Children of Filth: Tulpa Chapbook Series

By Brian Knight

When a mysterious girl named Star arrives in the small town of Burroughs, Oregon, the other children begin to behave strangely.

Judi Key is uneasy with Star’s hold over her brother Joey, and is determined to uncover the power Star holds over him. What she discovers is a horror beyond her imagination.

Will Judi be able to stop Star and her Children of Filth from resurrecting Star’s dark father?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tulpa Books
• Release date: Jun 6, 2020

Book preview

Children of Filth

Tulpa Chapbook Series

Brian Knight

Contents

Brian Knight’s Knightmares

Children of Filth

About Brian Knight

This edition published by Tulpa Books. Copyright © 2018 by Brian Knight. Previously published in 2009 by Cargo Cult Press as a bonus story for the limited edition hardcover of Sex, Death, and Honey, and in 2012 by Gallows Press in The Gallows: An Anthology of Dark Fiction. All rights reserved.

This story is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental. No part of this publication may be reprinted, reproduced, transmitted, distributed, or used commercially for any reason without the permission of the author.

www.tulpabooks.com

Also by Brian Knight

Horror - Novels

Feral

Broken Angel

Hacks

Reservoir Gods (coming soon)

Horror - Omnibus

They Call Us Monsters (coming soon)

Reservoir Gods/They Call Us Monsters - Monster Double Feature (coming soon)

Horror - Chapbooks

Children of Filth

Heart of the Monster

Apocalypse Green

Johnny Junk

Death is Blind

Midnight Blues

The Beast Inside - The Berserkers, Part 1

Blood Rage - The Berserkers, Part 2

Horror - Collections

Dragonfly

Dangerous Toys (coming soon)

The Phoenix Girls - Fantasy

The Conjuring Glass (Book 1)

The Crimson Brand (Book 2)

The Heart of the Phoenix (Book 3)

The Misadventures of Butch Quick - Crime

A Face Full of Ugly - A Chapbook

Big Trouble in Little Boots - A Chapbook

Sex, Death, and Honey (Book 1)

Cut to the Quick (Book 2, coming soon)

Praise for Brian Knight

Brian Knight's writing shines with a dark brilliance. Douglas Clegg, author of The Children’s Hour

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Knight is a writer to watch. Ellen Datlow, Years Best Fantasy & Horror

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Say hello to horror’s next big thing. Brian Keene, author of The Rising

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One of today’s most exciting writers. Ed Gorman, author of The Dark Fantastic

Brian Knight’s Knightmares

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Children of Filth

Judi Key was walking down Main Street on her way to the Stinker Station, the only twenty-four hour convenience store in town, the first time saw the girl. Burroughs was a small town, even by Oregon’s standards, and Judi had lived there all of her fifteen years. She thought she knew everyone from school by face if not name, so the strange girl snagged her attention.

Maybe she’s home schooled, Judi thought, pausing to watch the girl. Never seen her at school.

As always during the past few weeks, the thought of school filled her with mingled excitement and frustration; excitement that the school year was almost over, summer vacation almost hers to enjoy, frustration that it was taking so long to arrive. The final days before vacation always seemed to drag.

The girl was skinny, very skinny. Her legs looked like flesh-colored sticks poking out beneath the hem of her dress. She had black hair that spilled over her shoulders and down her back, swinging past her flat no-cheeks butt almost to her ankles like a dirty black curtain. Judi had never seen hair that long on such a young girl, somewhere between eight and ten she guessed, around her brother Joey’s age. She thought it was a shame no one was grooming it properly for her, or teaching her how to groom it herself.

Judi had once had hair like that, brown rather than black, but thick and wavy, all the way down to her knees. She had loved it, though not quite as much as her mother, but it had been a lot of work. She’d cut most of it off a few years back and donated it to a charity that makes wigs for kids with cancer, and decided never to grow it out that long again. It was too much work.

The girl turned once, briefly, to face Judi before turning down Volmer Avenue.

She was almost pretty. She had large eyes, Judi couldn’t tell the color from across the street, a tiny little bump of a nose, and a small mouth with full lips that brought her most of the way there. Her pallid, blotchy skin, some kind of rash on her forehead and cheeks, and a chin