Cafe Vengeance

By Clarissa Cottrill

In ruthless New York City, Dane Roman, an ambitious entrepreneur, risks his very soul for success. He exploits a deceased tenant and desecrates the corpse to orchestrate a catastrophic event for wealth. His dreams of celebrating with his girlfriend, Pilar, are shattered when Café Vengeance, embodying his desires, introduces unimaginable horror.<

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tea, but with Coffee Media
• Release date: Oct 13, 2023
• ISBN: 9781957893471

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Copyright © 2023 by Clarissa R. Cottrill

Cover and Internal Design © 2022 by Tea With Coffee Media

Cover Design by Victoria Moxley/Tea With Coffee Media via Adobe Photoshop and Dreamstime

Internal Images © Kelsey Anne Lovelady via Canva

Tea With Coffee Media and the colophon are trademarks of Tea With Coffee Media

All rights reserved.

No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher or author, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.

Published by Tea With Coffee Media

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For my mother, without whom I wouldn’t know the value of light in a world of darkness. 

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Thank you to my partner, Justin. Thank you for your love and understanding every day. You have taken my hand as I trekked into the darkest corners of my mind, and never let go even when you had to lead me back. For the proofreading, the brainstorming sessions, and for listening to me ramble about hellfire and Latin translations – thank you. I love you.

Thank you to one of my dearest friends, Shannon, who is the epitome of encouragement. All writers should be so lucky to have a friend like you. You are a voracious reader, an excellent critic, and it is an honor to be someone you love. For reading, critiquing, answering those late-night texts with strange questions and hypotheticals, and for always being someone who is there for me. Thank you. Café Vengeance would not exist without you.

I’d also like to thank the entire team at my publisher, Tea With Coffee Media. Tyler Wittkofsky and Kelsey Anne Lovelady, who saw something in my manuscript for Café Vengeance and took a chance. To Designer Victoria Moxley, for crafting the cover I’d always imagined. To every single designer, editor, and member of this amazing corner of publishing who worked hard to bring this novella to life. Thank you.

I owe this book becoming a reality to everyone out there who has supported me over the years and who has fed my earliest inclinations toward writing and the horror genre. Teachers who showed me no matter how dark, prose could still be beautiful: Mr. Ponton, Mrs. Seeders, Ms. Crisler as I knew them then. Friends both in real life and virtually who have cheered me on and offered advice. An aunt who introduced me to horror and opened up this world for me. The writers I admire, especially of dark fiction and horror, whose stories I’ve pored over since childhood. Thank you.

And finally thank you to my mother, to whom I’ve dedicated this novella. Thank you for your unabashed belief in me and for allowing me to explore so I might grow and evolve as a storyteller. I know it must have been difficult for you to relate to my interests. I looked closer at the scary movies from which you hid your eyes. I enjoyed diving into the darkness you avoided, if only to understand it better. But you never deterred me from these endeavors. You bought me Stephen King novels and Edgar Allan Poe collections that you would never read. You nurtured me, even the parts you didn’t understand, and for that I will be eternally grateful. 

At the end of the day this is a story of evil, which is a real monster walking among each and every one of us. I believe I’ve seen evil with my own eyes, and it’s rarely in the form of a supernatural creature. It can follow and even live inside any one of us, but so can good. And for teaching me that, I also have to thank my mother, without whom I could never have learned the depths of good and evil in this world and in my own life. 

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Fire was everywhere.

Glowing orange flames and billowing black smoke had filled every corner in Dane Roman’s eyes mere seconds ago. Stifling heat had kissed his skin until sweat prickled his upper lip and hairline, with the droplets still gliding down his face to prove it. Even after the flames were extinguished, he still couldn’t take a full breath without tasting thick, smoky ash on his tongue that almost forced a gag from deep in his diaphragm.

He smiled.

It wasn’t the kind of tooth-bearing grin one would plaster on for a photo. It wasn’t even the tight-lipped polite smile for exchanging pleasantries. Instead, the corners of his mouth only twitched up for an instant in a cool, collected smirk that wasn’t visible to the naked eye.

Sir? Sir, are you the owner of the building? The timid questions from over his shoulder interrupted the beauty before him. Stifling a sigh and un-gritting his teeth, Dane turned around to a man standing at least a foot shorter than his six feet with layers of firefighting gear seeming to weigh him down even closer to the ground.

Yes, I’m the owner. I’m Mr. Dane Roman, he said, holding out a steady hand. With careful precision, he unraveled every muscle and nerve above his neck and built a new expression from scratch. His groomed and arched black eyebrows knitted together, and he put extra weight into his forehead, like he was holding the world on top of it. His eyes, which