Dreadful Things

by V.K. Scott

Five short stories of horror...LOCKEDA child is locked in a bathroom for an entire day. The darkness is bad. The growling from beneath the sink is worse. And what the child discovers in those shadowy recesses is worse than he could possibly imagine. As an adult, he tries desperately to make sense of the inexplicable, reliving the experience that will haunt him for the rest of his life.BLACK OUT DAYSAnthony Kolb, an overambitious manager at the customer support division of AsperTech, makes an unscrupulous deal to advance in his company. Driven by jealousy, he rigs the statistics to overtake and destroy a rival. Everything seems to be going fine until his rival disappears on Halloween--along with Anthony's memory of the entire day.SHAME RIDES SHOTGUNWhen John and Beth Hackland arrive in Austin, Texas, for John's job interview, they find they're not the only guests at their rental house. A mysterious burgandy sedan occupies the driveway, with no driver in sight.Its key drips with blood.When Beth leaves, furious at her dead-beat, cheating husband, John has no choice but to follow her in the enigmatic vehicle. The ride that follows will take him to hell and back, a journey that bends his marriage to the breaking point and tests his very soul.DORBECK'S BLUESBlues guitarist George Dorbeck wants nothing more than to enjoy the last days at his beach house. But when an exterminator hands him a bill he cannot pay, his problems literally grow legs.DEAR EDITORPublishing requires patience and persistence. But when a would-be author has too much of both, submitting the same story over and over, he gets more than rejection slips in return.plus bonus flash fiction "E.U.L.D.O.A."

98 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 30, 2014

About the author

V.K. Scott writes mystery novels. Before his characters started chasing suspects and dodging bullets, V.K.'s pen drew exclusively across the papers of high school English students. While his red ink still flies through stray commas and criminal misspellings by day, by night V.K. Scott hammers out his own twisted tales of crime and detection.

V.K. lives with his wife and son in Phoenix, Arizona. In the hours when he's not writing or teaching, Mr. Scott has a client of one: his toddler son. Recent cases include the Caper of the Disappearing Keys, the Case of the Dirty Diaper, and the Mystery of What is that in Your Mouth?

On his more demented days, V.K. also enjoys writing horror short stories and novellas.