Today we are happy to share a creepy excerpt from the new book THE BOOK OF SOULS by Kevin Moore. The author of “Christmas Stories 7 Original Short Stories”, Moore delivers a spellbinding paranormal thriller as 40-something Jack Kelly travels into his 13-year-old self with the sudden ability to interact with the dead and battles demons. The first half of a duology, The Book of Souls (March 8, 2022, Books Fluent) is based on true events in Kevin Moore’s life and his ability to use lucid dreaming to speak with his passed loved ones. Foreword Clarion Review says, “An eerie tone permeates the entire story, with even mundane events feeling off-kilter. The whole cast seems to have multiple personas, all tinged with darkness.”
“The Book of Souls” is his first novel. Based on a true event, Moore considers this a “self help book, which just happens to be a paranormal thriller. The sequel “The Book of Demons” will be released October 11, 2022.
Outside the crypts, I see a man meandering around, causing me to hesitate. He looks my way. Do I know him? I feel like I do. Before I can get a good look, he leaves. I find the crypt of Susan and Mitch Michaels — they died on the same day. The date of death aligns with what the woman from Peter’s building told me. I’m getting a migraine!
I look around at the other crypts and get a feeling, a dusting of energy, a scent, a chill that the man left behind. It makes me aware of how light my jacket is or maybe how thin my skin is beginning to feel. Kasper Greenstreet’s plot is nothing special. Not for a famous artist. It’s just an ordinary gravesite. He died within a year of the Michaels. Above me, a flock of crows appear, making ghastly noises. Not their usual sound. Crows are not typically referred to as a flock; they live in a group called “a murder.” Did you know that? I read it somewhere… Crows don’t scare me, but this cemetery just got really creepy. A murder is not the only name for a group of crows, of course. They are sometimes called a horde, or a muster. But a MURDER fits them better with the sounds they make, the darkness that is coming, the ominous feeling now blanketing me. The man I saw earlier at the Michaels’ crypt suddenly stands a few feet from me. It is as if the crows have delivered him to me, or me to him.
My instinct is to run. I am dealing with myth, a hoax, a superstition, but what do you call it when I see it? Meet it? A spirit, a ghost, that is alive and dead at the same time. My body and soul are not pleased! It is like getting hit with the coldest and hottest day of the year within seconds of each other. Like the happiest emotion you may ever experience within a moment of your worst. I am frozen, only in some bizarre way I expect him to introduce himself.
“You’ve been looking for me? Well, here I am.”
Kasper Greenstreet is the man I’ve been watching from my classroom, but he looks much different up close. His complexion is ash, his wrists reveal his exit wounds, and blood appears to seep from them like a slow dripping faucet.
What I feel is not fear—it is greater than that! None of the dead come back, but some stay…
