Greenteeth: The Adventures of Edward Brett

By Matthew Fraser

"Beware the places where water is still,

Where flows do stop and airs do chill.

For when gloom and bloom hide all beneath,

Traveller beware, the water has teeth."

Join 5500 year old god Edward Brett and his best friend Wanda Smith on an adventure, as whilst enjoying a day out in the countryside they discover a teenager has mysteriously disappeared, leaving only a garbled voicemail and a pile of stinking sludge behind as clues.

Edward soon realises that there's something foul and forgotten at work - a wicked demon long since fallen into the realm of folklore, and yet still very much alive ... and hunting.

He and Wanda have their work cut out as they race to save the teenager from a fate worse than death. Do they have what it takes to outwit the horror from Hollow's Pond?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Monk's Lantern Publishing
• Release date: Oct 25, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393403906

Book preview

I

The yellow eyes watched from the water as the boy shuffled through last year’s dank, dead leaves at the edge of the pond.

So alone. So perfectly alone.

Harry kept a firm step, ignoring the water. His fingers tapped on his phone, the only noise in the silence of the countryside.

New tweet. New message. Retweet. Reply. Comment. Like. Reply.

But he was exhausted. Twenty thousand followers but none of them mattered, not really. In fact they’d caused it, they’d caused the argument he was now obsessing over, between him and his only IRL friend, the only one he ever saw face to face, the one who he was coming to realise meant more to him than ... no. Even now the words wouldn’t come.

They’d almost come out in the argument, so nearly. But ‘nearly’ didn’t matter – he hadn’t said anything, and now he didn’t know if he ever would. I’m useless. What’s the point?

The air chilled. It was near dark, the shadows from the pine trees around him blackening. He’d escaped to this place, an old pond deep in the forest, like he always did when he wanted to think. But tonight he couldn’t think at all; his mind was too hot, thoughts spinning and churning – worst-case scenarios piling up on top of each other and tangling beyond solution.

Are you all alone?

The whisper made him leap. It hung in the air, faint like mist. What? he stuttered, turning to see if anyone was there.

The pond was still. The reeds swayed in the breeze.

He shivered. Time to go.

All alone? The voice came again, so close to his ear. Poor thing. Does your heart cry out? All alone in the world, forever and ever ...

The needle-strewn path back through the trees was almost totally black. Harry couldn’t keep the tremble from his voice. Who’s there? Who are you?

The misty voice snickered. I’m the one who’s there for you. I’m there for all the lonely boys and girls ... come to me, come to me ...

No! Harry shouted, finding movement again. He took a step away from the water, back towards the forest track.

"Nobody will ever understand you, lonely boy. You’ll be alone forever ..."

The bullrushes at the edge of the pond began to rustle. Harry took another step back, glancing over his shoulder to make sure nothing was waiting for him under the trees. When he looked back to the pond, he screamed.

A hideous creature with green skin and lank, dripping hair stepped from the rushes, heading for him with quick, dancing steps. He pivoted, running away as fast as he could. Still clutching his phone, he dialled his friend, his only hope.

But it went straight to voicemail.

All alone ... the creature moaned, leaping for him.

Help me! he shrieked as the thing landed on him, its arms embracing him in a sodden hold. Hollow’s Pond!

That was all he could get out. Then the thick mud rose in his throat, and darkness followed after.

AND SO THEN SHE LETS go, watching him descend deep into the dark, into chaos – into hell, even, that’s what some of the ancients thought it was. Edward shuddered as he spoke. Forever falling, down and down. Whilst she remains in the land of the living. Chilling stuff, not to mention heartbreaking.

Wanda looked at him askance. "Are you sure that’s how Titanic