The story will continue in:
“Victor Chaldeon In and Out of Phase”
Afterword
The origins of this story go back further than any other in this collection. Several years ago, I read a newspaper article about a man whose missing wife had been murdered and locked in a freezer in their basement. For weeks, in his case, he lived above the corpse of the very person he and the authorities were trying to find!
I don’t remember all the details any longer, but I do remember the man being quoted as saying he had been experiencing “dreams of his wife in a cold, dark place.” This story haunted me until I finally decided to create a similar account of my own, and then crank the possible supernatural elements of the real man’s dreams up a notch and see where that led.
The first draft of “The Portal,” written with pen and paper, was completed over a month or so on lunch hours and marathon weekend writing sessions. I had a couple friends read it and they agreed with me—it was an interesting idea, that the wife would be resurrected and take revenge, but there was not enough “how” or “why.”
Thus, the story sat around for a long time, being known as “The One with the Dead Wife in the Freezer.” I changed it from omniscient narration to first person, and that gave it more life, but still it did not see the light of day.
Then, as I began to develop the Fractured Realms, it became clear that the “how” and “why” offered by that overall concept could provide some excitement and cohesiveness to this tale as well, and make it part of something more, rather than being just a stand-alone gruesome piece about a corpse walking out of a freezer.
I have at least two more Victor Chaldean novellas planned. “Victor Chaldean In and Out of Phase” will be included in my second collection.