Gore without fear is like sex without love; you’ll squirm, but it’s
better when your heart’s in it.
Distinguished Press is proud to launch Rabbit in Red, the first book in a
horror mystery series by Joe Chianakas!
Bill Wise has
blood in his past, so he turns to horror films to wipe it clean. Jaime Stein
has felt the betrayal of death, so she too takes refuge in the on-screen deaths
of others. Now Bill, Jaime, and seventeen other horror-loving teens have
gathered at Rabbit in Red Studios, the brainchild of eccentric horror producer
Jay “JB” Bell, for the terror-filled, blood-drenched contest of their lives.
JB has presented
this competition as a race between the best of the best that will reward the
winners with cash, internships, and a career making the movies they love. But
things aren’t always as they seem at Rabbit in Red, and soon life starts to
imitate art. Will Bill and Jaime be strong enough to confront real horror to
save their friends, or will they all fall victim to JB’s twisted plans?
This was the moment!
He seized a knife that was on the kitchen floor and stabbed the hand—his own
hand!—pinning it to the floor. He hesitated a moment, looking at this image in
front of him. It was the strangest thing Bill could have imagined. There he
was, on the floor of JB’s game chamber, but all around him he only saw the
infamous cabin in the woods from The Evil Dead. And he had stabbed his
own hand, but thankfully he felt no more than a sharp pinch. The knife was
virtual, but the glove was real, and whatever technology JB programmed in it,
the glove reacted in perfect real time to everything happening on screen.
He knew what he had to
do next, and he was both excited and terrified at the idea. This was the epic
moment with Ash in The Evil Dead. He had to cut off the possessed hand.
That was the only way to get rid of the evil, to not become fully possessed.
With his right hand pinned to the floor gushing out blood, Bill reached for the
chainsaw that Ash had used earlier in the movie, which of course happened to be
right next to him. Remembering this iconic scene from those younger memories
when he and his friends cheered, Bill picked up the chainsaw with his left
hand, bit on the cord and yanked it back with as much force as he could to
start the gas-powered hacking device and brought it down on his right arm. The
screeching noises, the loud mechanics of the saw, the crunching of bone, and
the splattering of blood coalesced in a cacophony of noises, an orchestra of
pain.
Bill cut off the hand.
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“Because you were home,” Bill whispered. “No
other reason than that they were home.” His body twitched for a moment, his
saddest, darkest memory stinging him like a wasp that appeared out of nowhere. Shake it off. No time for that now.
Their screens flashed CORRECT and the bloody rabbit danced.
Joe Chianakas is a professor of communication
at Illinois Central College in East Peoria, IL. He’s a super fan of horror and
literature. Rabbit in Red is his first published novel. He likes writing
in all sorts of genres from horror to traditional coming-of-age. In addition to
teaching and writing, he enjoys fitness, martial arts, and traveling. You can
find Joe online at www.joechianakas.com or www.facebook.com/chianakas/
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