Book 1 of A Bit of the Dark World
by
Pages: 323
Size: 6.00 x 9.00 in
Pages: 321
Arkham and surrounds aren’t the only places the Other Gods have visited.
In the waters off the coast of Georgia, a sleeping behemoth is chained to the ocean floor. On an island off that same coast, a believer struggles to open the doorway bringing the unknown gods back to this dimension.
When an automobile accident kills Robin Chambers and brings his widow to Dr. Daniel Walker’s care, the stage is set. Lifelong enemies, the doctor and the master of Land’s End Island are rivals for Lisa Chambers’ body as well as her love, for she and her unborn child are the key to opening the doorway to the Dark World.
Publisher: Independently Published
Cover Artists:
Genres:
Tropes: Aliens Among Us, Portals
Setting: Island off the coast of Georgia (state)
Languages Available: English
Series Type: Continuous / Same Characters
Tropes: Aliens Among Us, Portals
Setting: Island off the coast of Georgia (state)
Languages Available: English
Series Type: Continuous / Same Characters
Godalmighty, what a night.
Dr. Daniel Walker was a big man though not a particularly clumsy one, but there was nothing graceful about the way he reeled through the door of his office in McAllister General Hospital after stubbing the toe of his Croc on the threshold.
Wavering to catch his balance and prevent crashing into his desk, he staggered around it and fell into the big executive’s chair, then jerked open the center drawer, searching frantically for the pack of cigarettes he’d stashed there.
Gotta have that smoke…lemme at it before I have a nicotine fit. He was acting like a true addict and admitted it.
Found it. His hands shook as he extracted one, shoved it between his lips, snapped open the lighter lying inside the drawer, and flicked it into life.
READ MOREThe flame flared, the tip of the cigarette glowed, wrapped paper curling blackly. Raking one hand through his coarse black hair, he leaned back, hungrily gulping in smoke.
Ahhh…
He closed his eyes, exhaling in a long, slow trickle. He’d been trying to quit, was doing pretty well too, what with that patch and all, but now? Hell, after tonight…he’d ripped the little piece of drug-soaked adhesive off his shoulder and tossed it into the nearest disposal bin.
The way I feel right now, I’d smoke a whole damned carton if I had it.
He’d never seen anything like it. As if God Himself had battered down the Gates of Hell and set free total calamity. Cracked ribs, broken arms, fractured legs…ambulances and police cars swarming and wailing…was there anyone left in McAllister and surrounds in one piece?
No exaggeration. Not…at…all.
After all, it was August and there was a full moon.
Everyone knew those two things, taken by themselves, were bad news, but together they spelled disaster. What was that horror story? August Heat? The heat and the moonlight made all the loonies—they didn’t call them luna-tics for nothing—even crazier, while the sane ones bore the brunt of their madness.
…and for someone in his profession…?
Don’t even think about it.
But he had to.
The violence kept him busy. Once he’d realized tonight he wasn’t going to see anyone upright and conscious, he had the desk nurse call his office, deciding there was no need to make his patients sit and wait. They probably had better things to do.
Not Yours Truly, however.
Along with the other surgical teams, young Dr. Walker was the Man of the Hour, and he’d been proving it since nine o’clock that morning, stepping out of the surgery arena only long enough to take a leak when the urge became overpowering. Wouldn’t do to piss into his socks and hold up surgery while they sanitized the OR.
It was now late in the evening and the realization he’d had neither lunch nor dinner was sinking in, accompanied by the demanding, twisting growls of his long-empty stomach. He wished he’d squirreled away a couple of candy bars in his desk.
Who was he kidding? He was too damned tired to think about eating.
Maybe throw together a sandwich when I get home?
At the moment, he didn’t care if he ever ate again. A slug of whiskey…maybe. Too bad he didn’t keep a bottle in the desk drawer, too.
Heat warming his fingers made him glance at his left hand. The cigarette was nearly burned to the filter.
When did that happen? Had he been sitting there, half-asleep, holding a lit cigarette? Guess it’s a good thing I’m not in bed.
He glanced at his watch. The digital numbers blinked eleven o’clock. Not exactly the time of night to drift into a doze while pondering the Meaning of Life, but he wanted—no, needed—to think about what happened. Relive it. Try to figure out why.
Lean back. Relax. Think…and don’t fall asleep.
* * *
Most of the cases weren’t complex—thank God—in spite of all the pain involved and the horrendous appearances. It was almost assembly-line: Roll one in, put him back together, roll him out.
Next, please.
Then they brought in the girl…
Woman. She was a woman, not a girl.
At that precise moment, he hadn’t been thinking about his patients. In a brief pause in the action, he was wondering why he hadn’t become a peanut farmer instead of an orthopedic surgeon. He’d bet if he tried he could still find some acreage available in south Georgia.
God knows, the hours would be better.
He’d stepped out of OR, wanting a brief respite of air not laden with the scent of blood and anesthetic, making a bee-line for the exit and passing through the emergency room waiting area…
…where they were rolling in another gurney.
He dodged, to keep from being struck in the groin by the stretcher’s metal edge, and… …froze…
…and the world stilled with him.
On it lay the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. Even covered in blood and retching in pain, she was gorgeous.
He felt vulnerable and exposed, as if he’d been stripped naked for the entire ER to see.
No bells. No thunderclaps. Just a flood of emotion so raw and stark it shocked him with its ferocity.
All he wanted was to take her in his arms and tell her everything was going to be all right. He, the Great Physician, would save her.
He didn’t move…couldn’t…his body shrinking, a solitary electron encircling that unmoving nucleus in a shrinking, expanding orbit…drawing nearer then hurled away from the unconscious center of that single traumatized atom.
The EMT, seeing him standing there, began reeling off her vites. He didn’t have a southern accent, sounding as if he were from somewhere in the Midwest.
Funny how the mind can latch onto trivial details.
“Doc?” The tech was still talking. He put a hand on the scrub-clad shoulder as if to get his attention.
“Go on.” His voice was calm in spite of his internal tremors. He actually looked around to make sure certain no one was staring, no one had witnessed his momentary detachment from reality before his mind slammed back into his own body. “I’m listening.”
He may have said more, he didn’t remember. A lot might’ve happened but it was forgotten because von Dorff came crashing through the ER doors, raving like the psycho he was.
“Where is she? What’s being done?”
Seeing that rich bastard was something to be avoided on a good day. It took all his control to keep from smashing his latex-covered fist into that island weirdo’s face.
Breaking his hand hitting that freak. It would’ve been the perfect ending to a shitty day.
A tired smile flickered.
Who takes care of the orthopedist’s broken bones? Can the physician truly heal himself?
Good question. To be answered at a saner time.
He settled for barking at a nurse, “Get that bastard out of here,” while silently praying, Five minutes, Lord. Just let me have five minutes with that scumbag and to Hell with what happens to my hands.
Still shouting, Von Dorff was hustled out of sight.
Why was he there, anyway? What was she to him? How could she be anything to that…that… He couldn’t think of an obscenity vile enough.
God, I must really be tired.
That’s what he got for being the only orthopedic surgeon in thed little town, a place where he wouldn’t be practicing if he hadn’t been born here. If his father’s people hadn’t lived here since Time Immemorial. He was certain such a color-conscious little Deep South hamlet wouldn’t otherwise accept a halfbreed doctor, not even in today’s Politically Correct-Turned Upside-Down-Woke world.
Sometimes, especially after late-night sojourns like this, he tried to imagine where he’d be if he were all white. Probably in a big city hospital somewhere, overworked, underpaid, and popping pills or shooting up to keep himself going. But here? He might be overworked, maybe a little underpaid, but all in all, things weren’t so bad; he didn’t need to justify his existence, and he’d never felt the need for anything stronger than his cigarettes.
Still, if more nights like this one came along, he might revise that thought…
* * *
The cigarette burned itself out. Stubbing it into the ashtray whose pristine interior displayed the message Souvenir of Stone Mountain, he got to his feet, dragging his jacket off the coat tree by the door. Pulling it on over his scrub smock, he started out, switching off the lights.
Better head home and get some rest. Dictation on tonight’s circus could wait until tomorrow.
His patients would expect Dr. Walker bright and early—bright-eyed and bushy-tailed—following-up on the repairs he’d done tonight. If he hurried, he might catch a couple of hours sleep before then.
No choice, of course. He had to be there. They needed him.
She needed him…
COLLAPSEMichael D. Smith on Amazon.com wrote:I must confess I was prepared to like this novel from the beginning. The cool title, the mention of Lovecraft in the dedication (I’ve ploughed through some very, very poor stories simply because they were set within the Cthulu mythos) and the way the story opens with a shell shocked doctor ruminating on the night’s events all combined to hook me.
The novel’s main protagonist Lisa Chambers is initially a traumatised and tragic figure. Having read two of the author’s previous works I realise how adapt she is at creating psychologically complex and believable characters and this was also the case here. Chambers is also a vulnerable individual, something that perhaps makes her overly receptive to male attention. She even reflects herself that she is” definitely not behaving herself.” This is something of considerable importance as a sort of love triangle springs up between herself, Dr. Daniel Walker and the affluent, mysterious Von Dorff.
I enjoyed the portrayal of all the characters (Walker for is example is someone who must come to terms with both his heritage and destiny) but for me the most fascinating individual is Drex Von Dorff. If you like your bad guys urbane yet insane, (“not foam-flecked lunacy but colder and more deadly”) then this one is for you.
Although the novel uses Lovecraft mythology as a backdrop the novel is far more intricate and developed than one would find in the works of the late and very great gentleman of Providence, Rhode Island. Some of the supernatural has faint echoes of Dennis Wheatley whilst the more erotic and thriller/ suspense elements are very much Sweeney’s own.
My favourite work so far by this very talented author, I would recommend ‘A Bit of the Dark World’ to all fans of horror and Lovecraft especially.
Sherry Perkins on Paranormal Romance Guild wrote:Grounded in the human, in Georgia, in the ordinary, this horror tale builds with strengthening undercurrents of menace--all blithely ignored by the main character Lisa, recently injured in a car wreck that killed her husband. The fact that Lisa is unable to grieve for him, and can’t understand why, is our first arresting clue that something is seriously out of kilter here. Lisa is obviously not herself--and everyone can see that except her. Nevertheless she traipses through her recovery, dating two quite different men as if nothing were out of the ordinary.
Thus when “It” arises (we’ve got to have an unspeakable Evil in a horror novel, right?) from a solid framework of normal life, the impact is all the greater.
Is this a horror novel or a romance novel? It works well either way. Lisa has her evil suitor, Drex, a well-drawn character with his own pain and justifications, and she has her good suitor, Dan, a forceful, intelligent doctor of American Indian ancestry. There is an ancient mutual enmity between Dan’s and Drex’s clans, but it’s Dan’s background that provides a hint that even deeper levels of understanding are available to confront the dismal villainy fate has in store for Lisa. So Dan’s complex heritage becomes yet another foundation beneath the foundation of the normal world.
The title works well; it’s not flamboyant, and the actual events of the story develop it into subtle irony. Later we see the source of the title and that scene works perfectly.
The book signs off with an excellent ending which of course I won’t give away here. I marvel at how it’s possible to simultaneously feel so good about the final development, yet understand that a sequel is implied which certainly can’t be psychically easy.
5 Stars
Most of the plot you can see coming, right up until the deliciously wicked twist at the end. However seeing what the characters don’t—you know, that thing where you scream at the character don’t do that!—only makes the journey more cringy and satisfying.
Chosen starts, as most good horror stories do, with an innocent person dragged into something they didn’t deserve and certainly didn’t expect (except for the earlier ignored hints that something is wrong) with horrifying consequences. Because what starts out as a drive along the Georgia coastline with her husband turns into a fiery and fatal crash for Lisa Chambers.
Lisa awakens from trauma induced haze to nightmarish pain. Her leg bones are terribly broken. She learns her husband died in the crash, and discovers she is pregnant. Her physical recovery is protracted, and her emotional recovery is in chaos which makes it easy to become attracted to the doctor caring for her, Dan Walker. Dan is the only orthopedic doctor in town. He’s also instantly attracted to Lisa. More than that, he’s a Creek medicine man which certainly comes in handy when the strange stuff starts.
The strange stuff—or at least the intense dislike Dan has for Drexl von Dorff, the passerby who came upon the fiery crash and quite heroically rescued Lisa—seems somehow connected to Drexl, with whom Dan clearly has history. Bad history. Naturally, the tension between Dan and Drexl eventually snakes its way into the growing relationship Dan is building with Lisa.
Okay, so this is where I start screaming don’t do that! Too late. The inevitable has arrived with tentacles, scales and…oh, no!
