The Welcome to another edition of Nightmarefews and Peepers.

I'm Dan Cummins, and I'll be sharing another original short story of the fictional horror variety.

Spent a lot of time prepping a bunch of

backstory for this one. We returned to the dark world for at least three sequential episodes,

maybe four. Depends on how much you're enjoying this story after the first two installments.

Reconnected with Lizzie Chavez as well. I really wanted to more properly get to know her.

You can go back and revisit her appearances and sometimes sometimes the darkness wins too, or the second installment of the unknown caller story, if you'd like to, but I don't think you need to.

I think the story will stand just fine on its own.

I highly recommend noise cancellation headphones for the ultimate experience.

Really hope you enjoy this new nightmare.

Time now for the tale of Sam I.L.'s curse.

When Layton Pruitt came to, he was bound in bleeding in the trunk of someone's car. He knew

the basics of how he got there, but he didn't know who had taken him, or why.

The blood came from a large smattering of scrapes and scratches and varying degrees of severity,

all along the right side of his body, from when he'd bounced off of and then slid along the pavement.

His wounds were fresh, from when some psycho had smashed into his bike sometime earlier

in the evening, maybe a few minutes earlier, or maybe an hour. He couldn't tell. He'd been headed home

from a show at Dantes, where he'd gone to catch a couple of regional skate punk and stoner rock bands.

Before he'd even managed to fully stand up and began to assess how badly he'd been hurt,

some guy, or at least he assumed it was a man, he never actually saw him,

was covering his mouth and nose with a damp rag that smelled a bit like rubbing alcohol.

He also assumed this man was whoever had hit him.

...