Moonlight Roses

By D.E. Ladd

The only way to escape madness...is to embrace it.

 

D.E. Ladd digs up thirteen horror stories that will creep in and take root in your mind.

 

Moonlight Roses invites you to join a husband and wife science team as they create a dangerous organism designed to consume all human waste on the planet. Serve time with a woman held in a cramped dungeon, tormented by shattered memories and the sound of her ex-boyfriend's insane laughter from an adjoining cell. Ride along with a young man as he gears up for the race of his life against a deadly opponent known as the Road Ripper. As you scurry from one tale to the next, you will come to realize that evil takes root at night…and terror blossoms best in the moonlight.Moonlight Roses explores a variety of chilling horror and features inhuman creatures as well as the evil living within every human soul. This collection is aimed at those who enjoy thriller and disturbing suspense stories with a dark and bloody edge.

• Language: English
• Publisher: D.E. Ladd
• Release date: Jan 10, 2020
• ISBN: 9780972327596

Book preview

This is a work of fiction. All characters, places, organizations and incidents portrayed in this work are to be considered the product of the author’s imagination and are all used fictitiously.

Moonlight Roses

Copyright © 2019 by Derek E. Ladd

ISBN #978-0-9723275-5-8 (trade paperback)

ISBN #978-0-9723275-9-6 (eBook)

AZ-123019

All rights reserved.  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Intended audience: Adult

Genres(s): Horror, Short Fiction

This book contains the following: strong violence and gore, profanity, some adult content and sexual situations, some depictions of drug and/or alcohol abuse.

Summary: A collection of short horror fiction.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

Published by Avian Wing Media, in association with Avian Entertainment, LLC.

Avian Wing Media

834 SW 15th Avenue

Portland, OR 97205

www.avianwingmedia.com

This story collection is dedicated to my first love, Kathy J. Lemieux. Kathy my dear, without your feedback all those years ago, many of these stories would never have made it out of the junk drawer. Thank you for everything you did for me: the criticism, the enthusiastic support, and all the typing. And thank you for being patient and kind with me when lesser behavior might have been more appropriate. I think of you often and wish you only the best.

Contents

Employer

The Goat

A Place for Turil

Road Ripper

Afraid of His Own Shadow

IT SLEEPS

Boxed In

The God on the Hill

Glass

The Clearing

Moonlight Roses

The Hole

OIL CHANGE

Cold Whispers

AUTHOR’S NOTE

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Employer

I laugh with Death and he with me, I gaze into his eyes,

And when he smiles souls for miles float up to the skies

A coffin is filled in Knoxville and a lizard dies in sand,

Living light be shattered as he strolls across the land

The children dance and sing of fears too horrid for the young,

When they are old, they too grow cold as the song of Death is sung

One cycle turns to mock the last and one more dies in Maine—

A poor neglected puppy is left rotting in the rain

The crooked one knows not the sun, a shadow stiff and tall,

He collects his toll at the gallows pole—a short and noisy fall

The illusion that is life itself may appear forever grand,

Yet we are little more than powdered bone, sifting through his hand

Some liken the dead to the leaves of fall, drifting through the air,

But the poet green has never seen his dry and vacant stare

These truths, they may disturb you, one might even call them grim,

I must explain, Death is my boss—I merely work for him.

~D.E. Ladd ’98

The Goat

Ellen hadn’t made a sound for over an hour, lying across Jude’s lap, stiff and quiet. He had to lean over now and again to make certain she was still alive. Yes. Still breathing. The glimpse he caught of her adorable face chilled him, though. Her eyes stared blankly at the rear wall, and inky trails ran down her cheeks from crying earlier. First, she’d screamed, then she’d cried, and finally…this.

But he could feel her breathing and hear a tiny whistling noise coming from her small nose. He stroked her hair. The cold from the floor seeped through his pants and into his skin as the spectral moonlight spilled in through the small windows. Shadows played about on the floor—spidery illusions created by the assorted lab equipment all around them.

A barb of horror stabbed his heart as something brushed against the steel door outside. Hair rustled against the metal. It was still out there. A minute passed.

Gone again, for now.

Jude ran his numb fingers through Ellen’s short, silky brown hair. He rubbed her bare shoulders, thinking about how good she had looked just hours before in her off-white dress and little black shoes. A diamond necklace glittered faintly around her slender neck. Her earrings hung motionlessly, catching less light than they had during the celebration dinner.

Jude felt a laugh rising up in his throat and choked it down. He tried in vain to discover some clue or answer as to what could have gone so horribly wrong.

He remembered Ellen’s announcement, which she had made with him standing right beside her. It took place in a dimly lit boardroom before two-dozen men with ashen faces and blank expressions. Their hands either rested on the arms of their expensive leather chairs or sat folded into neat little balls on the marble table in front of them. They would provide the money, and they needed convincing. But the investment had been structured so well by Ellen they simply couldn’t refuse.

In no time, the lab had been built right into their own home, made from reinforced concrete and steel—necessary precautions, given what they’d be working with. A steel door was the only way in or out. It had a small Plexiglas window with electric wires running through it near the top. More unbreakable Plexiglas windows ran high along the walls. Access was carefully guarded, in or out. Each time they wanted to quit for the day, a blood sample had to be taken to ensure that no contamination had occurred.

Ellen was the brains of the team, always had been. It was her creation, one that promised to turn things around for the better. Nuclear and toxic waste, any number of biohazardous materials, poisonous manufacturing by-products… They were all slated for extermination. Even ordinary garbage and human excrement were potential targets. Anything we didn’t want, it would eat. That was what it had been designed for, this miracle Ellen had conceptualized and developed with only the help of her loving husband—a miracle Ellen had named The Goat.

Damn! Ellen pouted her bottom lip as she hovered over a microscope. She had one eye pinched closed as she reached for a silver pen in the pocket of her white lab coat. She put on her glasses as Jude approached her and placed a hand on her shoulder.

What’s wrong? He concealed his amusement over her behavior.

"It’s rebelling! It won’t live for more than two seconds after it eats the waste. I should’ve known this was going to be more difficult than I’d first imagined." Ellen removed her glasses and rubbed her eyes.

We’ll figure it out. Just don’t work yourself to death over this. Take your time, Jude said.

Easy advice to give, harder to follow. They’ve been riding me ever since June. ‘How are the tests coming, Dr. Chase?’ ‘Do we have an operational sample yet, Dr. Chase?’ ‘Our investors are very concerned, Dr. Chase.’ ‘When can we expect a demonstration, Dr. Chase?’ They’re driving me crazy!

Jude laughed at the way she contorted her face to resemble the investors and pulled her to him. She felt stiff and bothered, unable to facilitate anything but the project. She broke away from him, rewarding his affectionate gesture with a brief peck on the cheek before hurrying to flush the sample dishes with acid.

Ellen had informed the investors that the preliminary tests had gone very well. She said she was positive she could grow an artificial uterus in which to produce the Goat. This was all done on a microscopic scale of course. The Goat was actually nothing more than a simple blob-like bio-organism. It was created on a very small scale in order to reduce the possibility of a leak. Ellen explained that such an event would be, well, bad. Therefore, all precautions recommended by Ellen were willingly adhered to.

After less than a month, Ellen had successfully grown the first batch of Goats, with more than a dozen trays in the making. At the end of each day, all the samples had to be either neutralized with acid or incinerated, lest the baby Goats eat their way out of their glass cribs. It was possible, however unlikely, that this might happen, and Ellen insisted on leaving nothing to chance. So, regardless of how few experiments they conducted in a single day, they destroyed all living samples without exception. This resulted in longer days at the lab, as Ellen was forced to incubate new samples each evening, so they’d be almost full-grown in seven hours or so. Every day she started from scratch, unable to simply pick up where she left off the day before. This made progress extremely slow.

Honey, give me the series for the twin cells we studied yesterday. Thanks, Ellen mumbled, her left eye pressed to the microscope.

Jude double-checked the numbers. Six-five-three, one-one-seven, over fifty.

Great. Hmm… Ellen adjusted the microscope.

What? You find something? Jude rose from his computer station and strode across the lab to where she sat.

Well, sort of.

What is it?

Ellen paused a few times, rattling a small keyboard with her left hand before returning to the scope. Remember how I told you why I used the Reverant method of cell construction to create the Goat?

Jude nodded. It was a time element, wasn’t it?

"Yeah. If I had used the standard method, it would have taken me two whole years to grow a single Goat. The Reverant method cuts my time to a fraction of that. Anyway, the interesting thing is, I think this Goat of ours is rejecting what we feed it because it’s remembering how it was made."

Jude widened his brown eyes at her. What?

Sounds pretty weird, I know, but I’m almost positive. Ellen looked back into the scope. It’s used to eating filet mignon, and now we’re trying to feed it dog shit. It’s hard for it to accept that, I think.

Ellen looked up again, her bright-blue eyes blinking at him from behind her round glasses. This is a major breakthrough, you know that? She smiled wide.

Jude’s face wrinkled inquisitively, hoping his confusion wouldn’t make him look foolish. How so?

Ellen reached over and pinched his cheek affectionately. "If it can remember, it can be taught."

By the next day, progress had improved dramatically. Ellen started early that morning, and by afternoon she was smiling and laughing with glee.

Now I’ve got it. Hah! She did a short victory dance on the black-and-white-checkered tiles. Her sneakers squeaked as she waved her arms in the air. Then she stopped, eyeing the syringe in her right hand. She carefully laid it down and went on dancing.

What is it? Jude saved his work and turned to face her.

"It’s responding! Like I said it would! I knew it. When it was still living in the womb, it wouldn’t take anything. It wouldn’t eat, or at least, it wouldn’t survive after it did. The reason is that it needed the uterus to survive. It was physically attached to it, the same way a fetus is attached with an umbilical. The Goat was always capable of eating the waste, but the uterus couldn’t handle it. See?"

Jude processed what she was saying, smiled, and nodded. So how do we fix that?

The uterus is flesh and blood, and the Goat isn’t. So, I took the Goat out of the uterus right after it was born so it would never grow attached to it. Ellen beamed at him.

Jude’s smile dropped. His face clouded. I thought the whole idea behind the uterus was to make sure it wouldn’t develop a taste for—

"Oh, it won’t. Don’t worry about that. Just look! I fed it some low-level radioactive waste a few minutes ago. It ate the waste then excreted its own. It didn’t consume all of what it excreted but most of it. A few more weeks and I should have it!"

Wait. How are you keeping it alive? Without a uterus I mean? Wasn’t that part of the agreement?

"I formulated a displacement serum. It’s perfectly safe, and the Goat has to respond to what we feed it. That’s the beauty of it! It no longer has a frame of reference that might cause it to reject whatever foul matter we toss in front of it." Ellen peered back into the scope.

Jude’s expression turned wary. "I thought if it couldn’t perform in the uterus, it might be capable of…harming people. The, um, the earlier tests we did, when it was exposed to very small amounts of blood without being used to it, didn’t it double and then triple in size?"

Oh, come on, Jude. It’ll be so well contained that it won’t make any difference. Besides, I can teach it to reject blood if I want.

Jude rubbed his scruffy face. What about the blood scanners? Won’t they have to be changed? I mean…they won’t be able to detect a contamination of this new Goat.

Ellen flashed him a tight-lipped grin. "Sweetie, listen to me. It’s not a new Goat. It’s just a new operating medium: synthetic instead of natural. I actually think this will give us more control over it. We won’t have to contend with viruses and infections and so on. We may even be able to refrigerate the samples instead of destroying them every day."

Whoa, whoa, hold on a minute. We can’t just change procedures like that. Not without notifying the science board, the investors, the government… Jude held up his hands in alarm. You’re changing too many variables at once.

Ellen grunted and sighed with frustration.

What’s the matter? Jude asked.

She looked at him, her blue eyes narrowed with annoyance. "Do you have any idea how long all of that would take?"

Not really. A month? We could take a little break.

"Dr. Larone made adjustments to his research procedures back in 2013. He’s still waiting for them to reequip him." Ellen took off her glasses and rubbed her temples.

Reequip? Jude vaguely remembered Ellen mentioning Dr. Larone’s work a few years ago.

"Yes, honey. You think they just let you keep all the equipment while they’re busy hacking through red tape and regulations? Oh no. It goes right back to the investors. This lab would be ripped out of our house. All of our gear would be confiscated because we decided to change horses midstream. And what the hell for? C’mon, Jude, I’m asking you to trust me on this. When we succeed, I’ll inform the council about our alterations, quietly. Everyone smart does it that way." Ellen’s expression had softened. She donned her pleading look and forced a smile.

Jude was never one to take chances by altering project guidelines, especially in a case like this. But she had a point. He was still reluctant. The Goat was a serious project, a dangerous project—one that shouldn’t be altered or hurried along.

I don’t think we should proceed without their knowledge and consent, he said. I’m sorry, El. I can’t support rushing this. It’s just too damned risky. Think about the magnitude of negative potential we’re dealing with here. If it ever got out…

Ellen jumped up from her chair. "I don’t need to think about it! I’m living it! Okay? Jesus! My own goddamned husband! She started pacing about the lab like a caged tiger. It’s already done, Jude. I’ve already done it! This is what we have to work with. Either we finish it my way, or they’ll take it away from us. Period. Is that what you want?" Her big blue eyes floated on tears.

Jude looked to the floor and pulled in a deep breath. He hated fighting with her. She was always so emotional, so altruistic all the time. Clean the air. Clean the water. Save the world. Noble intentions indeed. But this was different. The risks attached to the Goat project terrified him.

He stepped closer to her. We agreed when we started to go by the book. And you know why. Hell, you know why better than I do.

Ellen stepped away from him and raised her arms in defense. Oh, for Christ’s sake! What, now I need to be lectured on the risks?

Why are you in such a hurry all of a sudden? I know it’s not the investors. They might have been a bit anxious earlier on, but that never mattered before. What the hell is going on with you? Jude took a tentative step toward her.

Ellen crossed her arms and sniffled. I want to be done with this so we can…spend some time together. Jude started toward her and froze when she added, "Just the three of us."

She looked up at Jude and smiled faintly. There was something different in her eyes, something deep and serious, soft and vulnerable. They’d been trying for a long time without success.

Ellen, you’re…?

Six weeks, she said through a smile. A single tear rolled down her cheek.

Jude went to her and pulled her toward him, squeezing giggles out of her. Why didn’t you tell me sooner?

Ellen rested her hands on his cheeks. I wanted to be sure.

Jude hugged her tight for a moment before breaking free suddenly. Oh! Did I squeeze you too tight? He pressed a gentle hand to her tummy.

Ellen laughed. Don’t be silly.

Jude stared at his beautiful wife for a long time. He could think of only one thing: their baby.

Ellen kissed him and smiled. "I want us to succeed, Jude. This is it, the big one. We finish this, and we’re set. The grants, the royalties, the patents… We wouldn’t have to work anymore. I want to give everything to our child. All of our time—not the tiny amount I got when I was a kid. You know?"

Yeah. Jude remembered his own father’s distance when he was a boy—one of the many things they had in common.

He stroked her face, her big cheeks, the soft line of her jaw. He kissed her on her full lips and smiled. Let’s get back to work.

A beautiful baby girl arrived eight months later. They named her Casey. She inherited her mother’s big blue eyes and her father’s symmetrical nose. Jude could see a dozen images of her flickering behind his eyes. The little outfits she wore, her adorable smile, and the way she laughed sparkled like little jewels of memory he wanted so much to protect. She loved to chase birds in the yard and clomp about the house wearing Ellen’s shoes. She was a perfect child in every way.

Casey had been running about the house on the evening of the banquet dinner, the little angel in overalls with her hair in pigtails. She had a habit of sucking on her right forefinger instead of her thumb.

Don’t run with your finger in your mouth, sweetie, Theresa, the sitter, called out from the living room.

Ellen stood in front of the mirror, an image of beauty Jude adored more and more after Casey had been born. She wore a cream-colored gown, a pair of small black heels, and a thin diamond necklace with matching earrings. The yellowish light made her skin look golden brown, and she wore contacts instead of glasses.

Jude watched her from behind as she fixed her hair and inspected what little makeup she’d applied.

You spyin’ on me, mister? she asked.

Yep. And I’m going to do a hell of a lot more than that once this little ceremony is over. Jude crept up from behind, placed his hands on her hips, and caressed them. He kissed her neck, causing her to close her eyes and sigh.

"Don’t do that to me now. I have to be in the right state of mind to give my speech." Ellen winked and eased away from him.

Jude adjusted his bow tie and made a frown in the mirror. Suit yourself, lady, but don’t expect me to do that magic thing to you tonight.

He turned around and hurried across the room when he heard tiny footsteps padding toward their bedroom. Casey ran in, and Jude scooped her up into his arms.

Gotcha now, little woman! Jude kissed her stomach. Casey shrieked and giggled helplessly. He set her down and watched her scurry over to Ellen like a windup toy, stopping to hug her mother around the legs.

Hey, angel. What’re you up to? Ellen stroked Casey’s silky hair.

"I…I’m hungry," Casey said.

Ellen inspected Casey’s hands to make sure they were clean before scooping her up.

Well, go and tell Theresa, and she’ll give you a cookie or something. Okay?

’Kay. Casey squirmed to be set free. Ellen set her down, and Casey darted across the room again and continued racing toward the kitchen.

Jude and Ellen embraced again, whispering provocative suggestions to each other before leaving the bedroom to begin their evening.

Jude’s wistful smile lingered several moments after the memories faded. He found himself back in the lab, sitting on the cold floor with Ellen in his arms. The clouds raced past the moon, animating various spots on the wall. One shadow resembled a cat for a moment before changing into a serpent that slithered away into a corner.

Jude shuffled his memories like so many playing cards, passing over the fights they’d had, the frustration, the twenty-hour days…he wanted only the good memories now. The bad ones had become all too real and all too close. A matter of hours separated him from the bliss of those good memories—half a blink. But there he sat with Ellen, barricaded in the lab, in the dark, the air around them growing colder and heavier by the second.

He shifted his weight, and a barb of pain shot up through his back. He fought to blink away the deepening state of shock. Something brushed the door again. The Goat, Jude supposed, and fought off another volley of hysterical laughter.

Ellen breathed through her mouth now, taking in tiny breaths. Her eyes looked glassy and absent. Jude knew she was gone. He felt her heart beating and the small breaths going in and out of her, but inside her head, there was nothing.

Jude thought about the past few hours, beginning when they had entered the house after the party. It was only a little after nine, and it had been dark inside. They had both assumed that Theresa and Casey had gone to bed, as unlikely as it seemed. But there wasn’t even a porch light on. Nothing. It looked as if a blackout had struck.

When they came into the living room, they smelled it: something sour and rotten.

The moonlight seeped in through the numerous high windows, throwing little sparks onto the wet trails running throughout the house.

Then it came at them from the shadows.

It swayed from side to side.

Long hair swung like ropes in the silver moonlight.

It was a massive thing, tall and wide—filling the hallway.

Jude and Ellen had screamed before retreating to the lab.

It chased them, pounding the hardwood floors as it came. The house shook under its weight. Inside the lab, they barely got the door closed before it rammed it from the other side. The shockwave sent both of them to the cold tiles.

But they’d managed to lock themselves in. They were safe, for the moment.

Theresa was dead. Casey was dead. Murdered by whatever had chased Jude and Ellen into the lab. Whatever it was had left those slimy trails on the floor as it slithered from room to room, sniffing them out. The pain wrung tears and sobs from Jude.

He tried to piece together what had gone wrong, as if answers would make a difference. He wondered where exactly their plan at expediency had unraveled.

There was something.

He fought against acknowledging it. But it came anyway. It forced itself in—the same way the Goat was trying to force its way into the lab.

It was about a week after Ellen had informed him of her pregnancy. Jude had come into the lab and found her vigorously scrubbing her right hand.

What’s wrong? he’d asked. Ellen had only shaken her head, grumbling about complications, muttering about not having enough time, the usual complaints.

But Jude saw something then, at that very same moment, and quickly looked away.

Ellen had pricked herself with the syringe.

Jude had seen the tiny dot of blood oozing from her finger before she’d concealed it from him. It had really happened.

If I had used the standard method, it would have taken me two whole years to grow a single Goat.

Casey had just turned two, Jude thought. He bit the heel of his hand to keep from screaming.

Casey had just turned two.

His head felt heavy, filled with hot lead. When he turned to look at the small window in the door, the movement on the other side was very slow. In the light reflecting off the Plexiglas, he saw the ropelike hair moving around out there. And then, just for a second, he thought he saw an eye staring in at him. A giant blue eye, the size of a grapefruit, with a large gray pupil. Jude yelped at the sight of it and bit hard into his hand again, drawing blood.

Mommmmy…I…I’mmmmm hunnnnngry.

Jude laughed. And it felt so good to laugh. He wasn’t sure whether he’d heard the voice coming from the other side of the door. It reminded him of a record being played on too slow of a speed.

It bumped against the door again. A cracking sound broke the silence—the splitting of the door’s steel casing.

"We did it, El.