Illustration by Eric Williams www.ewillustration.com
I am excited to release my first short stories online called Chasing the Dragon. Through two tales of terror and supernatural suspense, I explore the phenomena of addictions and obsession. The stories are available below to read for free. These are PDF files so it may be necessary to have Adobe Acrobat Reader in order to open them. Thank you to all those who have supported the ongoing success of my first novel, Shadows in the Mist. Enjoy these stories and feel free to pass them on to friends.
Brian Moreland
Chasing the Dragon–I’ve always thought of China as a mystical place. A land of ancient secrets. During my three visits to Hong Kong, I discovered that beyond the city’s neon signs, hi-tech shopping, and flashy skyline, lie worlds within worlds. With each narrow street I explored I felt as if I were stepping back in time. This, of course, got my imagination going. What if I got lost in Hong Kong and discovered that behind her bright lights and beauty was a dark realm waiting to seduce me? In the first short story “Chasing the Dragon,” you will meet Nick Meyers, an American searching Hong Kong’s underworld for his missing lover, a Chinese woman whose life was just as much a riddle as her disappearance. Nick’s only clues to solving an ancient mystery are a dragon tattoo and a message from a fortune cookie: Happiness lies between two worlds.
The Dealer of Insatiable Needs–I’ve always been fascinated by addictions. How they can sink their claws into you. Tempt you to repeat a habit that feels so good in the moment, while over time, the beast secretly destroys the body and mind from the inside out. In “The Dealer of Insatiable Needs” it is the not-so-distant future. A new government, in an attempt to make America addiction-free, has banned all of our vices, including alcohol, cigarettes, and porn. In Los Angeles, on the front line of the nation’s War on Drugs, undercover vice cop Alex Decker walks a very thin line between upholding the new laws and battling his own cravings to feed the beast within.
