Homecoming: Short Chills for Dark Nights

By Holly Thomas

Four short chills designed to keep you company on a long, dark night:

- A husband comes home to his wife -- after his fatal car accident.

- A werewolf hopes he's finally found the woman who won't bring out the beast in him.

- She's stranded alone in the desert. Night is falling. Is something out there moving?

- A young girl bids a last goodbye to the film star who made her love being afraid.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Holly Thomas
• Release date: Oct 6, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301271610

Holly Thomas

I’m a respectable suburban wife and mother by day, a teller of dark tales by night. I’d rather be spooked than shocked, haunted instead of horrified. I cut my teeth on the spooky soap opera "Dark Shadows" when I was a kid. When I grew up, I learned to appreciate storytellers like Rod Serling, Stephen King, Dean Koontz and Virginia Coffman (look her up!). I wouldn't want to try comparing myself to these writers, but their work gives you some idea of what I like in a scary story. My work has appeared in "Weird Tales" and "Amazing Stories."

Book preview

Homecoming

short chills for dark nights

by Holly Thomas

Published by Holly Thomas

at Smashwords

Copyright 2012 Holly Thomas

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

Contents

Homecoming

Animal Magnetism

Silhouettes

Last Respects

A note from the author

Homecoming

Seven o’clock. Well, that was only one hour late.

Carole Kenning pushed the worries out of her mind and put the casserole on low. It wasn’t that unusual for Jeff to be this late. Out of the office late, stuck in traffic ... and on Halloween night, the streets might be busier than usual. It wasn’t even time to be annoyed that he hadn’t called, although she could feel her anger simmering, just like the dish in the oven.

It was his turn to cook anyway – her mind shifted to smaller annoyances – but she’d known that would mean waiting at least another hour after he got home, and probably for something like tuna sandwiches. Carole let irritation replace her other thoughts.

She turned on the living room light. It was getting dark already. It had started to drizzle a little while ago – the kind of rain that was just enough to make the pavement slick.

Just enough.

At seven-thirty, she turned on the television, although she hated the stupid game shows that were on this time of night. The house was too quiet, and she needed to hear a human voice, something to distract her without taking any concentration.

The credits were rolling on the game show. Eight o’clock. Now it was time to worry. As if a part of her brain had been waiting for its cue, the real fear came.

There’d better be something wrong at this point. Carole imaged the relief of scolding him when he finally walked in the door. She thought of acceptable reasons: a small accident, minor cuts and bruises, a dented