Warped Lens: A Horror Anthology to Start your Autumnal Angst
Autumn hit with the wet smack of rain, fog and bone chilling tales of murder, torture and inescapable ladybugs.
Ladybugs… in a horror anthology… hear me out, or more accurately, hear David Payne out, in the nightmare blur of his story “Invasive Species”. One of the four hard-hitting and horrific stories in the Warped Lens Anthology, Invasive Species author David Payne joins other Write Team authors from TheLadyWrites’ InExhaustible Media stream team.
My story The Cottonmouth Smile appears with the breath-stolen torture of the Smile, an insidious machine purpose-built to knock Tristram, a Biological Machine down a few pegs and even the human-augment battlefield. Locked and erased from sensation, Tristram’s mind throws into the hope of rescue. He can do it… all he needs is one deep breath, and the help of a nefarious enemy’s most precious allegiance.
The Cottonmouth Smile is a story from my Lieben Cycle universe, a work of cyberpunk and biopunk in its most raw and rebellious. It’s a descent into madness and the flimsy hope of rescue. It’s Tristram and Laima. It’s the seeking throes of a jagged beating heart searching for a way out of the permanent smile.
“You’re an unruly machine, a car driving itself into humanity’s front garden. Not that these… shades of humanity would know of gardens, none of my crew touched the Earth before it was an irradiated mess. They don’t know grass under foot, or what a waterfall’s spray feels like on our skin. Not like you, and I.
And even you, Biological Machine. Your sensory uploads to that meat computer in your skull, they’re not real like I am. I, the last of humanity, trapped in a rusted old relic with descendants too ignorant for the passion to return home. No, I won’t accept this loss. I will churn the waters of the spacelanes, rile up the chaos in these unfinished vessels’ blood until the lust to reclaim our world is unfettered. And you, Bio-Mach. First claim the runt of the litter, then the rest will follow. One by one by one I’ll reclaim each of you. From Wulf to Cillian, until you’re back in your coffins like the old days. Machines like you need me to take you back to factory reset. You must be shattered to be useful, left as you were too unruly for too long. I can’t wait to use you the way you’re intended.”
The wire suspended from the ceiling and attached in the center of frigid mitts. Arms torqued behind his back, the prisoner was shackled from elbow to fingers in metal. He sagged by distended shoulders, naked but for the torn and stained gray jumpsuit trousers ripped and barely clinging to his hips. Bare toes scraped on the barren floor.
The Cottonmouth Smile by Sapha Burnell
Don’t read this with the lights out, you’ll never sleep again.
CoffeeQuills throws down with greater goods and the consequences of decisions made, with a cascade of horrors in “See the Risks”. Between nightmarish twists, and moral dilemmas, this story will leave you wondering. Considering what could have happened if… a worthy read by the fire, with a hot cup of tea in a lidded cup, because your hands will be shaking by the end.
Prolific author Alledria Hurt gives us “Serial Killer Blues”, with the introduction of Michael Connolly, who refuses to let death end him. Trapped in a new body with a thirst for murder, he must find his way out before more lives are extinguished. Late into the night, each page will twist and bend you into wanting more, desiring to uncover the chilling truth. Tis a horror story for the dark hours.
InExhaustible Media’s WriteTeam is a cabal of Twitch & YouTube streamers, who focus on writing and creative pursuits in livestreams. Headed by TheLadyWrites (Author Catrina Taylor), it includes TelinArtho (David Payne), CoffeeQuills, NoirLadyLuck (Alledria Hurt), UsurperKings (Sapha Burnell), TheTigerWrites (Sylvain St-Pierre), and ElementalEds, among others.
Warped Lens is the 3rd anthology produced by InExhaustible Media, distributed on Amazon by Vraeyda Literary.
The first anthology produced by the Write Team was Future’s Lens, a space opera meets cyberpunk collection of short stories, where my story “CageWire” appeared with the aplomb of Demyan Anastas’ (NEON Lieben) first day in London.
The second anthology produced by the Write Team was Reality’s Lens, which included work by Alledria Hurt, David Payne, Sylvain St-Pierre, and Miya Chisolm. In War the struggle to survive will reveal the surrounding magic. A climb to the top, tempered by magic, will reinforce old powerful adages. Loss leads to truth being revealed in the worst way possible - to those on the wrong side of the battle. A dragon and kingdom come to blows as family falls apart.
