Havok Publishing

Category - Thriller Thursday

S6 Daily Genre Banner - TH

One World in a Million

The rhythm of boots against the metal stairs rumbled through the complex louder than the sirens. Jake 257 covered his ears and ducked under the cafeteria table.
Demir 338 peeked down with a smirk. “That’s not the take-cover alarm.”
Lila 411 leaned next to him, pressing her headset to her ear. “Yeah, the emergency’s

Read it now
S6 Daily Genre Banner - TH

Words to Live By

Behind the shrubs would be a good place. The thought flitted through his mind as Andrei and his date walked through the dimly lit park.
The dinner had gone to plan. His petite partner had ordered the crab cakes as he’d encouraged her to, and he had smothered her with dessert and charm

Read it now
S6 Daily Genre Banner - TH

Dust to Dust

First thing you have to do with a dead body is bury it.
The year was 1862. Yellowstone country. Where no explorer dared tread alone. Shovel in hand, I dug a grave for Darryl Evans and scooped the dirt over his corpse.
After a short prayer, I said my goodbye while an orange

Read it now
S6 Daily Genre Banner - TH

The Ruby Cross

The sunken cathedral walls swallow me as I lower myself through the depths, past the missing roof, one hand gripping my tether, the other cradling my flashlight.
“Jamaica?” Rasheed’s voice crackles through my headset. “You got eyes on the rubies yet?”
Before I answer, I swing my flashlight across the cathedral walls.

Read it now
S6 Daily Genre Banner - TH

Rust Bucket

It’s been weeks—months, maybe—since the world ended. Since my city burned. But the smoke lingers, turning the sky gray-gold.
I catch my breath in the shade of a dune, listening for something beyond the hollow rasp of wind over sand.
Trolls never give up once they have the scent

Read it now
S6 Daily Genre Banner - TH

Consigned to the Dark

The sinking sun cast the world in a sparkling, amber glow and my skin prickled with the desire to bask in the radiance. Of their own accord, my fingers escaped the confines of the shadows and found the sun’s rays. A smile spread across my face as the warmth bathed my skin.

Read it now
S6 Daily Genre Banner - TH

Potts vs. the Museum of Doom

“Coppelia, the next time a cursed mummy comes to life and you think it’s a great chance to pretend to be Indiana Jones, leave me out of it!” Wolfgang Potts puffed as the two siblings darted down a dark museum hallway, lit by their flashlights and red emergency lights.
Coppelia shoved the sign

Read it now
S6 Daily Genre Banner - TH

Black Hole in a Bottle

Simon’s Magickry was not like any traditional magician’s shop. There were no shelves cluttered with ancient books and talismans. There were no candles or crystal balls, nor was the shop musty or dark.
Instead, well-polished white floors reflected the dazzling radiance of the ceiling’s LEDs, filling the shop with brilliance. Plastic-sleeved magic kits

Read it now
S6 Daily Genre Banner - TH

These Dark Medicinal Arts

The bullet whistled and bit.
Roland Chadwick, Deputy U.S. Marshal, pressed a scarred hand against his blood-soaked shirt and half collapsed against the hotel’s cellar stairwell. Gunshots resounded outside where a gang of hired guns patrolled the frontier town’s streets with revolvers drawn.
The marshal stumbled down to the bottom step, where gaslight illuminated

Read it now
S6 Daily Genre Banner - TH

Shiner

“Tell us how y’all got that shiner, Cap?” Private Cordone’s voice crackled over the comms. I couldn’t remember his full name, Something Something Cordone IV.
I shook my head and closed my thermos, suppressing a sigh. Ever since I’d reported for duty with a black eye, the squad hadn’t been able to

Read it now
S6 Daily Genre Banner - TH

To Capture a Manticore

Kevin had only been in this new, magical land for five minutes, and already something was trying to kill him.
The life of a world-hopping hero must be a short one.
“What is that thing?” Kevin shouted, ducking behind a crumbling, ivy-covered wall. An iron spike embedded in a crack in the wall, quivering

Read it now
S6 Daily Genre Banner - TH

Out of Hell

“We’re clear of the stockade. Twenty yards or so.” Corporal Tiller’s sullied head emerged from the hole, poking into the shade of the primitive lean-to. “I reckon we run like hell, we can reach a river by dawn. Lord willing.”
Lieutenant Roland Chadwick helped the Union soldier from the tunnel’s entrance. Tiller

Read it now