The Weird: A Supernatural Horror

By Matt Shaw

Critically acclaimed bestselling author, Matt Shaw - #1 bestseller in Horror Fiction with hundreds of 5 star reviews.

 There's something in the shadows which lurks there unseen except on the odd occasion when we think we see them in the corner of our eye. We turn to look but there is nothing there. At least that's what we think. But they're always there and they're always watching and waiting and shaping our dreams into the nightmares based upon our weirdest phobias... Their goal is simple; to scare us to death so that our souls burst from within leaving nothing but an empty space for them to fill. When we wake in the morning, we are no longer the same person. We are gone, trapped in the shadows...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Matt Shaw Publications
• Release date: Oct 2, 2018
• ISBN: 9781722241346

Book preview

Copyright © 2018 by Matt Shaw

Matt Shaw Publications

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof

may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever

without the express written permission of the publisher

except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

The characters in this book are purely fictitious.

Any likeness to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

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Table of Contents

Copyright Page

The Weird

MATT SHAW

The Weird

MATT SHAW

Prologue

Another restless night of tossing and turning. Sweat dripping from his pores as the night terrors took a hold for the sixth night on the run. His eyes frantically twitching from side to side as the horrors, pulled from his subconscious, came at him from all angles. Thoughts, concerns, stresses, worries that his waking mind had claimed a victory over; a short lived win as the unwanted thoughts came back ten-fold. Next to him, his partner woke. Another restless night for her too with her own – more peaceful – dreams disturbed by the strange noises coming from her husband.

‘Drink this,’ she’d said before they’d turned in for the night. A warm drink of Chamomile Tea which was supposedly meant to help induce a calmer sleep, not that he believed in such things. For a quiet life, from his wife at least, he humoured her anyway and drank the tea – all the time, trying to hide his disdain for the rancid taste. To him, if it wasn’t English Breakfast Tea, it simply wasn’t worth drinking.

The scream from deep within his dream spilled out into the real world as he woke with a start and sat bolt upright in bed. His heart racing as his mind struggled to comprehend that this was the real world now and he’d, once again, escaped the dream. His wife’s heart was racing too. She was used to him tossing and turning, even moaning in his sleep, but this was the first time he had woken so violently.

‘Just a dream,’ she reassured him, noticing the panicked way in which he was looking all around the room from his seated position.

His eyes fixed to the corner of the room, the darkest gap between the wardrobe and the wall. His eyes wide. His heart beat quicker still.

‘You don’t see it?’

His wife frowned, confused. She followed his gaze to the corner of the room.

‘See what?’ she asked.

He screamed again and bent over in severe pain, clutching at his stomach as a heavy rot took a hold from deep within. His wife jumped from the bed, concern all over her face.

‘What is it?’ she asked again.

He let out another cry of pain, unable to form actual words as something continued to twist from somewhere inside; a ripping sensation which felt as though it started at his naval and slowly moved its way up to his neck.

‘Michael?! What is it?’

His back arched and he slammed back into a dormant position, his head falling back into the indentation he’d made upon his pillow over the years. His hands still clutching at his stomach as he continued to scream the house down. His wife, Julia, grabbed at her cell phone resting upon the bedside cabinet. Yanking it from the charging unit, she dialled for the emergency services as Michael yelled out again.

‘Can you not see them?’ He screamed. She looked at her husband as the operator asked what service she required.

‘Ambulance...’

‘Can you not see them?’ He screamed again. His eyes still fixed to the corner of the room; the dark spot between wardrobe and wall. The shadows. He closed his eyes again and let out a God-awful roar as – before Julia’s own eyes – his belly button ripped open allowing a dark pool of blood to trickle out.

‘You have to come quickly,’ Julia spoke down the phone with a quiver in her voice. ‘My husband...’

Michael screamed as the rip in his abdomen tore up his stomach, up his chest and all the way to his neck. A splatter of dark red claret spitting from his mouth and splattering back down upon the clammy skin of his face. Julia screamed too as she dropped the phone to the carpeted floor. Her eyes fixed on her husband in horror as his entire torso opened up as though each side was being pulled by forces unseen. Her screams of terror continued despite her husband’s own screams ceasing. His eyes still open and fixed on the corner of the room; the darker shadow. His eyes, unblinking. The blackest part of the shadow, seemingly moving. Seemingly whispering.

1.

Sarah looked at the invitation, posted through the front door moments earlier and sealed within a black envelope with gold writing. It had stood out from the other birthday cards posted through, and the usual junk mail she was used to receiving. The contents, both a pleasant surprise and also different from the rest of the birthday greetings she had received. This was less a card and more a gift; an invitation to a relaxing spa-weekend at some place she had never heard of before. She looked towards her wife, Macy, and smiled. Like she hadn’t done enough for her already? She’d organised a weekend away for the two of them too!

‘Thank you,’ she said as she felt her eyes start to well at the generosity and thought behind the gift. With a diagnosis of gigantism in her teenage years, and a diagnosis of hip dysplasia in both of her hips – the thought of going somewhere for a couple of days and letting her aches and stresses be treated with soothing massages was more than she could have hoped for. A relaxing weekend being more special to her after the recent struggles with her bad temper too. A chance to truly unwind for both her body and her mind.

Macy shook her head. ‘As much as I would love to take credit for that,’ she said, ‘that’s nothing to do with me.’

Sarah frowned. She looked back down at the invitation. There was no mention as to who had sent it. There was