Release date: June 5, 2015
Subgenre: Horror, supernatural thriller
About Through a Mirror, Darkly:
Arcane Delights. Clifton Heights' premier rare and used bookstore. In it, new owner Kevin Ellison has inherited far more than a family legacy, for inside are tales that will amaze, astound, thrill...and terrify.
An ancient evil thirsty for lost souls. A very different kind of taxi service with destinations not on any known map. Three coins that grant the bearer's fondest wish, and a father whose crippling grief gives birth to something dark and hungry.
Every town harbors secrets. Kevin Ellison is about to discover those that lurk in the shadows of Clifton Heights.
Excerpt:
He was alone.
Shaking, he pushed the confessional
booth’s door open and peered inside. The faint scent of damp earth and wet
leaves still lingered. Also, he couldn’t tell in the dim light, but it appeared
as if the bench had been sat on. He saw indentations in the cushions...
There.
On the floor.
A rosary, crumpled in the corner.
Father Ward scooped it up and stood. He spread it in his palm and examined its
medallion.
St. Raphael.
Patron saint of policemen. Something
tickled his memory, but for the life of him...
Steps running away.
To his left.
A side door – leading outdoors, to the
rectory – slammed shut. Father Ward was already in motion before he knew what
he was doing, walking briskly toward the door, clutching the rosary of St.
Raphael tightly. And it was odd; he realized calmly, how unafraid he felt.
He closed the distance in several
strides. Grabbed the handle – wincing at how cold the brass felt – and
jerked the door open. He slipped outside into the cool spring night.
Silence covered everything like a
velvet shroud. Before him stood the rectory, where Father Thomas lived. Porch
lights burned above the front door but the windows were dark, which was no
surprise. Father Thomas was speaking tonight at St. Mary’s over in Indian Lake,
nearly two hours away. He wouldn’t return until after ten.
Father Ward listened to the dark night,
trying to discern the rustle of cloth or the scrape of shoes on sidewalk. There
was nowhere to hide in the decorative garden between the church and the
rectory. However, Father Ward supposed the mystery visitor could’ve ducked
around the back corner and into the woods, or turned left toward Henry Street.
In fact, Father Ward was ready to admit
defeat when he caught the smell of something sour, coppery. Something slightly
spoiled, floating on the night breeze.
He faced the garden, to the left of the
rectory’s front walk. The smell came from there. Father Ward clutched the
rosary of St. Raphael as he approached the smell. Halfway to the rectory, the stench
intensified...
At the statue of the Virgin Mary, in
her nave.
Small ground-lights cast her face into
a haunting, beatific glow. They also highlighted the reddish-brown streaks on
her cheeks, illuminating what lay at her bloodied porcelain feet.
A cat.
Or what remained of one. Gutted, its
entrails piled at Mary’s feet and, he saw, looped around her neck like a
profane rosary. Purplish flesh glistened in the ground-lights. With an obscene
touch, someone had painted Mary’s beseeching hands with the cat’s blood and
viscera.
As Father Ward fought the gorge rising
in his throat, Mary’s hands dripped, as if fresh from a kill.
About Kevin Lucia:
Kevin Lucia is the Review Editor for Cemetery Dance Magazine. His short fiction has appeared in several anthologies. He’s currently finishing his Creative Writing Masters Degree at Binghamton University, and he teaches high school English and lives in Castle Creek, New York with his wife and children.
He is the author of Hiram Grange & The Chosen One, Book Four of The Hiram Grange Chronicles. His first collection of Clifton Heights Tales, Things Slip Through was published November 2013, followed by his novella duet, Devourer of Souls in June 2014. His next book, Through a Mirror, Darkly, is forthcoming, June 2015. He’s currently working on his first novel.
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