Welcome to FROST HARROW, my new modern (1990s) gothic horror series!  If you’d like to support this and my other work, go to www.CushingHorrors.com and become my patron!  You may also enjoy the Scribe Award-Winning MANOS: THE HANDS OF FATE – In print, for kindle, and for all e-book formats. And check out my retro-horror-comedy classic CANOE COPS VS. THE MUMMY as well as my other books.  Now… On with the show!

EIGHTEEN – BEAT THE DEVIL

The Reverend Ben Stringer looked down at the whip in his hand. The whip felt cold, though he knew he’d been holding it for a while. He knew the whip well, every sensuous curve and braid. He’d used it for years—always with love and restraint. It was just a game, after all.

He stared at the leather and wondered how it had become covered in blood. Dark red liquid trickled down the whip’s snake-like length and dripped onto the floor, staining the plush carpeting. He and his wife had played the game for a long time—he the naughty preacher, she the unrepentant sinner in need of punishment.

It had been a fun game. A good game. No one got hurt—well, not much anyway.

So he wondered, now, why his wife didn’t move. She lay there in the shadows on the floor, so still, so quiet. For the first time in years, her skimpy black rubber costume failed to get a rise out of him.

He scratched the top of his head through his leather mask. What was the buzzing he heard in his skull? It sounded like strange, mocking laughter.

Life had become so puzzling lately. His parishioners seemed hostile. Things had been tense at home. He’d had trouble sleeping. Too many nightmares.

He fingered the handle of the whip lovingly, as he had countless times before. It felt so right in his hand. Why had things gone wrong?

Who had drenched his wife’s torso in blood? Who had stripped the skin from her back? Had she screamed much when it happened?

Why was his whip covered in blood?

Then he knew what had happened.

The devil made him do it.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Read my FREE Frost Harrow Halloween stories:
“The Weeping Ghost” (2012), “A Trace of Violet” (2013),  “Lunchroom Zombies” (2014), “Omens & Visitations” (2015), “Fata Morgana” (2016), “At the Appointed Hour” (2017), and “Devil’s Lake” (2018).