The Haunting of Grandma Crowley
A new novel of horror
Troy McCombs
This book is based on a short story my buddy wrote. His name is Eric Johnston, and the short story is, The Sardonic Smile, from this book: Just South of Nowhere.
I wrote this because the concept seemed very creepy, and could be taken in so many different directions. Imagination is one of those things that has few limits. It's only limited to what each mind can create. The more you hone it and stretch it out, like a muscle, the more it grows.
I come from a horror background, and have been reading Stephen King and H.P. Lovecraft for years. Lovecraft is my favorite author. I love the way he writes and the way his prose can drag me in. Yes, his writing can be wordy and anal-retentive, but it can also be very beautiful and gracious. But that's a subjective thing.
And I also wrote this to scare the holy hell out of the reader the best way I know how. I hope I succeed, and if you like dark horror, I think you'll love this.
So check out my book, and my friend, Eric's. Happy reading, pleasant nightmares!
Free Except from novel, below! Link to buy, in the cover pic, above.
Though he was still unable to move, her sudden reappearance rocked something vital within him—perhaps his soul. She now stood crouched beside his bed, looking down at him, her face only a foot away. This time, his eyes caught a profound glimpse of her in all her stark grotesqueness, and he knew his bladder let go. The sight jarred him to the bone, to the core, into the deepest recesses of his psyche.
Her empty, foul-smelling eye sockets oozed a yellow pus and ran with blackened blood. The hundreds of wrinkles that lined her face were so deep, so distinct, they looked like gashes. Bugs crawled from nostril to nostril; both ears fell off and turned to dust upon contact with the floor. The ram-like horns, sharp-looking and covered with gray matter, were rimmed with glimmering rings of gold. Her chin protruded. Moles appeared and grew and burst in mucky splatters. But, despite all those things, it was her mouth that frightened Danny most. It stretched to where the lobes of her twisted ears should've been, opened before his very eyes. Teeth were missing. The tongue elongated and split in two down the center. And through several holes in her black, ruddy gums, baby fingers emerged and wiggled frantically around. Dozens of them. The horrific vision was made worse by the wails of children trapped deep inside that bottomless mouth, screaming for help, for someone to free their trapped souls.
