An eldritch horror sweeps through the city.

I'm trying my hand at an original Lovecraft-inspired short story. It centers around Yig, one of the lesser-known deities in the Cthulhu mythos. This snake god was featured in "The Curse of Yig" by H. P. Lovecraft and Zealia Bishop, published in 1929 under Bishop's name. I'm deliberately using a lot of "tell don't show" and minimal dialogue but not quite so wordy as Lovecraft was.

This manuscript was found on a deceased journalist's hard drive, buried among the smoldering remains of a crashed flight from Arizona to New York. The manuscript, recently declassified, details said journalist's investigations into eccentric artist John Moore, and their disappearance. The events hereby described are, according to the Pentagon, highly unreliable due to the author's apparent descent into psychosis. However, the crash site was never allowed access by the media, and rumors circulating through supposed leaks and a global onset of strange dreams suggest that, among the plane's debris, the manuscript's author was no longer wholly human.

This contains one chapter from three difference Alex Landon stories to give readers a sample of my writing and the characters from this series. OPERATION BARRICADE Arizona drug task force detectives and SWAT teams begin using coordinated, small-unit military tactics to combat human trafficking and narcoterrorism, and quickly make several multimillion dollar seizures. When the Mexican drug cartels retaliate by viciously targeting the officers and their families, how can the cops protect the community while fighting to defend themselves? THE RECIDIVIST Homicide detectives identify the lone suspect in a heinous double murder as the victims' son, a recently paroled meth-addict, adamantly professes his innocence and blames an unidentified killer. As politicians, police administrators, and the victims' family demand the ex-con's immediate conviction, mounting conflicts force detectives to question both his guilt, and their moral and legal obligations to investigate exculpatory evidence. THE TOXIN Cops investigate a series of seemingly unrelated mass murders caused by an unknown biotoxin. As hundreds frantically work to identify the agent and its antidote, the unidentified suspects begin targeting cops, prosecutors, and judges with such ferocity that law enforcement must choose between protecting the public and protecting itself.

Rookie police officer Alex Davis has spent his entire life letting other people do most of the work: in school, at home, in sports--as long as there was someone else who could do it better, why need he bother? One night, Alex receives two calls and chooses the easier option--a choice that comes back to haunt him... literally! Now Alex finds himself at the behest of two wronged ghosts bent on teaching him a lesson--and it promises to be one he'll never forget!