Spine: A Collection of Twisted Tales

By Steven Jenkins

Listen closely. A creak, almost too light to be heard…was it the shifting of an old house, or footsteps down the hallway? Breathe softly, and strain to hear through the silence. That breeze against your neck might be a draught, or an open window.

Slip into the pages of SPINE and you'll be persuaded to leave the lights on and door firmly bolted. From Steven Jenkins, bestselling author of FOURTEEN DAYS and BURN THE DEAD, this horror collection of eight stories go beyond the realm of terror to an entirely different kind of creepiness. Beneath innocent appearances lurk twisted minds and scary monsters, from soft scratches behind the wall, to the paranoia of walking through a crowd and knowing that every single eye is locked on you. In this world, voices lure lost souls to the cliff's edge and illicit drugs offer glimpses of things few should see. Scientists tamper with the afterlife, and the strange happenings at a nursing home are not what they first seem. 

So don't let that groan from the closet fool you. The monster is hiding right where you least expect it.

"If you love scary campfire stories of ghosts, demonology, and all things that go bump in the night, then you'll love this horror collection by author Steven Jenkins."
COLIN DAVIES – Director/Producer of BAFTA winning BBC's The Coal-House. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Different Cloud Publishing
• Release date: Apr 7, 2015
• ISBN: 9781386511717

Steven Jenkins

Steven Jenkins is a San Francisco-based cultural critic whose writings on film, music, art, and literature appear in national periodicals, exhibition catalogues, and artist monographs. He is the author of City Slivers and Fresh Kills: The Films of Gordon Matta-Clark and Model Culture: James Casebere, Photographs 1975-1996.

Book preview

Spine

A Collection of Twisted Tales

Steven Jenkins

Contents

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1.THE OUR-SIDE

2.CRAWL SPACE

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

3.ALL EYES ON ME

4.IT'S A WONDERFUL DEATH

5.THE DEVIL’S APPRENTICE

6.WATCH OVER ME

7.THE HOME

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

8.ONE PILL FOR PERFECT VISION

Little Horrors - Also Available

Burn the Dead - Also Available

Liam Tate - Also Available

Touch - Also Available

Blue Skin - Also Available

Ghost Novels - Also Available

Novellas - Also Available

Thea - Also Available

Twisted Locker - Podcast

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About Author

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Copyright

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For a limited time, you can download FREE copies of Amber, Under, Rotten Bodies, The Den, A Cure for Everything, and Thread.

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THE OUR-SIDE

He’s coming, Nathan whispers from under the bed, his grip on my arm tightening.

"Shhhh. You have to stay very still, I warn, my faint words almost inaudible. He’ll hear you."

The creaking of floorboards, the sudden ice-cold chill in the air, causes Nathan to tremble. He squeezes my arm even harder, his tiny fingernails digging into my skin. He’s found us, Mum.

I say nothing, my stare locked on the two large leather-booted feet directly in front of us. Pulling Nathan closer, my hand over his mouth, I watch the dead man circle the bed. "Naaathaaan, he hisses deep from lungs that no longer exist. There’s no need to hide. I just want to play with you."

He knows we’re under here. I’m sure of it. I can sense it. He’s taunting us, revelling in our misery, our fear, like he does every night. I wish we had a better place to hide, somewhere a little more cunning than under the bed. But he moves so fast; there’s never any moment to hide. It’s only a matter of time before he finds us, hurts us, tries to smother us. Locks on doors and windows don’t keep the dead out. They always find a way in; through the cracks, through the air vents, the chimneys. We had the chimney sealed up last year, like most of the free world. But we were too late. The dead came for us just one year after that fateful day.

The day the world changed forever.

That’s the trouble with the world, with science: it can’t be left in the dark about anything. It has to delve, to pick at every mystery and miracle that creeps under the noses of scientists, and doctors. Why can’t we leave some anonymity to faith, or even fantasy? Do we really need to know how every clock ticks? How every engine runs? What it really is to be dead?

Is there nothing left out there to explore?

When Doctor Conrad Leigh Wilson first tried to prove the existence of ghosts, no one took him seriously. I mean, he wasn’t exactly the first to attempt it, to set up a camera, heat-sensitive equipment, electromagnetic detectors. All this had been done to death by minds even greater than his own.

But no one expected Wilson to actually succeed. To show the world, without a shadow of doubt, that death is not the end. Death is merely the beginning.

You see, the great, inspiring doctor invented a device: the use of powerful electromagnet fields and radiation to hold a spirit in one place, long enough to weaken it, to bring it to its knees. This was his breakthrough, his life’s work, his gift to us all. And now he could prove how naïve the sceptics were. Some thought that the study was an abomination of God, of Creation itself. While others believed it gave solace in knowing through scientific fact that the afterlife no longer had to be taken on good faith.

But for me, for my late husband, James, and many others, it petrified us. We couldn’t shake off the feeling that something terrible was about to happen.

We couldn’t have been more right.

Once the world accepted the existence of ghosts, suddenly every house, every school, every office, became a breeding ground for the departed. Almost as if the great doctor had opened the floodgates for the dead to come out of the shadows, out from the dark corners, to join the rest of us. The living.

Over the next few years, numbers of reported disturbances skyrocketed. You could watch, with your very own eyes, loved ones pass away, only to rise again. But the good ones never stay on earth for more than a few minutes, just time enough to bid their farewells before being summoned towards a bright, blinding light. To peace.

Only the twisted, sadist, tormented sprits get left behind. There is no light for them. No Hell. No judgement. There is only the earth, to wallow in their mistakes, their misery, their self-pity.

But now we see them. Every last one of them. And every day we watch them gain strength, power. Hatred. You can run, but they’ll catch you. You can hide, but they will find you. The dead are always near, always watching.

Nathan doesn’t really understand what’s going on, what these things are. He thinks they’re just bad people, strangers to stay away from. He’s only six for Christ’s sake. He’s just a baby. But he knows they’re dangerous. I’ve taught him well. The line between life and death has been crossed; it has lost all meaning. He misses his father dearly, like any child would. I know that much, even though he can barely remember the man. He still talks about him, still asks me to tell stories about him. I tell him about all good times we had, all the wonderful days spent at the beach, on sunny holidays, weekends at his grandparents’ farm. I don’t tell him about the bad stuff. He doesn’t need to know yet. One day I’ll tell him though. When he’s older. When he can fully understand what kind of a father James was.

Still is.

I’ll tell him the truth one day. Tell him what I did to his beloved father.

Mummy! Nathan screams, a cloud of cold air coming out of his mouth. He’s got my leg!

I turn to see James, crouched down on the floor, his hand on Nathan’s exposed ankle. "Leave him