Go Violently into that Bad Night: Die Die Against the Raging of the Light

By Jonathan T Miller and Randy Hunter

A collection of short horror stories that track a bus ride gone cattywampus, a tragedy at sea, a haunting trip to N'awlins, two Sirens, and a pleasant camping trip. All of the stories have an element or two of truth to them.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mathews Puckett Publishing
• Release date: Feb 9, 2023
• ISBN: 9781088086971

Book preview

Go Violently into that Bad Night

Go Violently into that Bad Night

Go Violently into that Bad Night

Die Die Against the Raging of the Light

Jonathan Miller

Randy Hunter

Mathews Puckett Publishing

Contents

Preface

1 The Wheels on the Bus

2 Shark and a Kayak

3 The Hat

4 Mountain Mamas

5 Off the Beaten Path

Preface

I wrote these stories a few years ago when I was on the road a lot for work. I’ve always been drawn to horror stories and horror movies, especially good ones. My goal with these stories is to make you want to read more, feel any sort of emotion, and to have to use your imagination as to what happened next in some of the stories. Fall of 2015 I was down in West Virginia and there was an old dilapidated bus wedged in between a pair of trees off to the side, which I thought made for a cool picture so I pulled over and snapped that first picture that launched this little project.

The shark story is one of my biggest fears as the means to my end.

The hat in New Orleans story, that city is something else entirely. There’s a weird energy that permeates the area and covers everything and refuses to leave. I don’t have a problem with New Orleans but I don’t particularly like the city. It brought the worst in me, but that's a story for another book.

The killer sisters story may be my favorite because of the visuals Randy created for that story. We debated a third picture with the twins but decided it was better for your imagination to sort that out.

The Camping story is heavily influenced by search and rescue stories. Also, the next batch of stories, one of which will be the follow up to the camping catastrophe, however, it will focus on the psychological horror instead of the physical. That’s all you need to know for now. And regarding the t-shirts mentioned in the final story, there was a legend named Matthew Puckett who had a large impact on a lot of people in a small amount of time. In college, intramural shirts were made in his honor and then when he passed away too young, the shirts kept getting made. Matt was an awesome guy and the world would be a better place if he was still in it.

Thanks and acknowledgement to Randy Hunter for doing what he does and handling the illustrations proper. I hope you enjoy the stories and pictures. @randyhunterart

1

The Wheels on the Bus

The children, all between the ages of 9 and 11, were oblivious. The warm September air swimming through the opened windows of the bus kept the students cool and energetic, borderline frenetic. Bouncing along in their seats, chattering the drive away with talk of this and making fun of that, unaware of the growing concern on their young teacher’s face. Her face, which grew more worrisome with each dirt road turn and twist, her alarm bells clanging, internally, as her service bars dwindled, externally. Her panic metastasized when the bus driver ignored her question as to how much longer until they arrived at the farm for the field trip.

There was no way for her to know that he was not who he purported to be. No way for her to know the real bus driver was lying face down in his own blood at the rusted Mineral County Schools bus maintenance garage. The janitor had not yet been sent out from the nearby high school to the garage to see why he was not answering the radio, thus discovering the bloodied and battered bus driver, courtesy of a large wrench, still glistening wet. The race to find the missing bus hadn’t even started yet.

She had never wanted to be a teacher but had little other options after graduating from college with an English degree and a mountain of debt. She wanted to be a writer, but she had nothing to write about. Her father insisted on her getting a teaching certificate as the job market across the state was in brutal shape, but there was always