The Rose Thorn Man

By Tyler Grant

Freddy T. Rookus is haunted by a recurring nightmare that becomes all too real after years of terrifying torture. When a mangled, rotting figure dubbed, The Rose Thorn Man, crawls out of the dark shadows of Rookus’s mind, he unleashes his evil in spectacular fashion. Rookus quickly learns that one cannot trust what one sees, and reality is shifting under his feet. Don’t miss Tyler Grant’s The Rose Thorn Man, a prequel to his upcoming novel, Quarantine Fever.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tyler Grant
• Release date: Jun 6, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463096987

Tyler Grant

Tyler Grant is the author of dozens of comedy, suspense, and horror stories, including the popular “Tyler Grant’s Series of Voices”. He holds a Master’s in English and worked as a news journalist for six years prior to writing short fiction and novels. You can follow him on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Tyler-Grant-Books. Be sure to like his page, and follow for updates regarding his latest work. Grant lives in Washington State.

Book preview

The Rose Thorn Man

A picture containing drawing, food Description automatically generated with medium confidence

Copyright © 2020 Tyler Grant

All rights reserved.

ISBN:

DEDICATION

For Joe,

who introduced me to my beautiful bride.

Author’s note

The Rose Thorn Man is real… at least, he’s as real as any childhood nightmare. For years I wanted to bring him to life in one of my stories but couldn’t find the right context for which to introduce him. The short story anthology Tyler Grant’s Series of Voices provided an appropriate forum. 

This story is a small bridge between tales I’ve previously told. Freddy T. Rookus plays a minor role in my novella, Quarantine Fever. I’ve included a sample of that story within this volume.

The idea behind writing The Rose Thorn Man was very simple. I wanted to write a nightmare. I’d never done it before. I’ve written horror fiction for years but had never touched on what nightmares sometimes do to us. They’re creepy because there is no boundary for which they are  confined. Nightmares are free to roam the landscape of our subconscious.

What’s really scary, is when the nightmare gets a little too real and steps out of the shadows of your dream, and into your waking world.

-Tyler Grant  June, 2020 (Olympia, Washington)

the rose thorn man

Freddy Rookus used to have a terrible nightmare. It was a recurring, awful thing that caused him to wet the bed as a little boy. It was like gum on the bottom of his mental shoe. Except this gum wouldn’t come off. His world was safe and warm in the daylight hours, but when the darkness came, and it was time for bed, he felt instant dread wash over him like a cold wave of seclusion.

A voice in his brain kept him company.

You have to go to bed now…

To which, he often replied in whisper, If we do… the bad man will come for us… he’ll ram that rose thorn right down our throat…

On one particularly fearful evening, Freddy’s mother walked into the room and asked, Who are you talking to?

He didn’t want to tell her the truth. She couldn’t know that her son talked to an imaginary friend. What would she think? She’d send him away. Worse… she’d tell his father. And