Here Be Monsters - an Anthology of Monster Tales (17 page)

Mickey dropped the jacket and stretched the fingers of his right hand, displaying his massive claws. “Idiot human vampire wannabe number two? I thought the spiders got you.”

“Me too. It’s
Chad
, actually. They buried me with their bodies and scratched my neck. I don’t know what they did, but not one of them bit me.” He looked up into Mickey’s eyes. “I guess you have to kill me now, huh? It’s okay. I’m not really keen on living after that. Every time I blink I see them, hear them, feel them all over me.”

The werewolf was less afraid of spiders than he had been when the night began, but he didn’t care to imagine the horrors this man had been through. “I’ll make it quick.”

Chad
stared blankly into space. “Great. Thanks.”

He reached for the man’s throat. A quick rip and he’d be dead in seconds.

A sound stopped him. It was almost imperceptible, but it was there.

It sounded like millions of tiny beings trying to gnaw their way out of something.

Chad
coughed. A tiny, bloody silk spider egg landed on the ground. The man didn’t notice it, but the werewolf did. It was likely one of thousands.

Mickey stepped back and retrieved the jacket. “I have decided not to kill you,” he said. “Best of luck.”

“Yeah,”
Chad
said. “Lucky me. I wonder why my head and insides hurt like they’re on fire.” He blinked, then fixed his eyes on a spot in the grass as a bright red trail of blood started to trickle from his nose. “Maybe I should go to a hospital. First, though, I’m going to sit here for a very long time.”

“You do that,” Mickey replied.

Sticking to the shadows, he walked away from
Chad
the unwitting spider bag and retrieved a torn notebook page from his jacket pocket. He scratched through the name “Hines” with a claw and moved on to the second name on the paper: Donovan.

He considered taking care of the next item on his list immediately but decided to put it off until the following day. The way the night had gone, Donovan would probably turn out to be a giant squid.

Mickey hated squid.

Alissa Rindels

©2011

All rights reserved.

Alissa Rindels

©2011

All rights reserved.

Alissa Rindels

©2011

All rights reserved.

Alissa Rindels

©2011

All rights reserved.

Alissa Rindels

©2011

All rights reserved.

Jose Manuel Portillo Barientos

©2011

All rights reserved.

M.T. Murphy prefers his vampires evil, his werewolves feral, his facial hair excessive, and believes that shades of gray are far more interesting than black and white. He lives in a den deep in the woods of
Alabama
with his beautiful and patient wife, their two ridiculously adorable children, and a were-Schnauzer named
Logan
.

His debut novel,
Lucifera’s Pet
, is a tale of vampires, werewolves, revenge, sex, biting sarcasm, and even a little romance if you can get past all the blood. It is not for the faint of heart or anyone under the age of eighteen.

Blog:
http://werewolfkibble.blogspot.com/
Twitter:
http://twitter.com/WerewolfMike

SM Reine is an author of dark fantasy for teen and adult audiences. Her most widely known work is "Six Moon Summer," which has been hailed as "fresh and fast-paced" and "captivating." She lives in
Nevada
with her husband, the Helpful Baby, and too many black animals to count.

Blog:
http://smreine.com/

Twitter:
http://twitter.com/smreine

Anabel Portillo

AP spent her childhood in a kingdom by the sea and her awkward years in the Spanish wild West. She then found a room of her own
 
in only-slightly-haunted
Dublin
, where she still enjoys the rain.

She learnt to read at age 3 and hasn’t stopped since.

She accidentally read Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du Mal at 8, and E.A. Poe’s Extraordinary Tales at 11, which might have shaped her literary tastes.

Stephen King became her first writing teacher, through the glimpses of his process explained on his books’ introductions and post-scripts.

She writes horror, science-fiction,fantasy, steampunk and songs.

Avid reader, lover of horror, hand-writing fiend, A concocts stories that will stay with you when you are alone in the dark.

Website:
http://nemone7.livejournal.com/

Twitter:
http://twitter.com/Nemone7/

India
knew from age nine that writing would be her passion. Since then she's discovered many more, but none quite so fulfilling as creating a world, a character, or a moment and watching them evolve into something complex and compelling. She has lived in three countries and four American states, is a dual British and American citizen, and currently lives at the base of the Scottish Highlands in a village so small its main attraction is a red phone box. In other words: paradise.

Website:
 
http://www.indiadrummond.com/

Twitter:
 
http://twitter.com/IndiaDrummond