house? When you get a sudden shock? Then read "Bone Chillers" a collection of nine scary stories. Here you'll meet shape-shifters, transformers, monsters, water spirits, the undead and the unclean. There are people with blood on their hands and vengeance in their hearts. There's an old man who thinks an evil troll is after him; two gangsters who meet a beautiful woman in the empty desert; an acting coach who says he can help a young actress with her fear of confined spaces; a food critic who gets bitten by a strange wolf-like creature in a restaurant; an Irish monk in AD 1000 who thinks the world is ending, and much more. Whatever your phobia, whatever your weakness, the Bone Chillers will expose it!

• Language: English
• Publisher: John McDonnell
• Release date: Jul 27, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476012483

John McDonnell

John McDonnell is a British Labour Party politician who was appointed the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer in September 2015. He became the Member of Parliament (MP) for Hayes and Harlington at the 1997 general election, and has retained his seat from then onwards.

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BONE CHILLER STORIES

By John McDonnell

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2012 John McDonnell

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

DOOMSDAY

THE TROLL

A DRINK OF WATER

THE CALLING

PIG

SWEET TOOTH

RECOIL

MEAT

CLAUSTROPHOBIA

DOOMSDAY

Brother Patrick awoke with a start on the morning of the Doomsday. He had gone to sleep on his pallet yesternight with fear clutching at his insides, because of Brother Anselm. Brother Anselm, who lived in the hut down the cliff path on this wind-scoured, craggy island on the western tip of the known world, had been talking for months about Doomsday, the day when the world would end. It would all happen on the evening of the last day of the Year of Our Lord 999.

It’s all in the Book, he had said. Look to the scrolls we’re copying, Brother Patrick. See the writing of John of Patmos, his Book of Revelation. You must dig deep for the true meaning, but you’ll see that on the turning of the year 999 great signs and wonders will occur. The Beast will come and slay all the sinners, and only the Elect will survive.

Are we the Elect? Brother Patrick asked.

We’ll find out ere the evening passes, Brother Anselm said. If we are not, we will burn in Hell forever, but not before the Beast has put us through a terrible torture.

Brother Patrick went to bed last evening with a heart filled with fear. He said his prayers and hoped he would be spared the terrible trials that were to come. He whispered his prayers over and over, starting at every sound, every shape that was thrown on the walls of his room by the flickering firelight. Somehow, he knew not how it happened, he fell asleep.

But now, as he rubbed sleep from his eyes, the fear melted away. He sat up, pinched himself to make sure he was not dreaming, and cried out with joy. I have not been carried off by the Beast, he cried, shaking with glee. I must be one of the Elect.

He threw off his threadbare blanket, and ran joyously outside, where he expected to see Jesus Himself waiting for him, along with Brother Anselm.

But no one was there.

No matter, perhaps Brother Anselm had not awoken. Brother Patrick ran down the rocky path to Anselm’s hut, his heart bursting to tell him the good news, but then he stopped so fast he almost stumbled and fell off the cliff.

There, lying on his back, his face contorted in an unearthly grimace, was Anselm.

Blood was everywhere, on the rocks, the scrubby bushes, and the sand. Anselm’s neck had a ragged red gash running across it. There was a bloody knife in his hand.

Brother Patrick bent down to touch him; his flesh was still warm.

Why, Brother? Patrick said. Why do this? We are saved, saved!

It made no sense. The Beast had not come; they were saved. At any moment Jesus would