Michael Kelso
Author
My works on Amazon
Excerpts of my works that have been pubished on Amazon.
Fragments of Fear: Volume 1
“Siren Song”
Eva’s curiosity held her hostage, dragging her to find the source of the haunting song that wafted through the forest. In her eleven years of life, she had never heard anything so beautiful yet tinged with such sadness. When her parents had suggested that they go camping, she resisted. It took her dad's ridiculous claim of camping on the border of a haunted forest to pique her interest. They kept up a good act. Pretending to be nervous and jumping at every noise. That alone made the trip worth it.
They turned in early, but in the middle of the night something woke her. She slipped out of the tent and heard music coming from the forest. She hadn't brought a flashlight, but the light of the full moon and the beautiful song were enough to guide her. As she approached, she began to hear words.
Come my dear
Never fear
Now draw near
To the song you hear
She reached a clearing and saw a boy sitting on an old tree stump. He was the same age as her, with dirty blonde hair. He seemed to be sleeping, yet he sang the same verse over and over. When she reached out to touch his face, his sky blue eyes snapped open, startling her.
"Who are you?" she asked.
For a long moment the air was still and silent. She felt a profound sense of loss that the music had ended.
"Please sing again," she said.
When he opened his mouth the song was barely audible. She leaned very close.
Run away
Please don't stay
Heed what I say
He comes this way
"Who comes?"
She drew back and saw tears streaming down his cheeks. For the first time she noticed his arms and legs were bound by tree roots. Panic flooded her mind as he sang again.
It's too late
There's no escape
I'm only bait
You've sealed your fate
Her heart pounded as she frantically searched for the way out. Black clouds drifted in front of the moon, blanketing the forest in darkness.
The boy bowed his head.
The girl shrieked and was suddenly quiet.
The clouds passed.
The boy looked up and saw a trail of blood leading into the dense, dark forest. A shadow stirred at the edge of the clearing. The boy stared at it, then sang.
Master wraith
Is your hunger slaked?
Please I pray
Let me go my way
The answer was a low growl. The boy knew from many times before exactly what that meant. He sighed deeply and began to sing.
Come my dear
Never fear...
The song wafted through the forest seeking another victim.
In the weeks that followed, the girl's picture was placed on milk cartons like so many others. In a small store on the edge of the forest, her milk carton stood in a cooler next to one that had a picture of a boy with dirty blonde hair and sky blue eyes.
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The Mall (Novellette)
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Chapter 1
Mopping up vomit wasn’t Todd’s favorite thing to do, but as much as he did it, you would think it was. As with anything, if you are good at something you usually end up doing it a lot more. Night after night, he committed himself to keeping the Frost Creek Mall looking as good as possible. He went above and beyond when it came to his janitor duties. Often he came in early and stayed late without asking for overtime.
The biggest problem was nobody cared. Todd was invisible when he did good things, but was chastised very publicly when things didn’t go right. It wasn’t his fault that lady slipped and tumbled down the escalator, he had the ‘wet floor’ sign up. And that Black Friday incident of a few years ago, when he was in training and didn’t know how to secure the top of a sixty foot tall Christmas tree … Fortunately nobody was hurt when it came crashing down, but Todd was the one picked to clean up that mess. He smelled like pine for two weeks after that.
The funny thing was, things like that seemed to always happen around Todd, never anything outright or malicious, and nobody could prove any wrongdoing, things just seemed to happen. Mostly, Todd kept to himself. He enjoyed doing his job and hanging out with his friends.
He was a likeable guy, skinny, with dark curly hair that made him look much younger than he was’. Being in his late twenties, youthful innocence was hard to maintain. Todd and his friends managed to do it though. To call Todd’s group of friends ‘Eclectic’ would be a tremendous understatement. They were one nutty group. In fact, he wasn’t really sure when he had become friends with most of them. Todd shrugged it off.
It must’ve been after the accident.
They had hung out together for years, ever since high school. Going to movies was getting a little boring though. Playing video games got real old real quick, with the twins being champion gamers. And exactly one football game with Zoey was more than enough for most of the group. Somewhere along the line, someone suggested going to the mall after hours. Todd definitely wasn‘t crazy about the idea, but they outvoted him.
“Looks like you lose, Toddzilla.“ Zoey said, giving him a noogie. “I guess you play by our rules or go play by yourself.“
Todd clenched his teeth, and looked like he was about to tell Zoey a thing or two, but something held him back.
One of these days you’ll get what you deserve.
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The Trail (Short story)
Chapter One
J. T. dangled over the edge of the cliff. Peering down at the valley a thousand feet below. staring death right in the teeth, she didn’t really feel fear, just an odd weightlessness and great annoyance.
Sherri and Terra held her by her belt and were slowly pulling her back onto the trail.
“Please don’t do that again,” Terra said.
“What’s wrong with you anyway, short stuff,” Sherri said, “Weren’t your stubby little legs able to stay on the trail?”
“I guess not,” J. T. said.
“Are you alright?” Sam asked.
“Yeah, I’ll be fine.”
“Okay then, lets keep moving. It’s another twelve miles to Lookout Point.”
“Why do we do this every year?” Chelsea whined.
“Because it’s fun,” Cassandra answered, receiving a hostile stare from Chelsea.
“Fun?” Chelsea said. “Climbing a dangerous trail twenty miles to camp out then go right back down the next day is fun?”
Cassandra laughed, “It’s not that dangerous.”
“Why don’t we ask J. T. if she thinks this trail is dangerous.”
“Okay,” Cassandra conceded, “But it’s still fun. Last weekend of the summer, all of us together for a campout at Lookout Point, what could be better than that?”
Chelsea thought for a moment. “Aside from the threat of imminent death, it would be fun if it really was all of us.”
Cassandra ignored the dig. “Yeah, I was disappointed George didn’t come too.”
“He still might make it. You know how he is, he’ll be late for his own funeral.”
Cassandra laughed. “You’re probably right.”
They continued to talk, carry on, and have a good time, as Sam led them up the trail. Chelsea stopped whining, and everyone seemed to be having fun. They continued to climb, reveling in the sights of beautiful mountain views. The fragrant flowers, mixed with the smell of pine had a very soothing effect. The squirrels chattering, and the birds chirping made them glad they had come on this trip. They reached a clearing, and Sam came to a stop.
“Let’s take a break.”
They all found a spot to sit and take a drink. Out of curiosity, Sam pulled a pair of binoculars out of his pack and started looking around.
“Wow, you can see everything from here. I can even see the parking lot where Sherri tried to kill me.”
“I missed you by a good six inches,” she retorted.
“How you got a driver’s license, I’ll never know.”
Sherri stuck her tongue out at Sam.
“That’s odd,” Sam said, ignoring her. “There’s another car parked there.”
“Maybe it’s George,” Chelsea said
“No, it’s not George’s car,” Sam replied.
“Oh well, someone else is walking the trail today,” Terra said.
Sam looked at the car more closely. There was nothing wrong with it, it just felt wrong and he didn’t know why. He shrugged it off and sat down to take a break.
“Umm, J. T., are you Okay?” Cassandra asked.
“I’m fine, why?”
“You have blood dripping down your chin.”
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Just Desserts (Short Story)
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Chapter One
“Gather ‘round kiddies, and I’ll tell you a tale of an old woman, just a smidgen younger than me,” the old crone said, rocking slowly in her chair.
“This woman lived all alone in a large house on a hill. Most people were terrified, and never visited. But it wasn’t the woman that frightened them, it was the house. Being an old mansion, it had an ominous look to it. The woman was unable to keep up with repairs, which made it look more decrepit and frightening. But it wasn’t always that way. As is usually the case with such stories, its beginnings are rooted in the past.”
***
There once was a handsome young man who fancied himself a magician. He had a solid, if unspectacular, routine and made a decent living entertaining parties and small groups. Then he met her.
The moment he saw her, she took his breath away, quite literally. It was back in the thirties, when cobblestone streets and horse drawn carriages were on the way out, and automobiles and concrete roads were on the way in. He was crossing the street, lost in thought (as he frequently was) when he stepped in front of her horse and buggy.
The impact knocked him to the ground, and took the wind out of him. When he came to, she was hovering over him with a haze about her that made her seem more alluring than any woman he had ever met.
She profusely apologized, and offered to take him to the hospital. But he would have none of it, instead he requested that she accompany him to dinner that night. Blushing, she said yes, and so began a whirlwind courtship that ended in marriage.
They were wonderful together. She started doing shows as his assistant, and his popularity rose. She gave him the confidence to try better and more exciting tricks, and he grew even more popular. As his confidence grew, he moved on to tricks that were mind boggling, that carried fatal risks, and soon he was filling theaters nightly.
She never left his side, and they shared the applause together every night. They were making money hand over fist, but they were very frugal about spending it. Even so, she noticed large sums of money disappearing here and there from their bank account.
When she questioned him about it, he became nervous and told her not to fret. Even still, it bothered her, so she asked one of her sisters to look into it. After a week, her sister called on her, and told her things were just fine, and she would enjoy what was coming. Instead of feeling comforted, she became suspicious of her sister.
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Playback (Short Story)
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(Chapter 1)
The final disk had been pressed. Jacob carefully lifted it out of the machine and placed it in its case. He stuck a ‘demo’ sticker on it and put it in the mailing envelope he had already addressed, along with a letter. It explained that the addressee had been randomly chosen to be in a focus group, testing a popular video game. All they had to do was play the game to the end, then instructions would appear on the screen. Jacob smiled to himself as he picked up the five envelopes and took them to his mailbox, knowing that none of the lives of these unsuspecting people would ever be the same.
Jacob Anderson was a self-made millionaire, but he didn’t plan it that way, it was more luck than anything that made him his money. He had two loves in his life. One was video games. Playing, designing, programming, anything about them. His second love was a secret, and not nearly as constructive. He had spent years developing and programming his first commercial game, ‘Playback.’ When it was released, it was hailed as groundbreaking. No one had ever played a game where the player is cast in the role of a serial killer, stalking his prey. Jacob didn’t care about the money. He put on a suit and a pleasant face and accepted the awards. But all he really wanted to do was start work on a sequel so he could go do more ‘research.’ His five unwitting victims were going to help him with that, along with his silent partner.
Kevin slowly crept into the room, trying to be as silent as possible. The sleeping form in the bed didn’t stir. He pulled a large knife from his belt. It glinted in the moonlight shining in through the window, bathing the room in an eerie glow. He was almost within striking distance when he stepped on a creaky floorboard. He looked down and silently cursed the floor. When he looked back up, he was staring down the barrel of a forty caliber pistol held by the woman who was soundly sleeping just a moment ago. She was beautiful. Her flimsy nightgown clung to the curves of her body, distracting him. Instead of running, or ducking, he just stood there. Her trigger finger got impatient and she started pumping round after round into his chest, knocking him to the floor, in a splatter of blood. She leaned over the bed to look at his lifeless body. Her face frozen in his view, as his life ebbed away.
’THE END.’
’CONTINUE ? YES/NO’.
“Dang, I almost had her that time.” Kevin said, as he selected ’NO’ and tossed the controller onto the couch. He yawned, stretched, and walked upstairs. He didn’t notice the little light flash on his game system showing that it had sent information online. He grabbed two sodas from the fridge, plopped on the living room couch, and handed the other soda to his dad.