Free Twilight Nightmares (Twisted Tales Special Edition Book 1) by Jay Wilson

intrusions.
    “Sleep sweetly, little Cali.”
    After taking a deep breath, she stepped back through the hole and into her own world.
    On the other side of that portal was an office building. She stood there for a moment wondering where she’d come from. Her friends and coworkers buzzed busily from office to office as a soft tickle formed at the pit of her elbow. She looked down at a stack of legal papers that pinched her skin, and remembered that she had to file them before the deadline to save her father who had been convicted and sentenced to death twenty-two years ago for the murder of a man that stayed in their home .

Row Three Dead Man
     
     
     
     
    “You suck!” The man screamed from the back of the crowd.
    Jeff “King of Laughs” Ronin continued his final joke, but tried to sift through the glaring spotlights to find the heckler. He failed, but hit the chord he expected when he finished the joke and the crowd roared with laughter. Well, almost the entire crowd, because there arose a singular boo of contempt uttered from the mouth of the fan that never was.
    The curtains slammed together, cutting him off from the crowd and taking away any chance he might find the man who showed intense disapproval of his jokes. He took a deep breath, and exited the stage.
    The thin corridor leading to his dressing room was dark. He knew there were men and women working in those walls, the ones that kept the show fluid and perfect. He knew they were there, but they felt like ghosts that watched him from the shadows. He couldn’t help but feel a tinge of fear grasp his spine, which made him walk faster to his room.
    When he arrived, the name on the door, which was his, pealed at one corner. It was, after all, just a sticker with handwriting on it. Since he wasn’t a regular, he didn’t have a door with a nameplate attached to it.
    Once inside, he closed the door and twisted the nub on the handle to lock it. He didn’t like to be bothered after his shows. He only had maybe twenty-five minutes to enjoy a moment alone before they kicked him out of the room to close the building, so he wanted as much of that time as possible without being bothered.
    After filling a small paper cup with water at a cooler, he sat down at the vanity mirror, which had several photographs of various comedians who’d performed there over the years wedged into the edge of the frame. He recognized all of them, but saw none of his favorites. His picture wasn’t there, but he preferred it that way. He didn’t like having his photo taken, and certainly wasn’t vain enough to take his own and stick it up there. That’s probably how most of those got up there anyway.
    As he took a sip of the cold liquid, someone banged at the door.
    Whump! Whump! Whump!
    It startled Jeff, and he crushed the cup. Water splashed over him as his heart raced and fluttered with fright.
    “What?” He called curtly as he wiped the water from his face and shirt. “God damn it.”
    No answer.
    Then in succession, the sounds rapped in threes upon the door like the gallop of an annoying horse.
    WhumpWhumpWhump !
    “Who the hell is out there?”
    WhumpWhumpWhump !
    “Really?” He said, and stood.
    WhumpWhumpWhump !
    He quickly moved to the door, unlocked it, and yanked on it. The door argued with a slight groan, and didn’t open.
    “What the fuck is going on here?” Jeff said, and then banged on the door. “What kind of game are you guys playing?”
    He let go of the door and walked across the room to the courtesy phone. He picked it up, and tried to dial the owner of Club Comedy, but there was no dial tone. He pressed the switch to try to free up the line, but it remained quiet.
    Then a voice arose from that silence and spoke to him through the phone, “You sucked so hard on that stage.”
    “Who the—” he began to say, but recognized the voice as the man from the crowd. “This isn’t funny, asshole.”
    “No!” The angry fan screamed into the phone, and the