Laugh, Cry, Die: A Collection Of Short Stories

By Cathy Pace Matthews, Matt La Verda and Patricia Knight

From a woman whose family has blocked her out of their lives to a little fairy princess that can lead you out of this world if you’re not careful you’ll find something to draw you in. A creature waits for you below the surface of the lake meant to leave you screaming while a malformed baby that looks more like a monster than human waits for you to make the wrong move. What is the scariest thing you think you could run into in the woods? Well you’re wrong.
I along with two very talented young writers, Patricia Knight and Matt La Verda, who I’m spotlighting in this book have done our best to give you stories that will amuse, entertain, and scare you to death. So come on...

Laugh, Cry, Die

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cathy Pace Matthews
• Release date: Aug 29, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370556717

Cathy Pace Matthews

I love the twisted and macabre. I also love the old horror where the thing that went bump in the night scared you and not all the blood gushing from a jagged wound that is more likely to gross you out. There is a difference. Don’t get me wrong I can do gore and quite well when I need to.I’m also not a young adult author. I’m way too old for that and personally at this point in my life I want to read a book that involves men and women over twenty five and under one hundred and twenty five. If you’re younger than that I don’t think you’ll care and if you’re older than that, then God bless you and let me know, I’ll change the upper end of the timeline.I tend to be outspoken and nothing is sacred when it comes to my writing. Well that part isn’t entirely true. The farm in the Blood Lines series is and I don’t apologize for that. I started writing because of that farm.I strive to create the unusual and different and that’s not always easy, as a matter of fact, it’s hard. I try hard not to do the tried and true.When I read a horror story I want to read a horror story. Can it have love and caring in it? Sure, but let’s keep things in perspective. I want to scare you and I’ll leave it up to other really good authors, and there are some really good ones, to give you all that other stuff.I set out to write horror. I will take you to places in my books you’ve never been before and along the way I may make you laugh because what fun is real horror if it can’t make you laugh on occasion? The good part about the humor, you still have to turn the page and what waits for you there might not be so funny.I have also recently become a producer for the short horror film, She Summoned Him. I'm looking forward to the the release.I'm married to a wonderful man, Buddy, and between us we have three very beautiful daughters. We love to travel in our converted 1963 Greyhound 4106 and discover new places and meeting new people. I grew up with four wonderful brothers, one of which is no longer with us. I was born in Mississippi, grew up in Tennessee, and fell in love with Missouri as well as a man who comes from there.I am surprised at how much writing has helped me grow as a person. I pay a lot more attention to things around me than I used to and can find a story in almost everything I see and hear. I have also learned what a truly dark sense of humor I have. I love making people raise an eyebrow at me on occasion.My husband and I were recently at a local restaurant and were picking at one another. The waiter walked up about that time and I asked if they had an oven large enough to put a body in. He asked why and after a short explanation with a wicked little gleam in his eye he told me they did. What concerned me was that wicked little gleam. I have since found out that a lot of restaurants do have ovens big enough to hold a human body. My suggestion to you is not to make the waiting staff of any eating establishment angry. You might end in up on the menu the next night.With seven books of my own under my belt, at present count, nine short story books, one exceptional book of short stories along with eight other gifted writers and the next one in the Blood Lines Series that I'm working on I'm pretty happy with where I am in my life right now.

Book preview

Index

Thrillers

He Should Have Given Me a Divorce

Can’t People Read

Alone and Afraid

The Bridge

Humor Non-Fiction

That Man is Going to Give Me a Heart Attack

Just Walking Home From School

I Love You Buddy, But…

The Chocolate Covered Donut

Horror

The Person Who Wasn’t There

The Darkest Shadow

I Only Promised Not to Kill You

Beneath the Surface

A Contract Killer

Cold Encounter

Don’t Think

The Canyon

Unburied Secrets

Tiner Lake 1903 – Prologue to Family Ties

The Drive – An excerpt from Family Ties

Touch Your Heart

And Then You Were Gone

The Fairy Prince

Life’s Lesson

The Old Country Store

When Halloween Was Halloween

Fantasy

Nine Lives

Spotlighting two great new authors

Desperately Seeking No One

Matt La Verda

And

Fog House

Patricia Knight

Dedication

Afterword

About the Authors

He Should Have Given Me a Divorce

She had wanted to end things with dignity. She had wanted them to end on her terms. She had deserved that much but he hadn’t allowed it. He had done everything he could to stop the divorce. It didn’t matter that he was the one who had been caught having an affair and still was. He had refused to let her go and done everything he could to make it as messy as he possibly could.

Rita stood up and went to the kitchen to wash her hands and get herself a drink. It was hard not knowing what to do from this point on. He had made everything so damn hard. Well she would make him pay for it.

Rita hoped she had gotten everything right. She knew it was iffy but she had done the research. Oh not on any computer in her home but in libraries and random places throughout the city. It hadn’t been easy but she had bought what she had begun to think of as throw away computers at pawn shops and online. She had managed to never use her own name and had set up several false profiles on the internet. Was it perfect? Of course not, no crime every really was, but if you were careful enough, diligent enough, and did everything you could to get it right you might get lucky. That was what she was hoping for here.

Going back into the bedroom she lay down next to her husband’s body. She didn’t bother to look at him and she knew she wouldn’t disturb him. Hell nothing was going to disturb him now.

She had positioned his laptop on the nightstand on his side of the bed. It was important that it be seen as soon as possible. She had used the time he had spent with his whore to plant evidence of internet searches. Around her friends she had taken on the personal of a concerned wife who was not only worried about her husband’s state of mind but even letting them believe she was concerned for her own safety. She had done everything she could think of to lead law enforcement to her husband.

Taking a deep breath Rita picked up his hand with the gun resting in it. She positioned the gun and his hand next to her head and slipped her thumb into the guard of the trigger over his index finger. Lifting the gun slightly she fired the gun letting the bullet pass over her and hitting the wall just past her.

Now came the tricky part. She had to do the next shot in a way that the gun would fall back and land next to his body making it look like he had shot himself. This had been the hardest part, doing the research on how guns might fall when a person shot themselves. She had to get this one just right.

She looked around the room to make sure she hadn’t forgotten anything then positioned herself so she was facing her husband. She had faked a fall earlier to give her an opportunity to scratch the dead bastard lying next to her so his blood and skin was under her nails. She had been walking toward him and he did what she hoped he would and reached out to catch her. Rita had taken that moment to reach out and drag her nails down his forearms.

Rita picked his hand up again and pointed the gun at the center of her forehead. Placing both hands on the gun so there would be blow back on both she took one last deep breath and just before pulling the trigger the last thing she thought was I hope this works.

***

It was a couple of days before both bodies were found. The deaths were ruled as a murder suicide. Although there were a few strange things to the scene it was ultimately ruled that the husband killed his wife. It was obvious from the scratch marks on her husband that she had put up a fight. There were even bruise marks on the wife’s upper arms where the bastard must have grabbed her.

It didn’t take long to fill in the whole story. The husband had been caught in an affair and when his wife filed for divorce he had evidently fought it and finally decided to end both his and his wife’s life.

Back to Index

Can’t People Read

Crime has been on the rise all throughout our little town. Most of my neighbors have been complaining a lot about the problem but none of them seem to know what to do. Most had responded but spending more and more time behind closed locked doors coming out only when it was absolutely necessary. True, several in this neighborhood had been the unfortunate victims of break-ins and one poor old man was even killed during a home invasion. Recently however they had taken notice that the crime rate in this little community has gone down, a lot.

They didn’t seem to wonder why the crime has gone down around here and I guess it’s best if no one ask too many question, you know the old ‘don’t look a gift horse in the mouth’ thing. I’m assuming that’s how they are all handling it anyway. It was only referred to in hushed whispers and I personally don’t really like to talk about it at all if I could help it.

My reasons for not wanting to discuss it was quite different however. When someone breaks into my home they will find me here and ready to defend myself and my home.

Of course this makes for a messy situation if you do have to protect yourself. I mean it’s unlikely that once someone breaks in they will simply turn around and leave especially if the person confronting them is some old lady, so what do you do? I won’t go into that but let’s just say I’m not worried in the least.

I just wish people would learn to read and pay heed to what it is they are reading. It would save me so much time and energy if they did. After all, I did post a sign.

Warning

A Writer Lives In This House.

I Do Nothing But Sit Around All Day Thinking Of Ways To Kill,

Dismember, And Disposing Of People.

Believe Me I Know How To Get Rid Of The Bodies.

Do You Really Think It’s A Good Idea For You To Break Into

My House And Mess With My Stuff?

If You Do Then You Have Been Warned

And Whatever Happens To You Is On Your Own Head.

I Need The Practice Anyway, It’s Been A While.

Back to Index

Alone and Afraid

The young girl sat quietly playing with something so intently she didn’t hear the man coming up behind her. She cooed to the object that had her so completely lost in her endeavors.

Now sit up straight baby, you’re making it hard for me to dress you. She continued to fumble with the little outfit as she was attempting to manipulate the stiff little limbs of the baby doll she was trying to dress.

The man watched the child silently and was in awe of the almost quiet calm she portrayed. She had been missing for over six hours at least. He didn’t understand how she could have possibly gotten this far back into the woods by herself but she did appear to be alone. The child’s long blond hair helped to hide the doll the child was playing with.

The man shuttered as he thought of this innocent child being out here alone and unprotected. She was such an innocent little thing that would make a perfect victim for the wrong kind of person. The man shuttered again at the thought.

People had been searching everywhere around the area trying to find her. The child’s mother had called as soon as she noticed the child was missing but there was no way of really knowing how long it had been before her mother had noticed she was gone. At