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Snayk PDF Print E-mail

By Felicity Dowker

horrorgenreLucas was dreaming, and the dream was bad.

Something alien and savage crept into his brain and put down roots there.  It grew, spreading its loathsome way down his spine and into his belly, where it writhed through his intestines in slimy abandon.

It was ancient.  Lucas was only ten.

They both knew he stood no chance.

***

"My stomach hurts."

Lucas looked up at his mother from his bed.  His skin was clammy and pale, coated in a sheen of sickly sweat.  His pyjama top was pulled up and his fingers dug into his belly, dimpling the skin.  His voice trembled.

Lucas certainly seemed unwell, but Anna knew looks could be deceiving when it came to children eager to miss a day of school.

"Where does it hurt?"

"I dunno...everywhere."

She raised an eyebrow.

"Come on, kiddo.  Up and at ‘em.  An all-over tummy ache won't kill you.  In fact, I've never heard of such a thing."

"Mum, I think I need to go to the doctor.  It's in my head, too.  It's...almost everywhere now."

"What's in your head?"

A brief flash of knowledge

(it's a snake, a kind of snake, and it's in me!)

exploded in his brain and was gone.  Lucas shook his head but Anna jerked her thumb at him.  Up.

The pain was constant, but he staggered out of bed.

***

Lucas was not dreaming now — never had been, in fact — and that was bad.

He could feel it moving — feel it thinking.  And then...the pain became grotesque and he heard the sounds of his impending oblivion radiating from his gut.

Moist crackling and thick gurgles.  Suction followed by extreme pressure.

His belly split open with a sound like a canvas bag being unzipped, and what slid out of him in the moments before darkness consumed him was not his innards but a

(Snayk! It's a Snayk and it's not from here, it's from some Other Place, and oh God I want my mummy)

sinuous ropey length of slithering hate.

***

Anna pushed open his door, already scowling.

If he thinks I'm going to mollycoddle his butt out of bed every morning and coax him off to school, he's got another thing coming.

"Lucas, it's past eight.  You'll be late again.  I have to leave for work in five —"

She lurched to a halt, her hands clapped over her open mouth, a scream dying before it left her throat.

She'd grown up in the country.  She knew what a cast-off snakeskin looked like.

She'd just never expected her son to become one.

As Anna stood over the shrivelled husk that had been Lucas, she felt a curious burrowing sensation in her head.

I've inhaled a bite, she thought, and though it made no sense, she knew it was true.

(it's in my head too, I think it's almost everywhere now)

Anna heard a whisper of scales on the carpet behind her.

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Ten...

Field of Dreams

By Brendan D. Carson

sfgenre"You ready?" said Nightshayde.

Sebastyan nodded.  He had smears of black hair-dye on his face, because he hadn't been able to find boot-polish.

"Once we're over the wire, we have to be quick."

"Do you reckon Julia managed to lure the guards away?" said Sebastian.

Read more
 

Nine...

Blood

By David Such

sfgenreThere are two theories about how to win an argument with a woman. Neither one works. Sam Blood considered his next statement carefully: "You don't think we should go through the front?"

"Do I look like an idiot?"

Read more
 

Eight...

Pirate Music

By Alan Richard

sfgenreAh crap, I'm in trouble this time.

Jowal whined something well above my hearing range.

Read more
 

Seven...

Snayk

By Felicity Dowker

horrorgenreLucas was dreaming, and the dream was bad.

Something alien and savage crept into his brain and put down roots there.  It grew, spreading its loathsome way down his spine and into his belly, where it writhed through his intestines in slimy abandon.

Read more
 

Six...

Ménage à Trois

By Mark Farrugia

horrorgenreThrough a tear-bubbled eye, and drug-induced comfort, Sandy stares up at me as though it's in my power to save her.

Hell, I wish it was.

Read more
 

Five...

The Buck Stops - At Woop Woop

By Shaun A. Saunders

horrorgenreLife made sense, mostly, until the following email arrived:

"Hello,

I hurry writing you this message cos i
don't,have much time on the pc here,so i have to brief

Read more
 

Four...

Jack Austin - Xeno Hunter

By Jamie Richter

sfgenre"So what happened to your last cameraman, Jack?" the bespectacled technician queried, hammering the seventh and final backpack-sized transmitter into the black, alkaline soil of Marius-2. "And don't spare any detail."

Read more
 

Three...

Terminal Illness

By Alan Baxter

sfgenreMary sat at her son's bedside, hands clasped in desperation, eyes dark. She stared — trying to cure him by willpower alone.

"You need a break, darling."

Read more
 

Two...

They Called Her Larry

By Steve Duffy

sfgenreThey called her Larry, they always had. It was the only name she'd ever known. But somewhere, deep down, she knew it didn't belong to her. It belonged to someone else, someone not her. She knew, in that same deep down place, that she had another name, must have another name.

Read more
 

One...

Weapons

By S. A. Harris

sfgenreOutside my room, from along the passageway, came the sounds of  my parents watching the Spectravision — making loud comments that disturbed my poetical concentration. On the desk in front of me lay the poem, "Weapons" by the little-known turn-of-the-century poet S. A. Harris. The text read as follows:

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New Books

grave-thief-coverThe Grave Thief: The Twilight Reign Book 3

Tom Lloyd
ISBN 057507731X(978-057-507731-7)
RRP $35.00 February 2009
Gollancz Paperback (234 x 153)
Read more...