I call…I call…I call to you,
I call…I call…I call to you,
I call to you,
Lover hear…lover hear…lover hear my pleas!
Lover hear…lover hear…lover hear my pleas!
Lover come….lover come…lover come warm me in the snow,
Lover come….lover come…lover come warm me in the snow.
–SNOW ANGEL
“Unquenched, unquenchable,
Around, within, thy heart shall dwell;
Nor ear can hear nor tongue can tell
The tortures of that inward hell!
But first, on earth as vampire sent,
Thy corse shall from its tomb be rent:–Lord Byron (The Vampyre)
Long were the mansion’s mysteries, horrendous were its horrors, and vague were the details of the missing and presumed dead across the mansion grounds. For the past, and the forgetful dead had now hidden much of the sinister, and fogged the memory of the evil that had scorched the manor with a more devious name—Hell’s Forge. Jeffrey LeBlanc (Hell’s Forge)
Mighty is the storm that rages in the sky; but it is as nothing to the storm that rages in the heart of the murderer. —George Thomas Spillman (Retribution)
“Twilight gathers and none can save me.
Well and well, for I would not stay:
Let me speak through the stone you grave me:
He never could say what he wished to say.”–Robert E. Howard (Lines Written in the Realization That I Must Die) Weird Tales August 1938
“Juliette entered her bedroom, smiling, and a thousand Juliettes smiled back at her.”–Robert Bloch (A Toy For Juliette)
“Well, when he hopped over the fence, the bag caught on the top strand of wire and fell back in the parking lot. I picked it up later and what do you suppose I found inside?’
“I have no idea” I told him. “Don’t keep me in suspense!”
“Dirt!” He answered. “Just plain dirt. Earth dirt.”—Joseph Payne Brennan (Who Was He?)
“Nimuk came closer. Noni saw fear in the animal’s gaze. He could see hunger and suffering in the animal’s labored breathing and awkward movements. Noni’s heart wept. He hated himself and fought against it.”—Hugh B. Cave (Two Were Left)
“I’m starting my journey across the waves of time! The blood is my time machine and my portal to the dimensions beyond. I see my loving, raven-haired wife. She is bathed in the foam of sea spray and blood. Lightning flashes around us in arcs of blistering white. Lightning etches around us in emerald green, A final blast paints us in a shade of deep blue. In the moments, between light and darkness, giant pinchers have grasped Marie’s flesh pulling her below! A glowing mauve pool of slime remains. A single hand floats above the sea and then submerges into depths below.
I float back to the present lashing out at the night air. I wrestle with imaginary phantoms who lurk back into that accursed moment in time when my wife was lost to me. I curse and send a glass breaking roar as I fight the ghost of an oozing leviathan who dissipates into mist.”
–Jeffrey LeBlanc (The Devil of Black Bayou Special Edition)
“Farewell for awhile, Christophe. But have no fear. You shall find me again if you are brave and patient.”–Clark Ashton Smith (The End of the Story)
I stand chilled and alone in a desolate cane field next to a dead man. His neck is twisted and bent
at an unnatural angle. The yellowed waxen skin—rifled with wounds, of his throat and torso are
exposed. As I look on with a gust of a cold wind at my back, I notice chunks of flesh have been
torn from both. Maculations of crimson on leaves and the splatter of frozen blood surround his
body. But it’s the eyes of the man I’ll remember to my last days. Wide, fixed in shock, they hide
some terrifying secret only the mutilated corpse may know.–Jeffrey LeBlanc (The Curious Death of Dionysus Chennault)
Some of my nightmares screaming release are spiders devouring a team of researchers in an African cave; a scientist and his family slither into the swamp to encounter deadly snails; and a vampire’s curse lets the blood fly. Many more Hellish creatures are in that abyss waiting for their next victim. Conjured abominations that should never see the light of day.
Check out the collection on Amazon and Kindle. We pray “These Hallowed Horrors” keep you awake at night, looking under the bed…or over your shoulder in a moonlit forest or sea.
With these conjured verses we didn’t plan on jump scares or worn-out horror cliché. We wanted something that scares or unnerves…and different. Maybe we got it right this time. Or maybe it leaves a little something to grow on your mind down the road. As a werewolf bite, a nest of hungry spiders…or slithering slugs, in your brain.
And…as always, devilishly devoted to horror may your soul always be! -JL
Jeffrey LeBlanc 