All Too Surreal Read online

  And since he had been an extra-extra good boy, he got it.

  Thirty seconds after he unwrapped his new baseball bat, his mother was dead.

  He looked down at her lifeless form and grinned. “What you think ‘bout that, Judy?”

  There was no reply, save the swelling, earth-shaking approval of the audience.

  Mr. Punch took his first bows.

  He burst onto the roof, chest heaving, soaked in sweat. The night air, instead of being refreshing, was stale and dry. He turned and slowly backed away from the door. He wiped his right hand on his trench coat, wiped his left, then gripped the bat with both hands.

  “Come on, you old Devil!” Punch called as bravely as he could. “Now we have us a right proper stage!”

  He felt strong, powerful. This was the moment he had desired and dreaded all these years. The moment when he finally killed the Devil and showed the world who was the strongest of all.

  Eyes on the door, he continued backing up step by step, expecting the Devil to come roaring toward him any second, pitchfork held high.

  Then he bumped into someone. He whirled around and shrieked when he saw who it was.

  “Good-bye, Punch.”

  Mr. Punch felt the world lurch beneath him. Then he was over the edge of the building and plummeting through space. The boos and hisses of the crowd followed him all the way down to his death.

  They stood arm in arm looking over the side of the building at the broken body on the street far below. The Devil licked her face, his rough, black tongue burning away the flesh-colored paint and scorching the wood beneath.

  “Hurrah, hurrah! Punch is dead!” said the Judy-Who-Was-All-Judys. “Now we can do as we please!”

  Other Tim Waggoner eBooks Available from Crossroad Press

  PANDORA DRIVE

  The small town of Zephyr, Ohio, is home to a very special young woman. Damara is quiet, reclusive—and she has the ability to make other people’s dreams, fears, and fantasies all too real. But this isn’t an ability that she can control, as many people in town are beginning to learn. For some, dreams are becoming living nightmares. For others, their deepest fears are suddenly alive and worse than they ever imagined.

  As Damara’s powers sweep like wildfire through the town, her neighbors’ long-hidden desires and secret wishes are dragged out into the open—and given life. But as the old saying goes, be careful what you wish for, because in this case…it could kill you.

  DARKNESS WAKES

  In the small town of Ptolemy, darkness is a living thing. A powerful thing. Its home is in the shadows of a bizarre, hidden club named Penumbra, where it is worshiped by followers who need the pleasure it gives them. They are addicted to it. They live for it. And they kill for it.

  When Aaron was first introduced to Penumbra, he thought it was just a secret club where members could indulge their kinkier fantasies. Bit by bit, as he learned the club's true purpose, he began to change in subtle, horrible ways. Now it's time for Aaron to prepare his first human sacrifice to the waiting darkness. It's too late for him to back out now, but murder is the least of Penumbra's sins. The true terror is still to come when . . . Darkness Wakes.