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    Taking the Dare
    Taking the Dare
    Taking the Dare
    Ebook23 pages17 minutes

    Taking the Dare

    By Gary Jonas

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    About this ebook

    Are you brave enough to take the dare?

    When Alex Peterson touches people, he gets flashes of the terrible things they've done. When he admits this in a game of Truth or Dare, his friends dare him to touch the creepy neighbor, who may be a murderer.

    This short story was originally published in Nightmares Unhinged.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDenton & White
    Release dateJan 8, 2019
    ISBN9781386943495
    Taking the Dare
    Author

    Gary Jonas

    Gary Jonas is the author of the Jonathan Shade fantasy series, the novel One Way Ticket to Midnight, the story collection Quick Shots, and the novella Night Marshal: A Tale of the Undead West, the first in a new vampire western series that will be penned by various authors. His short fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies and magazines. Gary was born in Japan and has since lived in Ohio, Florida, Oklahoma, and Colorado, where he now resides.

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      Book preview

      Taking the Dare - Gary Jonas

      TAKING THE DARE

      by Gary Jonas

      This story © 2015 by Gary Jonas, originally published in Nightmares Unhinged edited by Joshua Viola

      June 1977

      Tell me something about yourself you don't want anyone to know, Brenda said.

      All I could think about was the flashes. Brenda was new to the neighborhood, we were both thirteen, and she was my world that summer. Her eyes lit up when discussing comic books, and yet she was athletic and cool. I’d tell her anything, but there were other kids sitting in Tucker’s driveway playing Truth or Dare with us, and while Tucker and his sister Sandy were okay, I knew Eric and Larry would be merciless no matter what I said.

      Brenda’s lips twisted into a grin and my heart sped up. Don’t look so nervous, Alex. It won't go beyond this group.

      I took a deep breath. I get flashes.

      My mother gets hot flashes, Eric said.

      Brenda rolled her eyes, which made her even more cool.

      I can touch someone and get flashes of the terrible things they've done, I said. Sometimes they're really bad things and sometimes they're just things the person feels are bad.

      Yeah right, Larry said, glancing at Eric for approval.

      I turned to him. When I met you, I got a flash of you shooting a cat with a BB gun. That's why I don't like you.

      What was the cat's name? Larry

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