The Clocks in the Cemetery: Strange Tales of Suspense, #3

By Erik Handy

TICK TOCK

 

A warehouse of abandoned things. A video recording of a place that doesn't exist. A family vacation that never ends. A cure for dementia. In The Clocks in the Cemetery, you'll experience these horrors and more!

 

Erik Handy, the author of The Mummy Kills The Brides and Macabre, brings you 12 stories that continue the genre-bending short fiction legacies of H.P. Lovecraft and Stephen King. It's time for true terror!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Erik Handy
• Release date: Sep 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9798215739266

Erik Handy

Erik Handy grew up on a steady diet of professional wrestling, bad horror movies that went straight to video, and comic books. There were also a lot of video games thrown in the mix. He currently absorbs silence and fish tacos.

Book preview

Danz’s House of Hell

Katie was already drunk by the time they pulled into Danz’s House of Hell. She had been sipping on a McDonald’s cup full of rum and Coke and was now shit-plastered. It was her idea to drive all the way out here – somewhere different to hang out – and Court hoped she wouldn’t pass out before they saw what they came to see. Court never heard of the place, but she wasn’t from around here. Now she had. A lone building was snug against a backdrop of boulders. The dusty parking lot where they sat in their sweltering car hadn’t seen tires in years. The actual building was probably a diner in a past life, a wayside stop to better destinations. Court wanted to be home. It was too hot and Katie was too obnoxious for her own good.

Katie’s boyfriend, Casey, turned off the ignition and sat back in his seat. You sure about this, babe?

Katie stuck her head over the front seat. Yeah, yeah! The House of Hell! Court winced at her shrill voice. You guys sure you don’t want a drink?

You should slow down, Court said.

Come on! Let’s have some fun!

This doesn’t look like much fun, Casey said. Place has seen better days.

Casey opened his door and a wave of musty heat blew inside. Court thought she smelled rot in that breeze. She opened her car door, mistakenly thinking that would help.

There’s a light on, Casey said, nodding up to the building. Someone’s in there. Are you sure it’s abandoned?

It closed in 1978, Katie said, markedly lucid. It used to be a scary funhouse or something. Are you guys chickens?

Well, there’s a light. Might be squatters.

I don’t like this, Court said.

We do the same shit every weekend, Katie whined. It’s time to try something new.

I’m not sure this is something new, Casey said.

They all got out of the car. Even with a few hours of daylight left, a red tint lent itself to the atmosphere. Court wondered if there was blood in the air, but settled on windswept clay. They had the whole area to themselves. Court strained her eyes and couldn’t see any distant cars or circling buzzards high above. All that existed were her and her friends and the sprawling building before them.

There was nothing on the facade of the building to hint at what the place was. Time and vandalism took care of that. The windows were all broken out and the plywood that covered them was rotten and no protection from any elements.

Casey was the first one inside.

Where did the light go? he said.

The interiors yielded no clues. The trio stood in a vast room that could have been a hotel restaurant or a meeting hall. The carpet crunched underfoot. There was a wide hallway off to the side of the main room.

Someone gutted this place, Casey said. I bet there’s nothing left.

Katie pointed to the hallway. Maybe down there.

This is stupid, Court said. Let’s get out of here.

We’re already here, Katie said. Might as well check it out some more.

What about squatters?

Katie shook her head and then yelled, Anyone here?! See, no one’s here.

Not funny, Court said.

I’m not trying to be funny. Do you want to leave? Do you really want to leave?

Truth was, Court wanted to go down the hall to see what was back there. Why was this called place Danz’s House of Hell? Who was this Danz? That was a weird name.

He’s probably sitting on a throne made of baby bones with 666 virgins writhing in pain at his feet.

Court started to laugh, which made Katie smile.

See, Katie said. Lighten up. We’ll leave in a few minutes, okay? There isn’t much to look at anyway. I thought there’d be some – well, anything left over. I mean, there’s not even any graffiti.

It looks too clean, Casey said.

Yeah, Katie said. She started to speak again, but didn’t.

Casey led the women down the hall.

Court imagined a carnival barker at the door, prodding them forward with barbs ridiculing their courage. In her imagination, the words came out terribly wrong, but the intent was obvious.

Go forward, the man with the goatee said, pointing his bony finger at them. There be monsters in them pants. Fire always burns good. By my side, children! Hark! The hell angels sing!

There were two rooms on both sides of the hallway. They could have walked into them, but there really was no point – they were empty.

No wonder this place closed down, Casey said. He stopped to stare at something in the room on the left.

What is it? Katie said.

Nothing. Because there wasn’t anything there. Let’s keep going.

Court thought a car drove by and wished it to be true. She felt alone and powerless out here. She moved because the people in front of her did. That direction was the way to go.

I hate niggers, Casey said without missing a step.

Katie rubbed the small of his back. I know. I do, too.

I’m fucking sick and tired of having to deal with them.

Court couldn’t believe her ears. What the hell set Casey off? Where did this tirade come from? She never thought he had a racist bone in his body so this was a mild shock – mild because she hated niggers, too. She never considered her feelings about them before now. Being in this long-vacant building was like being on another planet where she could think whatever she wanted without feeling awful. Like the three sons of Mom’s best friend. They were skater dudes and she hated skating, but they had the coolest video games. She hoped they were all dead because somehow she knew they wound up becoming loser grown-ups because their dad abandoned them just as her dad had, but she wasn’t a loser because she had a library degree and she was going to become a librarian and get married and have kids and everyone will like her except for her one co-worker who will make it plain that she’s an asskisser and he hates asskissers and blacks and spics and goddamn Haitians oh my god she needed to get home to help Mom, but Mom was dead and there was no helping her now, especially since she liked dark-skinned Indian men who she desperately wanted in her right now.

Right this way to the Mindwasher, the barker in her head announced. All hells remembered!

There’s nothing here, Court said under her breath. She was afraid to talk louder because Casey might hear her and who knew if he would turn his rage on her. She didn’t know him that well, but he seemed like a decent guy when he wasn’t beating Katie.

Maybe I do need a drink, she thought. Her head was swimming in a murky fog and a drink could do her good. It couldn’t make her feel any worse.

They kept walking, Casey and Katie in the front, Court in the rear. They passed a large, open room on the right. A fat woman in a wheelchair sat in a far corner. A little girl stood by her, holding a fresh catheter. Mom needed a new one and daughter was ready to change it.

Court’s vision spun.

How did they know? Who are they?

She wanted to sit, but not anywhere in this building.

God, I need a bathroom.

Guys, she said. Neither friend turned around. They all neared the back of the place where a long window looked out on nothing but red mountains, but Court wanted to go back the other way, to the beginning, when her life became a routine of changing Mom’s catheter and enduring the taunts of her classmates.

They were so mean. They didn’t understand. There was no one else to help me.

I never should have had to take care of Mom.

Court, Katie said. You okay?

I think I’m going to throw up.

Like that time you were pregnant again? Casey might have said from far ahead. Second time’s the charm?

Court wanted to drown the sound of his voice with a scream. All she could hear was his voice. He was always talking and