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    Engel: A Novelette of Terror
    Engel: A Novelette of Terror
    Engel: A Novelette of Terror
    Ebook85 pages1 hour

    Engel: A Novelette of Terror

    By Grant Palmquist

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    About this ebook

    THE ULTIMATE HORROR HAS BEEN UNLEASHED UPON THE UNSUSPECTING CITY OF POE, TEXAS.

    An advertisement comes on TV one night encouraging Charlie to murder his boss, and he begins to wonder whether he’s losing his grip on reality...

    Across town an archangel visits Adam that same night and reveals an unfathomable evil skulking beneath the surface of society, a hidden wickedness that will alter Adam’s life in ways he never could have imagined...

    The torturous paths of Adam and Charlie will collide in the novelette Engel.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherGrant Palmquist
    Release dateMay 3, 2013
    ISBN9781301311743
    Engel: A Novelette of Terror
    Author

    Grant Palmquist

    Grant Palmquist is the author of the science-fiction novel Azure and four horror novels: A Song After Dark, Permanent Winter, Dirge, and The Seer. His short stories have appeared in Chizine, Dogmatika, and Underground Voices.

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      Book preview

      Engel - Grant Palmquist

      Engel

      Grant Palmquist

      Copyright © 2013 Grant Palmquist

      This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locals, or persons, living dead, or undead, is purely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing from the author or publisher.

      Smashwords Edition

      So shall it be at the end of the world:

      the angels shall come forth, and sever wicked from among the just,

      and shall cast them into the fire:

      there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

      Matthew 13:49-50

      Title Page

      Copyright

      Epigraph

      Engel

      2 | 3 | 4 | 5

      6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10

      About the Author

      Other Works Available by Grant Palmquist

      Read an Excerpt from A Song After Dark

      Thank you

      Engel

      When an advertisement came on the television telling Charlie to murder his boss, his first reaction was to change the channel.

      He wondered whether it was a dream or his imagination running wild while The Late Late Show played before him. Certainly he’d fantasized about strangling his boss, Kurt, from time to time, had once—though this was after a night plagued by insomnia, his brain more addled than usual—even brought a hunting knife to work in his briefcase and sat at his desk and listened to his boss’s grating voice, imagining pulling out the knife, walking over to his cubicle and slitting his throat. But that was all to give himself a sense of power, a power the world and the city of Poe, Texas, had stripped away time and again.

      He’d worked numerous jobs and it seemed he always ended up stuck at the bottom of the food chain, the guy everyone dumped work on despite the fact he got paid less than any of them. And he knew he was paid the least, for he’d found a website that showed the government salaries of his coworkers and he’d looked them up one by one, sweat dripping from his brow as he realized he’d been getting screwed all these years, with his one percent raises and the lip service about a promotion if he only stayed loyal, if he only kept working his heart out.

      Well, Charlie thought, thanks to you assholes, my heart is dead.

      He was picturing the scene in his mind—the bland, colorless office he’d have to return to the next morning, the laughter of his coworkers chatting while he worked his ass off, where even the windows were tinted to not let a single ray of sunshine inside. He guessed this was the toll life took after a while, that you had to accept your lot no matter how shitty it became. Suicide wasn’t an option, he’d decided, though more than once Charlie had made a noose from a rope and walked to the bridge overlooking the bay and looked at the girders and abutments, trying to figure out a way to tie the rope so he could hang himself. But he knew he was only fooling himself, that he wouldn’t do it no matter how badly he wanted to, for he knew it would prove nothing to anyone, much less himself.

      Presently he flipped back to the channel the commercial had appeared on to see if it would play again. An ad for some workout system aired, followed by one for a cell-phone company, and then it was the same man as before encouraging him to kill Kurt.

      The guy on the commercial had slicked-back black hair and a goatee and dressed like a lawyer. He held a hunting blade in his hand and the camera zoomed in from time to time. It’s not like you haven’t thought about it before. All you have to do is follow him around and wait till he’s alone. Then you just—he made a motion of sliding the blade across his own throat—and no more worries for you. It’ll change your life.

      Charlie picked up the phone and called his friend Eddie.

      You watching TV?

      Sort of, Eddie said, his voice somewhat garbled. About to fall asleep, though.

      Turn it to channel ninety-nine and tell me what you see.

      He heard channels changing.

      I’m watching a man trying to sell me on some kind of vacuum cleaner, he said. What about it?

      Charlie looked at the man on his screen, who was saying: You know you want to do it. It’s only a matter of time before you snap if you don’t do something about your situation. I’m giving you permission.

      You wanna tell me why you wanted me to watch this commercial?

      Nothing, Charlie said. I mean, never mind.

      Do you have to be so damned weird all the time?

      I’ll talk to you later. Charlie hung up while Eddie was still speaking.

      The commercial ended, and Charlie sat there in the darkness till morning, waiting for it to air again.

      ***

      At work the next day, he thought it was all a vague dream—though if he remembered right, he hadn’t slept a wink.

      Around lunchtime, he went up to Eddie’s cubicle and sat with him.

      What was that phone call about last night?

      I was a little bit spaced out, Charlie said.

      I’ll say … telling me to watch a commercial for a vacuum cleaner. Did you at least end up buying it?

      I probably should have, my place is a wreck.

      I think mine’s even worse, Eddie said, but I can make it look spiffy if I’m bringing a date back there.

      You gotta have a date first, Charlie said.

      I think that’s easier for me than you.

      My ass.

      You couldn’t get a girl if someone gift-wrapped one for you, Eddie said.

      I’d have an easier time than you.

      Only if you got a call girl.

      "You wanna

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