Forbidden Magic: The Cellar Door Issue #2 (The Cellar Door Anthology Series)


 
 Forbidden Magic
 
 
 The Cellar Door Issue #2
 
 
 Edited by Aric Sundquist
 
 
 
 
 Dark Peninsula Press LLC
 
 
 Copyright © 2023
 
 
 
 
 Forbidden Magic: The Cellar Door Issue #2
 
 
 Copyright © 2023 by Dark Peninsula Press LLC
 
 
 All works copyrighted © 2023 by individual authors
 
 
 
 
 
 All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal.
 
 
 
 
 
 This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to an actual person, living or dead, or events and locales, is entirely coincidental. All stories in this volume have been published with permission from the authors.
 
 
 
 
 
 Paperback ISBN: 978-1-960788-00-9
 
 
 Digital ISBN: 978-1-7349378-9-3
 
 
 LCCN: 2023936197
 
 
 
 
 
 Compiled, edited, and formatted by Aric Sundquist
 
 
 Cover artwork by Mikio Murakami
 
 
 Proofread by Elsa Linna, Joel Sundquist, and Jen Lammi
 
 
 
 
 
 Published by:
 
 
 Dark Peninsula Press LLC
 
 
 Marquette, MI 49855
 
 
 
 www.darkpeninsulapress.com
 
 
 
 
 
 
 First Edition.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Contents
 
 
 
 
 Acknowledgments
 
 
 
 
 HEAR, HEARTH, HEARTBEAT by Gwendolyn Kiste
 
 
 
 
 ALL THE OTHER TOYS FACED THE WALLS by Patrick Barb
 
 
 
 
 FIRE DANCE by Lynne M. MacLean
 
 
 
 
 LOVE POTION by Jaye Nasir
 
 
 
 
 ON PINS AND NEEDLES by Serena Jayne
 
 
 
 
 BORN IN A TOMB by Ville Meriläinen
 
 
 
 
 BUNA’S PATTERN by Ryan Marie Ketterer
 
 
 
 
 HEX AND SANDY by Michelle Tang
 
 
 
 
 THE GLORY OF OUR FLESH by Michael Harris Cohen
 
 
 
 
 MY CHURCH IS BLACK by Scotty Milder
 
 
 
 
 About the Authors
 
 
 
 
 About the Editor
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Acknowledgments
 
 
 
 
 I would like to say a quick thank you to all the authors in issue #2 who trusted me to edit and showcase their work: Patrick Barb, Michael Harris Cohen, Serena Jayne, Ryan Marie Ketterer, Gwendolyn Kiste, Lynne M. MacLean, Ville Meriläinen, Scotty Milder, Jaye Nasir and Michelle Tang. Also, a huge thank you to Mikio Murakami for his excellent artwork, and to my small band of proofreaders and beta readers: Jen Lammi, Elsa Linna, and Joel Sundquist. And also a special thanks to Daniel Barnett for his keen insight and feedback on choosing stories for this issue.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 #
 
 
 
 
 
 Finally, I would like to say a huge thank you to the featured author of issue #2, Bram Stoker Award-winning author Gwendolyn Kiste! Gwendolyn first published with Dark Peninsula Press in the
 Violent Vixens
 anthology with her award-winning short story, “Sister Glitter Blood,” and I am very pleased to have her return with yet another wonderfully creepy story
 ,
 “Hear, Hearth, Heartbeat.” If you haven’t done so yet, check out her fantastic short story collection
 And Her Smile Will Untether the Universe,
 or any of her novels:
 The Rust Maidens
 ,
 Reluctant Immortals
 , and
 Boneset & Feathers.
 I can’t think of a more talented, kind, and hard-working author writing today.
 
 
 Now, let’s begin…
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Aric Sundquist
 
 
 April 2023
 
 
 
 
 Forbidden Magic
 
 
 
 
 
 Magic happens on the threshold of the forbidden.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 —Maria Tatar,
 Secrets beyond the Door
 
 
 
 
 
 HEAR, HEARTH, HEARTBEAT
 
 Gwendolyn Kiste
 
 
 
 It’s Jenna’s idea to meet the night before our class reunion.
 
 
 For old times’ sake
 , she writes to me in a Facebook message. I almost laugh aloud at this. Like the old times were so great, and we should honor them or something.
 
 
 It’s the middle of the day on a Wednesday, more than two weeks before the reunion, and I’m not even sure I want to go at all. What is there to see? A bunch of people I didn’t like when I was seventeen?
 
 
 But Jenna must be devoted to the idea, because she won’t stop messaging me about it.
 
 
 Please, Ella. It’s been forever.
 
 
 Even after all these years, I can still hear her voice, that sweet lilt with a touch of melancholy. My head spins for a moment, and I sit back from my laptop. I don’t remember adding Jenna on Facebook. I also don’t remember ever seeing her online before now. Yet here she is, big as life, or at least as big as a DM. My former best friend, the one that drifted away from me even before we drifted out of high school.
 
 
 I don’t answer her, not right away, but I can see she’s still online, that bright green dot beneath her name, and she must be able to see that I’ve read her message because she types another one to me.
 
 
 What do you think?
 
 
 What I think is that I got out of that town for a reason. I haven’t been back since graduation. That’s practically another lifetime ago now. But then there’s Jenna, waiting for me to respond. Part of me feels like she’s always been waiting for me.
 
 
 Sure, why not?
 I type back, my fingers shaking a little. It’s been forever since we’ve spoken. If you’d have asked me, I would have figured she’d forgotten my name by now.