Fruit Of The Dead

They met at a vacation and from there, they fell in love. Their bond was short as fate separated them. But now, they are reunited, not as lovers like before but family. Their love still exists and lust exists in their hearts as well. They wish to have a taste of the forbidden fruit but they are unaware of the doom that lies in wait.

My father died of esophageal cancer. For the final two years of his life, he could barely swallow anything. By the time he passed, he was nothing but skin and bones. The first New Year after his death, he came to my mother in a dream. "I'm starving," he said. "I just want to taste the thick-cut steak you used to make." My mother believed it without question. That very day, she pan-seared a large platter of steak and carried it to his grave. The next morning, she suffered a sudden heart attack and died on the spot. Devastated, I handled my mother's funeral together with my husband. That same night, my husband dreamed of my father as well. "Chester," he said, "I haven't eaten in so long. I want your pâté, served with some strong liquor." When my husband woke up, he bought the finest liver pâté, opened a bottle of single-malt whiskey, and went straight to the grave. However, not long after returning home, he collapsed from acute liver failure. He was rushed to the ICU and died three days later. I was on the brink of collapse myself. I left my daughter in the care of a close friend while I tried to handle the endless wave of tragedy. That evening, my daughter never came home from school. I searched everywhere, and finally, on the road to the cemetery, I found her. She was clutching a bowl of spicy stew, several grilled sausages floating in the broth. "Mom," she said, "Grandpa and I used to eat this all the time. I dreamed he said he was hungry." I finally lost it. I knocked the bowl from her hands and carried her home. That night, my father appeared in my dream once more. "I suffered so much while alive," he said. "Have some pity on me. "New Year's is coming. I want to come home for a meal. Make sure you cook fish." I woke in terror. Holding my daughter, I sat before the three framed portraits for two full days without eating or drinking. On New Year's morning, I realized she was no longer breathing. Clutched tightly in her hand was a packet of spicy dried salmon. I could not believe it. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day my mother, her eyes red with worry, said she was going out to buy steak.

There are monsters in this world. And they used to be us. Now it's time to euthanize to survive in a hospice where Emily, a woman haunted by her past, only wants to do her job and be the best mother possible. Post-infection Chicago. Christmas. Inside The Hospice, Emily and her fellow nurses do their rounds. Here, men and women live out their final days in comfort, segregated from society, and are then humanely terminated before fate turns them into marrow-craving monsters known as ‘Smilers.’ Outside these imposing walls, rabid protesters swarm with signs, caught up in the heat of their hatred. Emily, a woman haunted by her past, only wants to do her job and be the best mother possible. But in a world where mortality means nothing, where guns are drawn in fear and nobody seems safe anymore – at what cost will this pursuit come? And through it all, the soon to be dead remain silent, ever smiling. Such is their curse. It won't be long before that snow-speckled ground will be salted by blood. ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing

Nocturne rules the underworld and is determined to never let a human live past their lifespan. One day he encounters Leo, a human who is supposed to die and is bold enough to offer himself to escape death. Nocturne accepts the bold offer and their love story begins. Soon it becomes clear that things are more complicated than they both realized and Nocturne has to chase down his love before he is lost forever.

“WAKE UP, DANIELA!” The death warning, yet rather a call that Daniela dreamed about after walking up in the series of chances, greed, sacrifices, and the seven deadly sins, and from an inevitable chance to turn back into time and run into the loop of space and dimension. To her life that was surrounded with lies, blessed fate, but curse destiny she is entwined to save the person who is long dead from the present that she never had in the first place. Now being stunned by the life she never dreams of having, she runs toward the series of miseries behind the hidden books of the reincarnated blood she bares. “Death reincarnated, that is your world and your book.” To the chances that were led by greed, longing or hope, will the past that alters by the son of darkness, will long be able to vanish? What if what everyone knew was a lie, and the lie that they are trying to run away from is the truth they are seeking after all? Will the world they are walking that is filled with the unknown they only knew will lead them to the truth of who is the clone from the original? Can she solve the puzzle of the first book in her world that revolves in the mystery of a tarot deck? From the series of reincarnation and dimension can she solve the real mystery of ‘Who is the real dead one?’

Jason and Annabel discover a horrifying side of themselves after going through abuse and neglect—they can bring death. Courted by a strange, shadowless creature, they find themselves elevated from a position of nothingness to power. They would stop at nothing to prove their loyalty to the creature. Perhaps not even at the risk of their own destruction... That is, until they discover other purposes and find themselves entangled in love's meddlesome tentacles.