State of Horror: New Jersey: State of Horror

By Armand Rosamilia, Blaze McRob, C.I. Kemp and 10 more

WHAT IS YOUR STATE OF HORROR?

The birth of a devil in the 18th century resonates in today’s world. A storm hits a small mountain town and the resident must evacuate, where will they go? Visit a zoo unlike any you have experienced. The sins of the past haunt the present in a once thriving industrial town. Discover what lies beneath the boardwalk. Take a walk down memory lane as a woman is haunted by that thing she most loved. Escaping from a zombie hoard may not be the worst danger you face. What does it really mean to “Keep it Jersey”?

Join us as we explore the modern interpretation of folklore, culture, and the uniqueness that is New Jersey through 13 tales of horror. 

Stories by:
Scott M. Goriscak, Frank J. Edler, Armand Rosamilia, Julianne Snow, C.I. Kemp, T. Fox Dunham, Christian Jensen, Eli Constant, Blaze McRob, Diane Arrelle, Margaret Colton, Nathanael Gass, and Tim Baker

• Language: English
• Publisher: Charon Coin Press
• Release date: Aug 26, 2014
• ISBN: 9781502228918

Book preview

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

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Putting an anthology together, or any book for that matter, is not a solo task. I have learned this lesson well while creating the book you now hold in your hands. I will not be able to thank everyone specifically, as it would take the remainder of these pages to do so, but I would like to mention a few who have gone above and beyond to make State of Horror: New Jersey possible.

First, I would like to thank the authors who poured a piece of themselves into the stories you are reading here, as well as all of those who submitted to the collection. Many of the decisions were difficult to make especially with all the talent out there. I would specifically like to thank Scott M. Goriscak, Diane Arrelle, Christian Jensen, C.I. Kemp, T. Fox Dunham, and Blaze McRob for believing in State of Horror: New Jersey enough to return for the relaunch. You have been great to work with throughout the process. Without the creativity and hard work from all of the authors, new and returning, this book would not have been as much of a joy to create as it has been over the past ten months. Thank you all.

I do not believe this book would have come together if it were not for my colleague, sound board, and best friend, Margie. She was there from day one and has been my loudest cheerleader. Through late nights, tight deadlines, and a few stress-induced breakdowns, she has remained by my side in putting all of this together. What you are holding in your hands is largely due to her efforts.

Thanks needs to go out to Laura W. for being there to jump in with proofreading the final copies. If there is someone who loves to read more than she does, I am sure I have not met them.

I need to give a thank you to Stephen Z. for bouncing ideas around with me. My appreciation goes to Julianne S. for her help answering the million questions I have had this year. Thank you all for the time you have taken from your busy days.

Thank you does not seem to begin to encompass what I owe Armand Rosamilia. He is the one who started it all. He believed in me enough to give me a chance at the helm. I consider him a mentor but, most of all, I consider him a friend.

I saved the best and biggest thank you for my wife, Christine. Some say goals are paid for with sacrifice. She has sacrificed much of our time together in order for me to achieve my goals; picking up the slack while I was hiding in my office working on this book. As much as I thank everyone here on the list, I know in my heart, I could not have done any of this without her support.

Jerry Benns

INTRODUCTION

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A grand adventure began with the project, the result of which led to the book you now hold in your hands.  It started simply with me following my curiosity. Becoming an editor of an anthology series was a pleasant, yet unexpected outcome. As the saying goes, one thing led to another and here I happily sit before you. I read a few of the previously released versions of State of Horror by Rymfire Books thinking, this is a great concept and then sought out the owner, author, and editor at Rymfire, Armand Rosamilia, to discuss his overall thoughts behind the books. After hours of very enthusiastic conversation, I found myself the new editor of the State of Horror anthologies, and months later, owner of the anthology through my new publishing company, Charon Coin Press. As editor, I had a vision — I wanted to revisit the previous books, expanding them with new stories, commission new cover art, and update the earlier stories with the help of the original authors. The question became where to start?

Armand Rosamilia released nine State of Horror books while at the helm of the series. That meant nine potential states to use as a base to relaunch the series with each book having its own charm and merit. In addition to revisiting the previously released states, the anthology would expand to encompass all 50 states. I wanted to come out of the gate with a strong foundation of stories and folklore for the authors to build upon. Then I remembered a movie scaring the hell out of me as a young kid sitting in the family room with the lights turned down. It was one of those movies best seen in the dark. The story takes place in a fictional summer camp located in New Jersey—Crystal Lake Camp. Maybe you remember the movie Friday the 13th? This memory, along with my fascination with the regional folklore—like the Jersey Devil—and the state being the home state of the series creator Armand Rosamilia, made New Jersey the perfect fit for the relaunch of the State of Horror anthologies.

Bordered by New York and Pennsylvania, New Jersey covers roughly 9,000 square miles of land. Of the area, 1,700 square miles is the Pineland National Reserve, more commonly known as the Pine Barrens. In 1735, Mrs. Leeds gave birth to her thirteenth child, a child who legend says, was hideous, with wings upon his back and hooves for feet becoming known as the Jersey Devil. Throughout the years, it has been seen around the area known as the Pine Barrens, or simply, The Barrens. The legends have inspired many stories over the years. State of Horror: New Jersey will continue this tradition with a few more renditions to add to the folklore.

The Jersey Devil is not the only horror you will find in these pages. New Jersey, with 130 miles of coastline referred to as the shore along with the famous boardwalks, has inspired a few fireside tales. The stories inspired by and set along the Jersey Shore in this book follow a rich history of contributions to horror in literature and movies. One of the more famous horror stories to come out of the 1970’s was inspired by events, which happened on the Jersey Shore in 1916, when over five shark attacks happened in 12 days. Author Peter Benchley used these events to pen the successful 1974 novel, Jaws, which later became one of the first summer blockbuster movies directed by Stephen Spielberg.  Though the novel and movie were set off of Long Island, the inspirational credit goes to New Jersey. Sounds like a state with a nice lineage for horror.

Each of us calls a state home. A place we feel a connection. The idea behind the State of Horror anthology is sharing the culture, geography, or folklore with you, the reader. The creative minds and talents in this book weave tales of ghosts, monsters, and sometime the scariest creature of all –humans, all with the hope of bridging a connection with the state of New Jersey.

As I write this introduction, I think through all the creative, well-written, and terrifying stories submitted as well as those selected for the final anthology. I think back to the early conversations with Armand Rosamilia, the discovery of the series, and the inspiration for what the series will become. I look to the talented writers I have met over the past year since this project started and to all those who have contributed to making State of Horror: New Jersey into the final book you hold in your hand, and ask myself one question...did we Keep it Jersey? Of course we did.

Jerry E. Benns

State of Horror - editor

PORK ROLL, EGG, AND SLEAZE

by Frank J. Edler

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Egg slipped Bon Jovi’s Slippery When Wet CD into the stereo of his restored ‘88 Chevy IROC-Z and cranked up the volume—he was keeping it Jersey. Egg was always keeping it Jersey, he loved New Jersey culture and he identified himself as such with a passion.

Cleo sat shotgun doing her best to tune out the pounding music. She focused on her copy of Weird NJ magazine as they flew northbound on the Garden State Parkway. She wasn’t as concerned about keeping it Jersey so much as keeping it Goth. She would much rather hear My Chemical Romance than Bon Jovi. They were just as Jersey but much darker.

Mitch and Pauly sat in the backseat, much to their chagrin. Not only is it cramped in the back of the IROC, but neither one was very fond of Cleo. It didn’t matter that she was the first chick to be hanging out with them and a hot one at that. Fact of the matter is, they were Egg’s friends first and thus, should have seniority over the shotgun position. They were learning the hard way that when it comes to women, the rules don’t apply.

Let’s keep it Jersey! Egg said, steering the IROC to the off ramp for exit 124. There’s a great diner over here. We can grab a sack of pork roll, egg and cheese sandwiches for the ride to Vintage Vinyl. They fry the pork roll in bacon fat and throw hash browns on the roll too, Fat Cat style. Jersey represent!

Fat Cats were a style of sandwich made famous at a collection of food trucks parked at Rutgers University. Nicknamed The Grease Trucks, they sold sandwiches piled high with the most artery-clogging foods possible. A dizzying variety of death sentences on a bun were available. They even had colorful names to help pitch the sale to the drunken college crowd. The Fat Cat was the original but as the trucks began competing with each other for death-on-a-bun supremacy: The Fat Bitch, Fat Bulls, and The Fat Darryl also came into vogue. The latter overtaking the popular Fat Cat in sales, featured chicken fingers, french fries and melted mozzarella cheese on a sandwich roll.

Cleo rolled her eyes, not taking her face out of the magazine, No egg on mine, please. She lamented, ever the bitch.

No egg? You have to have egg on a pork roll, egg and cheese. It’s right in the name. You’re not doing it Jersey otherwise. Egg persisted.

Is that why they call you Egg, because you have some kind of hard-on for eggs?

No. That’s just my name. Egg. he said, matter-of-fact.

She rolled her eyes at him. She suspected it had more to do with his body shape then his birth certificate, but she wasn’t about to get into a fight over it. Whatever, just make mine without the egg.

We’re in for two pork roll Fat Cats each. Pauly called from the back, making it crystal clear to Egg they were still team players.

Mitch made the point crystal clear, Yeah, we’re going to keep it Jersey plus one, mother fucker!

They pulled up to The Peter Pank Diner. It wasn’t the most famous diner in New Jersey but it held its own in Jersey diner notoriety. It’s known as ‘The Pank’ to its regular patrons. The diner is the embodiment of the Jersey eatery, home-style cooking available for a reasonable price, available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If you wanted to stop on your way to work for an egg sandwich and a cup of coffee the diner is your best bet. If you’re drunk after a night out at the clubs and you’re not ready to go home, the diner is your spot. Looking for an easy Sunday afternoon brunch with the family? The diner is the shoe that fits because ‘The Pank’ was a place you could keep it Jersey.

Egg parked the IROC and told the other three to wait in the car while he got the order. Mitch and Pauly sat scowling, with their knees all but up to their chests in the cramped back seat. Cleo kept her face in the Weird NJ magazine. The silence was uneasy.

Cleo knew that Egg’s friends were not fond of her presence in their group; she was taking their best friend’s attention away. She broke the silence hoping to make things right, Check this shit out! she said turning around to look at them both between the two front seats. She pointed out an article buried somewhere three quarters of the way through the magazine.

Weird NJ was another unique Jersey export. The magazine, started in 1989, took the journey from cult status newsletter to full-fledged pop culture national sensation. The magazine is a sort of travel guide. Instead of featuring popular, historical or educational points of interest, Weird NJ focused on odd or quirky places of urban legend. In short, it’s published exactly for people like Egg and his small band of urban explorers.

Cleo showed them an article about an interesting factory in Trenton. Trenton is the state’s capital. It is also the pork roll capital of the world, thus by proxy it is the capital city of those looking to keep it Jersey as well. Cleo gave Mitch and Pauly the Reader’s Digest version of the article.

Several years ago, a fire swept through one of Trenton’s popular pork roll factories. The family who owned and operated the business since the early 1900’s did not have the building insured. It has been standing unused for several years now while the family attempts to regroup and reopen the business. The article suggested it may take several more years to happen.

Mitch is still stone-faced towards Cleo but he’s curious despite himself, So you’re saying we go up to Trenton and check this place out?

That’s exactly what I am saying Mitch! You in, Pauly?

Pauly is shaking with violent anticipation at the prospect of exploring the old pork roll factory. Yes! he says with every ounce of his being, losing his grudge for Cleo in the moment.

Mitch gave him an elbow to the ribs that Cleo noticed despite his attempt to be subtle. Then shrugged, I don’t know Cleo, Egg wants to stop at Vintage Vinyl. You know how bad he wants to find the final Springsteen record to complete his collection. He thinks having the complete vinyl catalog of ‘The Boss’ is one of the top ways to keep it Jersey.

Pauly realized he was siding with the enemy, but couldn’t resist a chance at urban adventure, Egg might be up for this, Mitch. I mean we are talking about pork rolls here.

Egg returns with a big brown paper bag filled with their pork roll, egg and cheese sandwiches. The succulent aroma fills the car immediately. The sides of the bag soak in all the extraneous grease oozing out of the creases of the foil-wrapped Fat Cats. Egg handed out everyone’s sandwiches before the grease soaked bag broke under the weight of New Jersey’s finest cuisine.

Everyone began to unwrap their sandwiches as Cleo relayed the information to Egg.

Egg was always looking for definitive Jersey urban explorations. Most of the ventures involved trespassing, but he was always leery of adventures that would be a clear case of breaking and entering. If you got caught, the police were much less likely to just tell you to go home. Egg wasn’t interested in jail time.

Still, when it came to Cleo, Egg found his defenses crumbled faster than he would have liked. He was all in, despite his hesitations, which he didn’t voice for fear of looking less than macho in front of Cleo. He wasn’t sure Cleo was picking up on his attraction to her although his puppy dog behavior around her seemed much too obvious to Egg. Still, Cleo was stoic, a little flirtatious with him on occasion, but never enough to make Egg think she was into him.

Egg met Cleo at a horror convention a few months ago. Egg had a poster of the slasher movie, Alice, Sweet Alice, which he had signed by the cast of the movie who were doing a reunion at the New Jersey Horror convention. The movie is set in Paterson, New Jersey which was Egg’s main reason for being so gung ho about the movie. He wasn’t so much into horror movies as he was movies set in or about New Jersey.

Cleo walked up to him, blown away that Egg had his hands on a rare marquee poster signed by the whole cast. Cleo was a horror movie buff through and through; she studied them the way film students study French noir films. They got to talking, both discovering they liked going on these weird expeditions based on the odd places featured in Weird NJ. Though their motivations were different, their objectives were the same. Cleo has been going out on adventures with Egg and his buddies for a couple of weeks now.

The ride to Trenton took about an hour. They had enough time to pig-out on their pork roll, egg and cheese sandwiches and plot out a strategy. They hadn’t been to Trenton before and Egg was excited to be in the state’s capital, they were keeping it Jersey in a big way. The route to the factory was tangled in the urban jungle of Trenton. Despite being the capital, it was industrial for the most part, dotted with run-down neighborhoods. The nice areas were small oases in a desert of urban decay. Cleo navigated them with surprising ease to the building tucked away in an otherwise residential area of the city.

They arrived at Caylor Meatworks factory and found a place to park the car away from the building. They walked up to the building, a rather plain looking brick front facade with a white vinyl sided second floor. The factory seemed out of place nestled in among old houses and small two-family apartment buildings.

From the front it didn’t look fire-damaged at all. Egg and his friends got a bit nervous that the information they had was no good and the place had reopened. The building did seem vacant so they decided to sneak in through a bent out part of chain link fence to the factory’s driveway which ran alongside the building.

They got through undetected. Once on the premises, they saw that there was extensive fire damage. Charred remains of the inside piled up at the back of the driveway. Many burned out processing machines by the looks of it, other blackened debris like wood pallets and maybe some gutted out walls as well. There were some boarded up windows, the walls above smeared black from where smoke poured out during the fire.

There was also a garage door at the back of the driveway. Cleo motioned for them to go check that out as a possible way to gain entry. It may seem easy, but Egg had come to learn sometimes the simplest solution is the right one.

They tried the garage door, the four of them attempting to wedge their fingers under the door and lift. The door held fast, the mechanisms still intact. That was somewhat disheartening but understandable. It would be too easy for any would-be thieves to take off with large equipment from inside. It also could have been a sign that there was stuff inside worth protecting still, and this gave them hope.

Mitch and Pauly noticed a small rectangular window just above them boarded over with weather worn plywood. The wall itself was unscalable, but if they were able to hoist someone small enough up, they might be able to get the board off and get in. The three guys liked the plan. Cleo didn’t seem thrilled about the dirty work, especially since she was only wearing a mini skirt and fishnets. She had not come prepared to do some breaking and entering today despite this being her idea.

Due to Cleo’s hesitation they poked around the building a bit more. The residential dwellings on all four sides made it difficult to avoid detection elsewhere. Cleo breathed in deep and agreed to try to go in through the small window. If she could get it, she might be able to raise the garage door from inside just enough to let the others in. From there they would be able to check the place out undisturbed.

Mitch and Pauly were lanky. Egg didn’t figure they had the strength to hoist even Cleo’s slight frame up over their heads, so he was going to do the heavy lifting. Egg welled up with jealousy at the possibility of giving Mitch and Pauly a chance to manhandle Cleo. There was no way he was going to allow that even if they had the build of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Instead he told Mitch and Pauly to get on the ground on all fours so he could use their backs as a step ladder, giving that much more height.

Egg planted a foot on each of their backs and they held him up steady. He helped Cleo up on their backs and then lifted her up on his shoulders. He could feel the foot on Pauly start to waver a bit and sweat began to form on his brow. He could feel her trying to work the plywood off the window frame. He prayed it was in bad shape and would flake off the fasteners with little force.

Suddenly, Cleo somehow pulled herself up, not sitting on his shoulders but kneeling on them. The pain of her knees digging into the crook of his neck was excruciating and he fought hard to fight off the urge to crumble. At the same time he could feel both Mitch and Pauly start to shake under the stress. He wasn’t sure how much longer they would hold up.

He heard wood splinter above him and immediately the weight lifted off him. Cleo was off of him and in through the window so quickly that by the time he looked up she was out of sight. Egg jumped off Mitch and Pauly and they both let out a giant sigh of relief then collapsed to the blacktop.

Man, this feels like something right out of The Sopranos. Keeping it Jersey guys, all the way! Egg said.

Egg went over to the garage door and placed his ear near to it, trying to listen for Cleo to come over and open it up. He should have heard something by then. The window was on the wall adjacent to the garage door but he didn’t hear anything at all inside. After a few moments when Mitch and Pauly had caught their breaths and joined him at the garage door, Egg began to worry a bit.

Stay here, listen for her. he commanded the other two.

Egg walked back over to the window and called up to it in as loud a whisper as he could muster.

Cleo? Cleo! he called. No answer

Then from the window, a piercing scream, like something out of a horror movie.

Cleo! Egg screamed, his worry overriding his need to be discreet.

Fuck, Egg! Shut the fuck up, someone is going to hear us! Pauly called over to him in his own breathy yell.

Did you guys hear her? Egg’s called back.

They both nodded.

Shit! We have to get the fuck in there now!

Egg made a running charge at the garage door. Mitch and Pauly looked at him frozen in astonishment at his rash reaction. Egg’s bull charge may have bashed in the door by determination alone. He cut his charge short when the door began to rise on its own. Egg pulled up.

Egg, Mitch and Pauly stood puzzled as the garage door rolled up. It rose just high enough to allow them all entrance without having to duck down but no higher. Standing outside in the afternoon sun it was impossible to discern any details of the dark interior.

Mitch called into the blackness, Cleo?

Egg dismissed Mitch’s apprehension. She’s fucking around with us. Nice try. C’mon, let’s go!

"I don’t know