Ok, I have choosen to share something with you guys and girls. I am a "wanna be" author who works on short stories, I have had two published a few years back and have been working on this one for a while, it's a work in progress. Critics welcome and if you do read it, thanks for giving the time:


A Conversation With Evil

“The way we live our life, is reflected in our death.” The old man began as he took a seat beside me, next to the flickering fire of my darkened lounge. The natural glow of the fire gave an appropriately eerie setting to the story that I was about to hear from the rain soaked man that I had found wandering in the country lane outside my manor home. “If we chose to lead normal lives devoid of any wrongdoing we will be granted a peaceful rest. For those of us who chose to lead lives of crime or hatred, we will in death be punished for our sins. In short we are either sent to Heaven or sentenced to Hell, as the Bible says.” He sipped from his glass of iced gin and stared into the fire deeply. “Do you believe in Heaven and Hell doctor?”
“Well…no!” I replied, an honest answer. Years of dedication to the practice of psychology and science had rid me of such beliefs a long time ago, this answer seemed to amuse the old man somehow. A smile stretched across his face. In the light of the fire his face almost seemed demonic, thin eyes that seemed lifeless in the flickering light turned to face me. “I thought not. But trust me doctor, they do exist. Good things do happen to good people, as hard as that may seem to believe. It’s just such a shame that they must be patient enough to wait for that tunnel of light first. The bad on the other hand…” The old man chuckled. “Well let’s just say that the Devil is not without a sense of humour. But there is a third possibility. A punishment reserved for the most savage of people.” I felt a sudden chill make its way up my spine, but I did not know if it was simply a breeze of cold air from the autumn night outside that I had saved the old man from, an act of humanity that I am not particularly known for it must be said, or if the old mans words were having an affect. “And what would that be?” I enquired.
“To be cursed as a Soul Reaver.”
“And what is that, exactly?” The old man looked at me with those lifeless eyes once more. I knew they would stay in my memory long after the memory of the face behind them had long since faded. “An abomination of evil doctor.” He paused to stir the last of his gin with the melting ice. The way he drank was odd; it was as if he was determined to savor every drop as if it were his last. “Soul Reavers are what becomes of the spirits of men who have committed such atrocity that the Devil himself refuses to claim them. They are the unwanted, cursed to walk the world in a state of limbo preying on lost souls. Sometimes, only sometimes, such a creature will walk with the living. You see doctor they can be…well, summoned for want of a better word. Called for by a member of the living who once had a connection with the condemned soul, a relative or a friend, or a relative of the victim themselves.”
“How can that be possible?” I asked. It was odd; I had never really taken an interest in the world of the supernatural, nor was I aware of how we happened upon the subject either, but I somehow found myself gripped by the old mans words. He turned back toward the fire again and seemed to clench his stomach in pain; I was just about to ask if he was ok when he continued. “A Soul Reaver that has been summoned, is able to take human form for short periods of time before returning to its demonic state. One could walk beside you and you wouldn’t notice anything peculiar in its appearance or personality. But once it has been forced to return to its true self, the demon must feed doctor, or die.”
“But isn’t it already dead?” I asked curiously. The old man shook his head, “You don’t understand. The afterlife in itself is a form of life, one that must be sustained. The Soul Reaver hunts souls, rich in energy. If this energy is not absorbed regularly, the demon will simply erase…its soul trapped in an empty void of eternal darkness.”
The rain outside was falling heavier now, the howl of the wind stronger. It was well past midnight without me realizing it and despite the time being far later than I am accustomed to staying awake, the old mans story had kept me alert. I sipped from my own glass as the old man finished his, I offered to fill his glass again but he waved his hand dismiss fully. “Why would someone summon such a demon to our world?” I asked. The old man smiled again. “We each have a reason doctor, are you telling me that if you had the ability, you would not summon forth such a creature to seek revenge on some wrongdoing?” I found myself contemplating this; I have had many wrongs done in my life. Lost many friends and loved ones to people who still walk, free of any punishment. Would I have summoned forth such a creature, if such a creature truly existed, to exact my own form of revenge? Maybe! I suddenly felt another chill surge through my body, one much stronger than before, as if something had passed through me. The old man looked toward me again, but despite him facing me, I cannot be sure that his eyes were truly focused on me. “It’s funny,” he said as he turned away and looked down at the floor, “no matter how hard you try to hide, no matter how hard you try to repent on your sins, they always find you in the end.” The old man clenched his stomach again; it was obvious that he was in more pain than before. “Are you okay?”
The gin glass dropped from his hand, what little gin that remained spilt onto my carpet. As I stood to aid the man I noticed something behind him, almost invisible to my eyes. Its form was not quite human, but stood as high as a man. As I stared at the apparition the old man began to scream, then his body suddenly tumbled to the floor lifeless. It may have been the gin, but I could have sworn that his soul was being dragged from his body. As I stood unable to move through pure fear I felt the apparitions eyes suddenly focused on me, they seemed to pierce my body as a hot knife would pierce butter. I sensed a deep desire in the creature to harm me; perhaps its hunger had not been entirely satisfied. As it neared me, I am ashamed to admit I lost control of my bladder. I felt the warm trickle move rapidly down my uncontrollably shaking leg as I stared into the eyes of evil itself. It took another step closer and was standing no more than a foot from where I stood when suddenly it turned and vanished into the darkness of my lounge. Needless to say I did not get to sleep that night, nor for several nights after.
I never did mention the apparition to the investigating detective; I never did believe the coroners report that the old man had suffered a heart attack. No further questions were asked by either the police or myself, but two days later the tabloids reported the death of the “Selby Strangler”…and when I saw his photo, well let’s just say I’m sure you will forgive me if I never give refuge to strangers again!

that was very good and entertaining. i'm sure you'll have buckets of luck with your authoring career. i would upload some of my own work but it's far too long lol. 44700 words last count.

It didn't take much to work out the plot HO, but it had me gripped and was disappointed it ended so soon. I think it has the potential to make it into a much longer story with the doctor as the hero of the day. But please, no adding a love interest!!! lol

What are the titles of the ones you've had published? It would be interesting to look them up and have a read. Oh, and you're name would be useful too

That's for taking your time to read my work. like I said it is at the moment a work in progress. Never seem to have enough time to work on it though. I agree it could be expanded and if I do I know I could make the plot a bit better with the ending a bigger more shocking twist.
As for my other work, doubt you'll find either story. They were published while I was at college as part of my English A-Level work. My lecturer got fond of my stories and asked if she could send three of them to a publisher she knew who helped young author's get into the field. Two were selected: "David" which was a twisted horror about someone wiith a murderous alter ego and "The Dig" another horror set in Mexico, the latter one was my best. Revolved around a team of investigators sent to find out what happened to a group of archeologist's that mysteriously vanish while at a dig site. They were published in two seperate omnibus editions's of short horror's but I can't for the life of me remember what the title of the books were.

yikes...... i really should stop drinking GIN!! Fab though... Good luck in the furure with it.
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I didn'y buy them cos I was (why do I keep saying "was" when I take about my youth???...I'm still young damn it ) young and dumb, I never really took my writing ability seriously. When my lecturer approached me and asked my permission to send them off I was like "Yeah fine whatever" not really expecting anything to come of it and not really caring if it did.
I was 17 then, and was more occupied with acting stupidly than thinking "Ok, I have a talent so why don't I develop it?". That's why I didn't buy the books, I just didn't care that I had two stories published.
I'm 27 now and have only recently started writing again, I got talking to a friend at my last job who was 21 and wanted to write his own novel, but didn't really have any ideas so I wrote a short story just to give him an idea that he could develop. When the people around him read it I suddenly had people walking up to me asking me why I had never gone into the writing business and I even ended up with requests for additional stories from other staff.
Their encouragement kinda got my enthusiasm for writing going again and I have been playing about with several idea since, but as I said before I don't really have the time to sit down and take it seriously

i just thought i'd give you the first page of my own work in progress..... it's progressed quite nicely so far but it's still only the first draft....well here goes................................(by the way the 3/4 marks are supposed to be - marks but for some reason they dont show up here lol.)


Not many people truly believe in all the dark against the light out there. I know. I’ve seen it. It’s like a mist that shimmers around all things good. The more you notice it, the less you notice all the good it’s surrounding. Sometimes, I think it will grow so dense that it will choke the life out of us all. That’s where I come in.
My name is Maria Sanders. I’m a professional bounty hunter of both normal and paranormal criminals. I have a small office in a run down old building. Not swanky, you understand. We don’t want to advertise our presence. Anybody who needs to know about us will. My boss is Alec. He’s a real good guy. And my hero to boot.
He taught me everything I know ¾ but not everything he knows to hear him tell it. I met Alec when I was a fresh-faced, innocent seventeen year old. Well, as innocent as any seventeen year old can be. My parents had died the previous year in a traffic accident and I was working two jobs to keep myself alive ¾ it was a pretty weird meeting.
There I was, crouched in the corner of a filthy alleyway protecting the prone body of my best friend, Ciara. She had just been attacked by a ¾ wait for it ¾ vampire. I had never even contemplated their existence. Now I regularly haul their asses to jail ¾ since some swarthy politician thought it would benefit the human race to have them made legal citizens. Yeah, that worked out great!
All of a sudden, the three vampires were just so much dead meat on the gravel. My rescuer ¾ Alec ¾ took me back to his place to treat me for shock and I pestered him until he gave up and trained me. I’ve never looked back since ¾ it only scares me when I realise how quickly the monsters are gaining!
I often wonder if things would have worked out differently had Alec just told me to get lost.
Would I now still be a healthy-minded twenty two year old ¾ nearly — working two jobs to keep myself alive? Or would I be a bitter woman with tortuous nightmares of fanged attackers in a dirty alleyway, not able to hold down a job at all? Hmm, I wonder. Neither sounds half as exciting as my life now. But both are infinitely less dangerous.
Just two months ago I sustained a minor — according to whom? ¾ injury. I ended up with seventeen stitches in my forearm. That’ll look good on my wedding day. Hey, a girl can dream cant she?

excellent start Mandy.... hmmmmm got me in the mood for more
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thanks for the stories...decided to copy and paste so as to read later on..

hmmm so long as you don't steal it lmfao

the thing about authors is this... you don't have to copyright your work... it's already copyrighted from the second you start with once upon a time. lmao.

Yeah you do have something there. Keep working on it and I hope you have the sense to take your work and actually do something with it, dumbass me lol. I liked the female bounty hunter idea, bit of a switch.

I have always been a fan of the horror genre, I tried my hand at warfare (don't know if you guys ever read books by "Tom Clancy" but if you have that's what I dreamt of doing) but I found it was "research this" and "research that", then just for fun I tried horror, it's so much easier. Just think of what would scare the shit out of you and put it on paper .

Anyway...Purrfect have fun with your book and maybe one day we shall compare our works