first communions

a collection of dark fiction

Geoffrey Girard first appeared in Writers of the Future and has since written and sold more than sixty short stories of dark fantasy, science fiction, and horror. Collected here, for the first time, are sixteen of his best, and darkest, tales.

The man who collects chips of bone from his willing victims
A legendary evil is adopted by a small, and thankful, village
The doomed girl invited to take part in a deliberate tragedy
A horrific church choir assembled after the zombie apocalypse
The boy who harvests spiders for a shadowy woman of magic
A fearsome town where the children’s nightmares are all real
The pain, price and beauty of blood and first loves

From the curse of ancient evils to futuristic retirement homes where the dead still rule, haunted graveyards, planets of torture where all are equal, hockey-playing demon hunters, dark sorcerers battling in Algeria, and even voodoo-cursed pirates. Explore the darkest, and most majestic, extremes of us all in sixteen unique tales that will entertain, horrify and keep you thinking long after the last page is turned.

Let the communion begin…

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Translatio
Collecting James
For Restful Death I Cry
Dark Harvest
Not Fade Away
Unto the Lord a New Song
Release Me
Psychomachia
Universal Adaptor
Misdirection
What You Know
H.E. Double Hockey Sticks
Where the Shadow Ended
Dead in the Water
Crawl
First Communions
Story Notes

Cover art by Anjo Matko