Moral Strata

By Nyhl Kreeg

In the twilight of morals the human conscience finds refuge. Hiding from the sun yet afraid of the dark, we erect walls to protect us from the unknown. Nonetheless, as night falls, our fallacies will become evident, but the time for repentance might already be up.

 

Confronted with the consequences of his deplorable life, Blake Davis accepts the dubious help of a stranger. Her intentions he does not dare question — the alternative much worse — as she cracks open a gate to the afterlife. There, madness strikes the hearts of those found wanting, sending Blake on a hopeless mission through a realm of dreadful insight.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nyhl Kreeg
• Release date: Dec 4, 2022
• ISBN: 9798215973707

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

Those infernal three dots, always leaving you waiting for a reply, mostly leaving you disappointed; they disappear, reappear, disappear again. Spit it out already. It never stops being annoying, no matter how often you have to deal with those kind of people. They don’t really want to talk to you — make business with you — but they just keep coming. My luck, I guess; it still annoys me all the same.

I asked him again; raised the stakes.

‘Do you want it or not? It’s the last I got.’

That wasn’t true, of course. Just a little motivational boost. Then the dots again. This time, they bear fruit.

‘There’s nothing you can do about the price?’

‘Nope. Take it or not. Don’t care either way. Plenty more people who want one.’

They always try to bargain; don’t let them think that’s on the table. You have something that they want. Show them you know that.

He didn’t respond. I gave him a minute to mull it over. Why did he make such a big deal out of it? It’s not like I was selling drugs or anything, just a stupid game console. He could simply wait until the manufacturer caught up and buy it at retail. But they never want to wait, so I might as well profit from their impatience.

My phone vibrated.

‘OK, I take it.’

‘Good choice. I’ll send it once I got the money.’

‘Could I pick it up? I’m in the neighborhood. I have the money with me.’

Wait, what did he say? How did he know where I lived? Was this asshole tracking me? Or was it a bluff? Trying to scare me into a lower price. I played along.

‘And where do you want to meet?’

‘Your apartment. I’m downstairs. Blake Davis, isn’t it?’

He was what? How did he know my real name?

‘Alright asshole, you had your fun, but I’m not playing your game. Deal’s off. Don’t contact me again.’

I blocked his number before he could reply. Every now and then you get creeps like that. They always bluff. You need a thick skin in this business. Just shrug it off and carry on. Best thing to do is get back to work. I still had to set up a new mailing list anyways; the responses on my last one had run dry. I should have the addresses right here... wait, is that an ad in my inbox? Normally my spam filter should get rid of these. After all, I’m kind of a pro on those matters; how ironic. Whatever, just delete it. ‘Give your mom a call. Today’s Mother’s Day’, it said. If only it were that easy. I hovered the cursor over ‘delete’, but my finger wouldn’t budge to hit the mouse button. Why did it have to end this way, mom, why couldn’t you just—

The door bell rang, ripping me out of a train of thought that