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- Herausgeber: Photocosmological Press
- Kategorie: Abenteuer, Thriller, Horror
- Sprache: Englisch
Derek lost his wife and his child. Now he may well be losing his mind. A 2.5 thousand word horror story.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023
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SLUG LAND
NOEL COUGHLAN
CONTENTS
Slug Land
Author’s Note.
SLUG LAND
Copyright © 2022 Noel Coughlan
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except in the case of a reviewer, who may quote brief passages embodied in critical articles or in a review.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Published by Photocosmological Press
Ebook Edition: ISBN: 978-1-910206-23-2
SLUG LAND
Kilkalock, Ireland.
Cherry trees line the road to the school as far as the ancient humpback bridge. Their branches, blushing pink with March blossoms, sway gently in the breeze, but, to Derek, their soft whispers might as well be screams. He does his best to stay on the knife edge of the present as he strides onward. His past is lost, his future dead.
He narrowly avoids stepping on a fat, corpse-white slug almost lost in the scattering of fallen petals on the footpath. The first time he walked his daughter, Abi, to school they encountered one exactly like it. He recalls her squeal of terror as she clung to him. He told her not to worry as they skirted around it. There was no need to be afraid.
The knot of pain in his chest tightens. He takes a moment to steady his emotions, to quell the burn of his eyes, then continues on to the bridge.
A weatherbeaten relief glares at him from the base of its left stone parapet. The sheela na gig is a relic of an old church dismantled long ago to build the bridge. The crone’s body has almost entirely worn away, but her bulging eyes and grotesque grin remain unnervingly sharp. Over the hundreds of years she has sat here, how much sorrow and tragedy has she taunted with that wicked smile? His rage suddenly boils over and he waves a fist at her as he strides past. He looks around guiltily in case anyone has seen him threaten the lifeless stone, but thankfully, there’s nobody else on the road.
He climbs the steep hill to the school, a modern building barely two years older than Abi. It’s twenty past nine and the other parents have already departed, their children safe in their classrooms. Derek walks by the half-empty car park, too small for the school, and enters the reception. Groups of happy kids in navy uniforms grin at him from the bright white walls. One hook is empty—his daughter’s class is missing. Behind a glass screen, the secretary rushes to her counter, eyes wide with fright.
“I’m here to see the principal,” Derek croaks. “He said he has some stuff belonging to my daughter.”
“Of course,” she whispers breathlessly. “I’ll get him straight away.” She flits out of her office. The staccato clack of her heels terminates with the swing of a distant door.
