BLOOD TITHE: Glenn Soucy

BLOOD TITHE: GLENN SOUCY

Hey, nice idea using the bat decorations for the Halloween party, but next time make sure they’re not real! Live bats tend to move all over the damn place and not stay in one place. And, no, you cannot train them to play fetch! They’ll come after you just like the ghoul that hides out in your backyard! Ghouls don’t know from “You’re okay … I’m okay” so stop trying to be its friend! You’ve got better things to do—like entering today’s Daily Book Giveaway. We’ve got a doozy of a twisted tale! BLOOD TITHE by GLENN SOUCY will make you cringe, cry for your mommy, and spank you all at the same time! And isn’t that what you’re really begging for? You know it is!

Author GLENN SOUCY is offering FIVE ECOPIES of the first in his wildly popular BLOOD TITHE series. There’s secret tunnels, the creation of a Master Race and an experiment gone wrong! And that experiment must have had pretty good mojo on it for Jeremy to be hearing sap moving in the trees, but that’s not all. Glenn has written a Halloween horror short for you!!! Yup, Glenn got in on the action and you reap the benefits of getting this freebie, wow-pow of a creepfest!

FORTUNEs AND TELLERS is a ditty that’ll get your adrenalin pumping, but don’t even get me started on what I had to do to get you all this! Talk about wrestling an alligator! Glenn put up one hell of a fight! All that twisting and turning in the swamp at midnight had me about ready to give up, but a chokehold I learned from watching an Ultimate Cage Fighter competition put a period at the end of that particular sentence!

So let’s get this giveaway on the road! Read FORTUNEs AND TELLERS and then enter to win one of the five copies up for grabs! Just click on over to the Official FB HALLOWEENPALOOZA Event page and comment “I Want to Win” and you just might! Use the link at the bottom to get there! Good luck!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Glenn Soucy was born on July 3rd. He moved a lot as a child and hardly stayed in a house longer than two years. Mostly grew up in Massachusetts and Arizona in the Phoenix area. Glenn graduated high school in Las Vegas and joined the Air Force shortly after. He spent three years in Germany and was there for the first Gulf War and the fall of the Berlin Wall. He married his high school sweet heart and they have been together for over 26 years. Glenn has been writing steadily since age nineteen. He loves to read and write, fast moving books that are "roller coaster" rides.

You can also visit this author at:

Web Site: http://www.independentauthornetwork.com/glenn-soucy.html    
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5556678.Glenn_J_Soucy   

BLOOD TITHE

“Not for the faint hearted ... Wow, talk about having your
heart in your throat suspense. You'll be pulling for young
Jeremy (main character)" right from the start to
the cliff hanging end” – Amazon Reader

In the damp, dark forest of northern Maine, a secret that was buried for decades becomes exposed. Jeremy was five years old and playing in the thick forest, when he fell into a forgotten tunnel. The old passage was left over from WWII; when the USA was trying to create the Master Race with DNA alterations. The chemicals were still there, mixing with flood waters, and only becoming stronger.

Jeremy is rescued from the tunnel, and spends the summer in the hospital recovering. But soon realizes that he can sense heartbeats from a distance, feel sap moving in trees. Best of all, he can gather energy from every living thing, which gives him unnatural and sometime uncontrollable powers.

His mother and sister are frightened by this as he struggles for their affection. Soon the CIA hears of the news and starts asking questions, as do mysterious people who are still alive from the original experiments. Jeremy doesn’t know who to trust.

FORTUNES AND TELLERS

by Glenn soucy © 2014

The headlights of the custom pickup truck shined on the old wooden sign that had chipped and weathered paint. Decades had passed since it was hand-painted, yet the words, Fortune Teller, still stood out over two black cats and an arrow pointing in the direction to get there.

The truck stopped and remained idling, the loud tailpipes rumbling away.  The two occupants looked up the winding dirt road, which led into the dark woods. A thin layer of fog was lingering close to the ground and all the trees appeared dead.

“I hear the old lady has a lot of money,” Ramon, the driver, said. His eyes were trying to cut through the growing darkness.

Ramon was a burglar with a lengthy criminal record and several stints in prison. The man next to him was Jake and he was a thief, too.  Neither of them saw a need to work for money, when so much was there for them to take.

Jake licked his lips, fantasizing about the treasures that he was about to acquire. A snub nosed pistol was tucked into his waistband. He pulled it out to make sure it was loaded. Ramon was armed, too, and had already checked his weapon.

“Let’s get this old hag. I hear she’s like a hundred and fifty or something,” Jake said, with a sinister smile.

Ramon turned the steering wheel and began driving up the narrow path. As they passed the sign, a black cat, with a red collar, came out from behind one of the post it and watched the truck leave. Dangling from the collar was a two-inch long crystal, which was pitch black.

The headlights were turned off as the truck came closer to an old three story house that seemed to be in the middle of the woods. There wasn’t another living soul for miles around.

Tapping the button again, Ramon shut off the parking lights and then the truck before taking the last corner. The two men’s pulses were gaining speed as the exited the vehicle. Sweat was forming on their palms as both the thieves took hold of their guns.

Suddenly there was a flash behind them. They spun around, pistols out as they aimed at the ever-thickening fog. The cat that passed was long gone; there was nothing left but eerie silence and creaking trees.

“This place gives me the creeps,” Jake said, doing his best not to let his voice tremble.

Ramon nodded, “Yeah, let’s get this over with.”

With the guns in their hands, they continued on foot up the dirt road. Twenty feet later, they came to a stop. The outline of a dilapidated, three-story, old wooden house could be seen through the fog. The roof was tin and void of all its original color, with moss growth scattered throughout. The siding consisted of wooden planks with white, chipped paint, which only made it blend into the fog. A wide, sagging front porch, with a broken railing, stood waiting for the two men.

Jake still tried not to let his voice break, but failed. “I, I heard s, she hoards all her money and refuses to fix up the p, place.”

Every fiber in Ramon’s body told him to run away and never come back, but he couldn’t bring himself to admit that he was scared to death. He took a shaky step forward, as his breathing became choppy.

The wooden steps creaked as they fearfully ascended them. Right in front of them was a hundred-year-old front door that had a large, oval window. Numerous spider webs were on the inside of the glass. Jake had wide, frightened eyes, as he looked at the glass doorknob. The door was ajar.

“Hello?” Ramon called out softly, which was completely out of character.

Behind them, a soft wind stirred the dead leaves off the ground. A vast graveyard with crooked, moss-covered tombstones was exposed for a few seconds and then vanished from sight.

The cold breeze wrapped around the pair of thieves, pushing the door open more. They weren’t sure if it was the wind or a voice, but whispers seemed to come from inside the dark house.

“Let’s get our money,” Jake said, his voice barely audible.

Neither one moved at first, then Ramon shuffled forward.

The living room was dark with worn out wooden floors. Old Victorian-style furniture with ripped cushions was sitting in the same spot it had been since before the men were born. Half a dozen lit, black candles were along the mantle above the brick fireplace, leaving long trails of melted wax. The soft light from them illuminated an old painting of a young woman with long, brown hair pulled up in a bun. She was wearing a long black dress and was standing in front of the house, when it looked new.

Their frightened eyes swept past that to the rest of the room. On the left, there was a single, open hallway that led deeper into the large house.

They walked just past the threshold of the door and stopped. The hair on the nape of their necks stood on end. For a second, the only noise they heard was the blood circulating in their ears.

Slowly, the heavy door creaked, as it closed by itself. The soft click of the latch was as loud of thunder. The men spun around, overwhelming fear striking their hearts.

A thud came from behind them and they immediately turned with their guns out. They were so afraid, the hands holding the weapons shook and the dripping sweat from their foreheads was burning their eyes.

The old woman stood in the hallway staring at the men without any signs of fear. She was elderly and hunched over, using a cane to keep her up. Her hair was long, stringy and gray. Cataracts had all but covered her eyes. She was frail with liver spots covering her skin. Her fingers were crooked and filled with arthritis.

Slowly, she tilted her head back and a soft moan came from her toothless mouth. “Ramon, Jake, you are late!” she growled in a stronger voice than one would expect.

Bang! Bang! Both men fired at her. The bullets struck her in the chest, plowing the old woman over. She lay on the floor, blood pooling around her as she gasped for air. The two thieves stood there with their deadly weapons aiming at her, as if the old woman could jump up and kill them at any moment. Their hearts were banging against their ribs, as their bodies trembled with fear.

The old woman’s bony fingers were scratching the floor as blood gurgled in her throat. “Agatha! Shasha!” she said in a voice that sounded different than hers.

The two black cats bolted out of their hiding spots in the living room. They leaped into the air, one hitting Ramon, the other Jake. The felines weren’t that big, yet they carried the weight of a truck as they plowed the men down.

Both men scrambled to get back up as invisible hands took hold of their frightened bodies. An unseen weight held them down, as the cats crawled up onto their chest. The animals hissed and meowed loudly at the intruders.

Terror overtook them, as all they could see were the black crystals hanging from their collars. Their hearts waivered, beating painfully fast, and then really slow. Sounds of whispers and laughing children circled the room, all of it sounding evil.

“Please, no, please!” Ramon pleaded, unable to get up.

The cats hissed at the victims. Both men began to age right there.  Hair, once black, became gray and white. Their skin became wrinkled and discolored. As they moaned in pain, the two crystals turned from black to glowing red.

When the men were too old to do anything but lie there, the cats climbed off their chest and trotted over to the fallen woman. The felines started purring as they came closer. The glowing crystals flickered as both cats climbed onto the deceased woman.

Suddenly, the blood on the floor stopped flowing away and went back into the old lady. She sucked in a deep breath, clutching the floor. “Thank you, my loyal friends,” she said, sounding much younger.

The glowing red of the crystals began to fade and the blackness resumed. The cats stayed right by her side, purring.

****

THE NEXT DAY

“Come on ladies, let’s see how the work is going,” the fortune teller said to the black cats as they ran around her feet.

She was no longer old, but young and vibrant. She was wearing a long black dress, now making it clear that she was the woman in the painting over the brick fireplace. She walked out the freshly-painted front door to the large porch. There was Jake, old and decrepit, as he worked on repairing the wooden porch. He cowered at the sight of her, trembling with fear. As if on command, the gray sky above rumbled and a light rain began to come down.

“Keeping working or I’ll find you a place to sleep,” she said, motioning towards the graveyard.

“Yes ma’am,” he said bowing as his body shook.

The fortune teller continued walking up the dirt road, the cats staying close by. There, she checked on Ramon. He had just put a sign in his truck that read, “For sale by owner.” Now he was painting the fortune teller’s sign.

“Make sure Agatha and Shasha are painted nicely!” she warned.

Ramon was so afraid he couldn’t even respond.  He only bowed and looked away.

“Come on ladies, I do believe that we are set for another generation,” she said, happily.

A cold wind came, carrying whispers and laughing children.

.

UPDATE: CONTEST CLOSED -- WINNER'S NAMES POSTED ON FB EVENT PAGE
 
TO ENTER TO WIN: 

1. Simply click on link below

2. Comment "I Want to Win" on the October 17th Daily Giveaway post

3. That's it! All names will be put into Random.org at 8 PM this evening. Winners will be posted on FB! 

GOOD LUCK!!!