Not Done Yet!

Author’s Note: No, I’m not done with Danse Macabre yet, but sometimes when you’re seized with a story idea, you have to type it up before it makes you go nuts, mainly because it’s hard to write anything else until you get it out of the way. So I think I’m going to be alternating stories from now on – one week a chapter of Danse Macabre, the next week a chapter of Hysteria. Or until my head explodes, whatever comes first.

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Danse Macabre: Six – Ghost Dance

Alone With The Dead Danse Macabre by Andrea Speed Six – Ghost Dance “How do you know about him?” O’Leary asked when he could finally speak. It had taken him several tries to make his mouth work correctly. “Have you been investigating me?” Gryphon scoffed, rubbing his forehead. His head was starting to hurt, but in a weird way that wasn’t entirely unpleasant. “Again, let me take you back to that point where you agreed that I wasn’t a screaming fraud. I’m not. I know about Jeff McCandless because he told me not to trust you. Now, do I hear your version of the story or not?” “I told you to get offa my lawn,” the old dead guy croaked. “We’re not on your lawn,” Gryphon snapped, casting an evil glance at him. “Now knock it...

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Danse Macabre: Five – Vicarious Atonement

Alone With The Dead Danse Macabre by Andrea Speed Five – Vicarious Atonement The morning was gray and gloomy, the storm had moved on but left suffocating humidity behind. The air seemed as thick and saturated as a wet sponge.Gryphon felt exhausted, like he hadn’t slept at all, but that happened a lot. It was like he used so much energy keeping all these people with him, he could never keep up his own energy levels. Either that, or they were draining power from him to feed their honestly formidable psychokinetic powers. Clay had made pancakes and soy bacon for breakfast, which wasn’t as bad as it sounded. Clay made his pancakes with carbonated water, so they weren’t as heavy as some, and instead of syrup he poured loganberry jam on them. Again, not bad....

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Danse Macabre: Four – The Outsider

Alone With The Dead Danse Macabre by Andrea Speed Four – The Outsider Gryphon found himself sitting on a curb, legs splayed out before him on the edge of a city street. He notice stubbed cigarettes in the gutter, crumpled beer cans, a used condom, all the hallmarks of a bad neighborhood or the area in front of a seedy bar. Across the street was the sad sight of a closed down store – what was left of its windows were smashed out; indecipherable graffiti was scrawled on the plywood beneath the frames – but it had a huge cracked parking lot, where discarded fast food wrappers scraped across the asphalt like tumbleweeds. There was a white van in the lot, parked across what had once been one of the traffic lanes, although there was no one else around...

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