Trust Walk

by C.S. Fuqua

Descend into a world of dark and light, a world in which karma is real. The 35 stories collected here explore the motivations of the human spirit, the qualities that lead us into temptation as well as deliverance, that make even the most ordinary among us extraordinary. In "Walking After Midnight," a Year's Best Horror Stories selection, a man sinks in self-pity as he drives home in a snowstorm after a long day's work, his wife recently deceased, his son a casualty of war decades before. In the swirling snow, he swerves to avoid a man at the edge of the road. The truck flips and fatally injures the driver, but he won't die alone. In "Contrition," a car strikes an aged Japanese man, slamming him to the ground, but he shakes off the impact as though nothing's happened. Weary of cheating death, he meets a woman at a war shrine honoring men he knew and fought with. She looks familiar, and she should. She died with countless others, tortured to death under his unit's command. Now she's come for him. In "Mama's Boy," another Year's Best Horror Stories selection, screams in the night lead a young boy to a house where he discovers a young man crippled by battle injuries and trapped in the tormenting care of his aged, dying mother. In the title story, "Trust Walk," a college student, depressed over the loss of her lover, participates in a class activity designed to explore faith and security but learns that the only ones completely trustworthy are dead.

216 pages, Paperback

First published June 14, 2010

About the author

C.S. Fuqua's work appears widely in publications as diverse as Bull Spec, Main Street Rag, Iodine, Brutarian, Slipstream, Pearl, Bogg, Chiron Review, The Year's Best Horror Stories, Cemetery Dance, Christian Science Monitor, Honolulu Magazine, Naval History, The Writer, and many others. His published books include Rise Up short fiction collection, Trust Walk short fiction collection, If I Were (children's poems), Big Daddy's Gadgets (SF novel), Notes to My Becca, Alabama Musicians: Musical Heritage from the Heart of Dixie, and Divorced Dads, among others. Two of his books, Divorced Dads and Notes to My Becca, were published under the pseudonym C. Stephen Fouquet.

Fuqua is a full-time writer. His hobbies include music and crafting Native American flutes.