The Sirens Call Ezine Throughout the Years
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1 Table of Contents pg. 04 - The Cave| H.B. Diaz pg. 110 - Mud Baby | Lori R. Lopez pg. 07 - Honeysuckle | T.S. Woolard pg. 112 - On Eternity’s Brink | Lori R. Lopez pg. 08 - Return to Chaos | B. T. Petro pg. 115 - Sins for the Father | Marcus Cook pg. 08 - Deathwatch | B. T. Petro pg. 118 - The Island | Brian Rosenberger pg. 09 - A Cup of Holiday Cheer | KC Grifant pg. 120 - Old John | Jeffrey Durkin pg. 12 - Getting Ahead | Kevin Gooden pg. 123 - Case File | Pete FourWinds pg. 14 - Soup for Mother | Sharon Hajj pg. 124 - Filling in a Hole | Radar DeBoard pg. 15 - A Dying Moment | Gavin Gardiner pg. 126 - Butterfly | Lee Greenaway pg. 17 - Snake | Natasha Sinclair pg. 130 - Death’s Gift | Naching T. Kassa pg. 19 - The Cold Death | Nicole Henning pg. 132 - Waste Not | Evan Baughfman pg. 21 - The Burning Bush | O. D. Hegre pg. 132 - Rainbows and Unicorns | Evan Baughfman pg. 24 - The Wishbone | Eileen Taylor pg. 133 - Salty Air | Sonora Taylor pg. 27 - Down by the River Walk | Matt Scott pg. 134 - Death is Interesting | Radar DeBoard pg. 30 - The Reverend I Milkana N. Mingels pg. 134 - It Wasn’t Time | Radar DeBoard pg. 31 - Until Death Do Us Part | Candace Meredith pg. 136 - Future Fuck | Matt Martinek pg. 33 - A Grand Estate | Zack Kullis pg. 139 - The Little Church | Eduard Schmidt-Zorner pg. 36 - The Chase | Siren Knight pg. 140 - Sweet Partings | O. D. Hegre pg. 38 - Darla | Miracle Austin pg. 142 - Christmas Eve on the Rudolph Express | Sheri White pg. 39 - I Remember You | Judson Michael Agla pg. 145 - Deprivation | Jim Graves pg. 41 - Taking Care of Our Own | Kelly Matsuura pg. 148 - The Summer Job | G. Clark Hellery pg. 42 - Dirty Phoenix Rising | Phil Slattery pg. 151 - Dolls | Tiffany Lindfield pg. 43 - The House of the Dead Man | RJ Meldrum pg. 154 - Sacrifice | Tabitha Thompson pg. 45 - The Essay | B.E. Seidi pg. 155 - The Dream with the Dancing…| Jacob W. Brannan pg. 47 - Family Christmas | Carole Tyrrell pg. 157 - Darkness | Destiny Eve Pifer pg. 49 - The Hole to Hell | Alex Woolf pg. 158 - A Little Tongue | Christopher Hivner pg. 51 - Death Hungers | Nicole Henning pg. 160 - Into the Darkness | Christopher Hivner pg. 52 - Christmas Eve | K.A. Johnson pg. 160 - Conjuring Karma | Tina Swain pg. 56 - Instrument Four | Joshua Skye pg. 162 - Down in the Depths | B.M. Norman pg. 58 - The Behavior Specialist | Joe Inabinette pg. 164 - Back to Earth | Evan Baughfman pg. 59 - A Bright Future, Fading Fast | John H. Dromey pg. 164 - The Fang Fairy | Evan Baughfman pg. 61 - Kind Hearts | Michelle Ann King pg. 165 - The Glass Globe | Rivka Jacobs pg. 62 - The Floor | Tina Hudak pg. 166 - Archer Avenue | Darlene Holt pg. 63 - The Forgotten | DH Hanni pg. 166 - Summer Camp | Darlene Holt pg. 66 - In My House | Christopher T. Dabrowski pg. 166 - Dehydration | Darlene Holt pg. 66 - Everything Should’ve Been Fine | Christopher T. Dabrowski pg. 168 - King Kamehameha Day | Victory Witherkeigh pg. 68 - Hook and Grinder | David F. Shultz pg. 170 - The Window to Your Soul | Dawn DeBraal pg. 71 - The Broken Camera | Joe Inabinette pg. 172 - Never-Ending Cycle |Sam Paget pg. 73 - A Small Matter| Bradley H. Sinor pg. 175 - His Heart | Karen B. Jones pg. 74 - Touring Hell | Brian Rosenberger pg. 176 - The Raven at Bellows’ Crypt | Alyson Faye pg. 74 - Eddie and the Day After | Brian Rosenberger pg. 179 - The Death of My City | Melissa R. Mendelson pg. 75 - Krampuslauf | Patrick Winters pg. 180 - Serving His Master | Radar DeBoard pg. 82 - The Breathing Days | Lynn White pg. 180 - Limited Resources | Radar DeBoard pg. 83 - Vampyres' Interlude: A Certain Kind of Love | Marge Simon pg. 182 - Eudora | James Dorr pg. 83 - Under a Dark Moon’s Horn | Marge Simon pg. 184 - Vines | John D. Ashton pg. 84 - New Year’s Party Migraine | Marge Simon pg. 187 - The Anniversary | Jeremy Zentner pg. 85 - Occitan night | Eduard Schmidt-Zorner pg. 188 - Winter Solstice, long cycle | Will H. Blackwell, Jr. pg. 85 - The Dead Still Live | Allan Rozinski pg. 189 - The Nameless Village | Patrick Luther pg. 86 - Death by your side | Mathias Jansson pg. 191 - The Doll House | Sara J. Bernhardt pg. 88 - the gruesome spell | Linda M. Crate pg. 194 - Red and Blue | Nina D’Arcangela pg. 88 - moon magic | Linda M. Crate pg. 195 - Lament for Master | Lee Andrew Forman pg. 89 - The Bone Trumpet | Alyson Faye pg. 195 - Skittering | Lee Andrew Forman pg. 90 - Plague Doctor | Michael S. Walker pg. 196 - Dreams of a Clean Death | Lee Andrew Forman pg. 90 - The Tide | Brian Rosenberger pg. 196 - Insemination | Lee Andrew Forman pg. 92 - The Occupation of the Giants | Ken Poyner pg. 197 – The Last Book Club | Alex Grey pg. 93 - The Heart Attack | Ken Poyner pg. 93 - Execution | Ken Poyner pg. 76 - Featured Poet | Marge Simon pg. 93 - Religion Amongst the Ants | Ken Poyner Ripper’s Street 1888 - 1898 pg. 94 - Timepiece | Ken Poyner Take Your Needles When You Go pg. 95 - Fallen Sparrow | Linda Imbler George Tecumseh Sherman’s Ghosts pg. 95 - Baby Daddy Bingo | Christopher Hivner pg. 79 - Featured Collection | ‘War’ by Marge Simon & Alessandro Manzetti pg. 96 - Preachers of the Feast | Christopher Hivner pg. 96 - Shala | Christopher Hivner pg. 113 - Featured Artist | Allison Smith pg. 97 - The Vigil | Christopher Hivner pg. 13 - The Butcher Shop pg. 99 - Revival | Mary Parker pg. 26 - There's Something in Our House pg. 99 - Legacy | Mary Parker pg. 46 - Desolation Queens pg. 100 - Uprooted | Mary Parker pg. 60 - The Suicide Forest pg. 101 - Victoria | Alexis Child pg. 72 - Baskin Homage pg. 102 - Tell Me a Ghost Story… | Alexis Child pg. 91 - Our Teeth Fell Out So Slowly pg. 103 - Ultima Mortis | Alexis Child pg. 129 - Wendingo pg. 104 - Everything Decays | Geoffrey A. Landis pg. 147 - He Will Never Be Back pg. 104 - A World of Ghosts | Geoffrey A. Landis pg. 167 - The Innsmouth Asylum pg. 105 - How the Frogs Survived| Geoffrey A. Landis pg. 181 - Wild Woman of the Woods pg. 106 - The Long Trajectory | Geoffrey A. Landis pg. 108 - Darkest Deeds | Lori R. Lopez pg. 199 - Featured Author | Lydia Prime pg. 109 - The Beast Who Abides | Lori R. Lopez pg. 201 - Featured Book | ‘Itty Bitty Horror Bites’ by Lydia Prime pg. 109 - Passive-Aggressive | Lori R. Lopez 2 3 The Cave| H.B. Diaz The cave gathered darkness the way that a corpse acquired maggots, over time, inevitably, until only pale bony structures remained. Faded yellow caution tape fluttered like the wings of a coal miner’s canary across the entrance, but Katrina’s twin paid it no mind. She bounded up the narrow trail, skirting fallen logs and ducking beneath the groping fingers of a low-hanging oak, her pack bouncing against the small of her back. This was a very bad idea. Even as she watched her feet move forward, fear slowed her steps. Her shoes pushed up dark soil and slid across slimy fallen leaves. “Come on,” her sister urged, pausing to look back. “You’ll be fine. Promise.” Katrina followed still, hoisting herself up onto a moss-slicked stone and keeping her eyes on her feet, away from the cavern ahead. Its mouth yawned like a portal into the netherworld, and she tasted bile. “Dr. Murdoch says this is the only way you’ll overcome your fear,” her sister said, but that didn’t seem right. Dr. Murdoch had always been so kind to her. When she began visiting him last year, he had calmly explained that the darkness could not harm her. She hadn’t believed him, of course, but the assertion had become a mantra in her mind when the last rays of sunlight shattered through the pines and fell below the horizon, when the night came and she was alone. It can’t hurt you. The darkness cannot hurt you. He had asked her to think back on her life to that singular moment where she had felt afraid for the first time, but she could recall nothing. She felt that this fear had been with her always; a spider with its fangs in her spine, paralyzing her and filling her with poison so that she would see monsters where there was only a bedpost or an innocuous pile of clothing. Her parents believed that she would grow out of it as all children do, but with each year that passed, it seemed that Katrina’s mind came nearer and nearer to a truth that others refused to acknowledge. Children could feel it, under the bed or in the closet where the darkest dark lived, before they were told about imaginations or monsters or nightlights. They knew, and then they forgot. Katrina had never forgotten. “Maddie,” she breathed as the trail leveled off, the hiss of the waterfall long behind them. Drooping trees stretched their branches over the cave, protecting it from the light of the sun and whispering to each other. The leaves showed their undersides to the sky. “It’s going to storm. We should just go.” “You can’t get out of this, Kat. It’s happening.” Katrina’s fingernails drew blood from her palms. She focused on the pain as Maddie took her by the wrist and the mouth of the cave opened to swallow her. Deeper and deeper they went until the sunlight faded to a pinpoint in the universe. Katrina heard her sister fiddling with the flashlight, tap tap tap against her hip. “Maddie,” she whimpered, tears stinging her eyes. “Won’t work.” A sob cracked out of her throat. She could hear the darkness in front of them, deeper in the cave, its leathery wings flapping against fetid air.