Riding Light Halloween Horror Full Issue

The light was dimming from the fire as they continued to walk foward.

As they came into a clearing where piles of branches and stumps dotted the ground, Joren thought he saw some dark spots hovering in the air by the large tree, beneath which was the dying remains of a fire.

Behind the fire at the base of a tree crouched a mutilated boy, long bangs covering his pale face, which was flecked with drops of red.

Ede cursed and waved her gun at the darkness.

Joren looked at the boy‘s face and he remembered the time he was lost in the woods, cold fog whisking around him, home a painful memory and danger a shadow in the dark.

Then Joren saw holes in the boy‘s sweatshirt and the bloody stumps the fabric clung to.

Joren shivered and coughed. ―Jesus fuck,‖ Ede said, ―someone cut off his arms.‖ The amputated arms were nowhere to be seen.

Joren‘s knees buckled in the cold wind.

It was not for this that he had traveled to the UP. This was a massacre, not a magic tale.

Ede cursed at her cell phone‘s lack of reception.

Joren stuck out his right arm to steady himself against a red cedar. ―What was it that cell phone executive said about the UP? ‗There are some places even God can‘t put a signal?‘‖ Ede put away her gun, gripped Joren‘s hand, and pulled him through the woods toward the mine.