Beneath
Eldritch
City Shorts
Book
1
Robin
Heggelund Hansen
Genre:
Crime/Horror
Date
of Publication: March 21st, 2015
ASIN:
B00V0R5QYW
Number
of pages: 15
Word
Count: 5100
Book
Description:
Nine
years have passed since the tragic and mysterious deaths of Mr.
Phillips and his daughter. A new clue surfaces, one which the lead
investigator will follow to the brink of insanity.
Available
at Amazon
Excerpt:
To
whoever reads this: I feel that I must apologize if what you find on
these pieces of paper appears to be nothing more than a collection of
near-indecipherable words. I can assure you that I have tried
everything I can think of, and yet I cannot keep my hands from
trembling. This, however, is only a symptom of my much greater
problems.
I
cannot eat, or sleep, or even close my eyes for longer than the
briefest of moments. I feel as if I’m about to lose my mind, but
I’m clear enough to realize that I have to get this story off my
chest, before it consumes whatever sanity I have left. Unfortunately,
the only recipient I can trust with a story as bizarre and horrible
as this are the same pieces of paper upon which these words are
written.
For
officers of the Eldritch City Police Department, no two days are
alike. Even with this in mind, yesterday morning would still single
itself out as peculiar. As I entered the precinct to begin my shift,
I met a man who I realized was from out of town. It was clear that he
was uncomfortable since he was constantly scratching his arm and
shifting his gaze. It was as if he was trying to view the entire room
at once.
There
are many things that can be said of Eldritch City, but the one thing
people always remember is the air. It’s not that it has a
particular smell, but it has a way of sticking to your skin, like wet
clothes on a rainy day. Us locals usually say that it is due to the
humidity that comes with being in a warm coastal city, but humid air
does not leave you with a feeling of being watched, or that something
terrible is about to happen. Given time, one learns to hide this
discomfort. People from out of town, however, usually haven’t
learnt the knack.
The
man introduced himself as Deputy Swanson of the Heartbrook Sheriff’s
office. Upon learning my name, he raised his eyebrows in surprise.
“It would seem I am in luck,” he said. “It is in fact you that
I have come here to see.”
Before
continuing the conversation, I invited Swanson back to my desk — I
have yet to earn my own office — and offered him a choice of coffee
or tea, of which he chose the latter. When we were both sitting
comfortably, I asked what had brought him all the way here from
Heartbrook. To this he responded by handing me a newspaper article,
dating back nine years. The article was an interview with a younger
me regarding a murder case out by Mirkwood. I knew the article well,
not just because I was the subject of the interview, but also because
the case in question had been troubling me ever since I had been
assigned to it.
Nine
years earlier, for their summer-break, the Phillips family had gone
out to their newly built cabin in Mirkwood, on the outskirts of the
city. Only a day into their vacation, Mr. Phillips and his daughter,
Julia, were brutally murdered. Their bodies had been mutilated to the
point of being barely recognizable — large portions of flesh were
missing. It was almost as if something had fed on them. The coroner
couldn’t rule out an animal attack, but thought it unlikely since
the wounds were inconsistent with the bite of any species known to be
living in Mirkwood.
About
the Author:
Robin
was born on a cold winter night in Oslo, Norway, 1989. Growing up, he
was always fond of telling stories, leading people to wonder when,
not if, he would move on to writing stories of his own. Inspired by
the works of H.P. Lovecraft, he wrote his first short story,
'Beneath', in 2015.
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