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    Dark Dreams
    Dark Dreams
    Dark Dreams
    Ebook55 pages47 minutes

    Dark Dreams

    By Stephanie Bedwell-Grime

    ()

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    About this ebook

    A gardener battles a vampire pumpkin...

    A medical photographer discovers a strange, parasitic life force...

    An old furnace develops a taste for warm-blooded, living things...

    A weekend at a remote cottage turns into a desperate fight for survival...

    A driver on the edge of exhaustion hits something far more terrifying than he could ever imagine...

    Includes: “PunkinHead”, “Bio Hazard”, “The Furnace Man”, “Long Weekend” and “Miles To Go”

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherStephanie Bedwell-Grime
    Release dateDec 1, 2012
    ISBN9780991759019
    Dark Dreams
    Author

    Stephanie Bedwell-Grime

    Stephanie Bedwell-Grime is the author of more than twenty novels and novellas and over fifty short stories. She has been nominated for the Aurora Award five times and has also been an EPIC eBook Award finalist.

    Read more from Stephanie Bedwell Grime

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      Book preview

      Dark Dreams - Stephanie Bedwell-Grime

      Dark Dreams

      Copyright 2012 by Stephanie Bedwell-Grime

      Cover Art by Derek Grime

      Published by Feral Martian Publishing at Smashwords

      Discover other titles by Stephanie Bedwell-Grime at Smashwords.com

      This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      PunkinHead

      Bio Hazard

      The Furnace Man

      Long Weekend

      Miles To Go

      PunkinHead © 2011 by Stephanie Bedwell-Grime

      Bio Hazard © 1992 by Stephanie Bedwell-Grime, originally published in Glimpses Magazine, Autumn 1993 Issue

      The Furnace Man © 1996 by Stephanie Bedwell-Grime, originally published in Scavenger’s Newsletter, November 1996 Issue

      Long Weekend ©1999 by Stephanie Bedwell-Grime, originally published in Frightmares, February 1999 Issue

      Miles To Go © 2001 by Stephanie Bedwell-Grime, originally published in the World Fantasy Convention 2001 CD-ROM

      PUNKINHEAD

      Baba told me to get rid of the pumpkin. I should have listened to her.

      A week past Halloween it began to sweat a sickening amber juice. Really, I meant to throw it out. But the eyes I had spent so long carving stared back at me as if intelligence lurked behind that gaze.

      They watched me as I raked the leaves in November. Every time I intended to throw the pumpkin on the compost pile, I found myself forgetting. An hour later, busy with some other task, I’d remember and decide to give the rotting thing another day’s grace.

      Those haunting eyes shadowed me with interest as I hung the Christmas lights from the eaves. Baba followed me out on the front porch in the cold.

      You know what happens when you keep a pumpkin past Christmas, boy, she lectured between instructions on how better to hang the lights.

      Yes, Baba, I know, I said, pounding in the last nail.

      I vowed to dispose of the pumpkin after I put the ladder back in the shed. Instead, I found myself deciding to leave it one more day. After all, Christmas was weeks away.

      Christmas came and went. Snow piled up on the front porch. In the rush of holiday parties, I forgot about the pumpkin.

      And that’s when things went bad.

      Spring arrived with an icy drizzle that soaked through my boots and turned the snow to melted lumps colored with car exhaust. Sodden dog turds littered the sidewalk. Yellowed grass emerged from under the blackened snow. I caught a glimpse of orange and vowed to dispose of the pumpkin before Baba saw it.

      But just at that instant, Joe across the street started hollering about his gutters overflowing and it was hours before I waded through raw sewage and back to the house.

      As I lingered on the edge of sleep that night, I thought about the pumpkin again. Tomorrow was garbage day. I’d put it out in the morning. Before Baba saw it.

      I awoke to a rustling and a growling down in the alley below my bedroom window. Raccoons, I thought. Maybe even a cat or a skunk. I rolled over, determined to go back to sleep. Then I heard a squeal so full of inhuman terror, it sent me flying from my bed and racing half-naked down the stairs.

      A shape moved by the kitchen window. I let out a scream of my

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