Twisted Tales 3 – Cover Reveal and Sneak Peek

I am so excited to announce that the third instalment in my short story series, Twisted Tales 3, has been released today for the bargain price of only 99p.

The series features short stories about the dark side of human nature, all with a twist. If you’ve read Twisted Tales 1 and Twisted Tales 2 then you’ll know the kind of stories to expect. And if you haven’t, they’re only 99p each too so go and grab them now, I’ll wait. You don’t need to have read one and two to read three – the stories are standalone stories.

Cover Reveal

The covers of the Twisted Tales books all featured a piece of rope with a twist and Twisted Tales 3 is no exception. Let me know what you think of the cover in the comments.

Blurb from the Back Cover

The third instalment of Deborah A Stansil’s Twisted Tales series, Twisted Tales 3 will take you on another journey through the twisted minds of each story’s central character.

Showcasing the dark side of human nature in all its macabre glory, Twisted Tales 3 will shock you at times and send a chill down your spine.

Hate the characters, empathise with them, and stay on your guard. There’s a dark streak in all of us just waiting to come out.

Sneak Peek

Below you will find a sneak peek of one of the stories featured in the book, The Second Favourite.

I’ve been sitting here for a long time, watching her. Waiting. The wait is a delicious feeling; frustrating, but delicious.

I look over at her now. She’s sleeping, her eyes closed and her lips slightly parted. Her skin is smooth, like porcelain, unblemished by stress or age. She looks so peaceful sitting there, lost in her dreams. I suppose the restraints that keep her in place on the chair spoil the image a little, but I can see past them. The little stream of dried blood on her cheek doesn’t spoil her serene look either. In fact, I think it kind of adds to her appeal. She is beautiful and yet damaged.

It shouldn’t be much longer until she awakens. I think I might have given her slightly too many pills – it’s hard to judge the dosage when they’re ground into paste – but her breathing is slow and regular and I take that to mean she’ll be fine. It’s not like I’m an expert in this sort of thing. In fact, it’s the first time I’ve done it.

If she doesn’t wake up soon, I might remove the gags from the mouths of her two children. Don’t people say a mother is programmed to wake up if her children cry? Or is that just when they’re babies?

So many questions. This will be a journey of discovery for both Martha and me. It’ll be nice for us to share that experience I think.

She makes a snorting noise and shifts slightly and I think she will wake up, but she doesn’t. Her breathing evens back out and she stays asleep, almost as though she’s preparing herself unknowingly for what’s to come.

Her children sit up straighter when they hear the sound. They think she’s waking up and that she’s going to be able to save them. So innocent and naïve. If only they knew.

They are still young enough at seven and nine to believe the world is a fair place where bad things don’t happen to good people. It’s bullshit of course. I learned that myself when I was much younger than they did. The realisation did me no harm, and I’m sure the same will be true for them. Or not. Only time will tell.

I didn’t bother restraining the children. It seemed cruel and unnecessary. Instead, I have them in a large dog cage I bought a couple of days ago for the purpose. I didn’t even want to gag them. Not really. But I had to. I can’t risk the neighbours hearing their cries.

Silent tears run down their faces and both of them are pale. I tried to convince them to relax, not to be afraid, but they wouldn’t listen.  Even at their tender ages they sense this isn’t normal.

One of them, the girl, the older child, reaches out and shakes the bars. They make an annoying pinging sound.

“Stop that,” I say. “Mummy’s not coming.”

She moves her hands off the bars, but I can see by her too wide eyes that my words have scared her. I stand up and walk towards the cage. Both children shrink back, cowering away from me and I feel a surge of empathy for them. I remember being that scared child. But this will toughen them up. I’m doing them a favour really.

I reach through the bars and stroke the girl’s cheek.

“Mummy’s fine. She’s just sleeping,” I say gently.

She recoils from my touch and I pull my hand back.

What, that surprises you? You think I’m some sort of monster who wants to touch children in a way that scares them? If that’s what you thought, then maybe you’re the one that’s sick. Anyway, I digress.

I suppose you must be wondering who I am and why I have Martha and her children imprisoned in their own basement.

Well I can’t tell you who I am. That would be a little reckless wouldn’t it? And I didn’t do all of this careful planning just to become reckless now.

What I can tell you is who Martha is. Martha is a woman I first met online. Oh get your head out of the gutter will you? It wasn’t a hook up site or anything like that. For the record, I will tell you a couple of things about me, just so you can picture this scene without assuming sex comes into it. I’m a straight female who is into adult males. How’s that?

So yeah. I met Martha online. It was late at night and I couldn’t sleep, so I was browsing around the internet. You know when you’re in that head space where you can’t concentrate on a movie or a book, but you’re too awake to sleep? That’s where I was.

I was just scrolling around, clicking on things that took my fancy, and I ended up on a page that was asking people to share controversial opinions in the comments. It seemed like a fun way to pass five minutes so I started looking through them. There where all the hate filled things you’d expect, and a lot of light hearted things from people who thought they were alone in their hatred of much loved movies or fictional characters.

And then something caught my eye. A commenter whose opinion was that every parent has a favourite child. As someone with a sibling who was very much the favourite, naturally, I read on.

To read the rest of this story (and the rest of the collection) don’t forget to grab your copy of Twisted Tales 3.

Let me know what you think of the book!

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