Year's Best Hardcore Horror Volume 5 Read online

  Praise for Year's Best Hardcore Horror

  "…glutted with graphic scenes of torture, dismemberment, evisceration, and pornographic sex." (Vol. 2)— Publishers Weekly

  "Not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach, the 19 stories in this new best-of annual anthology feature episodes of graphic gore and violence—including torture, dismemberment, self-mutilation, and home abortion—that are designed to push buttons as well as boundaries…strictly for hardcore horror fans." (Vol. 1) —Publishers Weekly

  ALSO BY RANDY CHANDLER

  EDITOR:

  Year's Best Hardcore Horror

  Stiff Things: The Splatterporn Anthology

  Red Room Magazine

  NOVELS AND COLLECTIONS:

  Bad Juju

  Stolen Roads

  Daemon of the Dark Wood

  Devils, Death & Dark Wonders

  Dime Detective

  Duet for the Devil (with t. winter-damon)

  Hellz Bellz

  Angel Steel

  EDITED BY CHERYL MULLENAX

  Year's Best Hardcore Horror

  Red Room Magazine

  Stiff Things: The Splatterporn Anthology

  Vile Things: Extreme Deviations of Horror

  Sick Things: Extreme Creature Anthology

  The Death Panel: Murder, Mayhem and Madness

  Necro Files: Two Decades of Extreme Horror

  Deadcore: 4 Hardcore Zombie Novellas

  Deadlines: Horror and Dark Fiction

  First Red Room Press Electronic Edition, May 2020

  Year’s Best Hardcore Horror Volume 5 copyright © 2020

  by Randy Chandler and Cheryl Mullenax

  All Rights Reserved.

  Red Room Press is an imprint of Comet Press

  This book is a work of fiction. People, places, events, and situations are the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  Visit Red Room Press on the web at:

  www.redroompress.com

  facebook.com/redroompress

  twitter.com/redroombooks

  Copyrights continued here

  Diabolically dedicated to all the hardcore and extreme publishers, editors, and authors.

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  GOING GLOBAL: INTRODUCTION by Randy Chandler & Cheryl Mullenax

  FEAST FOR SMALL PIECES by Hailey Piper

  GODDESS OF GALLOWS by Kristopher Triana

  LATE NIGHT INCIDENT AT THE WHITE TRASH MOTEL by Duane Bradley

  A NEW MOTHER’S GUIDE TO RAISING AN ABOMINATION by Gwendolyn Kiste

  UPPER CRUST by Michael Paul Gonzalez

  REDLESS by Annie Neugebauer

  A TOUCH OF MADNESS by Tim Waggoner

  PARADISUM VOLUPTATIS by Joanna Koch

  RADIX MALORUM by Sean Patrick Hazlett

  LACKERS by Leo X. Roberson

  WHY DO BIRDS SUDDENLY APPEAR? by Rajiv Moté

  DARJEELING by Syon Das

  MRSA ME by Alicia Hilton

  WHAT DID YOU DO TO THE CHILDREN? by David L Tamarin

  HAVE A HEART by Matthew V. Brockmeyer

  SWINGS AND SUSPENSIONS by D.A. Xiaolin Spires

  KIRTI by Alessandro Manzetti

  THE TEA AND SUGAR TRAIN by DEBORAH SHELDON

  SCREAMS FOR STARGIRL by Ben Pienaar

  QUEER WEATHER by Scáth Beorh

  Author Bios

  Acknowledgements

  GOING GLOBAL

  INTRODUCTION BY

  RANDY CHANDLER AND CHERYL MULLENAX

  2019. The year certainly made its mark on the world—and more than its share of scars. It also made for a bounty of good horror stories of the extreme kind, the best of which the tales herein serve to illustrate.

  2019 was the year YBHH went global. Not by design but because the stories inside just happened to have been written by authors hailing from various parts of the globe. From Australia by way of South Africa, to Italy, Scotland, Norway, Taiwan, North America and India—the common denominator being that their tales come from darkest regions of imagination.

  Kicking things off in fine feminist fashion, Hailey Piper flips the script in “Feast for Small Pieces” to show us things from the perspective of the femme fatale herself. If she is a wicked seductress, maybe she has good reason.

  Kristopher Triana carves out his return to our pages with “Goddess of Gallows” from Necro’s irreverent The Big Book of Blasphemy. With his trademark hardcore style, Kris pulls no punches and won’t leave you hanging—but Ixtab the Mayan goddess whose name translates as “hangwoman” might have other ideas.

  “Late Night Incident At The White Trash Motel” ponders what would happen if the director of a film similar to Get Out was kidnapped by white nationalists. Duane Bradley has it all worked out in his “black” redneck noir comedy.

  From one of our favorite anthologies of the year, The New Flesh: A Literary Tribute to David Cronenberg, comes Gwendolyn Kiste’s “A New Mother’s Guide To Raising An Abomination.” In true Cronenbergian spirit, she offers advice you won’t find in any self-help articles. Seth Brundle would surely get it.

  From perhaps the unlikeliest anthology of the year, Tales From The Crust, cooked up by David James Keaton and Max Booth III, we serve up “Upper Crust” by Michael Paul Gonzalez. Turns out the guys really deliver the goods with all the tasty horror toppings. The trick will be forgetting what you read here the next time you order pizza.

  Annie Neugebauer also makes a return to our pages with “Redless.” Annie describes this one as “nutso and fun” and we think you’ll agree (if you have a hankering for hardcore gore and juicy storytelling).

  Bram Stoker Award-winning author Tim Waggoner is back with “A Touch of Madness,” Tim’s disturbing take on the fear of insanity from The Pulp Horror Book of Phobias. When the consummate horror writer plumbs these pulp depths, you know you’re in for a shuddering treat. Don’t be surprised if this one wins Tim another prize.

  When Joseph Bouthiette Jr. recommends stories to us, we always pay close attention because he has never steered us wrong. As editor of Honey & Sulphur, he turns out some of the best fiction and poetry available anywhere. Joanna Koch’s “Paradisum Voluptatis” is an ekphrasis of Hieronymus Bosch’s “The Garden of Earthly Delights.” It’s absolutely one of the best stories we read this year and we thank Joseph and Joanna for the privilege of reprinting it here.

  Sean Patrick Hazlett pays tribute to Thomas Ligotti in his examination of the root of all evil in corporate corruption with “Radix Malorum,” an eerie tale haunted by smiling flesh balloons.

  Also from the Cronenberg tribute anthology is Leo X. Robertson’s “Lackers.” A journalist investigates a strange new community who celebrate their physical imperfections in this twisted orgy of body horror.

  Rajiv Moté guides a return trip to Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights—but what could possibly be delightful in a landscape of monsters, torture, and mayhem? See for yourself in “Why Do Birds Suddenly Appear?”

  Syon Das’s “Darjeeling” takes us along with a group of teenage scouts to the Himalayan town to spend a night at the Banerjee Estate, a place with a haunted history of brutal murder. But the housekeeper has been keeping a terrible secret in the years since the slaughter occurred.

  In “MRSA Me” Alicia Hilton tells this chilling story from the point of view of Methi
cillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, a bacterium that causes infections in different parts of the body and for which there is no sure cure. As Alicia’s tale so vividly demonstrates, the unseen threats are the most terrifying.

  In “What Did You Do To The Children” David L. Tamarin gives us an unhealthy dose of torture porn with a decidedly demented twist. Anyone easily triggered should probably skip this one.

  Next comes Matthew V. Brockmeyer’s “Have A Heart.” Some tales tug at your heartstrings, but this one may rip it right out of your chest. This is a deeply disturbing story of a small child in hopeless jeopardy. If you thought Stephen King’s “Gerald’s Game” was unnerving, be warned: this tale is much more so.

  D.A. Xiaolin Spires takes us on a tour of the tallest building in the world: Taipei 101. If you’ve never seen this magnificent building in Taiwan, we suggest you find images of it online so you can truly picture the full body-horror effect. This story is from Sarah Read’s Gorgon: Stories of Emergence, a wonderful compendium of new myths of transformation. Highly recommended.

  Alessandro Manzetti’s “Kirti” gives us a rickshaw ride to a rendezvous with an enticing Calcutta prostitute named Kirti. We wouldn’t say her john’s bitten off more than he can chew but things certainly don’t go according to his lusty plan.

  From Melbourne, Australia, Deb Sheldon delivers the ultraviolent historical tale “The Tea and Sugar Train.” Trust us, this is in no way a tea party. There are bloodthirsty monsters in the harsh desert lands of the Outback and the pregnant protagonist has to fight for her life.

  Also from Down Under, Ben Pienaar introduces “Stargirl,” a psychopathic musician who attempts to create a new kind of music using the sounds of suffering. She starts by torturing small animals but doesn’t stop there. As her fame spreads round the world, the effect of her strange sound begins to manifest in disturbing ways. With no end in sight.

  Scáth Beorh wraps things up with Queer Weather: A Poetic Tablua Rasa. This mind-bending poem could be a love/hate letter to God, or something else entirely. Take it as you will. It’s a fitting coda to this year’s cursed tome. For now we’ll wrap this up so you can get on to the tales. As Scáth says in his poem:

  “Embrace these misty monsters now

  they are your brothers, sisters.”

  —Randy Chandler & Cheryl Mullenax

  FEAST FOR SMALL PIECES

  Hailey Piper

  From The Bronzeville Bee

  Editor: Sandra Ruttan

  Never underestimate the seductive power of a woman who’s minding her own business.

  “There’s just something about her,” they say. I see myself splashed across a pulp magazine cover, a distraught man in the background. The tagline reads, “He met a woman he Could. Not. Resist.” As if that’s my problem.

  These writers don’t realize it’s me they’ve placed in their stories. I’d hoped to escape them when I left England, but their tide is unending. They scarce remember passing me on the street, only the fire I’ve lit in their minds, hearts, and other places. Later they sit with their notebooks or keyboards, tapping out the story of how a man’s peaceful life was shattered when he met me in some chance romance.

  Sometimes I’m cast as a vampire. Other times I’m the half-human spawn of an elder god. I might be Eve. Never the same, but always me.

  Half of these fictional sisters show no interest in men, while others drown in men’s wishes. She dressed that way that night knowing she’d rock his world. Her genetics must’ve known she’d meet him someday and grew her bones and flesh to suit him. We’re all so subtly loud in men’s eyes.

  Feast on a true story.

  I visit a grocer to buy tomatoes, plump ones. A man approaches. Were he to write about me, it would be my fault, but the pen is in my hand today. Whether I wear a hoodie two sizes too big with baggy jeans that hide my figure or a skirt that barely passes my waist, it does not matter. I am buying tomatoes.

  “Hey, pretty lady. Doing anything tonight?” He shuffles behind me, impatient. “What, you have a boyfriend?”

  It’s never the same. A compliment, an insult, requests for my name, marital status, smiles, evening plans, swept to sea on tides of apathy.

  “If you’re single, why not go out with me?”

  “Because I don’t want to.”

  Here comes the outrage. Some don’t need to be spurned first. Even seeing a woman they like reminds them of their frailty, how their blood is dragged as the moon drags the tide. I don’t know them inside, but I’ve seen what comes out. I’m more fortunate than most. For the woman across the street, this is the moment he beats her or runs her down with his car, anything to destroy her.

  His angry words breathe down my neck, all names I’ve heard before.

  I turn, the first time I set eyes on him. “You will leave.”

  A writer would have slunk away to jot me down as beldam or succubus. A painter might color me an untouchable mother. To a musician, a ballad would pretend we were lovers. They dream of joining me as I dream of leaving them. We live in a world where my fantasy is to buy groceries unmolested.

  But this man is no creator. There is no art to him, only crude craving by the responsibility in his pants that I never knew was mine. He would destroy me.

  I abandon my shopping today, tomatoes in their basket. “Follow,” I say. A stupid part of his brain might believe he’s going to get his way.

  Killing him would be kind. He would die believing himself like those pulp heroes, a tragic figure who lays his fate at my feet. When they persist, I give them purpose. These men wish I was a vampire, a cosmic demon, a witch. They wish for a clean death.

  My workshop is a wooden shed behind my cozy house. By the rustic shingles, sweet green grass, pleasant canary yellow paint, you could never tell what I do there. I keep it insulated, the walls soundproofed. It stinks with heavenly residue. No matter how many airings out I try through its open wooden double doors, the smell remains.

  The persistent men never notice. I lead this one inside, where on a wooden workbench I keep my tools shaped from fallen stars, across from the four-poster bed. It’s soft, comfortable; its guests will spend a great deal of time on it. I order him to strip and then lie down. He’s too eager to tear his clothing away and stretch across the crimson sheets.

  That isn’t the only stripping I need.

  Doors closed, I dig my fingers into the workshop wall and tear aside a curtain that blocks this world from the shining heaven few ever notice. In that place, flesh is scarce and sanctified. Even his. Its cosmic perfection pours into his body, makes him ready to be given purpose. My fingers begin the work.

  “Lie still,” I tell him. His fearful eyes dart this way and that, but he won’t get up. It is enough to work with.

  There are worthy causes everywhere you look. Here, a woman’s vertebrae rub together, causing her daily pain. There, another’s skin is missing after a house fire. Blood, hair, eyes, intestines, bones. When I’ve placed a persistent man in my workshop, I strip what he has, cleanse it in unearthly light, and use it to mend the hurt I see around me. His pieces live on in these healed women, aware. They are pieces put to better purpose than serving him.

  A month passes. He is only bone and fragments of skin and muscle. Still aware, still staring from the bed. I need not tell him to lie still anymore; he has no choice. In my neighborhood, a girl falls from a tree and snaps her leg. It could heal with a fracture line, but I make it good as new. Another woman cannot move on after her mother’s untimely death. She doesn’t know, as I offer her coffee, that it’s laced with the strength to find purpose again. She thanks me for the coffee, not the gift from the persistent man.

  Everything he was becomes forfeit, even his time, even his will. I waste nothing.

  The work finished, I eat what little is left of him. It is only fair after he’s put me off supper for weeks. He lives briefly in my digestive track before those remnants, too, are stripped away, become me.

  Eventually the women and g
irls he’s helped will grow new cells in their livers and skin, replacing his pieces. He’ll fade from the world little by little while the good he’s done persists.

  Hand that fate to the pulp hero, to the writers, painters, musicians, let them blame me for finding that some men are greater as the division of their parts. I do not shatter lives. They shatter themselves against me, panes of glass thrown at an immovable rock, long weatherworn by rain, eroded slick by frothing waves.

  And the tide is unending.

  AUTHOR’S STORY NOTE

  There was a day at a subway station where a man would not leave another woman alone. That happens a lot, but this was worse than I'd seen or experienced before. She explained a dozen times in so many words that she wasn't interested, and yet he still wouldn't let up. I wanted to speak up, but I didn't want his attention either. The moment stuck.

  Much later, I happened to read, between different magazines and anthologies, three stories in a row where the protagonist was a glum man who destroys his own life in pursuit of a supernatural femme fatale, yet the narratives put her in the wrong. By the end of the last, I was bristling same as that day at the subway station. The woman at the station and the femme fatale stood alive as one individual in my mind. She needed to speak.

  GODDESS OF GALLOWS

  Kristopher Triana

  From The Big Book of Blasphemy

  Editors: Regina Garza Mitchell & David G. Barnett

  Necro Publications

  “Ideal? Probably an overdose of painkillers while in a Jacuzzi.”

  Pete rolled his eyes. “Seems a bit blasé. How about being fired out of a cannon?”

  John put his drink on the bar. “I’m talking realistically.”

  “What about jumping off Mount Everest?”

  “Nah. That mountain is covered in shit.”

  “What?”

  “It’s true. So many people have left their feces behind you can’t even melt the snow to drink. It’s too contaminated.”