Enjoy this excerpt from the spine-tingling and eye-seizing horror novel
By David C. Cassidy
Jared stood under the narrow awning that covered the entrance to Shelby’s Pub. The rain pelted the concrete like stones, and he rushed past a storm-battered couple who were heading in. He barely made it to his rusting Toyota hatchback before thunder rocked above him. Lightning streaked across the sky in a flurry of jagged bolts.
Soaked in the car, he lit a cigarette and took a long, calming drag. He started the engine and cranked the wipers to full. Thunder pounded again, and his hand trembled.
The black shape of the town’s water tower loomed in the distance. A burst of lightning revealed WELCOME TO TORCH FALLS.
He took another drag. His head was swimming from all the beer, and throbbing from what he knew would be a bruiser of a migraine. He thought of Ricky Cowen, of his sobering prediction. How things could change in a New York minute.
Didn’t he know.
Grampa had been sixty-six; sixty-seven wasn’t in the cards. He had taken his two grandsons out for ice cream, in spite of those dark olive clouds brewing on that hot August night. None of them cared—it was only five minutes to The Olde Pop Shoppe on Main. It turned out to be one of those nasty life lessons, one of life’s little ironies, for it wasn’t the lightning that took the old man. It was the felled power line.
Oh, how things could change.
New York was change. He didn’t want to move there, not really. His agent had wined him and dined him, finally twisting his writing arm just enough to convince him—and the three-book deal had sealed it. He was the “new voice of horror,” as his publisher was promoting him, and when his vampire novel, Luscious, hit number three on the best-seller list, he had started to believe the hype. Still, he knew how dangerous hype could be. It was hard enough finding the courage to put yourself out there, and once you got there, it was even harder to stay there. Could he really come up with three more books in two years?
And what about Marisa?
He could still hear her soft voice when he’d told her he was leaving. I understand. When she had said those two words, lips trembling, eyes lying, he knew he had broken her heart.
A crack of thunder startled him. The dashboard clock read seven-thirty.
Thirty—
He was supposed to be somewhere. And worse, he was running late, he was sure.
Damn these fucking storms.
He took his ratty spiral notepad from his pocket. It held all the little reminders he’d made to himself over the years, hints and cues and facts that most people didn’t need to get through their day. A scribbled history of the memory challenged.
You drive a red Toyota hatchback. Has that duct-taped left taillight. (In case that idiot, Johnny Harris, parks his next to yours at the Thrifty Mart again, just to mess with you.)
Check stove and doors before bed.
You like plain Cheerios.
You do NOT like multi-grain Cheerios.
The President is Bill Clinton. The President is—
It’s 1972 … It’s 1973 …
It’s 2007.
He flipped through the book to his latest TODAY list. Blank. He’d forgotten to write it down. Of course.
He butted his cigarette in the ashtray. Tapped his finger anxiously on the wheel. There was something about that number.
Thirty—
“Shit. Shit.”
He remembered.
Gateway
Brutal murders. Grisly suicides. Chilling chaos. A town besieged by relentless evil, unleashed from the soul of an epileptic child with second sight.
Two-time award-winning author David C. Cassidy delivers another terrifying supernatural thriller of the darkest evil, exploring the blackest depths of human frailty and shocking brutality–and draws back the curtain to reveal the monsters inside of us.
Sometimes, good people do bad things.
And sometimes … really nasty things.
Jared Cole has it all. Talent. Fame. Success. But this best-selling horror novelist also has an astonishing power: he can see souls. Returning to his sleepy hometown of Torch Falls, Montana after seven years in the grind of New York City, it seems the perfect plan to keep his secret safe and to jump-start his sagging career. But when he unwittingly opens a window–a gateway–into the soul of an epileptic child, his dream of a fresh start becomes a nightmare. A relentless and sinister evil is unleashed, twisting peaceful townsfolk into psychotic crazies and cold-blooded killers. Can Jared close the gateway before the town becomes a graveyard?
6-time ReadersFavorite 5-Star Selection:
“Gateway is a supernatural thriller with an irresistible appeal. Not for the faint of heart, it’s a page-turning story that will have readers on the edge of their seats.”
★★★★★ – Romuald Dzemo, Independent Reviewer, ReadersFavorite.com
“David C. Cassidy’s Gateway is a brilliantly written horror story. It’s chillingly poignant and mysterious. You just can’t put it down.”
★★★★★ – Ruffina Oserio, Independent Reviewer, ReadersFavorite.com
“Gateway is captivating, riveting, and petrifying, a superbly written story that chills the blood. Fans of Stephen King or Dean Koontz will not want to miss it.”
★★★★★ – Susan Sewell, Independent Reviewer, ReadersFavorite.com
“Gateway is a perfectly creepy story that will keep you up at night. It’s terrifyingly good.”
★★★★★ – Rabia Tanveer, Independent Reviewer, ReadersFavorite.com
“Gateway by David C. Cassidy is a story for fans of tales that make them feel the creepiness as if it is a living thing crawling on their skin. This is one of those books you don’t want to start reading at night, because its spell is irresistible.”
★★★★★ – Christian Sia, Independent Reviewer, ReadersFavorite.com
“This is a horror novel with great pacing and a plot that is unpredictable. The writing is crisp and the story suspenseful. You’ll want to know what happens next, and most importantly, you’ll want to know the ending and who remains alive in a town being consumed by evil.”
★★★★★ – Grace Masso, Independent Reviewer, ReadersFavorite.com
Buy it now.
About the author
Award-winning author David C. Cassidy is the twisted mind behind several chilling books of horror and suspense. An author, photographer, and graphic designer–and a half-decent juggler—he spends his writing life creating tales of terror where Bad Things Happen To Good People.
Raised by wolves, he grew up with a love of nature, music, science, and history, with thrillers and horror novels feeding the dark side of his seriously disturbed imagination. He talks to his characters, talks often, and most times they listen. But the real fun starts when they tell him to take a hike, and they Open That Door anyway. Idiots.
David lives in Ontario, Canada. From Mozart to Vivaldi, classic jazz to classic rock, he feels naked without his iPod. Suffering from MAD—Multiple Activity Disorder—he divides his time between writing and blogging, photography and Photoshop, reading and rollerblading. An avid amateur astronomer, he loves the night sky, chasing the stars with his telescope. Sometimes he eats.
To learn more and connect with David, you can follow him on Twitter and Facebook, or visit his: