Matthew Cornachione - Dansk Bay Hotel

“No! Thea, save me. End this.”

“It will end soon enough dear.”

With a shout I spun, intending to race back to the dungeon. It was too late. Even as I turned, the whole world blanked around me. Everything went dark, and then I snapped back awake. I was in my body, lying on my side in the dirt.

And, found myself staring at him .

Dark eyes stared at me from a withered husk of a face. Before me was a wiry man, easily in his late 90s. Wrinkled skin covered thin, but muscular arms. He wore nothing but a ripped pair of cargo pants. I could count the ribs on his scrawny torso.

No one had picked up Friedrich’s mantle; he’d kept at it himself. Somehow, the scientist had survived all these years, driven to perfect his elixir. He’d tested it on innocent men and women. And, himself.

I’d read the journals, I knew what happened to anyone who drank too much. I imagined the madness had claimed him long ago. Friedrich probably didn’t even know why he was working anymore.

This whole town existed solely to feed his twisted goal. Nekker, the sheriff, even Thea and the fearful townsfolk. They all helped sustain him in their own way. Through aggression, fear, or indifference. Now I was going to pay the price.

“Yes, very potent that batch. I nearly have it now. One more subject should do it.”

I thought back to his journal. Just one more subject. I’d seen that in several entries. Success was always around the next corner. But, I got it now. Friedrich was never going to perfect his elixir. He was just going to keep killing until the day he died. And the townsfolk knew that day was coming soon. No one lived forever.

I tried to lash out, but my arms and legs were firmly bound. I struggled, kicking up dirt into the air. It blacked out my tiny room and I started coughing. Then I realized it wasn’t dirt. And I wasn’t in a room.

“Wait! Please, let me out of here!”

Friedrich didn’t even look at me, he just stepped back and closed the grate. A moment, later I heard the hiss of gas, the click of the ignition. Then, a wall of flame.

Regina Townsend closed her Internet browser. The article was nothing new, but still sad.

It said the same thing as the police report. Nigel Nekker and Kyle Ressler had been murdered in Dansk Bay. Nekker was bludgeoned in his house, Kyle’s body had never been found. The local sheriff had conducted a thorough investigation. In the end, a transient fishing hand had been to blame. Dansk Bay’s fishing captain mentioned the poor boy had been unstable, but no one suspected he was capable of murder. The transient was on the run, but there were no leads.

Regina looked out the window and sighed. Forty floors below, busy people filled the streets of San Francisco. Down there folks lived and died every day. Murder, awful as it was, happened. But, people almost never died in this line of work.

Bad business any way you looked at it. Kyle had been a good employee, a decent man. No one deserved an end like that. Should she have listened to his objections? Called him back home?

But, how could she have known? No, Kyle had a job to do and so did she. Bad things happened, but she couldn’t blame herself. It was time to move on.

With Nekker dead, the Dansk Bay Hotel would be hung up in probate. Regina could probably get it for free, but now it was toxic. Double homicide turned off the tourists. Fortunately, there were plenty of other choices; it was a big world.

She marked the Dansk Bay file “CLOSED.”

I am a PhD student at the University of Utah. I currently study astrophysics and, though I usually write science fiction, I occasionally dabble in horror.

When I’m not writing or studying I enjoy a hike or bike ride with my wife, daughter, and our husky. I also love to read, cook, play video games, and play soccer.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this story. I’ll have more works coming out soon. You can check everything out at my website, www.cornachionetales.com, and follow me on Twitter and Facebook. Happy reading!

This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters, and events are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people, locations, or incidents are purely coincidental.

Copyright © Matthew Cornachione

Cover Design by Jake Clark

All rights reserved

ISBN: 978-0-9898110-2-6