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UNHOLY GROUND, A HORROR SHORT STORY, CHAPTER I

July 16, 2025 at 1:26 pm Leave a comment

                        This story was accepted for publication by Books To Go Now in 2011

                                                                   UNHOLY GROUND

                  Zeke Young

 Shaking his head, John Taylor said to newcomer Zeke Young, “I wouldn’t build on this land if I was you.”

Zeke was a lean man, his face weathered from years of working someone else’s property.  Now he would have a farm of his own.  The year was 1754, early spring, and the men were standing deep in the western Pennsylvania woods.  Zeke was not a man to be easily dissuaded.  He fixed John Taylor with a hard stare, and asked, “Why would you say that?”

“Heard tell of strange things happening here on this land at night.  People have seen a kind of glow in the trees, a moving glow.  Them that seen the glow heard ungodly sounds too.  Like a kind of moaning.  People say this place is damned.

“Even the savages that live in these parts avoid this ground.  They say it’s cursed, always has been.  They speak of the Ancients, a tribe of demons that live here underground.  These devils come to the surface to take those that violate their land.  The Indians avoid this area like the plague.  I would steer clear of it too if I was you.”

Zeke Young responded, “Sounds like just the place I’m looking for.  Snooping neighbors and Indian raiding parties will pass me by.  I recon, in the wilderness, a man needs help to survive, but I like my privacy.  I’ll offer help when asked, but I’ll not pass the time of day in idle talk.  Indians, I can do without.”

John Taylor warned again, “Don’t take it so lightly, Zeke.  I tell you the Indians say there are devils living in this here ground.  They say that sometimes if you put your ear to the ground, you can hear the devil’s moan.  I wouldn’t settle my family in this place.”

“You might not,” Zeke said, “but I sure as hell will.”

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