The Nightmare Game_Slayers Read online

  “Let’s go,” Chase said, pushing her brother out of the chamber and up the long, winding path to the surface.

  Chapter Forty

  Blood Red Dawn

  Chase and Paxton emerged from the Taum Sauk mountain a few hours before dawn. On the western horizon, they could see the sun starting to peek above the world’s edge, staining the lip of the sky blood red. In the valley below them, Crucible burned and the screams of the dead and dying echoed through the early morning cold.

  “What happened to you?” Paxton asked, pointedly not looking at Chase’s masked face.

  “Too fucking much,” Chase said, her shoulders slumped. “I'll explain when we get out of here.”

  Chase descended the mountain path, doing her best to steer around the clots of dead bodies that had been torn apart by the vengeful spirits she'd released.

  A half-hour later, they reached the Cayenne, which the Sleepers had pulled off the side of the road. “It's not set up for you,” Chase told her brother, “but it's a hell of a lot more comfortable than that stupid white van.”

  She eased Paxton into the passenger seat, helped him get buckled into the unfamiliar vehicle, then folded his wheelchair up in the back. The keys were still in the Cayenne’s ignition, so Chase climbed in and fired up the engine.

  “Is your face going to stay like that?” Paxton asked.

  Chase shrugged. “For the time being. Somebody shot me, and until I can heal that up, I don't want to take a chance and take off the mask. Might end up dead.”

  Paxton flushed and looked away. “You scared the living shit out of me.”

  Chase grinned. “That's kind of the point. It's called a Horrifying Apparition.”

  “Well, it worked. Way too fucking well.”

  They drove through the middle of Crucible. The main street was abandoned, but fires raged in the hills on either side of the town. The fancy houses they'd seen on the ridge coming into town were aflame, the windows shattered and belching black smoke into the sky.

  As they crossed the bridge out of Crucible in their battered, blood-covered SUV, Chase felt something tug at her heart. The talisman had flashed brightly for a moment, and she realized something had changed. Not just in her, but in the world.

  She'd escaped from the hell that was Crucible, but a part of that hell had escaped with her.

  The Nightmare Game was far from over.

  Chapter Forty-One

  Final Offer

  Chase’s face returned to normal not long after she crossed the bridge out of Crucible, but she could still feel it, waiting. If she needed it, or the scythe, they’d be back in the blink of an eye.

  They washed the blood off the Cayenne at the first truck stop she found outside of Crucible and paid the attendant extra to ignore the mess they’d made in the stall. Apparently, in some parts of Missouri, it only takes a couple of twenties to make anyone forget they’d ever seen your face or your carnagemobile.

  They drove to St. Louis after leaving Crucible, looking for someplace no one had ever heard of Crucible or the Harrow family. They’d swapped the Cayenne for a wad of hundred dollar bills with a guy who didn’t want any questions and wasn’t offering any answers. That money went to buy another shitty white Caravan, along with the kit to make it compatible with Paxton's condition.

  Then they hunkered down in a grungy hotel on the west bank of the Mississippi for a week. Chase spent her time trying to read the murder manual, without much luck. No matter how many times she focused on the pages, the words slid away from her. She couldn’t make out more than a sentence or two at a time, and even that meager progress left her with a blinding headache. The rules had changed.

  Paxton annoyed her with a series of probing questions about the Nightmare Game and her role in it. Chase tolerated the questions for as long as she could, but eventually they got too close to the bone and she snapped at her brother to leave her alone. Then they watched terrible movies on the hotel’s HBO and tried to forget they were orphans.

  The night before they left, Chase was filling a bucket with ice when she spotted Caleb Marsh waiting for her next to the elevator.

  A cold, black rage enveloped her. The ice bucket fell from her hands, and the skin on her face tightened into a pumpkin skull mask. Her scythe appeared on command, filling her fist with righteous anger.

  Her talisman’s pattern blossomed in her mind’s eye like a venomous flower. The Victim orb flared, and Chase knew what to do with it. She hadn't been able to choose Sleepers as her preferred victims, but there was an option she found more suitable. Dark runes flickered across her vision, naming Chase’s new targets.

  Predators.

  Before she could reach the executive, he raised his hand. “Your mother is still alive.”

  Chase ground her teeth in frustration, and her grip tightened on her scythe until the wood creaked in her palms. “Where is she?”

  The man shook his head. “The Game isn't over, Chase. You broke the rules, and now there is no end state. The Nightmare will continue forever.”

  They stared at one another for a long moment before the executive continued. “I'm keeping your mother safe, for my own well-being. You've disrupted the plans of the Iniquitas Group, my group, but I have convinced them you are worth more as an asset than a liability.”

  “Tell me where she is,” Chase snarled. “Or I'll carve your heart out.”

  The executive laughed. “No, you will not. Because if I do not return, then my people will kill her. You got the best of me once, Miss Harrow. You will never do so again.”

  “Then what do you want?” Chase snapped. “Tell me what it will take to get her back.”

  The executive steepled his fingers under his chin. “You have a rare gift, Miss Harrow. Coupled with the abilities of a Slayer, you become quite powerful, indeed. And I could find someone like you very useful if you weren't trying to kill me at every turn.”

  Chase took another step toward him and raised her scythe. “What makes you think I would help you do anything?”

  The executive raised his hands. “Your mother is safe. I will keep her comfortable. In return, I need your help dealing with specific issues that your skillset is particularly attuned to.

  “Have you ever heard the phrase ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’?” Caleb Marsh continued with a smile. “You saved your brother and your mother's life. And you ended a ritual which has continued for countless hundreds of years uninterrupted. That is an impressive resume for a young lady. But you've unleashed a terrifying genie, Miss Harrow. If you ever wish to see your mother again, you will help me put it back in its bottle.”

  The elevator dinged, and the door slid open. The executive slipped back into the empty car and tossed a black slab of metal and glass at Chase. “I'll be in touch. We have a lot of work to do.”

  Chase stared at the cellphone. A strange mixture of fear and desire stirred in her heart.

  She pocketed the phone and headed back to her room, suddenly eager to see what the future held.

  Shit the Author Says

  I’ve always been a huge horror fan. Not the new, PG-13 junk, but the good old stuff. Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Phantasm. Halloween (and even Season of the Witch, a great movie even if it’s not really part of the Michael Myers franchise. I sharpened my writing teeth during the grand days of splatterpunk, and still remember fondly the rise of Hellraiser and Rob Zombie into the modern horror pantheon. So, yeah, I love me some horror movies.

  Slayers is my torch song for the grand old days of horror movies and books. I wanted to pay homage to the novels I read growing up, as well as the films that shaped my sometimes…off…view of the world.

  If you’re an old school fan like me, then I hope you’re digging the new spin I put on the old style of horror books. If you’re a fan of LitRPG or Gamelit, or whatever the cool kids are calling it these days, then I hope you really enjoyed my injection of some classic material into this crunchy new mold.

  I’ve got big plans for Chase an
d the Hack-o’-lantern, but a lot of those depend on you, gentle reader. If you love this story and want more like it, the best way to get that to happen is to leave some kick-ass reviews on Amazon and drop me an email to let me know you’re digging what I’m doing.

  Again, I hope you enjoyed the hell out of this book, and I can’t wait to bring you even more tasty treats in the months to come. Flip the digital page for a listing of some of my other books, and click on a few if they strike your fancy.

  See you on the dark side—

  Sam Witt

  10/29/2017

  Awesome Free Stuff

  In 2018, I’m going to start a new experiment. Fans of my work will get a new installment of an epic new gamist story every week. As a bonus to the free fiction, you’ll also be able to help me shape the story. It’s going to be a totally kickass experience that I promise will be like nothing you’ve ever seen. If you dug Slayers, I think you’re really going to enjoy this new experiment, which, by the way, is totally free.

  Did I mention it’s free?

  You can get involved by clicking the link below, but hurry. Decisions are being made by members of the list already, so you don’t want to miss your chance to help build an amazing new gaming story.

  http://srwittwrites.com/slayersintro/

  Other Books by S R Witt

  The Dragon Web Online Seeries

  Dragon Web Online: Inception

  Dragon Web Online: Dominion

  Dragon Web Online: Invasion (coming soon)

  * * *

  Viridian Gate Online DLC

  The Artificer (with James A. Hunter)

  Get Your Fill of Gamist Fiction

  You’ve probably noticed that Slayers isn’t your run of the mill horror story. It includes a LOT of features that were heavily influenced by roleplaying games of all sorts. From Dungeons & Dragons to modern video games, I’m almost as much of a gaming fan as I am a horror fan.

  This style of fiction is quickly gaining popularity, and has several different Facebook forums that can help you find more stories like this one. From fantasy to science fiction to horror, gamist fiction covers all the bases.

  Here’s a group filled with fans of this type of fiction and authors. I hope you find it useful and entertaining. Drop in and tell ‘em that Sam sent you.

  The LitRPG Group

  Even More Gamelit Groups!

  And if you thought one Facebook group was enough to contain fiction with gaming elements, my, oh my, were you mistaken. Here are some other popular groups that I hope will fill your leisure hours with great book recommendations and new friends.

  The LitRPG Society

  The GameLit Society

  LitRPG Books