The Indie Collaboration Presents: Tales From Darker Places Read online

Inside the shed, Freddy was aghast. Seeing the stains, blood rust, smelling the inhuman scent, which left him doubled at the waist- heaving. Disbelieving eyes scanned the sight before him, laid coldly on a slab. At first glance, the cleansing bar, sitting in a puddled mess of gelatinous skin, fats, and blood- before what appeared to be a man. Until he looked at the spot where hands would have been… What was he seeing? Had the bar performed this cleansing?

  The bar was a weapon, a tool to wipe away the disguises of beasts amongst men…

  What it revealed… Did Terra stop such beasts?

  “Why did you come in here when I asked you not to?”

  Terra’s firm voice made Freddy jump, and he reeled around, adrenaline surging within him. She looked vital then, and he… A craving swept over him, and he fell, bones stretching swiftly, fur and claws sprouting from beneath his pale skin…

  Terra’s eyes widened as she backed away. Hearing his bestial cry rising sharply from the shed behind her… she fled on all fours, her present form could not match threat for threat this time. Freddy rapidly shifted to a shape Terra had held hope against facing, and she, a mere witch, could not stop him. Her powers could not stop his kind. So she ran… and he after her, as Luna stared blankly upon them.

  Freddy found his freedom within that first hunt, his place in the night woods, where his hauntings would continue, and those who wandered the dark forest were lost and never heard from again. His red eyes rimmed with his wolfing hunger, as his teeth snarled at the wind, eager to taste Terra’s blood, as she prayed to gods who did not care.

  Read the full upcoming novel:

  “Favor of the Gods”

  By Donny Swords soon.

  The Cleansing Bar

  Copyright 2014 Donny Swords

  Sandra