Aberrations (17 page)

Dejected and sick, I lowered my head and shrugged. “I didn’t know how to do anything else.”

His tone lightened, his face adopting an ill-fitting look of compassion. “Of course you didn’t and I think if you look long and hard into yourself, you’ll realize that you still don’t know how to do anything else. You should be proud of what you did in Garretsburg, not ashamed.”

I couldn’t disagree with him. My transition from Piper to mortal had not been a smooth one. Infiltrating myself into humanity had only brought me closer to the children and the smell of them, the taste of them. I was trusted more than any Piper had ever been trusted and that made the killing worse. I fled from Garretsburg with blood on my hands and grief—a strange and savage new emotion—tearing at my insides.

I had found peace in Harperville. Now even that had led to disaster.

On the news, a shaky handheld camera shot showed the town square in flames as someone decided that the only cure for the plague of vermin was to torch them, and themselves. I sighed.

“I have one advantage over you,” I said quietly and he cocked an ear toward me, straining to hear.

“Which is…?”

I looked defiantly into those orbs of darkness, the same black pupil-less pools that hid behind my own contact lenses. “I can die.”

Alien color blossomed beneath the dead skin of his cheeks and he rose to his feet, his coat billowing out behind him. His eyes were full of murderous black thunder flecked with the lightning of fear. It was clear that he was not accustomed to rejection.

I almost laughed. Poor spoiled piper.

“Is that your decision then? You won’t come back?”

“I made that decision a long time before you showed up.”

He stared at me for a while and then brandished the flute like a knife, the mouthpiece clenched in one pale fist and for a moment I thought he was going to stab me with it.

“Very well then, Piper. If you insist on that I will do you the honor of seeing you out in the traditional way.”

He put the pipe to his lips and began to play. The eerie music was like Heaven to my ears.

It echoed sweetly in the air long after he was gone.

* * * * *

The boards I nailed over the window are loosening. It won’t take them long now.

I figure there’s not a lot of tape left in this thing anyway, so I’ll finish soon.

I’d like to have had more time, to discover all the things humankind takes for granted, but it is all too clear now that we can never walk among you. Not if you are to survive.

The rats have gone, led away by my brother, their bellies full with the souls of those lost.

All that remain now are the children, tearing, ripping, snarling outside my house, and looking for a way in.

I suppose there is a kind of justice to be found in the fact that those children I murdered have come back to escort me home. My brother piper’s touch.

Consider this my farewell.

Until this ends I am going to relax in my chair, pop the tab on another beer and maybe watch a little television.

Just like one of you.

Author Bios

Kealan Patrick Burke
is an actor, photographer, editor and Bram Stoker Award-winning author of
The Turtle Boy
,
The Hides
,
Currency of Souls
,
Master of the Moors
, and
Jack & Jill
. Visit him on the web at
www.kealanpatrickburke.com
or find him on Facebook at
www.facebook.com/kealan.burke

Nate Kenyon
is the award-winning author of Bloodstone, The Reach, The Bone Factory, Sparrow Rock, and Prime, as well as dozens of short stories. His novel StarCraft Ghost: Spectres, based upon the bestselling videogame franchise from Blizzard Entertainment, will be released in September 2011 from Pocket Books. Kenyon is a three-time Stoker Award Finalist, and two of his novels have been optioned for film. He is currently working on a new novel based on Blizzard’s Diablo videogame franchise. Visit him online at
www.natekenyon.com
.

Elizabeth Massie
is a Bram Stoker Award- and Scribe Award-winning author of horror novels, short horror fiction, media tie-ins, mainstream fiction, historical novels, poetry, and nonfiction. Her newest works include Homegrown (a mainstream e-book and print novel from Crossroad Press), Playback: Light and Shadow (an e-novella from Random House, prequel to the 2011 horror film, Playback, starring Christian Slater), and Sundown (a soon-to-be-available collection from Necon E-Books.) Massie lives in the Shenandoah Valley with illustrator Cortney Skinner. She is the founder of Hand to Hand Vision and Circle of Caring on Facebook. She likes snow and hates cheese.

Joe McKinney
is a sergeant in the San Antonio Police Department who has been writing professionally since 2006.  He is the Bram Stoker-nominated author of Dead City, Quarantined, Apocalypse of the Dead, Dodging Bullets, Flesh Eaters and Dead Set.  His upcoming books include The Zombie King, St. Rage, Lost Girl of the Lake , and The Red Empire.  As a police officer, he’s received training in disaster mitigation, forensics, and homicide investigation techniques, some of which finds its way into his stories.  He lives in the Texas Hill Country north of San Antonio . Visit him at
http://joemckinney.wordpress.com
for news and updates.

Lisa Morton
is the author of four books of non-fiction, two novellas, one novel, six feature films, lots of television you’ve never heard of, and nearly 50 works of short fiction. She is a three-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award, and her first novel (THE CASTLE OF LOS ANGELES) was a Black Quill Award nominee. Lisa is one of the world’s leading experts on Halloween, and has been seen in documentaries on The History Channel and in the pages of The Wall Street Journal. She lives in North Hollywood, California, and can be found online at
http://www.lisamorton.com
.

Joseph Nassise
is the author of more than a dozen novels, including the internationally bestselling Templar Chronicles trilogy.  He has also written several installments in the Rogue Angel action adventure series from Harlequin/GoldEagle. He’s a former president of the Horror Writers Association and a two-time Bram Stoker Award and International Horror Guild Award nominee.

Scott Nicholson
is author of more than 20 paranormal, suspense, and mystery thrillers, as well as six screenplays, four comics series, and four children’s books. He also writes the Cursed! and Supernatural Selection series with J.R. Rain. His website is
www.hauntedcomputer.com
.

Jeremy C. Shipp
is the Bram Stoker Award-nominated author of Cursed, Vacation, and Sheep and Wolves. His shorter tales have appeared or are forthcoming in over 60 publications, the likes of Cemetery Dance, ChiZine, Apex Magazine, Withersin, and Shroud Magazine. Jeremy enjoys living in Southern California in a moderately haunted Victorian farmhouse called Rose Cottage. He lives there with his wife, Lisa, a couple of pygmy tigers, and a legion of yard gnomes. The gnomes like him. The clowns living in his attic—not so much. Feel free to visit his online home at
www.jeremycshipp.com
. His twitter handle is @
JeremyCShipp
.

Lisa Tuttle
made her first professional sale forty years ago, with the short story “Stranger in the House”—now the opening entry in
Stranger in the House,
Volume One of her Collected Supernatural Fiction, published by Ash-Tree Press. Perhaps best known for her short fiction, which includes the International Horror Guild Award-winning “Closet Dreams,” she is also the author of several novels, including
The Pillow Friend, The Mysteries,
and
The Silver Bough,
as well as books for children, and non-fiction works. Although born and raised in America, she has been a British resident for the past three decades, and currently lives with her family in Scotland.

Simon Wood
is an ex-racecar driver, a licensed pilot and an occasional private investigator. His short fiction has garnered him an Anthony Award and a CWA Dagger Award nomination. His titles include, Working Stiffs, Accidents Waiting to Happen, Paying the Piper, Terminated and We All Fall Down. As Simon Janus, he’s the author of The Scrubs and Road Rash. His upcoming books are Did Not Finish and The Fall Guy. Curious people can learn more at
www.simonwood.net
.