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Other Titles By
R.M. Gilmore

Dylan Hart: Odyssey of The Occult Series

The Scene
– Available now in digital and paperback formats.

Endless Night
-
Available now in digit and paperback formats.
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Sacrifice
– Coming 2013

Lynnie Russell Trilogy

Becoming
– Available now in digital and paperback formats.
Read an excerpt
.

Existence
– Coming 2013

Apocalypse: An Anthology (Contributor)

Welcome to the End of the World
– Available now in digital

and paperback formats through Cynthia Shepp Editing Publications.
Read an excerpt

Endless Night

Dylan Hart Odyssey of The Occult book two

It always feels awkward being in Mike’s house. Standing in his living room, looking at pictures of us hanging on every wall, posted on every surface. It was weird to think he walked around in this house everyday with my face staring at him from every angle. I always wondered why he never took them down. I’d hung most of them there when we moved in and I left them right where they hung the day I walked out.  Apparently, so did he.

“You never know.” Mike said from the bathroom.

I looked in the direction of his voice to see a sliver of light around the door jamb; he hadn’t bothered closing the door.  I have to admit, it felt very natural talking to him through a crack in the bathroom door. Like nothing had ever changed. I leaned against the edge of the couch just down the hall from the bathroom and listened to the water running in the shower.

“Never know what?” I asked loud enough he could hear me over the running water.

Small wafts of steam puffed out from the opening in the door and with it the smell of his soap. I hadn’t had the pleasure of that smell in a long time. I closed my eyes and breathed in deep.

“The truth.” He said just after he turned the water off.

I could hear him moving around the small room. Clanking his toothbrush in the cup, opening and closing the medicine cabinet, all the little mundane tasks we take for granted every day.  Those little sounds of daily life pulled me back into a time I thought I’d almost forgotten. A time I was in love. A time I was safe and happy. A time I could never get back.

“And you do? Does anyone ever really know what’s real?” I asked, looking at a picture of the two of us that hung on the wall only inches from my head. We looked so happy. Big smiling faces and bright eyes. 

“Not usually, no. But you could, if you wanted to.” His voice came much clearer than it had before. I looked away from our shining faces to see Mike emerge from the bathroom, shower wet and towel clad.

He never met my eyes when he turned from the bathroom and walked away from me. The expanse of his thick shoulders lay totally exposed and the deep indent that trailed from between his shoulder blades to the small of his back shifted and moved with every step. I hadn’t forgotten what his body looked like, I just hadn’t thought about it in a while. An unconscious smirk and tweak of my brow reminded me of every moment I’d laid eyes on the better half of that man. Mike walked the short space between the bathroom and his bedroom door wearing only a small stark white towel around his waist. He seemed to not care a lick that I was in perfect eyeshot of his half-naked body. There was a part of me that was quite pleased with the situation. Then there was a part of me, the logical part, which said there is no way in hell this is ever going to happen. I happily ignored that part and enjoyed the view.

A few steps before he reached the privacy of his room, he pulled the towel from around his waist and brought it up to dry his wet hair. In that tiny second I caught a lovely glimpse of the back side I’d been missing for damn near two years.  Two dimples sat just above his nicely round cheeks and just below the curve of his back. My throat made a small noise before I caught it and moved on. The sight of something so long missed can wreak havoc on your psyche and that was the last damn thing I needed.

“What is it that you want?” I wasn’t sure where he was going with this conversation.  And seeing all that he had to offer, well, not all, but a lot, made me forget why I was standing in his living room in the first place.

“The same thing you do.” He came out of his room and walked down the hall toward me. He’d put on pants but not much else. His hair was still wet and messy from the shower.

He stopped a few feet from me, but I could still smell his soap. I tried hard not to look at the expanse of his chest and shoulders. He wasn’t a chiseled master piece, not even close. But he had the look of someone who could scoop you up in their arms and carry you to safety. Not that he’d ever tried to pick my fat ass up, but you get the idea. I tried to look him straight in the face as I had always been able to do, but all I could think about were those two little divots just above his ass. I my eyes jerked away and moved down his body more and caught at eyeful of the line of hair that led from the top of his jeans to his belly button.

Holy moly.

My breath caught in my throat, but I managed to squeak out, “What is it you think I want?” I decided looking at his face was probably the best idea.

He smiled and stepped closer. I like his smile. It makes his eyes crinkle on the sides.  Standing this close to Mike felt as natural as putting my shoes on, but I knew it wasn’t right. I knew there was no way this was a good thing. He was acting like nothing has changed. Like we were still…us.

“What’s wrong, babe?” He said looking down at me from his six foot three stature.

I just shook my head. I had no idea what to say. He’d never put me in this position before. Not in a long time had he been so…naked. I’d thought for so long it was completely over. That I was done with it. With us. I’d come to terms with it and moved on. My tenacity was the only reason we were able to stay some kind of friends.

He carried a look on his face that I hadn’t seen in so long. He looked like he was seeing straight into me. Like he was planning every moment with me from here on out. Like he’d never leave me. He’d die for me.

The muscles in his chest flexed and his hand came up and wrapped around the base of my neck. My heart literally stopped beating. I watched his face intently looking for some kind of motive. Waiting for the truth to rear its ugly head.

“When you run, I’m here.” He said confidently, as if it wasn’t a seriously weird thing to say. “Believe in nothing you can’t reach out and touch.”

Out of sheer compulsion, I reached out and touched his chest then. He was warm and solid.

“I love you, Dylan Hart.” His mouth said those words without hesitation, without an ounce of regret. He crooked his head and leaned down toward me then. The smell of his soap so strong I thought I’d climbed inside of him. Drops of water fell from his wet hair onto my face and trickled down my cheek like tears. Maybe they were. I didn’t care. I waited, ready, for him to kiss me. Wanting to remember so terribly what those kisses felt like and waiting for him to remind me.

I could feel the heat from his breathe touch my mouth. My breathing was heavy and my heart was pounding from my chest. I lifted myself up onto my tiptoes eagerly forcing my lips to meet his.

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Becoming

Lynnie Russell Trilogy

I woke up naked in the woods for the second time in two days. And like the morning before, I had blood on my hands. I looked around for a pile of bodies. There were none. The last thing I remembered was Garret chasing me through the woods. I couldn’t decide if that was better or worse. Was it better not to know who or what I maimed to have blood dried under my nails?  If the alternative was having to know I’d killed my only brother, it was better not to know, even for just a little while. Living in denial is perfectly acceptable if it’s only to keep you sane.

I told myself I’d killed an animal. Just an animal. My heart couldn’t accept anything more.

I was sitting in the center of a ring of trees that I knew wasn’t too far from my trailer. I’d never liked that spot before. I’d always heard tales of evil fairies that lived in those trees. Sounds downright stupid now, but coming up in Havana you don’t get much exposure to anything but what your mama and your friends tell you. Damned old superstitions. That’s what you get when you have too many old women in one room for too long.

I sat for a few minutes hoping memories would come back to me like they did before. Nothing happened. The last thing I remembered completely after I’d changed was watching Garret cry while he walked back to the house. After that it’s like someone turned off a light. There was nothing.

After a little while of sitting in the dirt and watching the sun come up through the trees a started thinking how I’d make it home naked as a jaybird. Garret should be at work, I thought. Unless he was so worried about me that he’d stayed home. Or I’d killed him. No, I shook my head wildly at the thought. No, I told myself, no it’s just not possible. He’s fine. He went home wondering where the hell I went off to and that’s all. I told myself this over and over again until I believed it.

“Lynnie?!” I damn near jumped out of my skin when I heard Hattie’s voice screaming in the woods. “Lynnie you out here?” She called out.

Where’s Garret? I asked myself. Maybe he went off to work, I thought. I hoped. I prayed. 

I sat very still. I didn’t even breathe. I knew there would be questions. Most of them I couldn’t answer without giving myself up to the law. Or starting a damn witch hunt.

“You see anything?” Garret asked her.

Damn
, I thought. Garret had stayed home from work. Then I thanked God he was alive, twice before I started worrying about what I did do. Lord knows what happened to me after Garret left me in the woods. Maybe I done something worse than kill Rusty. What if I sliced up some babies and puppies while I was that damn green dog and they were looking for the thing that done it?

I hated myself then. I couldn’t imagine feeling any lower than I did sitting in the woods, naked, and wondering if I’d killed some babies.

“Damn it, Lynnie!” Garret yelled out in a voice I knew was about to cry.

I thought maybe I could tell him. He would help me. But then he would know what I done to Rusty. He’d never forgive me. I felt helpless and alone.

Lord, I need you, I thought. Please help me. I don’t wanna die. I don’t wanna break my brother’s heart. Please help me. Please, Lord, please.

I was crying again. But I was silent, only tears. I pulled my knees to my chest and buried my face into my legs and waited for a miracle.

Courage built in me. It started at my toes, moved up through my legs, into my heart, and on up to my head. I jumped to my feet and started running without looking. I ran on legs that didn’t feel like mine. My feet hit the ground so fast they nearly didn’t make a sound when they flapped onto the dirt and leaves. My heart beat like a drum in my chest. I never looked back. I ran until I could see my old doublewide through the trees. I ran right over the paw tracks I’d made the night before and leapt through the broken window.

I collapsed on my bed the second my feet hit the mattress. I could hear Garret and Hattie talking far away in the woods behind the trailer. They didn’t see me. I had time. I left the comfort of my bed and grabbed some jeans and a T-shirt from my closet. I was pulling on my jeans while I ran out the front door. I’d gotten my keys from the table by the door before I let the screen door slam shut behind me.

I didn’t know where I was going but I knew I couldn’t stay there.

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Welcome to the End of the World

Apocalypse: An Anthology

It was a dark and stormy night.

Well, it might’ve been. I actually had no idea. I’d been shut away in my basement for damn near a week. At least, I think so. Can’t really tell day or night when you’re stuck underground. Something in your body has a general idea about the passing of time, but there is no sure way to measure time when there is no power and no sun.

A little over a week ago the earth decided to shift at its core. That’s what the last news flash that came through on TV had said anyway. This triggered massive earthquakes that demolished buildings, tore open the ground at our feet, and caused the cataclysmic eruption of a multitude of volatile volcanoes all over the world. What the molten lava didn’t destroy the earthquakes had. It took just over twenty-four hours to turn our beautiful earth to smoldering rubble. What humans and animals had survived were left strangled by black ash that floated through every inch of air and snuffed out the sun.

By some Godly miracle my husband and I survived. The earthquakes hadn’t touched our area with enough intensity to demolish our home completely and we are lucky enough to live at elevations high enough to protect us from the flowing lava. There were floods in other areas of the world from what I’d heard on a quick blurb of newscast over our tiny radio in the kitchen before the power cut out completely but, thankfully, that was nowhere near here.

When the sun hadn’t come back after a few days he and I made the rash decision to
hole up in the basement and wait it out. Our neighbors, what were left of them, were showing signs of hysteria and began fighting amongst themselves. Food was scarce and water was almost nonexistent. Some people were smart enough to fill their bathtubs or stock pile bottled water for such an event, but those people were few and far between.

My husband and I were grabbing what we could while we watched out our kitchen window. Someone we didn’t recognize was wandering the neighborhood, he was tall and lean, and carrying a large scythe as a weapon.
  

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