Nick Cutter - Little Heaven

Evil was fundamentally weak. Micah understood that now. It was cowardly and dreary and it sought the darkest spaces between the beams to make its home.

I forgive you for what you are , he thought at the thing.

Needlefish. Needlefish.

Still worth it.

Micah Shughrue hung in emptiness, curling the remains of his mind around the sound of his daughter’s laughter, defending it like a mother bear protecting her cub in the deepest, blackest reaches of her den. Sooner or later the thing would snatch this from him as well—he could already feel it slipping through his fingers, and with it the most essential element of his soul—but until then he would nurse it, bite and claw and scrape to keep hold of it.

My name is Micah Shughrue , he thought. I have sinned, I have committed great awfulness, but I am loved. I live with my wife and daughter in a house made of dawn. The house is made of pollen and rain and laughter…

pollen and rain…

and rain…

rain…

MY THANKS TO THE USUAL SUSPECTS:my rockin’ agent, Kirby Kim; my kickass editor, Ed Schlesinger; Jennifer Bergstrom and Stephanie DeLuca and everyone at Gallery Books. To my father, who read and offered his thoughts on the first draft; my mother, who’s always pulling for me; my wonderful wife, Colleen, who supports me through this strange and meandering journey; and our son, Nicholas, who just does what he does and makes us smile every day. To artist extraordinaire Adam Gorham, who provided the awesome illustrations throughout this book— grazie mille! To the fine writers who were willing to read the manuscript and offer their kind words, I’m deeply appreciative for your generosity.

Now, if you’re one of those readers who skip to the end of the book and check out the acknowledgments before finishing, I ought to post a warning here.

SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS!

···

···

REALLY, I’M DEAD SERIOUS. SPOILERS AHEAD.

OKAY?

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

So. Amos Flesher. Anyone with a passing knowledge of religious fanaticism and cults will see where I drew inspiration for that character’s portrayal—the aviator shades, the fussy hairdo, hell, even the method by which Amos dispatched his unruly worshipers. In fact, it’s even more depraved than you might suspect: for Flesher’s final speech, delivered to his flock minutes before their demise, I liberated the odd snatch of dialogue from the transcripts of Jim Jones’s own speech to the disciples of his People’s Temple—the one where he compels his followers to drink the Kool-Aid. You can find it online, if you’ve got a mind to read it. When Flesher says, “I’ll never detach myself from any of your troubles. I’ve always taken your troubles right on my shoulders” and “Say, say peace”—those were lines spouted by Jones his own self as he prodded his people to drink up. The rest of it, okay, I pulled that out of thin air. But a few of those lines belong to ole Jimmy, the crazy rat bastard. So, uhhhh, I guess credit where credit’s due?

Thank you most of all, dear reader. Obviously no writer would be able to do what they do without an audience out there to receive his or her words, so I’m especially grateful for the support of those who take the time to read the Cutter books. Merci!

NICK CUTTERis the national bestselling author of The Troop (winner of the James Herbert Award for Horror Writing), The Deep , and The Acolyte (with ChiZine Publications), and is a pseudonym for an acclaimed author of novels and short stories. He lives in Canada.

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The Acolyte

The Deep

The Troop

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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Text copyright © 2017 by Craig Davidson

Illustrations copyright © 2017 by Adam Gorham

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First Gallery Books hardcover edition January 2017

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Excerpt from House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday. Copyright © 1966, 1967, 1968 by N. Scott Momaday. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

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Interior design by Davina Mock-Maniscalco

Jacket design by Stephen Brayda

Jacket image © Kiara Kay/Arcangel (sky)

Author photography by Kevin Kelly

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Cutter, Nick, author.

Title: Little heaven : a novel / Nick Cutter.

Description: First Gallery Books hardcover edition. | New York : Gallery Books, 2016.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016000320 | ISBN 9781501104213 (hardcover : acid-free paper) | ISBN 9781501104237 (softcover : acid-free paper) | ISBN 9781501104220 (ebook)

Subjects: | GSAFD: Horror fiction. | Suspense fiction.

Classification: LCC PS3603.U883 L58 2016 | DDC 813/.6—dc23

LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016000320

ISBN 978-1-5011-0421-3

ISBN 978-1-5011-0422-0 (ebook)