SCATTERED BONES
A Collection
Published November 16, 2013
First Edition Reprint 2015/2021
In this collection of 22 short stories, Chuck Grossart invites you to take a walk down a path seldom traveled but in the dead of night, leading to a landscape where the macabre is common, and unseen companions whisper muddled warnings from the shadows as you navigate each twist and turn. The path will deliver you to a baleful place, a bleak expanse filled with childhood fears and unthinkable tragedy, bathed under the glow of a putrid moon.
The path beckons…
Let’s take a walk.
Includes the following titles: Ripple, Feed the Bear, Table Manners, Beach House, Solace, Legend, Sluagh, Spirit Board, Reflections, Burial Ground, Double Tap, Broken, Rows, Lydia, 30K, More, Fury, Date Night, Crush, Release, Splits, and Vetust Vex.
What readers are saying about SCATTERED BONES
"All I can say is Mr. Grossart, you sir are one sick puppy... AND I LOVE IT!!! I got hooked on this author when I read The Gemini Effect. I found his books are fast paced and very gripping, I think they would make great movies. Keep it up!" (Amazon Reviewer)
"Absolutely loved these stories! All were quirky and very well written, and I really can't say any were predictable. Chuck, you have a wonderfully sick imagination! Thank you!" (Amazon Reviewer)
"This is a great collection of creepy tales. Loved it! Perfect for reading while waiting for an appointment!" (Amazon Reviewer)
SCATTERED BONES - THE STORIES
RIPPLE (FLASH FICTION)
Originally Published December 9, 2012
Jimmy Hayes is a different kind of kid...and he doesn't like pain.
FEED THE BEAR (FLASH FICTION)
Originally Published December 13, 2012
Colin's eighth kill is close at hand, but not as close as he thinks.
TABLE MANNERS (FLASH FICTION)
Originally Published December 16, 2012
When a beautiful woman invites Jake to her place for dinner, he can't possibly refuse. Too bad he didn't check the menu first.
BEACH HOUSE (FLASH FICTION)
Originally Published December 21, 2012
When Devin stops by her empty beachfront rental property to run an errand, she's surprised to find she's not alone.
SOLACE (FLASH FICTION)
Originally Published December 23, 2012
"Believe in me. I am no figment of imagination, no legend to flippantly disregard. I am not fantasy. I am real. And I am relentless."
LEGEND (FLASH FICTION)
Originally Published December 28, 2012
An old, abandoned barn provides the perfect stage for Luke's plan to frighten his girlfriend late one summer night. The legend of Fuller's farm, though, proves more chilling than he could ever imagine.
SLUAGH (FLASH FICTION)
Originally Published December 31, 2012
"Close your eyes tight, 'till come light of day...if sleep you do not, Sluagh shall steal you away..."
SPIRIT BOARD (FLASH FICTION)
Originally Published January 6, 2013
When Cassie Mattis discovers an old Ouija board at an estate sale, her life takes an unexpected—and quite terrifying—turn.
REFLECTIONS (SHORT STORY)
Originally Published March 31, 2013
After her family moves into an old farmhouse outside of Twin Creek, Nebraska, Anna is enchanted by a rustic cheval mirror her mother finds in the attic, covered by a dusty patchwork quilt, abandoned by the previous owners. Behind the cloudy glass surface, she imagines another world, an exact copy of her own, separated only by a thin wall of glass. An impenetrable barrier, she believes, until late one night a few days after her ninth birthday, when the antique mirror—and that which dwells within—reveals its true nature.
BURIAL GROUND (SHORT STORY)
Originally Published April 13, 2013
On a dark Halloween night in 1980, three high school friends in search of mischief decide to enter a neighbor's home, sitting empty and silent, waiting for its owners to return from an extended stay in the mountains.
The house, they say, is haunted.
What follows shakes their beliefs to the bone, and reveals the horrid secret which dwells beneath.
Based on a true story. (Well, mostly. Some of it is true. Really.)
DOUBLE TAP (FLASH FICTION)
Originally Published May 5, 2013
Christina doesn't fancy herself a murderer. She sees what others cannot, only tracking & killing those who unknowingly reveal their true nature. She's doing what she does best...and she's very, very good.
BROKEN (SHORT STORY)
Originally Published July 27, 2013
When Raquel Kane discovers her husband's ugly secret, she decides to take matters into her own hands...five miles off the Florida coast.
ROWS (FLASH FICTION)
Originally Published August 10, 2013
Meagan Fischer wakes from the accident bloodied, disoriented, and alone. She remembers tires squealing, the Chevy's slow-motion cartwheel into the late summer tasseled corn, and the sickening crunch of failing steel, but the car—and her injured fiancé—are nowhere to be seen.
As her senses return, she recalls one other thing quite clearly...the eerie figure they swerved to avoid. And she feels it lurking now, among the rows.
LYDIA (FLASH FICTION)
Originally Published August 25, 2013
Derek Tobias knows he must move quickly to save the child.
The crazed man holding a knife to the little girl's throat is obviously spinning out of control, and time is running out.
What Derek doesn't know is how his actions will enable the fulfillment of a dark prophecy…
And forever seal his fate.
30K (FLASH FICTION)
Originally Published August 28, 2013
Janice Evans finds herself in the middle of a dark, swirling maelstrom, only seconds away from realizing a horrid truth.
MORE (FLASH FICTION)
Originally Published August 30, 2013
Riley's night terrors are getting worse. The thing chasing him through his dreams is getting closer each night, and the world around him seems to be falling apart. What Riley doesn't realize is the foggy barrier between reality and nightmare is thinning night by night, and soon, it will be gone...
FURY (FLASH FICTION)
Originally Published October 3, 2013
Pamela Chase desperately wanted this night to be memorable for her young daughter, Darla, who was turning seven years old.
It would be memorable, all right, but not in the way she'd planned...
DATE NIGHT (FLASH FICTION)
Originally Published October 25, 2013
Tempest Finn has a blind date. Tonight won't be their first meeting...but it will be their last.
CRUSH (FLASH FICTION)
Originally Published May 3, 2014
Homicide detective Deke Racine has found another nest, this time with four bodies, brutally murdered like all the rest. He's been chasing the killer for nearly a decade, but is no closer to catching him now than on day one.
Eighteen have died. Racine is angry, frustrated...and closer than he thinks.
RELEASE (SHORT STORY)
Originally Published May 10, 2014
A man perusing the wares in a vintage book store lifts a tattered volume from its shelf and begins to read. The book quickly becomes his most prized possession...and he, a willing accomplice to a darkness thirsting for release.
SPLITS (NOVELLA)
Originally Published December 27, 2015
Kyle Bradford was a meat cutter in a grocery store when the sounds first thundered across the skies, and the world changed forever. The doors had opened, and something was coming through. Once the initial shock and confusion wore off, and those in charge realized what was happening, mankind seemed to coalesce like never before. National boundaries no longer mattered. Religion, race, color and creed seemed to pass away in a flash. Old enemies put their differences aside. The only thing that did matter was survival. As a species.
Now, Kyle is on a mission to save what’s left of our world. Or die trying.
VETUST VEX (NOVELLA)
Originally Published October 31, 2016
Jon Winstead was a good man.
In June of 1982, he began a new career as a police officer, and by all accounts had a bright future in law enforcement ahead of him. By early 1983, he’d married the woman of his dreams and planned to soon adopt her young daughter as his own. Life was full of promise, not only for Jon, but for Willow and her daughter Abby as well. On the night of June 14, 1983, however, everything changed.
Jon Winstead was executed for his crimes at 12:01 a.m. on July 18, 1996.
This is his story. Or, rather, this is its story.
Be careful what you touch, for the horrors within might touch back.