Invisible
Appears in Zippered Flesh 3: Yet More Tales of Body Enhancements Gone Bad!
Publisher: Smart Rhino Publications
Date: October 9, 2017
Buy Links:
Blurb:
What horror anthology on body enhancements wouldn’t include gross-out fiction? This book has it in spades. But, this collection of stories goes far beyond that. Here you will also find science fiction, surreal fiction, fantasy, and even a full serving of dark humor. Disturbing, perverse, often gut-wrenching (pun intended) stories—all between the covers of this anthology!
Nineteen chilling tales by some of the best horror and suspense writers today. Definitely not for the squeamish!
Reviews:
"Hardcore horror that ranges from the socially relevant to the scatologically repulsive—the shock here is like 'The Scream' made flesh." — Mort Castle, editor of On Writing Horror: A Handbook by the Horror Writers Association
"In Zippered Flesh 3, Editor Weldon Burge has done a masterful job of combining work from well-known masters like Jack Ketchum and Graham Masterton with newer writers. But it is the original work by newcomers like L.L. Soares and Meghan Acuri that stands out for me. ... Highly recommended." — Gene O'Neill, author of The Hitchhiking Effect: A Retrospective Collection
"'Closer by Charles Colyott is a wonderfully poignant and romantic story. ... 'Going Green' by Christine Morgan is so original, timely, and well-written it deserves special mention. ... Kudos to Burge for putting together another fine anthology of cutting-edge fiction." — Paul Dale Anderson, author of The Instruments of Death series
Awards:
The Solstice List © 2017 The Best Of Horror cites Zippered Flesh 3 amongst the best anthologies of the year. My short story Invisible was cited as one of the best short stories of the year.
Excerpt:
Blair Bottom hated her sister. At six-hundred-thirty-five pounds, Bethany Bottom loomed in everyone’s space in the double-wide, commanding attention Blair never received. While Blair’s stick-thin frame looked as if she could snap in half at the slightest gust of wind, Bethany resembled a gigantic Shar Pei.
Mother was too busy running a soapy bath sponge beneath Bethany’s fat folds to notice her younger daughter’s ribs protruded. While twenty-one-year-old Bethany was so big she commanded attention, fifteen-year-old Blair wanted to disappear into the trailer’s faux wood paneling. Her mother refused to notice she’d lost twenty pounds in the past two weeks. Blair ate the same two double cheeseburgers, extra large fries, and humungous Coke Bethany ate for lunch that day. The difference was Blair threw hers up afterward.
While she wanted attention and caring, Blair received the wrong kind of attention. Her schoolmates called her Skeletor and snapped pencils whenever she walked past. They ate sticky donuts for lunch and sucked down soft drinks with a loud slurping sound that made her want to retch. While they savored their sickening food by flaunting each disgusting bite in her face, she nibbled at Saltine crackers and sucked on ice cubes. After the daily lunchtime taunting, she ran to the back of the school near the janitorial station to jam a finger down her throat and vomit into the gravel. It was mostly isolated back there, so no one would confront her. Or torment her. Or question why she threw up after every meal.
Why couldn’t people just leave her alone? No one cared she destroyed the lining of her stomach three times a day. Blair had taken to forced vomiting about a year before, shortly after her father left. He didn’t even kiss her goodbye as he walked out the door that cold winter morning. She, like the rest of her family, was tossed aside like a used tissue. When Daddy didn’t return that night, she thought he stayed with a friend after drinking too much at the local bar. When he didn’t return the next day, she thought maybe he was working overtime. When Mother called his friends, who couldn’t locate him, and then his boss, who said he quit work three weeks earlier, Blair knew Daddy wasn’t coming home.
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