Alone in the Dark

In the town of Welton, in the 1990's, Ansel Obsidian had the singular dream of launching his own megachurch and changing the face of Christianity in North Carolina forever. Though he encountered stiff opposition from the town, and struggled for years with getting the land to establish his great work, Ansel was focused, day in and day out,on bolstering his congregation, saving the souls of Falon County, and raising funds to purchase a building somewhere through Christian Skate Nights, raffles, and door-to-door doughnut sales.

What Ansel, and his wife Roma, failed to notice, was what sort of effect Welton, and their endless devotion to Christianity, was having on their son, Grayson. Already angry over being forced to leave everything he had found in Bellburo behind, he would spend those same years being bullied, manipulated, and lied to. He would rebel against everything he had ever been taught, and would smoke, drink, fight, skip school, and very nearly did worse, in the name of getting his parents to notice him. He would delve into witchcraft and the occult to anger their god and upset his parents megachurch plans. And he didn't care what these things would cost him. In fact, he hoped that he could rebel hard enough to goad God into striking him down. There was no way his parents could ignore that.

The question was, would his rebellion and suicidal gambit work? Or would even God ignore him and the darkness brewing in his soul?


Alone in the Dark is a collection of four novellas in the Tales of the Obsidian Outcast series, Blackhole Son, Hurt, Rat in a Cage, and The Devil in My Soul.