The Gate · 13 Dark & Odd Tales by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Horror, Anthologies
Goodreads: 12384192
Publisher: TRO Publishing
Published: 2010-11-15T23:00:00+00:00

This story originally appeared in the July/August 2010 issue of Darker Magazine. Feel free to visit the site at http://darkeronline.com.

DISPATCH #337

(TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO RECORDING discovered in Zone Green, the area formerly known as Clearwater, Florida, 15 years after The Fall)

Peter, the clouds rolled in today. You know the ones I’m talking about; the black and grey ones that drop bucketloads of disease and fear on us all. The same clouds that called you away from me – from us – three weeks ago.

It’s starting, honey. I’m sorry.

I hope to God you’re safe. I saw on the news a couple days ago that the forces that’d been deployed in Mobile suffered ninety percent fatalities. I know that leaves me not much to wish on, but I have to wish. I have to record this for you. It’s all I got left.

You should see it here right now. It’s three in the afternoon and it’s dark as night. Oh, and it’s raining, of course. The only light I can see is this weird glow that rises from the south. Sarasota is burning, Pete. So is St. Petersburg and Venice, I think. The light’s dancing off the wet leaves of the palms in the front yard. It’s kinda psychedelic, you know, like those raves we used to go to. You remember those, don’t you? Well, I do. And in a way, I guess it looks pretty. Maybe if things were different, I wouldn’t think I was being weird saying that.

(47 seconds of silence)

Oops, sorry ‘bout that. I had to step away for a sec. The floor was shaking. Turns out the Lockenshaw’s house blew up. It’s burning now, too. Just like everything else. There’s people screaming. I thought you might want to know that.

Speaking of people…they’re changing, Pete. I saw Bob and Donna Mitchell this morning. They were sniffing around the front yard and hanging from the trees like a couple baboons. I was in the nursery upstairs, and I was gonna call out to them and ask what was going on, but then Donna looked up at me and started screaming. You should’ve seen her, baby. Her eyes were all yellow and sunken into her head. Her damn forehead was huge and bumpy, like one of those Star Trek bad guys. But her teeth…oh, those teeth. They stuck out of her mouth like daggers, her and Bob’s both. They jumped for the gutters like they were gonna crawl up them. Probably would’ve, too, if the Hendersons hadn’t come running from down the street like they had gators on their tails. Bob and Donna lost sight of me right quick and started chasing them, instead. And when they caught ‘em…shit, Pete, I ain’t never seen that much blood in all my life. They tore the whole damn family apart.

And you thought the Scientologists were scary.

Sorry ‘bout that, baby. I’m just scared shitless right now, and you know me. I get scared, I crack unfortunate jokes. It’s a fault.

(silence for 112 seconds: moans in the background)

I’m back.

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