THIRTEEN STEPS

Welcome to the 2016 October Frights Blog Hop - Day 2

Today I thought I'd share an excerpt from one of my dark short fiction stories.
I've complied six tales together in an anthology aptly named
CURIOUSLY DARK TALES.​

​Here's one of my biggest fans reading it to hold him over until Halloween.

This excerpt is from Thirteen Steps, a grim tale about a reporter who's invited to cover a small upstate New York town's unusual celebration honoring their patron Strega (Italian witch) Enjoy!

Bart lay fully dressed on top of the bed, his attempt at some shut-eye, useless.

Ten.…Eleven.…Twelve.…Thirteen. A brief reprieve and it began again. The incessant pacing in the room above had gone on for hours. Thirteen steps across to the left. Silence. Thirteen steps back to the right.

He swung his legs over the side of the bed, reached over the half-eaten burger and fries on the nightstand and grabbed the bottle of Jack. The town had rolled up its sidewalks, shutting down in anticipation for the strange midnight revelry.  He was lucky to get the deep fried heart attack in a bag before they locked the door on him.

“Mr. Sanz.” The motel manager banged on the door. “It’s eleven-thirty. Mayor DiPone wanted me to make sure you were awake. He’ll be here shortly to pick you up.”

Bart meandered to the door and opened it. “Thanks, but I’m awake. Who can sleep with the racket upstairs?”

“I’m sorry, I don’t know what you mean.” He steered a disapproving eye to the bottle of whiskey. “The room over you is empty.”

Bart pushed past the old man, stepping into the cool night air. Except for his car and two others at the far end of the motel, the parking lot was deserted.

He crooked his neck at an angle, visually following the line up the two-story building. On the balcony, brown, dried leaves had blown into pile against the slider door. A dead plant wilted in its potted grave, a victim of upstate New York’s early frost. With the drapes shut tight, the dark room showed no signs of life.

Shit!

They were messing with him. Get the city slicker in the country and try to freak him out. The Mayor and the manager probably had a bet going who could frighten him the most. The joke would be on them. He didn’t scare that easy.

“Are you alright, Mr. Sanz?”  The manager asked.

​“I’m just fine,” he said curtly.

Two tunnels of bright light approached as the mayor’s SUV pulled up next to his Lexus. “Ready, Mr. Sanz? We don’t want to be late.”

I'm doing small daily giveaways but will enter everyone who commented on any post to win the Grand Prize- a $20 Amazon Gift Card. 

My giveaway today is an ebook of CURIOUSLY DARK TALES. If you'd like to enter to win, leave a comment about where you think the thirteen steps may lead to...Or leave any comment, I'm easy. 

**Don't forget to include your email in your comment.**
​
And if you don't win, no worries, CURIOUSLY DARK TALES is only 99 cents on Amazon.

I'll pick the winners for each contest on Saturday at the end of the hop.

Good luck!

---

Don't forget to check out the other awesome authors in the blog hop!

An InLinkz Link-up