title: All-American Horror of the 21st Century: The First Decade 2000-2010
author: Mort Castle
description: Mort Castle is a critically acclaimed author of seven novels, four fiction collections, and over 500 short stories. Castle edited On Writing Horror, the essential reference work for authors in the dark genre.
zlib_text: **Sapphire**
  
   **Rare Gems Series**
  
   **Book 1**
  
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  **By**
  
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  **Kathi S. Barton**
  
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  **World Castle Publishing, LLC**
  
    
  
    
  
  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are
  products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to
  be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locations,
  organizations, or person, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
  
   **WCP**
  
   **World Castle Publishing, LLC**
  
  Pensacola, Florida
  
  Copyright © Kathi S. Barton 2013
  
  ISBN: 9781629890050
  
  First Edition World Castle Publishing, LLC October 1, 2013
  
  <http://www.worldcastlepublishing.com>
  
   **Licensing Notes**
  
  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any
  manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief
  quotations embodied in articles and reviews.
  
  Cover: Karen Fuller
  
  Photos: Shutterstock
  
  Editor: Eric Johnston
  
    
  
  **Chapter 1**
  
    
  
  The house was not only too bi