Nightmare Worlds, Collection of Weird & Frightening Tales

21 June 2016

Paul DeThroe’s Nightmare Worlds, Collection of Weird & Frightening Tales

What are your fears? What keeps you awake at night? Some things that cause me anxiety and insomnia are tales of people driven to insanity by deceit, greed, jealousy, injustice, malevolence, and treachery.

Drawing from these topics, among others, I present six nightmarish yarns for those of us who see some degree of wisdom in keeping their fears fed with dark fiction. Because, as we all know, fears left unattended tend to climb in bed with us at night to attack our unguarded dreams. Or they manifest themselves, in those who are weaker minded, as demons and monsters, who inspire dastardly deeds that inevitably end up in news headlines as the most heinous of crimes.

The Holy Man: A grizzled, uncaring, war reporter discovers a miraculous healer, and must decide whether to exploit him for purposes of career advancement, or leave him be.

The Blessed or the Damned: A jilted man is shot by his wife’s lover. Caught somewhere between life and death, he’s told at the Pearly Gates that he is either one sin or one good deed away from eternity or damnation.

Doorway to Doom: A man buys a house with a time portal, leaving him with the unenviable decision of entering it, selling it or sealing it forever.

God is a Clown?: A clown with a god complex plans to corrupt the world’s youth with a demented syndicated television program.

One Last Magick Ride: A dark age’s wizard is released from his frozen exile by global warming. The world he discovers leaves him in despair. With his magic fading, does he save humanity as his last act or does he leave us to our own self-inflicted doom?

The Active Shooter: A forlorn tale about a man who survives a mass workplace shooting, perpetrated by his long time boss. He has a message/warning to share that will chill you to the bone.