Cosmic Aegis

By Nyhl Kreeg

When every decision begets regret, deterministic thoughts may poison your mind. When decisions are no longer yours to take, that poison may set you free.

Daniel Haight chose the career his parents had laid out for him and sacrificed more than he is willing to accept, but when he watched a manic man taking his own life alone in the woods, he cannot contain his remorse any longer. Becoming a mere spectator of his own actions, he recognizes himself for the puppet he had always been, and begins to understand what the man was running from.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nyhl Kreeg
• Release date: Nov 21, 2022
• ISBN: 9798215878811

Nyhl Kreeg

Raised in the valleys and vineyards winding through the German forests past castles and ecclesiastical edifices, my fascination with the horrors hiding in the dark and within the human soul took root from the cradle. At the age of six I wrote my first short story, and I continued to express my inchoate passion for the horror genre throughout school. Once I had discovered the works brought forth by the romantic movement and the Victorian era, my love for English literature became manifest. Some years later, when I had been holding the abyss’s gaze for too long, I was confronted with the metaphysics of philosophy, which influenced my perspective of true horror and encouraged me to put my phantasms into words.

Book preview

Chapter 1

Weather forecasts are often frowned upon, but maybe this time I should have heeded their warning. My day out in the woods quickly became a trip on rough seas.

A sheer deluge of hard hitting rain dissolved the ground below me, pulling my boots deep into the roiling mud. Strong winds whipped the birches, their leaves and branches surging like waves about to break. The afternoon sun was imprisoned behind a pall of clouds, the sky was concealed by the turmoil of tree tops, and the violent rainfall blurred my sight, leaving me in near darkness amidst a vast forest.

Frequent streaks of lightning penetrated the pandemonium and briefly illuminated the repetitious landscape, but I was trapped nonetheless. Chased by the ever approaching crack of thunder, I expected the worst had yet to come. If I couldn’t find shelter soon, the cold wind beating my drenched clothes would sap all warmth from my shivering body.

I slogged through the mire with strenuous steps, shielding my eyes from the sting of heavy drops, knowing neither where I was going or what else to do.

Another flash of lightning only revealed an endless expanse of trees, no paths nor trails, signs or posts, any landmarks whatsoever. I did not remember venturing this far into the woods, away from the routes of civilization guiding travelers safely through the perils of nature we have grown so vulnerable to, and my disoriented senses drove me further into the untrodden.

The thunder pealed again, closer and closer, but in between the roaring of clouds a different sound fell distinctly on my ears — the vicious report of a firing gun, near enough to spike my bloodstream with even more adrenaline. With strained eyes I peered through the rain while increasing my efforts to traverse the glutinous mud, waiting for the next strike of lightning to expose the shooter, or the next bullet I would never hear coming.

Minutes of frenzied panic elapsed with harrowing slowness, but a second shot never occurred. I gave my heart a moment of respite and considered an alternative course of action that seemed more rational the more I thought about it. Either I would stumble further through the unchanging forest in hope of finding any form of shelter, or I follow the direction of the now silenced gunfire and... see where it came from. There had to be somebody who took the shot and might be able to help me. Perhaps just a hunter shooting game. Even a potentially hostile poacher would increase my chances of survival; and so I made a decision.

A sound reverberating through the