03.21.13
Annie, Kev and Clive were sitting around the kitchen table having breakfast when Tom walked in, looking tired.
“I didn’t expect to see you up this early,” said Annie. “Aren’t you on late shift this week?”
“I am. It’s just…I…”
“Oh my God. You had it too, didn’t you?”
“Yes.”
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02.14.13
The terrors I am about to experience are not my own. They will be implanted into my brain so that I can try and find out what happened to Janie Matthews. She is unable to tell us anything; she was found on Saturday morning at Moor House, screaming constantly, though nothing appeared to be physically wrong with her. She has been kept under sedation ever since, but for this procedure to work she must be fully alert so the doctor is letting her come to. She is almost there now – what started as whimpers are now getting louder and will soon turn into full-blown screams. The technicians hook me up to her in anticipation; my brain has been wired to hers for only a couple of seconds and already I am experiencing an extreme sense of foreboding.
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07.26.12
There were many reasons why Tommy didn’t want to move house, but the main one was the creature under his bed. On the last night at the old house, he announced he was going to bed immediately after dinner. His parents exchanged a look as he left the table, and before he closed the bedroom door he heard them whispering to each other. He couldn’t quite hear what they were saying, but caught the word sulking. He rolled his eyes. Let them think he was sulking if they wanted to. After all, they couldn’t know that he was going to bed early to spend as much time as possible with Grumf on their last night together, and he would certainly be doing plenty of sulking over the next few weeks.
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06.07.12
The Scholar was excited. After years of research, his first experiment on a living human was a success. The blind orphan boy’s eyesight was restored. It had taken a few days after the procedure for the child to fully regain his sight; the boy reported that his world was becoming lighter and clearer every day. This was in line with the Scholar’s animal experiments – they had all started off by walking very cautiously, but then became bolder as the days passed. He had assumed that this was due to the initial fear of their new sensation, but this explanation worked just as well.
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05.31.12
I hear the whispered password and unbolt the steel door.
“I found a beauty today,” JJ says.
“Shhh,” I say. It isn’t quite dark yet but I don’t want to take any chances. There is an echo on the ground floor level that worries me even during the daytime. I hate having the last watch of the day. Every little creak makes me jump and even my own breath sounds like it’s coming from somewhere close behind me.
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03.10.11
Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the ugliest of them all?
Charlotte stood in the bathroom, looking at her reflection in disgust. No wonder he had left her – who could love a face like this? She scrutinised herself like never before and found flaw after flaw. Lacklustre skin with blotchy patches that make-up never seemed to cover; eyes that were too small and sunken, a jawline that was too wide, hair that was too limp. She left the house to go to work, but could not escape her reflection. Shiny surfaces, shop windows, puddles on the pavement – all conspired to taunt her throughout the day, reminding her of how hideous she was. By the time she returned home, she was in a state of extreme agitation. She grabbed a marble paperweight from the living room and made for the bathroom. Read the rest of this entry »
08.26.10
The girl on the makeshift operating table stares up at me, pleading, her eyes bulging partly through fear and partly because she is trying to scream through a mouthful of gauze. The muffled sound that escapes her is not even loud enough to be heard over the other voices. After I kill her, her voice will join them and I will hear her loud and clear, along with all the others.
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07.15.10
Albert walked up to the funeral parlour feeling happier than he had in a long time. For the last few years he had been performing his mortician duties listlessly, but today he felt that he had a purpose. He was about to enter using the front door, when he saw that the funeral director was in the reception area with clients. He decided to access the mortuary via the side entrance; since the death of his daughter four years previously, his presence made clients uncomfortable. Affronted by this at first, Albert had soon come to realise how his countenance might be upsetting to them. Grief had made him so gaunt that it seemed his skull was only covered by a paper-thin layer of skin. He understood how the prominent cheekbones and the sunken, dark-ringed eyes might perhaps be too reminiscent of the Reaper himself to the recently bereaved.
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07.08.10
The child must die. You have been appointed to kill it.
The words echoed in his head as he ran through the forest to where he held the woman captive. The kidnapping had been neither easy nor well performed, but for now only the end result mattered. She was his prisoner, and would remain so until after she died in childbirth — no woman had ever carried to term such progeny and lived.
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04.09.10
She has been walking since dusk in order to get to the wolf-lord by midnight and has now reached the final hill. Up and up she climbs, heavy-hearted but swift of foot. Up she goes, though she knows she will not be coming down again. In her place the wolf-lord will send the rain, and her people will see their crops grow again. They will once again have plenty, and more girlchildren shall be born so that the wolf-lord can carry on his own existence and fuel theirs. She tells herself that she is not afraid; it is an honour to be chosen as the wolf-lord’s feastmaiden. But as the top of the hill draws nearer and the howls get louder, her heart can’t help but skip a beat or two.
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