A Walking Nightmare

By Lori R. Lopez

Taking a wrong Freeway Exit to a part of the city abandoned by most, a scholarly woman learns what prowls these dark forsaken blocks after breaking down and losing all contact with Civilization. Frantic steps carry her farther from safety and security, as a brilliant intellect begins to unravel.

Armed by an electric torch, blank pages from a Spiral Notebook and a used Ballpoint Pen, Alexis Little Joyce struggles to leave an urgent warning — to communicate from beyond what seems certain to be a gruesome demise. These last words on paper will be all that remain of her, the woman feels certain.

Members of a terrifying subterranean horde toy with and track her, while Alexis is burdened by woeful haunting memories. Captured, she desperately escapes to hunker in a refuge and channel her final thoughts into a message that might convey some hope if found . . . floating in the metal tube of a flashlight.

The bulb grows dim. Her ink supply diminishes, along with her odds for survival. Alexis wonders each minute whether she is alone, or has already been discovered.

“A Walking Nightmare” is a stunning part of the Author’s long-awaited Ghost and Ghoul Collection, SPOOKTACULAR TALES.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lori R. Lopez
• Release date: Dec 31, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215466698

Lori R. Lopez

Lori R. Lopez wears many hats as an Author and Speculative Poet of Horror, Fantasy, Suspense, Humor and more. She illustrates her books and has written songs, while being an Activist for animals and children. Growing up, Lori roamed graveyards and conducted funerals for dead birds, squirrels, insects and spiders. Her offbeat books include The Dark Mister Snark, Leery Lane, An Ill Wind Blows, Darkverse: The Shadow Hours, Odds & Ends, and The Fairy Fly. In 2023 Lori won Third Place in the Long Category for the SFPA Poetry Contest for "Wake Unto Death". Her Poetry Collection Darkverse was nominated for an Elgin Award and a Finalist in the Kindle Book Awards. Her poems "Crop Circles" and "Nocturnal Embers" were nominated for the Rhysling Award in 2020, "Social Graces" and "The Whistle Stop" in 2021, "Biting Sarcasm" in 2022, "The Whippoorwill" and "If Houses Could Talk" in 2023. Poems "The Maw" and "creatures of the macabre" received Editor's Choice Awards among other honors. Stories and verse have appeared in The Sirens Call, The Horror Zine, Space & Time, Spectral Realms, JOURN-E, Weirdbook, Bewildering Stories, Dreams & Nightmares, Impspired, Altered Reality, Aphelion, and anthologies such as California Screamin' (the Foreword Poem), HWA Poetry Showcases II, III, V, VI, and IX, Journals Of Horror, Grey Matter Monsters, Dead Harvest, Fearful Fathoms I, Terror Train I and II, Trickster's Treats #3, Speculations III (Weird Poets Society), and In Darkness We Play. A member of the Horror Writers Association, Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association, and Lewis Carroll Society Of North America. Visit the Fairy Fly Entertainment Website Lori shares with her two talented sons, and their YouTube Channel @FairyFly. They have a Folk Band called The Fairyflies.

Book preview

A Walking Nightmare

by Lori R. Lopez

Fairy Fly Entertainment

All rights reserved

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any

media without written permission from the author, except

brief excerpts in critical reviews and articles.

This is a work of fiction. Any and all references to real persons, events, and places are used fictitiously. Other characters, names, places, events and details are fabrications of the author’s imagination; any such resemblance to actual places, events or persons, whether living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2023 by Lori R. Lopez

Artwork by Lori R. Lopez

Cover Design by Fairy Fly Entertainment

Author Photo by Fairy Fly Entertainment

E-Book Edition

Table Of Contents

A Walking Nightmare

Table Of Contents

A Walking Nightmare

About the author and artist

More works by Lori R. Lopez

A Walking Nightmare illumines a harrowing, solitary, introspective journey through the deepest dark from the mind of Lori R. Lopez.

Taking a wrong Freeway Exit to a part of the city abandoned by most, a scholarly woman learns what prowls these dark forsaken blocks after breaking down and losing all contact with Civilization. Frantic steps carry her farther from safety and security, as a brilliant intellect begins to unravel.

Armed by an electric torch, blank pages from a Spiral Notebook and a used Ballpoint Pen, Alexis Little Joyce struggles to leave an urgent warning — to communicate from beyond what seems certain to be a gruesome demise. These last words on paper will be all that remain of her, the woman feels certain.

Members of a terrifying subterranean horde toy with and track her, while Alexis is burdened by woeful haunting memories. Captured, she desperately escapes to hunker in a refuge and channel her final thoughts into a message that might convey some hope if found . . . floating in the metal tube of a flashlight.

The bulb grows dim. Her ink supply diminishes, along with her odds for survival. Alexis wonders each minute whether she is alone, or has already been discovered.

A Walking Nightmare is a stunning part of the