Friday Frights: A Scary Excerpt

Since Fairy Tales and Nightmares is on sale this month, I’m giving you a creepy tease from one of the stories in my book for Friday Frights. Enjoy.

An Excerpt from The Sleep of Death

The dim candlelight flickered over scattered skeletons and bones propped macabrely at their work, and illuminated the disturbing stains discolouring the stone floor. Florin stared, appalled at the grisly tableau of the dead serving in an afterlife of subjection, caught eternally in menial labour. Bony hands wrapped around wooden spoons or kitchen knives, chopped shrunken vegetables and petrified meat, stirred congealed pots of sludge; one poor soul still grasped the rotting spit.
“Who would do such a thing? Sacrilege of the dead!”
A soft sigh melded with an exhalation of air, stirring dust across the floor. “You don’t like my art? I worked so hard to get it right. To put them back in place, like it was before. Mind you, I didn’t have all the pieces, but I did my best.”
“Beast! You did this work of the devil? For this alone, you should die.”
“Oh, so righteous. As if you had no sins. So I played with a few bones. They can feel no more pain. My true sin is in how they died. They felt pain then. Oh, so much pain.”
“Demon beast, you brag about killing these innocents?”
“Not so innocent, any of them. They did nothing to help me. I only gave them what they deserved, what they left me.” A sharp snarl broke, and all the bones rattled in response. “See, even they agree. Besides, a man carrying a sword should not cast judgement on killing. How many people have you ended, sir… what is your name, by the way?”
“I am Prince Florin. Know my name well, beast, for they will herald me as your destroyer.”
“I doubt that. And you prove my point. Eager to kill. You know nothing of who I am. Still, come find me and try.”

Book Link: https://books2read.com/u/47dG6a

---