by Zachary T. Owen

“Favors From Hell” is featured in Zachary’s new book from Grindhouse Press, Burn Down The House And Everyone In It.

ZACHARY T. OWEN is the author of BEAUTIES IN THE DEEP and BURN DOWN THE HOUSE AND EVERYONE IN IT. His work has been featured in many print and online magazines. Sometimes he uses a pen name. He is a resident of Pennsylvania. He grew up on Sega Genesis and horror films. You can find him on Twitter.

Your narrator – Misty Dawn describes herself as part warrior and part pacifist, owing to her Comanche and Cherokee heritage. She credits her mother with encouraging her two greatest loves: music and horror, and H.P. Lovecraft and Stephen King with teaching her to embrace the darkest corners of her imagination, and to coax those things living within to come out and play. She hopes to create a YouTube channel and is working on redesigning her blog, Deadtime Musings, from Dusk to Misty Dawn, to include short stories of horror, both real and imagined as well as poetry and lyrics, also of a dark nature. A Navy brat who grew up abroad, she settled in San Francisco, attending UC Berkeley, where she received a BA in Drama/Communications.

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When I was eight years old I choked on the smoke from my Uncle’s cigar as he drove me to the toy store. My two year old brother slept soundly, buckled into his child safety seat in the back of Ernie’s Desoto.

‘Before we get there I need a favor,’ Ernie said, his mouth wide and his eyes staring at my blouse. He pulled off the road and stopped the car in an alley. ‘It will only take a minute, just you see,’ he promised. He leaned back in his seat and let out a long breath. His cigar smoke filled the car and my lungs.

He was right. It didn’t take long.

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