Failure

By John Everson

Raymond is such a failure, he can't even kill himself and get it right. Cindy just plain doesn't care; she'll get on her knees for anyone beneath the football field bleachers to score a nickel bag hit. And Sal is a frustrated goon with a hook nose and an attitude so sour he can't nail a girl even with the lure of free dope and a getaway car.

When these three desperate teens meet Aaron, a failed practitioner of the dark arts who offers them the best high they've ever smoked in exchange for some kinky sex play inside his pentagram, things can only go from bad to worse. Aaron hopes to ensnare and re-birth the spirit of a late witch, to capture her power from beyond the grave for his own.

Soon, they'll all learn the darkest, bloodiest, most terrifying definition of Failure.

Originally released as a limited edition hardcover chapbook from Delirium Books in 2006, this updated 2013 Dark Arts Books e-book edition of John Everson's novelette Failure features new cover art and an Afterword by the author.

• Language: English
• Publisher: John Everson
• Release date: Nov 29, 2013
• ISBN: 9781311210920

John Everson

John Everson is a staunch advocate for the culinary joys of the jalapeno and an unabashed fan of 1970s European horror cinema. He is also the Bram Stoker Award-winning author of seven novels, including the erotic horror tour de force of NightWhere and the occult/urban legend mystery of The Pumpkin Man. Other novels include Covenant, the prequel to Sacrifice, as well as Siren, The 13th and the upcoming spider-driven Violet Eyes. His tales have been translated into Polish, French and German and optioned for potential film development. His short stories have been gathered in a handful of collections, including the Cage of Bones & Other Deadly Obsessions and Needles & Sins. A 10th anniversary edition of his second collection, Vigilantes of Love, was reissued in 2013.

Book preview

Praise for Failure

...one nasty tale – full of evil spells and bloodshed. It's fast-paced and unforgettable.

– Wicked Karnival

... the story is kind-of like reading a novella-length version of lyrics to a Slayer song...  Failure is an impressive, fast-paced read that shoves your face into the sleaze and then takes off like a drive-by shooting. For a short story, this sucker packs quite a punch.

– Horror Fiction Review

...without a doubt the coolest chapbook of the year.

– Maximum Horrors

Failure harkens happily back to true erotic horror: some of it will sicken and arouse (often simultaneously) and make you feel guilty for enjoying it, which most of us who appreciate it think it should do. This is an old-fashioned, supernatural, slippery orgy of violence and sex, where blood is a perfectly viable kinky bodily fluid...

– Chi-Zine

...a wicked read.

– Creature Corner

A short but razor sharp shocker that will, quite literally, keep you hooked.

– FanPop

Books By

John Everson

NOVELS:

Covenant

Sacrifice

The 13th

Siren

The Pumpkin Man

NightWhere

Violet Eyes

NOVELETTES:

Failure

SHORT FICTION COLLECTIONS:

Cage of Bones & Other Deadly Obsessions

Vigilantes of Love

Needles & Sins

Creeptych

Deadly Nightlusts: A Collection of Forbidden Magic

Christmas Tales

For More Information Visit:

www.johneverson.com

Copyright Information

FAILURE

John Everson

Published by Dark Arts Books at Smashwords.

Story and original Delirium Books edition cover art copyright ©2006 by John Everson.

Dark Arts edition cover art and Afterword copyright ©2013 by John Everson.

Failure was originally issued  as Chapbook #1 in the Delirium Books hardcover chapbook series. The chapbook was signed and numbered, limited to 500 copies. An e-book edition was originally issued in 2010 by Darkside Digital.  

Except for fair use for purposes of review, the reproduction of material from within this book for the purposes of personal or corporate profit, by photographic, digital, or other methods of electronic storage and retrieval, is prohibited. This book consists of works of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.

For more information on this and other John Everson titles, please visit www.johneverson.com

First Print Edition, 2006

Darkside Digital e-Book Edition, 2010

Dark Arts Books e-Book Edition, July 2013

Dark Arts Books

www.darkartsbooks.com

Dedication

To Shane Ryan Staley

For believing.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Charlee Jacob and Edward Lee for inspiration and to Bordo’s in Chicago for my candle-lit table in the back where most of this story was written.

Table of Contents

Praise for Failure

Books By John Everson

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

FAILURE:

I. On The Edge

II. Looking Back

III. Blood And Bullets On The Floor

IV. Blood On The Move

V. Sal Arrives…And Remembers The First Time Around

VI. Second Coming

VII. Last Look Back

VIII. Last Chance

IX. There Were No Bullets In The Gun

ABOUT:

About The Author

Afterword

Original Cover Artwork

I. On The Edge

T here were no bullets in the gun.

Raymond realized this after pulling the trigger repeatedly, and swearing loudly when, after each click, no skull-slushing explosion occurred.

No flash of light. No smell of sulphur. No acrid taste of gunpowder and blood in his mouth for the split second he remained alive even as the remains of his brains began to slip like wet oatmeal down the white wall of his bedroom.

Raymond removed the shaft of steel from between his lips and tossed his father’s .44 at a pile of dirty laundry on the floor. His eyes welled, but instead of crying, his lips curled up slightly, and he laughed.

Another brilliantly unsuccessful attempt. He was even a loser at being a loser.

He stared at the white latticework of his wrists and cringed. The scars were long healed, but they still itched. And nagged. Every day he read the roadmap of his failure. And that map was alive and visible for all the world to see, if any cared to look. The pain had been worse after the bleeding had stopped. Sometimes the scars shivered and pulsed of their own accord, as if striving to open again. Even now he could feel the stiffness of the ruined skin. And ruined to accomplish what? So that he could leave the spilled stain of his unsnuffed life marking the grit of the grout between the tile? So that his mother and father could walk around him forever-more on tiptoes, mouthing each word with soothing tones even if they were just asking if he wanted hamburger or chicken for dinner, as if his feelings were precariously