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    Roots: Short Horror Fiction
    Roots: Short Horror Fiction
    Roots: Short Horror Fiction
    Ebook31 pages40 minutes

    Roots: Short Horror Fiction

    By H.C. Mitchen

    2/5

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    About this ebook

    Neil is a good father and a nice guy. Recently divorced, all he wants is to give his kids a memorable Christmas. Why not do something a little out of the ordinary? One mistake made with the best of intentions will destroy more than their holiday.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHCM
    Release dateAug 4, 2014
    ISBN9781501463099
    Roots: Short Horror Fiction

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      Book preview

      Roots - H.C. Mitchen

      Roots

      Short Horror Fiction

      By H.C. Mitchen

      Roots

      ––––––––

      At 5 o'clock Friday evening, Neil Porter picked up his kids from his ex-wife's house. By Christmas Eve, his ex-wife was making frantic phone calls trying to find them.

      *

      Caroline looked out the big front window. It got dark just as the snow stopped falling. It didn't fall for long. There was a thin, white sheet over everything. Caroline wrapped her arms around herself unconsciously, aware of the cold outside though it couldn't touch her behind the glass. She was watching her ex and the kids drive away. Before long, even their headlights were gone.

      .

      There weren't many cars on the road to Neil’s house. Vehicles had followed one another's tracks making two dark grooves in each lane. The rest was snow – recently fallen, shallow and still clean. Out of it stuck trees, spruce and Douglas fir, perfect Christmas trees spaced out at a lonely distance from one another. That's where the car stopped by the side of the road.

      Why are we stopping here? Carly looked around at their surroundings for the first time now that they weren't moving at the monotonous pace of an empty road. They had actually been passing the sparse woods for a while now. With the headphones stuck in her ears, Carly had been shutting out the rest of the car and the stark view out the window. Empty, snow covered fields, far-flung houses, and now the woods didn’t have a high entertainment value for a teenager.

      We're getting a tree, Neil told her and Grady as he got out of the SUV and zipped up his jacket.

      The kids stared opened mouthed at him from the back seat. By the time Neil had the ax out of the back, Grady's surprise had turned to excitement. Carly's had not.

      We are going to pass like a bazillion Christmas tree lots, and you want to steal one? Carly was saying as Grady jumped out of the car so he could join his dad.

      It's not stealing, Neil whispered as if

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