"I am a designer of experiences. Clients seek me out to enrich their lives; they contract for a particular sensation. By use of higher mathematics and the nature of substance vibration,
I collect the ingredients — sounds — which, if mixed correctly, will trigger chemicals in the human body and provide my clients with the desired event.
I have given the experience of a happy childhood to those deprived. I have given barren women babies to nurse. I have given grandchildren to young, terminally ill fathers, and I have given sight to those who are blind.
Most requests are basic, simple, and to the point. And so it seemed with this one, at first."
She can produce any experience you can desire. A rich man wants to experience death without dying. A job becomes obsession. And her obsession becomes a dangerous act. Legendary horror author Elizabeth Engstrom gives us a terrifying glimpse into the dangers of seeking out the one thing that hunts us down, without fail.
Elizabeth Engstrom is a speculative fiction author who was nominated in 1992 Bram Stoker Award for Best Fiction Collection for her book Nightmare Flower. Her anthology Dead on Demand: The Best of Ghost Story Weekend spent six months on the Library Journal “Best Seller List.” Her short story, “Crosley”, was picked to be included in The Thirteenth Annual Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, edited by Ellen Datlow. Her work has been published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Horror Show, American Fantasy Magazine, and Cemetery Dance.
In 2009, Apex Publications reissued Elizabeth’s first book, When Darkness Loves Us, and is available from our website.
MUSIC ASCENDING
Short Story, 3300 words
advertisement