Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Five Doses: A Collection of Horror, Cyberpunk, Fantasy, Sci-Fi and Steampunk Stories
    Five Doses: A Collection of Horror, Cyberpunk, Fantasy, Sci-Fi and Steampunk Stories
    Five Doses: A Collection of Horror, Cyberpunk, Fantasy, Sci-Fi and Steampunk Stories
    Ebook75 pages55 minutes

    Five Doses: A Collection of Horror, Cyberpunk, Fantasy, Sci-Fi and Steampunk Stories

    By Mark Cassell

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    In the fantasy story ALONE WITH THE BONES, a thief is freed when mysterious and gigantic bones rise from the earth. The tale of IN LOVING MEMORY, with its subtle sci-fi undertones, reveals a childhood mischief that unknowingly ends in adulthood. The cyberpunk episode ALPHA BETA GAMMA KILL is taken from the popular Chaos Halo series giving us a dystopian future where food is in short supply. With THE REBIRTH we are shown Cassell's unquestionable passion for supernatural horror, in which a school teacher is gifted a peculiar Easter egg. Finally there's the flash fiction steampunk piece VANISHED, about the short-lived maiden voyage of an airship.

    "A wicked journey of the imagination. A Mustread." - Five-star reviewer.

    Interview with the author:

    How would you classify your work?

    MC: "Dark fantasy and horror, certainly. And of course, the darker side of science fiction and fantasy. Whether it’s alien horror or supernatural horror, it does it for me. Not mankind's horror, you know? Not real gore and graphic violence, I don't really go down that route ... I'm talking about the horror that exists on the other side of what we can see, what we can touch. Something beyond our senses."

    Associated publishers:
    Burdizzo Books, Corpus Press, Crystal Lake Publishing, Dark Terror Publications, EyeCue Productions, Future Chronicles, KJK Publishing, Lafcadio Press, Matt Shaw Publications, Scimitar Press, Severed Press, Shadows at the Door PublishingSinister Horror Company, Sirens Call Publications

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMark Cassell
    Release dateMay 29, 2018
    ISBN9780463958445
    Five Doses: A Collection of Horror, Cyberpunk, Fantasy, Sci-Fi and Steampunk Stories

    Read more from Mark Cassell

    Related to Five Doses

    Related ebooks

    Horror Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Tender Is The Flesh

      Jan 29, 2020

      RELEASED 6 FEBRUARY 224 pages | Paperback/ebook Author Augustina Bazterrica Publisher Pushkin Press This is a pretty unpleasant book. It’s clearly meant to be, but knowing that doesn’t make it any less unsettling to read. It’s set in a near future wh

      1 min read

    • Article

      Paul Tremblay

      Jun 17, 2020

      IT’S ALWAYS BEEN ONE OF MY BIGGEST FEARS that I would live to see the end of everything,” says Paul Tremblay, speaking to SFX from his Massachusetts home in the middle of lockdown. It’s a singularly peculiar time, and a peculiar interview for him to

      3 min read

    • Article

      Mail

      Mar 22, 2022

      Mail
      1 min read

    • Article

      Opportunity Cost

      Nov 23, 2021

      Opportunity Cost
      7 min read

    • Article

      Horror Writers Association

      Sep 24, 2022

      JOHN PALISANO, A BRAM STOKER Award-winning author and president of the nonprofit Horror Writers Association (HWA), finds horror to be an empowering genre. When challenged, he cites the case of The Walking Dead fan Terra Newell, who used self-defense

      3 min read

    • Article

      Leading Lights Of Horror

      Jun 4, 2020

      The Horror Writers Association (HWA) 2019 Bram Stoker Awards for ‘superior achievements’ in the genre have been awarded as follows: Superior Achievement in a Novel, Coyote Rage, Owl Goingback; First Novel, The Bone Weaver’s Orchard, Sarah Read; Young

      1 min read

    • Article

      Stoker Winners

      Jul 1, 2021

      The Horror Writers Association has announced the winners of the 2020 Bram Stoker Awards. The winners were: Superior Achievement in a Novel: The Only Good Indians, Stephen Graham Jones; First Novel, The Fourth Whore, EV Knight; Young Adult Novel, Clow

      1 min read

    • Article

      Speaking Of Horror

      Sep 12, 2020

      Speaking Of Horror
      14 min read

    • Article

      Tales Of The Flesh

      Jun 3, 2021

      DL Russell Books specialises in horror and erotic anthologies. Editor in chief DL Russell seeks good stories with clever twists and genuine scary plots for The Big Man Selling Calendars And Other Terrifying People horror anthology. He wants tales abo

      1 min read

    • Article

      Review: Stephen King Modeled 'The Stand' On 'Lord Of The Rings.' TV Has Done It No Favors

      Dec 17, 2020

      As a story of a world-gutting flu pandemic, Stephen King's "The Stand," whose second, superior miniseries adaptation began Thursday on CBS All Access, could not be more timely. And as a story of good and evil facing off for the usual high stakes — a

      4 min read

    • Article

      After Life

      Jan 5, 2023

      After Life
      14 min read

    • Article

      Ron Perlman

      Jul 24, 2020

      Ron Perlman
      14 min read

    • Article

      They Only Come Out At Night

      Jan 7, 2020

      They Only Come Out At Night
      18 min read

    • Article

      Rammstein Dissected

      Jun 20, 2019

      Rammstein Dissected
      7 min read

    • Article

      Stories To Make Them Shake

      Oct 7, 2021

      Scary Diary Press publishes titles of dark sci-fi/spec-fic/bizarro and horror fiction focused ‘on world issues that need a-fixing’. Currently they want short story submissions, 2,000-5,000 words, for an anthology (working title Bloody Rock) which ‘co

      1 min read

    • Article

      Amityville Horror ends

      Mar 20, 2021

      Amityville Horror ends
      4 min read

    • Article

      Nikki Haley Didn't Say Slavery Caused The Civil War. Now She's Facing Major Backlash

      Dec 28, 2023

      At a campaign event in New Hampshire Wednesday, the former S.C. governor didn't mention slavery as a cause of the Civil War, sparking controversy. Now she's walking back those comments.

      2 min read

    • Article

      Stop Hating on Adjectives!

      Jun 12, 2019

      A common admonition in creative writing pedagogy is, “Cut as many adjectives as possible.” I propose that this rule springs from mere prejudice. The post Stop Hating on Adjectives! appeared first on The Millions.

      7 min read

    • Article

      The Spaces In-between

      Jul 15, 2020

      We were just off South Cape when a voice came out of the long-wave radio and announced that Tasmania had closed its borders. Everyone stopped moving. Eyes like plates, jaws dropped to the floor. Coffee mugs suspended mid-flight. The whole catastrophe

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Trouble Gene

      Jul 1, 2020

      One clear thing about trouble—it can set you back to zero, a personal cone of silence. And reading, writing, listening allow entry into that troubled solitude; you disappear into it regardless t of the time or place you really are in, be it bed, kitc

      12 min read

    • Article

      Four Poems

      May 1, 2022

      —after Gerrit van Honthorst’s “Samson and Delilah,” c. 1621 They’ve made a monster of me, marring my namefor eternity. I’m not Delilah,but Laila. I loved him. Each night, in bed, after our bodies became one body, he would succumb to sleep, resting hi

      3 min read

    • Article

      There Is No Crime Here

      Jul 18, 2023

      There Is No Crime Here
      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Five Doses

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Five Doses - Mark Cassell

      FREE DOWNLOAD

      If you like weird tales, supernatural

      and occult horror stories,

      click the link to grab

      your Free Book today.

      http://www.markcassell.co.uk/free_ebook

      ~ ~ ~

      Copyright © Mark Cassell 2018

      Published by Herbs House

      The right of the authors to be identified as the Authors of the Work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the Author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

      All characters and events in this publication, other than those clearly in the public domain, are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

      Cover Copyright © Paul Ashby 2018

      @berlintuesday

      ~ ~ ~

      MARK CASSELL’S

      FIVE DOSES

      A

      Horror, Cyberpunk,

      Fantasy, Sci-Fi

      & Steampunk

      Collection

      CONTENTS

      Alone with the Bones

      In Loving Memory

      Alpha Beta Gamma Kill

      The Rebirth

      Vanished

      About the Author

      ALONE WITH THE BONES

      The ground shook and the cell door rattled. Thom woke up, pushed fists into the cold stone floor and stood. He adjusted his eye patch. What was happening? From outside, people yelled. The vibrations intensified, and he staggered and slapped a hand against the wall. Dust drifted from the ceiling.

      Moonlight pushed through the barred window, high in one corner. Between the frame and the masonry a crack appeared, cutting diagonally downwards to spear the floor. If this continued, it was going to end one of two ways: freedom or death. His heart filled his head, almost as loud as the quake.

      Another roar as the ground shook, this time louder, and a series of crashes and screams rushed at him. Debris spat through the window.

      Thom coughed and charged for the door.

      Hey! He pounded the wood. Get me out of here!

      Behind him, the floor heaved. The slabs bulged in a mess of soil and sand. Several cracked in two. They peeled back as something emerged. A grey rock, mottled and streaked with dirt, rose from beneath. It widened as it tore up the earth. Slightly curved, its tip lanced the ceiling as it continued to rise. Beams splintered and masonry collapsed.

      The slanted ground threw him sideways, away from the door. He slammed into the wall. Jagged chunks of ceiling crashed into the cell.

      The thing was too perfectly cut to be rock. It looked like… a bone. It resembled a rib bone, similar to his last meal before he was thrown in gaol – the food he’d stolen from the market. He knew it was absurd, but it looked like a giant bone.

      He guessed this was it for him, death was close.

      Pressed into the corner, Thom blinked through the dust that diluted the light of the moon. The rumble subsided.

      A strange silence followed, but was only the earth quietening: people still screamed, called for loved ones, yelled, cried. Somewhere further away, a wolf howled.

      Tears streamed down his cheek. He wiped grit from his eye and watched the dust settle. He was alive. Then he saw the door: the hinges had been wrenched from the stone and the wooden bulk dropped, angling into the hallway. It was as though it pointed to freedom. He could only hope, but there was a darkness beyond. Where were his gaolers? Treading awkwardly, he shimmied past the bone and dragged a hand over it: smooth. He peered into the hallway, and squinted through the gloom. No one around. Smoke crept up his nostrils as he clambered over fallen masonry, and from ahead saw something flicker. He rounded a bend. A lamp had overturned, its glass cracked. Fire had caught the straw beside it. Next to that was a body. Part of the ceiling had crushed their head. A crimson pool, even now, spread outwards. It glistened and reflected the fire.

      He reached the main room, and as expected found chaos. Half the roof dipped inwards in a tangle of wood and shattered tiles. He stepped past another body whose dead hands clutched a beam that pinned them down. Claw marks striped the wood, and there were splinters under the fingernails.

      The door gaped – freedom – and as he neared it the sound of misery

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1