STORY SHOWCASE #9

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THE COVENANT OF THE FURNACE KEEPERS

by R. Dell Walker

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A little taster…

“So, what, you think it’s the old mill doing this?” Cory asked.

“I don’t think anything. I just know what I see, and I don’t know what the hell could cause that,” Don said, gesturing toward the rat king of pipes and steel above.

Cory turned, his gaze following the flashlight’s path across the basement. He’d been onsite since the project broke ground, and while the place had always been unnerving, today it felt different. Hostile.

“What do you want me to do?” Cory asked finally.

“Go to your bosses in Pittsburgh. Let them deal with it,” Don said, brushing dust from his hands. “Hell, bring a priest from St. Stanislaus. I’m just here to run pipe, not wrestle the devil.”

Management didn’t have time for ghost stories, Cory knew, and the firm had already sunk too much money into the project to entertain superstitions. Still, something about Don’s unease unsettled him.

As they left the basement, Cory cast one last glance at the warped pipes and the steel droplet on the floor. The walls seemed to breathe, the air vibrating faintly with something that felt like a growl.

About the author

R. Dell Walker is an author of horror and crime fiction from the Appalachian Mountains. His horror anthology, The Vermilion Carnival and Other Horrors, is available now. He lives with his wife, children and the ghost of an old hound dog in Virginia.

We asked R. Dell Walker…

K&R: What was the spark or idea that led you to write this story?

RDW: I was watching a YouTube video about architecture that mentioned the architectural concept of “spolia” (the use of materials from old buildings in a new construction), and I thought that there was a good basis for a horror story in it, especially when taking that concept and placing it in the cycle of decay and rejuvenation that many small towns in America’s Rust Belt have experienced.

K&R: Do you have any other work do you have out there, for folks to dig into?

RDW: I have published The Vermilion Carnival & Other Horrors, a collection of nine stories that explore the dark aspects of the American experience. It is available in paperback and digital format from Amazon.

K&R: What’s next for you as a writer?

RDW: I am in the midst of writing my first novel, Level Green, which will be a cosmic horror twist on the classic haunted house story. I am also slowly working on another short story collection that will be more ambitious and expansive than The Vermilion Carnival & Other Horrors. I plan for it to go beyond the horror genre, as I really want to feature some of my crime and dark fantasy writing. I hope to release both the novel and the second short story collection in the next two years.

K&R: What does “trashy fiction” mean to you, and what do you love about it?

RDW: Trashy fiction, in my opinion, is easily digestible fun that gives the reader a few hours of entertainment and enjoyment, BUT it has to be sincere. Irony ruins trash. It really does. Suppose a book is trashy in the sense of hitting on certain tropes, but does so with a wink and a nudge. That, to me, is no longer actual trash. It is an imitation of trash, and, in my opinion, a mockery of trash. That ruins it for me. If you give me some action, adventure, maybe some scares, and do so with conviction, it’s probably going to be an enjoyable piece of writing.

K&R: Hit us with your own favourite “trashy” fiction recommendations!

RDW: I have two men’s adventure series to recommend. First, the Operation Hang Ten series by Patrick Morgan. It follows a surfing undercover agent operating in the world of the late 1960s and early 1970s surf scenes, mainly in the United States and Australia. It is a great series that is a lot of fun. My favorite book in the series is Deadly Group Down Under. Second, The Aquanauts series by Ken Stanton (the series is also sometimes known as the Tigershark series), which is about a US military scuba team known as the “Secret Underwater Service” in many cold war intrigue storylines. My favorite of that series (so far, I haven’t read them all yet) is the second installment, Ten Seconds to Zero.

K&R: If you’ve read the rest of the stories in Trash Tales, what’s your favourite, and why?

RDW: My favorite was The Roma Project by Vincent St. Claire, because … rampaging chimpanzees. Need I say more?

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