“Oh yeah,” he whispered. A grin that could have given a slaughterhouse butcher nightmares crept across his face like a spider on a corpse. “Now I remember.”
Closing the cellar door, he thought he heard a whimper.
Sounded like Pumpkin.
Pumpkin was a good girl; she was trying. And that’s what counted most in his books: trying. He hadn’t been forced to punish her lately, which was a nice change. Not since the incident with Pauline Stupid-Head had he been forced to perform one of his little operations. Not since he emptied the third cage.
Thinking about Pauline’s empty cage made him sad and lonely.
Empty cages need to be filled. Sure they did. An empty cage was wrong; everybody with a lick of sense knows that. But Nicolas was a busy man, he had things on his mind and his work was never done. The cage would have to wait.
Nicolas crawled into bed wearing his housecoat. He lifted his cup from the nightstand, smiled at the clown holding the balloon, and slowly emptied the cup’s contents on the floor. Water splashed, creating a miniature lake where no lake had once been. He named this lake, Lake Empty Cage. He wondered how long the lake would last, and when he would be forced to make a new one.
The clock beside him read 4:19 am.
It was late, too late for feeding babies and making lakes. Maybe tomorrow he would punish Kathy the Kitten for waking him––maybe, but maybe not. He wasn’t sure yet. He would see how he felt in the morning.
Nicolas woke up early, went to the kitchen and mixed another bottle of formula. He warmed it perfectly, added a little chocolate and brought it to Olive; he apologized for not giving her a bottle the night before. Afterwards, he cleaned the basement and found each of his babies something to read. He gave them fresh blankets, a rice-crispy square, and a nice cup of coffee. Shortly after, he stepped inside a closet, stripped naked, and screamed for twenty minutes while pushing his fingers into his eyes.
PRAISE FOR HUSK
“Matt Hults delivers a crackling, creepy tale. A fast-paced read with a generous body count, ‘Husk’ will make your skin crawl.”
—Scott Nicholson, Bestselling author of They Hunger
“Remember the first time you read Joe Lansdale’s The Drive-In, or Freezer Burn? Remember how exhilarated you felt as you tore through the pages as Lansdale kept knocking your jaw to the floor with his endless inventiveness, unexpected belly-laughs, and those even more unexpected moments of terror and pathos? Miss that feeling of being completely at the mercy of a writer’s imagination and boundless energy for his subject? Fret no more, friends—you now have Matt Hults’s Husk. This sucker is the real thing, an in-your-face, rollicking, scary, funny, and unexpectedly poignant potpourri of a horror story, an unabashed and unapologetic throwback to the early pulps infused with a vindictive modern-day sensibility that will have your head spinning and your mouth hanging open. It doesn’t get any more fun than this.”
—Gary A. Braunbeck, winner of the Bram Stoker Award and International Horror Guild Award, author of Coffin County and Destinations Unknown
“Suspenseful and gruesome, with just the right leavening of hopefulness and nod-wink humor.”
—Dr. Kim Paffenroth, Bram Stoker Award Winner for Dying to Live.
“Husk is wild, bloody, scary, action-packed, and entertaining as hell. Matt Hults seems to be having a blast telling his tale, and I had a blast going along for the ride. Great fun!”
—Jeff Strand, Bram Stoker Nominated Author of Pressure
“‘Husk’ is a chilling and relentless tale that will make you want to check your closets, lock your windows and keep an eye in your review mirror… but don't think that'll save you!”
––Fran Friel, Bram Stoker Nominated Author of Mama’s Boy
“Husk is violent, intense and terrifying. The characters are as real as you and I, and every triumph is rapturous while every death is harrowing. Matt Hults proves himself as a master of the genre with his striking debut novel. It will leave you feeling skinned alive and dying for more.”
—Joel A. Sutherland, Bram Stoker Nominated Author of Frozen Blood
“I have come across some pretty mind-blowing demons on paper, on the big screen, and especially in my mind. But the ‘Husk’ Matt Hults created in this his first novel breaks all my thresholds for fear, and believe me I have built some pretty sound barriers in my time.”
—Giovanna Lagana, author of With Black & White Comes the Grey
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. All characters, events, dialog, and situations in this book are fictitious and any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission except in the case of reprinted excerpts for the purpose of reviews.
For more information, contact: Besthorror@gmail.com
Visit us at: Booksofthedead.blogspot.com
Copyright 2011 by Matt Hults
Edited by Matt Hults and James Roy Daley
Photo Credit - Danielle Tunstall
Cover Model - Paige Rohanna Walker
Graphic Design - Cynthia Gould
E-book Design - James Roy Daley
FIRST EDITION
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