Horrific World: Book II

By Bobby Brown

Horrific World is a thrilling collection of short stories loosely based on urban legends in various countries. If you're a true horror fan and crave thrills and chills, this may be the book for you. The books are a series but can be read in any order.

Book I

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bobby Brown
• Release date: Jul 29, 2021
• ISBN: 9781737518761

Book preview

Let’s start with the legalities:

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. Pictures are not actual representation of people or location.

Copyright © 2021 by Bobby Brown

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any form on by electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission of the copyright owner, except brief quotes used in reviews.

ISBN: 978-1-7375187-3-0

AUTHOR ’S NOTE

Welcome to my world of horror!

I’ve always been an avid reader with a great big imagination. Horror, mystery, and romance are my absolute favorite genres. As a child, I loved hopping from one imaginary world after another. Next to reading, I love fictionalizing my own literary world. I created these short stories for other fans of horror, so you too can quickly hop around this horrific world.

Prepare for thrills and chills and let’s start our journey. You’ll see the horror that happens in other countries. You might even see your country of origin and discover the horror in your own backyard. But, if you don’t see your horrific country in this book, you might find it somewhere in the series.

Let’s go!

Bobby Brown

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title Page

OLD BONES

SINS OF THE FATHER

PCHUM BEN DIE

WANDERING WOMAN

SAND OF THE GODS

DEADLY CHARM

THE GUARDIAN

BURIED

FAITHLESS MIRROR

TAINTED HOUSE

SKIN DEEP

CHILD EATERS

WELL FED

AFGHANISTAN

OLD BONES

It had been nearly a year since the American and British soldiers first set foot in Afghanistan, ostensibly to assist the people there in battling the Taliban. However, Corporal Daniel Brooks was beginning to question whether anyone really wanted them there or not. He’d recently been assigned to the base at Observation Post Rock in the Helmand Province, although calling it a base was being overly generous. It was really more a thirty-foot high pile of dirt overlooking the nearby poppy fields with some very barebones wood and stone structures atop it.

Shortly after arriving, Daniel met a local named Hakeem who had been helping the occupying forces navigate unfamiliar terrain and communicate with nearby residents. They bonded over their shared love of an old, obscure sitcom from the 1970s called Garvey’s Garage.

Daniel had never known anyone else who’d even heard of it, let alone seen it, so he was ecstatic to find someone with whom he could share his fondness for the show. One day, Daniel had just finished his guard duty when he was on his way back to the tent serving as the barracks when he ran into Hakeem.

Where are my pants? Daniel said to him, repeating one of the show’s catchphrases.

On the roof again, Garvey, Hakeem responded in kind, and the pair shared a laugh, ignoring the strange looks some of the other soldiers gave them. Where are you off to, my friend?

I gotta get some shuteye, Daniel replied. Been up almost thirty-six hours straight. Where you going?

Remember how that entrance to the old fort beneath the hill was uncovered when your people were taking the Rock? Apparently, the excavation team found some books and other assorted writings, so the captain has asked me to help translate them. He believes they could have been left by the Taliban before evacuating.

Sounds like a ton of fun, Daniel said sarcastically. Aren’t you glad you signed up for this gig instead of a cruise through the Caribbean?

Hakeem laughed. Someday, my friend, we’ll both be out of here, and we can sit on a beach somewhere, sipping cold beer and arguing whether they should reboot Garvey or not.

Sounds like a plan, buddy. Let me know if you find anything interesting in those books.

Daniel was fast asleep when Jordan, one of his squadmates, shook him awake violently. Out of pure instinct, he lashed out with his fist, barely missing Jordan’s nose.

What the hell’re you doing? he growled angrily, swinging his feet off his cot and onto the ground. He peered outside the tent and saw a sliver of the moon poking out above some thick, black clouds. It’s gotta be, like, three in the morning!

Bro, get dressed and grab your gear, Jordan commanded. Captain wants you down at the dig site ASAP. Daniel let out a groan. Captain Carter had become obsessed with the ruins beneath the Rock, and it was driving everyone crazy. They were here to fight terrorists, not go on some Indiana Jones-esque archaeology spree. For a brief moment, he considered just getting back in bed and taking the demerits and latrinecleaning duty in the morning, until Jordan added, Hakeem’s gone missing.

This made Daniel leap up and rush to gear up. He wasn’t going to abandon his friend, especially if something had happened to him due to the captain’s preoccupation with whatever was down there. He silently swore to himself that if Hakeem died in that hole because of Carter, he’d happily accept a court martial in exchange for beating that man half to death. Once he was in his fatigues and strapped on his weapon and gear, he followed Jason down to the excavation site.

Corporal Brooks, Carter said with a nod when the pair arrived. They both saluted, although Daniel did so begrudgingly. We’ve run into a bit of a problem with your little local buddy. I’d asked him to look over some books and documents we found down there, and in the middle of working, he suddenly grabbed everything and jumped down into the hole. We tried coaxing him out, but he refuses to listen, and he’s threatening to burn it all if we send anyone in after him. I want you to convince him to come out, return the intel to us, and give himself up.

This didn’t make any sense. It wasn’t like Hakeem to do something like that, especially when under the supervision of the captain. Daniel wanted to get to the bottom of what had happened, so he agreed to speak with his friend.

Where is he? Daniel asked, shining his flashlight into the hole. All he could see were some beat-up walls and debris.

When we initially tried to go in after him, he retreated to one of the deeper chambers, Carter explained. I don’t know which one exactly, but I’d guess he’s a good way in.

Alright.

Daniel crawled through the hole, closing his eyes to keep the dirt and dust he kicked up from getting in them. He’d decided not to bring his rifle with him, but he could hear the metal in his sidearm strapped to his leg rattle as he slid into the first chamber and got up, crouching to keep from hitting his head on the earth above him. At one point, this was probably a watchtower of some sort, but time had buried it beneath the hill, forgotten for centuries as new structures were built on top of it. Hakeem had told him that it was originally used by various tribes to launch attacks on nearby rivals, although who had originally constructed it was unknown. Some scholars believed it might even date all the way back to Alexander the Great,