Donna just started her job as a waitress at Pimento Patch only to find out the restaurant would be shutting its doors for good.
Along with a skeleton crew of slackers, she accepted the offer of full pay to work overnight cleaning the place up in preparation for the looming vacancy. Unfortunately, this particular Pimento Patch restaurant has a dark history, and a sinister presence has something in store for the five crew members on staff that night.
Prepare for the breadstick massacre, because When You’re Here, You’re Fatalities!
Inspired by my love of Italian Giallo films of the 70s and 80s, as a slasher-ish story taking place in a fictional version of an Olive Garden would almost have to, I think you’re in for a not-so-delicious treat when you check out this new story. Released as part of the Godless AntiChristmas event for December of 2021, you’ll be able to find the link below:
I don’t know that I’d recommend participating in the #DeadSealChallenge, but I’m sure you won’t end up like Gary or Lee. You certainly won’t end up like Johnny Ciao–the self-professed mukbang king. You know what, come to think of it. I think you’ll probably be fine. Never mind the fact that Food Network’s Andrew Zimmern wouldn’t touch kiviak; he’s never been fond of fermented meats. How did we get from fermented meat to the different piece of meat #DeadSealChallenge opens with? It’s a long story. Well, it’s not that long of a story, but it’s a fun short story that you’ll need to read for yourself if you want to figure out how we find our way from the discovery of fermented birds stuffed into a dead seal carcass to a rotting penis on the chopping block. There might be some light necrophilia involved in the process of getting there, but you didn’t hear that from me. Nikki Noir and S. C. Mendes are a match made in hell, or maybe Greenland? Is Greenland that dissimilar from hell? It’s unnerving how real the characters feel as they embark on the most ludicrous get-rich-quick scheme I’ve ever witnessed. It’s unfortunate for Gary and Lee that the story’s descent into madness and body horror is so damn entertaining because it makes it hard to feel bad for them when you’re enjoying it so much as it unfolds.
You can read this for yourself by going to http://www.godless.com or by downloading the Godless app to your mobile device of choice. The link is below:
Wayne expected a normal evening of hockey, announcing the penalties and the scores just like any other day at the arena. When he started feeling ill, he thought it might just be a cold, until he saw the tiny figure he’d coughed up. Unfortunately, for Wayne, that little person is only the first of many. As the announcer’s body is pushed past its limits, and what starts off a curious–albeit revolting–spectacle for the fans becomes a nightmare of body horror as an unstoppable surge of humanoid figures continues to erupt into the arena. Ludens blends body horror and science fiction in an entertainingly vile fashion with Sudden Death. Sadly, death doesn’t arrive suddenly enough for our poor, besieged protagonist, as his suffering continues beyond what anyone should experience.
Sudden Death was released as a Godless exclusive short at http://www.godless.com and you can pick it up for yourself by going to the website or by downloading the Godless app to your mobile device. The link is below:
Nat Whiston weaves us a tale of friendship, betrayal, lost love, witchcraft, and supernatural horror in her short but potent debut, What’s Eating You. As the author draws you through the expertly crafted twists and turns, you’ll only discover where the story’s headed when she leads you right up to the precipice, and you find yourself gazing into the depths of Hell itself. The moral of the story: Don’t betray a witch–and certainly don’t do it twice. But, if you insist on betraying her, make damn sure you understand the objectives she has in mind. There’s no way to say anything more without giving it all away, so you’ll just have to read this one for yourself. I trust that you’ll find yourself just as eager to see what the author has in store for us in the future.
This story was released on http://www.godless.com as part of the AntiChristmas event for December of 2021. You can pick it up for yourself by going to the website or downloading the Godless app. The link is below:
Joshua MacMillan knows how to craft a suspenseful and heartbreaking narrative. The Best Of Intentions exemplifies those skills carried over from short fiction to a larger work without any apparent difficulty on the part of the author. Corey Loflin is a combat veteran still struggling to adjust to civilian life after years away from the military. He and his wife had hoped he was past the night terrors and emotional struggles associated with PTSD and survivor’s guilt, but when the nightmares return, focused on his wife and young son rather than his experience during the final deployment, Corey seems ill-suited to handle things on his own. When seemingly sinister and threatening messages begin to appear, Corey’s insomnia and alcoholism combine with his insecurity in seeking help from those around him, leading him down a path of paranoia and latent violence. As we helplessly watch events unfold, it becomes increasingly clear that Corey is on a dangerous trajectory that can lead nowhere good. Missed opportunities, poor communication, and untreated mental health issues snowball out of control until we’re standing beside Corey as an avalanche bears down on us as he looks in the other direction. As readers, we’re stuck asking questions for which we suspect we know the answers. Is someone threatening Corey and his family, or is he reading more into innocuous events than a more level head might interpret? Who is coming for him, and what do they have planned? Will Corey piece together the clues in time to avoid a catastrophic conclusion? MacMillan leaves you wondering how everything will play out as the climax approaches, and he forces you to hope that things are not as they seem because if you’re right, you may not want to subject yourself to what those final pages contain. You know you won’t be able to turn away, though, regardless of how it all might end.
As with other D&T Publishing titles, you can obtain this in digital format from http://www.godless.com or by downloading the Godless app to your mobile device of choice. The link is below:
Amy is a spoiled, entitled, petty, and manipulative monster of a woman. It seems only fitting that she’d find her way into the Hoopiverse with Dani Brown’s The Scratching Post. Arguably the worst quality Amy displays is her solipsism. Her inability to recognize other people as independent, separate beings with perspectives that aren’t her own, manifests in a sort of delusionally cynical outlook and a lack of object permanence. For Amy, other people are only ever motivated by the same things that motivate her. That viewpoint might be less pronounced if she didn’t also surround herself with vapid, terrible people who only serve to reinforce the way she sees things. Thus, if everyone is motivated by the same things, it’s altogether too easy for Amy to see others as nothing more than playthings to be used for her perverse amusement. For years, Amy got away with being a god-awful person, catered to by her mourning parents and pandered to by her social circle, but then Hoop moves in next door. As Amy’s carefully constructed world of gaslighting and self-deception crumbles around her, there’s no way a reader won’t take pleasure in the revolting and nefariously appropriate comeuppance she experiences. Dani Brown brings her deliciously wicked and vile imagination to the table in bringing to life what has to be one of the most disgusting miasmas a reader can imagine. You’d be hard-pressed not to smell hints of the corruption wafting from the screen as you read the descriptions she provides. Like the other installments in the Hoopiverse, we get to witness Hooper forcing empathy onto the monstrous people he sets his sights on. While it isn’t true empathy, being subjected to the experiences of those they’ve hurt, it’s a befitting analog that serves the purpose of showing these hideous men and women the harm they’ve caused in the only way they’ll understand, when it’s hurting them. You’ve got to hit the sociopath where it hurts, and Hooper’s got the skills that pay the bills.
You can pick up The Scratching Post as well as the previous installments in the Fucking Scumbags series by going to http://www.godless.com or by downloading the Godless app to your mobile device. The first season of tales is soon to be collected in a single paperback release if you prefer to wait for a physical book to love and caress with your nasty fingertips, but I recommend picking these up in the meantime. The link is below:
While My Christmas Story by Rayne Havok is not a new story from her, it’s new to me, and it was a perfect tale for her to make available on Godless for the Antichristmas event this December. Lydia’s spending her first Christmas night alone, but her husband is still there…in spirit…in a sense. We’ll go with, “in a sense.” It was bad enough that Henry had gotten her a blender for Christmas this year, but that’s the least of his transgressions…and Lydia is not the forgiving sort. As she decorates her tree with the ornaments Henry provided, it does seem like Lydia is finally getting into the spirit of the holidays, and we can’t help but feel happy for her. While the holiday might have started as a bit of a disappointment, she found a way to make it festive just the same. If you’re familiar with Rayne Havok’s work, you damn well know what to expect…so I’m not going to spell it out for you here. If you’re not familiar with her writing, you’re in for an enchanting, heartwarming tale of Christmas cheer.
This title was released on http://www.godless.com as part of the Antichristmas event for December of 2021. You can pick it up for yourself by going to the website or by downloading the app to your mobile device of choice. The link is below:
Mark’s life is one of banality punctuated by terror. Living in a sparsely furnished apartment and working at a filthy cesspool of a fast-food restaurant, he thought he might have escaped the horrific events that transpired in Leesburg. But the dread and panic are always there, just beneath the surface, waiting to erupt, and some wounds never heal. Recollection of the events from his past come through only sporadically, intruding on his daily life at unexpected moments, triggered by seemingly unpredictable stray thoughts or disturbing noises and visions. As Mark struggles to remain in the here and now, he finds himself increasingly drawn into memories that he simultaneously wishes he could forget and desperately needs to unravel. Maybe he didn’t escape at all, and it’s all happening again. Milliron masterfully crafted this tale of cosmic horror, utilizing the imprecision of traumatic memories to provide us with an unreliable protagonist around whom the story plays out. This story has everything one could hope for in cosmic horror. Milliron blends a perfect mixture of secretive cults hidden within small-town populations, unspeakable horrors breaching the barriers that separate our world from somewhere cold and dark, hallucinatory visuals described with frightful detail, and a stochastic narrative that leaves the reader dizzied and struggling to piece together the mystery. Lost Words In a Dream is a story that will stick with you long after you’ve reached the conclusion, and you’ll find yourself wishing you could go back in and experience it fresh all over again.
This title was released as part of the 31 Days of Godless event at http://www.godless.com for October of 2021. You can obtain a copy for yourself by going to the website or by downloading the app to your mobile device of choice. The link is below:
In Blood immerses us within an epistolary horror penned by Sir Henry Irving, owner of the Lyceum Theatre, to his friend and assistant, Bram Stoker. It is a tale of murder, insidious plots, and the evolution of what would become Dracula. It all revolves around a Masonic conspiracy surrounding the Duke of Clarence and Avondale, his part in the pregnancy of a Catholic girl of low birth, and the prostitutes murdered by Jack the Ripper. As our narrator describes it, his authentically terrified performances in Macbeth are informed and influenced by an all-too-real haunting wherein he sees the deceased ladies of the night in place of the three witches on stage with him. From there, he finds himself driven by strange and monstrous compulsions and a need to witness unspeakable things in an appalling attempt at method acting. As his missive to Stoker continues, it becomes clear that something awful has awakened within him, leading inexorably down the path toward damnation and inhuman brutality. The Professor’s narration of this sordid tale makes the story all the more compelling, its deranged and lunatic protagonist leaping from the page in such a way that the listener feels his frantic, unhinged need propelling the narrative forward. The strangely beautiful prose comes to life in cruel, vivid detail as the exquisitely described savagery spirals out of control.
You can obtain a copy of In Blood by going to http://www.godless.com or by downloading the Godless app to your mobile device of choice. The link is below:
If you’ve already subjected yourself to Butcher’s coprophilic masterpiece included in Scats, Splats, and Stupid Twats, you’re already familiar with Kreb, The Chocolateman. You can think of him as something akin to Candyman, a monstrous, supernatural being who comes when you make the mistake of uttering his name. Of course, instead of bees and honey, his aesthetic is purely fecal. This larger volume can be considered the origin story for The Chocolateman. Butcher takes this opportunity to tell us how Kreb found his way into our world and our bathrooms in search of delicious choc-choc. James Tooth appears to be a successful man with a loving family, but he is tormented by a horrible secret that troubles him more profoundly as the 22nd anniversary of his parents’ deaths approaches. James is terrified of poop and with good reason. Throughout the story, Butcher provides readers with glimpses of James’s childhood, the horrible events of 22-years before, when he was only ten years old. As the past catches up with him, taking a terrible toll on both himself and those around him, he has no choice but to face the nightmare that’s haunted him the previous two decades, his older brother, Kreb. Mixed up in the whole mess, James’s drug dealer, Mucklow, and his bodybuilding lover, Isabella, find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time over and over again, leading them on a collision course with the Tooth family and The Chocolateman himself. Amazingly enough, considering how absurdly revolting the concept of Chocolateman is, Jonathan Butcher still populates this tale with well-developed and sympathetic characters. Grotesque, gory, and visceral as much of the narrative happens to be, it’s also fantastically well-written and articulated in such a way as to never seem quite as gratuitous as it’s clearly meant to be. Chocolateman isn’t simply a collection of repulsive gags and toilet humor. At its heart, it’s a story about family, fears, and the ways we cause harm when trying to do what we believe to be the right thing.
This title was released on http://www.godless.com as part of the 31 Days of Godless event for October of 2021. You can pick it up for yourself by going to the Godless website or by downloading the Godless app to your mobile device of choice. The links for purchase are available below:
Domus Necrophagous 