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    11:59
    11:59
    11:59
    Ebook77 pages1 hour

    11:59

    By C.S. Poe

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    About this ebook

    Asuka Kawashima is a man without dreams.

     

    Nightmares plague humanity and cross into the waking world—chasing after their dreamers and transforming them into hideous monsters that haunt New York City at night. When Asuka is faced with the choice of either dying or selling his soul to the Devil, he offers it in exchange for the chance to continue protecting people. But the Devil is sly, and while he takes Asuka's ability to dream, making him immune to nightmares, it also removed Asuka's abstract sense of dreaming. Now life is gray, hopeless, and without wishes.

     

    A chance meeting five years later leads Asuka to Merrick Grace, a man who, despite the dismal world around them, still believes there will be a day when monsters cease to exist. When the Devil reappears, asking for a favor in return for his soul, Asuka must make another difficult decision….

     

    If the chance to dream again—to share a life with Merrick, full of hope and happiness—is worth the risk of almost certain death.

     

    Previously featured in the Devil Take Me anthology.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherEmporium Press
    Release dateMay 6, 2020
    ISBN9781952133176
    Author

    C.S. Poe

    C.S. Poe is a Lambda Literary and two-time EPIC award finalist, and a FAPA award-winning author of gay mystery, romance, and speculative fiction. She resides in New York City, but has also called Key West and Ibaraki, Japan home in the past. She has an affinity for all things cute and colorful and a major weakness for toys. C.S. is an avid fan of coffee, reading, and cats. She’s rescued two cats—Milo and Kasper do their best to distract her from work on a daily basis. C.S. is an alumna of the School of Visual Arts. Her debut novel, The Mystery of Nevermore, was published 2016. cspoe.com

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      Book preview

      11:59 - C.S. Poe

      11:59

      by

      C.S. Poe

      This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

      11:59

      Copyright © 2018, 2020 by C.S. Poe

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise—without prior written permission of the publisher, except as provided by United States of America copyright law. For permission requests and all other inquiries, contact: [email protected]

      Published by Emporium Press

      https://www.cspoe.com

      [email protected]

      Cover Art by Reese Dante

      Cover content is for illustrative purposes only and any person depicted on the cover is a model.

      Published 2020.

      First Edition published 2018. Second Edition 2020.

      Printed in the United States of America

      Digital eBook ISBN: 978-1-952133-17-6

      11:59

      By: C.S. Poe

      Asuka Kawashima is a man without dreams.

      Nightmares plague humanity and cross into the waking world—chasing after their dreamers and transforming them into hideous monsters that haunt New York City at night. When Asuka is faced with the choice of either dying or selling his soul to the Devil, he offers it in exchange for the chance to continue protecting people. But the Devil is sly, and while he takes Asuka’s ability to dream, making him immune to nightmares, it also removed Asuka’s abstract sense of dreaming. Now life is gray, hopeless, and without wishes.

      A chance meeting five years later leads Asuka to Merrick Grace, a man who, despite the dismal world around them, still believes there will be a day when monsters cease to exist. When the Devil reappears, asking for a favor in return for his soul, Asuka must make another difficult decision….

      If the chance to dream again—to share a life with Merrick, full of hope and happiness—is worth the risk of almost certain death.

      For the heroes.

      Every journey matters.

      I

      The first time Asuka Kawashima met the Devil, he had been falling headfirst from the thirty-third floor of One Penn Plaza.

      Want to make a deal?

      Suspended downward, Asuka stared at the face of a gentleman with the highly particular yet slightly indescribable features of a century long since past. New York City and Asuka’s inevitable death lay as a backdrop to the blond in a three-piece suit with a high collar, tapping an unlit cigarette against a silver case in one hand. Shards of broken glass hung in the air around Asuka, reflecting the tungsten orange glow of the city at night.

      Wh-what?

      The tip of the cigarette burned, smoke curling in lazy circles around the blond.

      Asuka didn’t remember seeing him light it.

      "If you could have anything," the blond said, smiling a smile just this side of inhuman, what would it be?

      I want to save people.

      The blond angled his head and blew smoke devoid of the heady scent of tobacco from his lips. He reached his free hand up and touched the badge pinned to Asuka’s beat cop uniform, as if amused by the irony of his comment. Are you certain?

      What choice do I have?

      The blond glanced down at the city far below and then smiled once more at Asuka. His stare was endless. Bottomless. Piercing.

      Asuka looked away.

      I can make you immune to dreaming. The nightmares will never find you. You will never be transformed into one of the monsters you’ve witnessed tonight. But the cost will be great.

      Asuka swallowed hard. He looked at the Devil again. A soul.

      "Your soul, my sweet little bird."

      The wind began to blow.

      And one by one, the shattered pieces of glass began to fall.

      Deal, Asuka whispered.

      11:59 p.m.

      II

      On the third floor of a multiuse building on East Tenth Street is a ninety-eight square foot apartment. There’s a nail hammered into the unfinished brick wall with five years’ worth of calendars hanging from it, each date with a number written beside it. They appear random.

      August 2nd does not yet have a notation.

      The light in the shoebox apartment is always on. There’s a shelf above the radiator with a stockpile of incandescent bulbs. Energy inefficient they may be, but the monsters avoid the glow far more than the now-standard CFL lights.

      Next to an unmade bed, there’s a small table stacked with empty microwavable bowls—instant ramen. Mostly chicken flavor.

      This is where Asuka Kawashima lives.

      He sits naked on the edge of the bed, his head in his hands, his long black hair covering his face.

      A news channel murmurs quietly on the television mounted

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