“Childhood Nightmares: Under the Bed”
a new anthology from Sirens Call Publications
“It’s only a dream, there’s nothing to be frightened of!” As a child, how many times did you hear those words? Or how many times did you wish to hear them? Take a step back into the minds of the twelve authors who wandered into their own creative imaginings to deliver for you a spine tingling collection of horror stories that will leave everyone wondering what is really out there in the darker recesses of the night. Should you be frightened?
Those whispered tales of monsters hiding under the bed, or of the demons lurking in the shadowy corner where we dare not glance for fear that seeing them will make them all too real. Oh, how the innocent landscape of a child’s imagination lends fertile soil to horrors ready to be sown on the slightest of sounds; the tales and the terror they wreak on our youthful minds never quite leaves us.
We asked the authors in this collection to reach into the forgotten recesses of their twisted minds and share with us the tales of nightmares that can only thrive in the hidden corners of a child’s imaginings; the bogeyman under the bed, the outlandishly fiendish creature lurking in the dark, the slight murmur of sound coming from the hall… did you close the door completely?
Explore the myriad terrors that only a child can twist from nothing into some ‘thing’ in the span of a single rapid breath. Do you dare delve into your own memories? Perhaps you’ll start sleeping with the lights on again…
Tell us, who is Under the Bed?
Contributing Authors: Colin F. Barnes, Nina D’Arcangela, Phil Hickes, Amber Keller, Kim Krodel, Lisamarie Lamb, John McIlveen, Kate Monroe, Brandon Scott, Joshua Skye, Julianne Snow, and Jack Wallen
To purchase a copy of this anthology, please visit:
Print book: Amazon.com, CreateSpace.com
eBook: Amazon.com, Amazon.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.es, Amazon.it
Smashwords.com (Kindle, Nook, Kobo, Sony, PDF)
www.SirensCallPublications.com
Excerpts of three of the short stories found in “Childhood Nightmares: Under the Bed”,
plus a link to a free downloadable preview from all twelve authors below:
‘Bent Metal’ – Nina D’Arcangela
“I’m now in full blown panic mode racing down the stairs to the echoing sound of the police dispatcher screaming into the phone “stay in the house – don’t go near the corner!”
I hit the front hall and see that the door is wide open… oh, God please, oh please, oh no… don’t let Alan be out there, please let the door be open for some other reason – maybe mom or dad went out to help, please let that be it.
I’m only three houses from the corner; three houses from the wreckage in the street; three houses from my own sanity shattering…. The second my bare foot leaves the safety of the house and hits the front porch I know something is horribly wrong. Somehow I know its Alan, and he’s in trouble.
The dread that overcomes me is suffocating. I can hardly breathe as I try to run towards the street… but my legs feel like I’m running in quick sand. I’m moving as hard and as fast as I can, but the corner may as well be a mile away in my distorted perception.
Oh God! My head is spinning as fast as my legs are churning, someone is screaming – I think it might be me! Finally I make it to the corner and see what an unholy mess of tangled metal the two vehicles that couldn’t avoid each other have become…”
‘Timothy’ – Joshua Skye
“Quivering from fear, her teeth rattling in her little head, hands trembling, she stared into the deep darkness to catch any movement; the twinkling of an eye perhaps. Anything to let her know where he was, out there in the darkness. There was nothing for a long time.
“Where are you?” she muttered in a squeaky voice. Something moved in her peripheral vision. She turned. Fast, but not fast enough. Perhaps it was nothing more than a shadow that had just blended with the dark. “Timothy, you stop it. You stop it right now.” She tried to sound like her mother, to mimic her authoritative tone, but it hadn’t worked. Her voice had cracked and it trembled with her apprehension. “I know it’s you,” she whispered, more to herself than to him.
She started to cry, she couldn’t help it. Her tears streamed down her tiny face and there was a lump forming in her throat. She had to fight to swallow; she had to fight to breathe.
Timothy began to mock her. “Timothy, please. Stop it, Timothy! Go away, Timothy.” The sinister, scratchy voice seemed to come from everywhere, the shadows, the darkness, under the desk, from behind the stuffed animals, under the bed…”
‘Baby Teeth’ – Kim Krodel
“She adds every tooth she gets to her disgusting smile. But the screws keep growing out of her gums. She never runs out of space for more teeth.”
“Why does she want them?” Brian’s voice was small. His eyes bugged, as if the skeletons stacked in God’s closet were tumbling out at his feet.
“For biting, Dummy. She likes to eat little kids.” Cal grinned as he spoke. “If she bites you with her screws, your skin gets stuck to ‘em, so she likes teeth better; so she doesn’t have to floss so much.”
“No, she doesn’t. She’s nice—she gives presents! Mom said!”
“That’s what Mom wants you to think. Otherwise you’d freak out about it.”
Brian blinked, staring and processing; weighing his brother’s words against those he had gathered from adults.
“See this?” Cal rolled up a pant leg to reveal a jagged run of lumpy, silver skin. “She bit me hard the first tooth I lost ‘cause I didn’t know what was coming. Now I’m big enough to fight her off.” Calvin posed like a weight-lifter…”
Please visit the Sirens Call Publications web site for an extended preview available for download.
