Necro Files: Two Decades of Extreme Horror

gun at Dennis.

“Please …” Dennis stammered. “Y-Y-you don’t want to … to … d-d-do this!”

“Sure I do,” Harvey said, his grief suddenly as gone as fast as it came, his face erupting into a sick smile and then he pulled the trigger.

The.38 caliber slug tore into Dennis’s head, ejecting brain and bone into the wall behind him. The force of the shot propelled Dennis back and he slumped against the wall, eyes opened and glazed. Harvey watched as Dennis’s dead body rolled over and beat a convulsive tattoo on the carpeted floor before finally stopping.

Harvey knelt down and felt for Dennis’s pulse. Except for the dwindling sound of the dying woman’s screams coming from the snuff film on the TV, the house was silent.

Harvey grinned. He felt good. Wonderful. He never thought it would have felt so great, so fulfilling, so powerful! He stood up and replaced the revolver in his front pants pocket. He turned the VCR off with the remote control and rewound the tape and began making preparations for the owner of the house to arrive. According to his research, they were due back home in about three hours. Harvey had already set up all the video cameras at strategic places in the house, and he would turn all of them on with one flick of the remote when it was showtime. Then, he would wait for them to walk in and welcome them home, all four of them: mother, father, two adorable kids. Then they’d have some fun. He was looking forward to it now that he’d gotten warmed up. And getting warmed up was important. He’d gone through this stage with Carl, Alan, and Dennis to make sure he had the stomach for it. It was one thing to watch this shit everyday for the past twenty years; it was quite another to actually cross the line and do it.

Marveling at how well his fabricated story about his mother and son had gone over with Dennis Hillman, Harvey Panozzo made sure all the weapons were ready. Then he sat down in the darkened living room and waited.

Acknowledgements

“Meathouse Man” © Damon Knight, 1976, copyright renewed in 2004. © 2004 by George R.R. Martin. Originally published in Orbit 18, 1976. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Night They Missed the Horror Show” © Joe R. Lansdale, 1988. Originally published in Silver Scream, 1988. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Diary” © Ronald Kelly, 1990. Originally published in Cemetery Dance #3, 1990. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Abed” © Elizabeth Massie, 1992. Originally published in Still Dead, 1992. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“I am He that Liveth and was Dead … & Have the Keys of Hell & Death” (an excerpt from Duet for the Devil, 2000) © Randy Chandler and t. Winter-Damon, 1992. Originally published in Grue No. 14, Summer 1992. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Xipe” © Edward Lee, 1993. Originally published in The Barrelhouse: Excursions into the Unknown, Winter 1993. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Bait” © Ray Garton, 1993. Originally published in Cemetery Dance, Fall 1993, Volume 5 Number 3/4. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Painfreak” © Gerard Houarner, 1994. Originally published in Into the Darkness #1, April 1994. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Lover Doll” © Wayne Allen Sallee, 1994. Originally published in Little Deaths, 1994. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“The Spirit Wolves” © Charlee Jacob, 1995. Originally published in Into the Darkness #4, 1995. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Godflesh” © Brian Hodge, 1995. Originally published in The Hot Blood Series: Stranger By Night, 1995. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Every Last Drop” © John Everson, 1998. Originally published in Bloodsongs, Spring 1998. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Blind in the House of the Headsman” © Mehitobel Wilson, 2001. Originally published in Brainbox 2: Son of Brainbox, 2001. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“An Experiment in Human Nature” © Monica J. O’Rourke, 2001. Originally published in The Rare Anthology, 2001. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“The Burgers of Calais” © Graham Masterton, 2002. Originally published in Dark Terrors 6, The Gollancz Book of Horror, 2002. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Ecstasy” © Nancy Kilpatrick, 2004. Originally published in Master/Slave, Venus Books, 2004. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Pop Star in the Ugly Bar” © Bentley Little, 2005. Originally published in Outsiders: 22 All-New Stories From the Edge, 2005. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“The Sooner They Learn” © Wrath James White, 2005. Originally published in The Book Of A Thousand Sins, 2005. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Addict” © J.F. Gonzalez, 2006. Originally published in Insidious Reflections #5, January 2006. Reprinted by permission of the author.

* * *

This book is a work of fiction. People, places, events, and situations are the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Visit Comet Press on the web at: www.cometpress.us

COMET PRESS TITLES

Visit us at www.cometpress.us

The Death Panel: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness

Dark Crime Horror by Tom Piccirilli, Scott Nicholson, Randy Chandler, Simon Wood, John Everson, and more!

Horror World Review

Be prepared to be blown away by some of the best genre short story fiction written in the last few years.

Vile Things: Extreme Deviations of Horror

Extreme Horror by Ramsey Campbell, Graham Masterton, Randy Chandler, and more!

Fangoria Magazine Review

This book is a definite for any extreme horror fan. Full of terror, sex, and gore, I don't recommend this for the faint of heart.

Rue Morgue Magazine Review

Simply put, Vile Things is every deviant horror fan's wet dream.

Deadcore: Four Hardcore Zombie Novellas

Featuring Randy Chandler, Ben Cheetham, Edward M. Erdelac, and David James Keaton.