Four linked stories of Hell, and Life, and Life in Hell. Illustrated with paintings by Don Michael, Jr.
“Summer Breeze” – The demon Jike decides he needs a change.
“Inferno” – Undead hellcat Canto gets a night out on campus of lust and gluttony and the other deadly sins.
“Sweet Tooth” – Donut baker Ted Millet, divorced and broke, has a new customer that makes his ex-wife seem almost human.
And in the novella “Afterimage” Emily M-Something March, dead and damned for thirty years, finds herself back in her home town with a fifty-foot demon looking for her.
A collection of violent horror flash fiction and short short stories by David Michael.
“The Call of the Hunter Moon” – Violence is easy. You just let go. Your hands become claws for ripping. Your teeth bare, you snap, you grab, you tear. You smell the fear, savor the screams, taste the blood…
“Tucker” – When I arrived, the boy stood there surveying the chaos he had wrought, gloating over it all–except for her. He wouldn’t look at her. She knelt by the body she had once inhabited, her physical face now unrecognizable in the gore…
“Crowfeeder” – At our arrival, the closest of the black carrion birds startled. A ripple like a wave in a black ocean flowed across the field as the birds flapped into the air, reconsidered once they saw how few we were, and settled back to continue gorging…
“Secondhand Coffin” – A new ghost story by David Michael!
A coffin isn’t always a final destination. It certainly wasn’t for Lacey. Murdered, Lacey spends her days as the unseen occupant of a showroom coffin. At night, though, when the lid is closed, she is once again wrapped in a rug and covered with cement, reliving the horror of her death. Until the night another body is dropped into her coffin. (2500-word short story)
The World Wears Thin – A collection of eight Sci-Fi and Horror stories by David Michael, with illustrations by Don Michael, Jr.
“A Fine Mess” – Kenneth hunts edible Strings in the Frayed remnants of the vegetation of the world.
“Enamored” – Chick-lit meets cyberpunk as overworked, underappreciated Roxy heads to work.
“Curtain Call” – The White Hot Hemisphere Community Theater Company chose Shakespeare’s Hamlet for their first production after the cataclysm–and possibly their last before the end of the world.
“Insanity” – Corporal Jonathan “Drooz” Andrews wakes up in the middle of a war and wishes he remembered what he spent his re-enlistment bonus on.
“Encounter” – The Traveler tries to help in the aftermath of a riot in the Trog Ghetto.
“Until Death Do Us Part” – Ross and Marjorie grow old together in undead retirement.
“Baptism” – Drunk on mojitos, high on love, and smelling of sex on the beach, Myra Acevedo went swimming and drowned. Then she became the end of the world.
Bonus Story: “Roxy Overload” – Roxy, from “Enamored”, heads home after work on an evening when it seems everyone–her best friend, her mom, her men–even her dog–wants a piece of her.
“Sweet Tooth” – A new horror short story by David Michael!
Ted Millet, divorced and broke and tired of getting up at 2 am, shows up for work anyway at the Jenny-Buns Donut Shop. If he doesn’t make the donuts, no one else will. This morning, though, he has a new customer waiting for him that makes his ex-wife seem almost human. (3100-word short story)
