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The Book of the Wounded Healers (A Study in Perception) – Chapter 6 – “Tourists versus Locals”

The Book of the Wounded Healers (A Study in Perception) – Chapter 6 – “Tourists versus Locals”

A path I’m unaware of brings us to Legion Memorial Square where a sign on a lamppost reads like the top paragraph of a newspaper story; Who What When Where Why. There is no How.

Our entourage of news, police, national guard, and other personnel still move in a fifty foot perimeter around us, camera lights and floods on trucks keep us in a shadowless blue-white concrete and asphalt landscape. In the middle of the night I wear sunglasses and feel myself getting a tan from the false-front sunlight’s intensity. I wonder if warships still glide up and down the East River, training their guns between buildings in order to find us. The guarding is now in distinct shifts and I’ve made uneasy friends who leave groceries in our path or toss me soap when they’re brave enough to approach.

One tall, thin man comes by a little more often than most. His heavy beard sweeps his chest and his hair needs to be both washed and combed. I want to ask him what he wants, what can I do for him, and don’t. His skin is darkened by the sun and his eyes appear brown when they’re not obscured by the winds.

What am I to do with you and these creatures? is what I think he wants to ask inside his ratty jeans. What part in my life do you four play? is what I hear in the wet rustle of his wool socks and squeak of Knapp work shoes. What part of the ritual is you? his sweat stained red and yellow on black flannel shirt calls out. Which is me? And if I do it right, just right, oh so right, will things get better for me? And if I don’t, will things get at all?

I know he wants to ask these things because they are clearly in the miasma which surrounds him.

The question he asks by his presence, his person, his being as it comes and goes before me, is the one echoed in my own eyes, Why has this happened to me? All I want to do is make sure my son is okay.

“Still seeking your little boy?” asks Beriah.

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DL Mullan’s “Kurst” in Midnight Garden

I asked fellow Midnight Garden anthology contributors to share some things about themselves prior to publication and those generous enough to do so will be appearing here for the next week or so.

Each entry gives a taste of their contribution, a little about them, how to contact them, how their story came about, and definitely a link to Midnight Garden (which you should purchase because it would make each and every one of us happy.
you do want to make us happy, don’t you?
i mean, considering what we wrote, you want us to know you’re a good person, right?).

And now, DL MUllan’s Kurst:

The village of Salt Pines, Arizona, resided between dreamy pine peaks and unfathomable horrors. This desolate range of wildlife trails, snowcapped mountains, rivers and lakes, forgotten mines, and a reservation harbored a landscape with a terrible secret. A secret only family were allowed to know.
Out there lingered the Kurst inheritance.
Out there was a few rest stops away from claiming its next victim.

How the story came about:
Before you reach for a drink, know that Kurst is a different type of story. In the past, I have written about consciousness and the Space-Time Continuum in The Reality Hackers; angels and devils in the Saint trilogy; vengeful spirit jurors in the 12 Angry Dead; as well as insane vampires in the fan favorite: In the Name of Blood series. Since I incorporate factual information, personal paranormal experiences, and the spiritual elements of the supernatural, my creative writing has become a world unto itself, and Kurst is no different.
This time, I incorporated cryptid myths, legends, and lore into a narrative unlike any other published:
Karen Kurst comes into the legal possession of her deceased grandmother’s cabin in Salt Pines, Arizona. As she delves into the secrets of the quaint mountain village, she discovers that there is more than meets the eye. A mysterious creature roams the woods, a blended cryptid: Elemental, Sasquatch, and Skinwalker. The only way to contain this entity is through a magical spell passed down by her ancestor, Ralph Wallen. Teaming up with the local indigenous sheriff, Karen is determined to break the family curse.
However, the question remains – will she have to sacrifice her own life to protect the people around her?
http://www.undawnted.com/p/kurst-inheritance-curse-cabin.html
In the paranormal community, skinwalkers are en vogue. Anything with a shape-shifter vibe has an allure. What I wanted to know is, if this lore was native to Arizona? I have had my own experiences with cryptids in my home state, but was it documented by others?
With little effort, I discovered that not only has the elusive Sasquatch been identified here, but also in the area where my made up town of Salt Pine hails. Big Foot, Yeti, Swamp Ape are all names for the same creature. A monster I once observed while in a vehicle, being driven by another down a desolate road westward from the metro area, circa 1980-90s. During the era when cellular phones had no video and the other occupants of the vehicle were looking the ahead, this undeniable figure stepped onto the highway behind the car. The image was burned into my memory forever.
The question became: could I fit all three factors in Arizona for a story based on real events? I went into research mode. A Sasquatch-type creature has been seen on border patrol agents’ thermal imaging, by hikers in the Superstition Mountain area that treads northward into Payson, and throughout the Mogollon Rim region. Skinwalkers are part of Navajo culture, which this native tribe calls northeastern Arizona home. Elementals were the last piece of the puzzle. Several years ago, I had an experience with an elemental at my front gate, as well as another weird paranormal episode down the street from me in the past six months. I had all three.
What I posit happens in the forests is that the proto-human great ape we call: Sasquatch, their consciousness can be reached and controlled through spiritual practices. Portlock, Alaska is an example of an elemental using Sasquatch to mark its territory. Other areas around the world have seen similar instances of aggressive, even murderous, Yeti like in the Dyatlov Pass incident and Ural Mountains in Russia.
Kurst is the imaginative retelling of personal, current event, and historical stories into fiction form. The perspective combines cryptid mythology, the skinwalker legend, and elemental lore. Each component has a basis in the area known as the Tonto National Forest, my playground growing up. The Superstition Mountains alone is centuries’ worth of spiritual stories from the Apache and other tribes.
To bring the story to life, the characters’ own strengths and weaknesses are essential. Sheriff Barrett is subject to the law and his native tribal upbringing. Karen Kurst is a photojournalist, who grapples with PTSD. Together, they battle against the myth, legend, and lore of a spiritually-created Wendigo by the magic of a medicine man, his skinwalker avatar, and the Sasquatch for which his ritual ruined, as he combined the three of them into one evil entity.
An entity Karen’s ancestor (and mine), Ralph Wallen II, cursed onto his property, land she inherits from her grandmother. In this paranormal-cryptid saga, Karen learns her roots and the magic responsible for the curse and monster.
Will she be able to curse the Wendigo into a harmless form? Or, will she have to risk her very life to do more than appease the curse?
In Kurst, we learn that: curses are forever.

Continue reading “DL Mullan’s “Kurst” in Midnight Garden“

Molly Ertel’s “Antepenultimate” in Midnight Garden

I asked fellow Midnight Garden anthology contributors to share some things about themselves prior to publication and those generous enough to do so will be appearing here for the next week or so.

And now, Molly Ertel’s Antepenultimate:

You’ve seen those Kit-Cat Klocks, right? Maybe next door at Mrs. Oldy-but-Goody’s house where every square inch of space is taken up by mid-century kitsch. Or at one of those shops at the mall that caters to squishy-brained people with a warped fondness for the fifties. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, these so-called clocks are made of black plastic in the shape of a cat with a tail and eyes that tick to the left and tock to the right. That equals one second. They’re supposed to be cute, but if you were out on the street and saw some weirdo whose eyes darted left and right like that, you’d hug your man bag or fanny pack just a little tighter and duck into the closest store. Cute? Sinister is more like it.

How the story came about:
I received a Kit Cat Clock as a gift some years back. As much as I tried to love it for its retro vibe, I found the TICK-a-tock rhythm disturbing. It took me to a dark place, a place I used to work, and an adult correctional facility, commonly known as a prison. I worked as a Spanish language interpreter and translator, a position made possible by Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, but was always bothered by the fact that executions were carried out – at a different facility – until state law outlawed the death penalty in recent years. In any case, my mind went from the arrhythmia of the Klock to the death penalty, and I don’t think I can travel back in my mind to the labyrinth that took me there. While my protagonist was not absolved for her crime in her last moment of life, I hope I am for having been part of that system.

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Denise Aparo’s “Jack Moon and the Vanishing Book” in Midnight Garden

I asked fellow Midnight Garden anthology contributors to share some things about themselves prior to publication and those generous enough to do so will be appearing here for the next week or so.

And now, Denise Aparo’s Jack Moon and the Vanishing Book:

Jack Moon’s bookshop quivered as the chugging train keened whooee-uueet down the New England railway. Grinding gears screeched as the black wheels clattered against the iron tracks. The speeding train took a fast turn, losing a large piece of metal debris that flew onto Jack’s fragile roof and made a hole as it continued down the shop ceiling. For the train to travel this often was unusual, but now, with the recent destruction, Jack was fuming. It was the third time this week that Amtrak had traveled through Bristol on its North East Regional route, shaking everything in its wake. What had once been the local General Store by the tracks was now the damaged Blue Moon Book Shoppe. Moon’s bookshop quivered as the chugging train keened whooee-uueet down the New England railway. Grinding gears screeched as the black wheels clattered against the iron tracks. The speeding train took a fast turn, losing a large piece of metal debris that flew onto Jack’s fragile roof and made a hole as it continued down the shop ceiling. For the train to travel this often was unusual, but now, with the recent destruction, Jack was fuming. It was the third time this week that Amtrak had traveled through Bristol on its North East Regional route, shaking everything in its wake. What had once been the local General Store by the tracks was now the damaged Blue Moon Book Shoppe.

How the story came about:
The inspiration for my short story, “Jack Moon and the Vanishing Book,” comes from visiting old New England bookshops. I love collecting old books and memorabilia when visiting these quaint bookshops. The primary focus of my historic genre and time travel. I love to incorporate the paranormal into everything I write!
The concepts of time travel and mysterious old books intrigue me the most. The actual stories of mysterious books, like the legendary Anthropologia, also known as Ashmole 782, alleged to have been donated to the Bodleian Library at Oxford University in 1858, definitely spiked my interest for a mysterious book story. In addition, The Voynich Manuscript, Codex Gigas, The Book of Kells, The Gutenberg Bible, and The Ripley Scrolls are also intriguing books that have spiked my interest for writing a paranormal story.
My story begins with an unusual book hunter with a tragic past who finds a mysterious book that vanishes. Strangest things begin to happen once he discovers this ancient book.

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MJ Mallon’s “The Seagull Man” in Midnight Garden

I asked fellow Midnight Garden anthology contributors to share some things about themselves prior to publication and those generous enough to do so will be appearing here for the next week or so.

Let’s start with a Hallowe’en-themed introduction to the anthology as a whole:

And now, MJ Mallon’s The Seagull Man:

The inhabitants of Cave Birdie called him the Seagull Man, because of his inclination to always wear grey and white clothes, with tiny, imperceptible black flecks, a form of camouflaging so he could blend into his cavernous stone rich environment. When he left his cave home, he went to the seashore. Tourists watched him, intrigued, as the seagulls flocked around, crowding in upon him, surrounding him as he fed them. Whereupon it was only possible to see and hear their beating outstretched wings. In this huddle of man and bird, he appeared to vanish until he jumped on his bike with the seagulls following close behind him.

How the story came about:
The inspiration for the story was a momentary sighting of a man by the seaside surrounded by seagulls. One moment he was there with his feathered friends flocking all around him and seconds later they followed him as he rode away on his bike! It was such a striking, surreal moment. Not one I would forget in a hurry. So… the idea developed from there for the dark fiction tale, The Seagull Man.
I love writing dark short fiction and am often inspired by visual cues, so imagine my delight to have won first prize with this story.
There were notable aspects: the man wore ‘seagull camouflaging colours,’ of white and grey. The number of adoring seagulls surrounding him, as if they were worshipping him, and the suddenness of his and their departure as if this strange relationship was something to hide away or keep secret. Those aspects gave me the idea of creepy rumours circulating about a seagull man and locating the story in an ominous cave. From there, the idea developed to include an intriguing and beautiful female character… read the story and the other brilliant tales in this wonderful dark fiction anthology to find out more!

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