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Incubus
What if...a stranger with a knife ripped away the love of your life?
What if...that love came back to you?
What if...that love looked the same, but you knew it couldn't really be him?
Incubus is the haunting--and haunted--tale of Oliver and Ryan, a young couple who have traveled to Montreal from Chicago to get married. It's late and they're on their way home from their honeymoon, and their trip on Chicago's el trains and subways is fraught with strange characters, one a biker-jacket-clad man who urges them to "Get close to Lucifer!" But the oddest stranger they encounter is a man in a zippered leather mask who waits for them in an underground parking garage with a knife. Only one of the men will emerge from this encounter alive.
Oliver's depression overwhelms him, having seen his hope for a new life with his new husband squashed in an instant. He feels so alone. Or is he? When Ryan begins to appear to him again in the dark, and to make love to him, Oliver is happy...and in denial. He ignores this new Ryan's cold touch, his strange eyes, and the odd burns Ryan's touch leaves on his skin.
Has Oliver's despair and desire for his lost love opened a door to something dark and terrifying? Is the Ryan who returns to him really the Ryan he loves, or a demonic imposter? And when love is brutally ripped away, will Oliver decide it doesn't matter?
With Incubus, Rick R. Reed merges his talent for horror with a tragic love story and the result is...chilling...
Gay / Dark Fantasy / Horror / Paranormal / Psychic Phenomena
- GenresParanormalM M RomanceGay
48 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 1, 2009
About the author
Rick R. Reed
118 books1,049 followersReal Men. True Love.
Rick R. Reed is an award-winning and bestselling author of more than sixty works of published fiction, spanning genres such as horror, psychological suspense and love stories. He is a Lambda Literary Award finalist and a multiple Rainbow Award winner.
Entertainment Weekly has described his work as “heartrending and sensitive.” Lambda Literary has called him: “A writer that doesn’t disappoint…”
Find him at www.rickrreedreality.blogspot.com. Rick lives in Palm Springs, CA, with his two rescue dogs, Kodi and Joaquin.
Rick R. Reed is an award-winning and bestselling author of more than sixty works of published fiction, spanning genres such as horror, psychological suspense and love stories. He is a Lambda Literary Award finalist and a multiple Rainbow Award winner.
Entertainment Weekly has described his work as “heartrending and sensitive.” Lambda Literary has called him: “A writer that doesn’t disappoint…”
Find him at www.rickrreedreality.blogspot.com. Rick lives in Palm Springs, CA, with his two rescue dogs, Kodi and Joaquin.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
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October 4, 2009I need to take a decision: or stopping reading any fiction by Rick R. Reed involving the El Train in Chicago or having my heart at peace that when the characters enter the subway anything of normal will happen. In this short story Oliver is coping with the loss of his partner, and husband of only few days, Ryan and he is not doing it well. Ryan was killed on the day they were coming back from their honeymoon, at night, just out of the subway.
In the months after the event, Oliver has replayed every moment of that ride on the El Train and the few steps they took before Ryan's killing. That is probably the strength of the story, the author plays with the reader's mind as he is playing with Oliver's: is it all real, or is it only an illusion? The events Oliver is replaying are really happened, or he is slowly descending into craziness. Oliver has even given an hint towards this second option, saying that craziness runs in his family even before all went to hell.
There is a big love story but this is not a romance. It's clear that Oliver and Ryan were perfect together, and probably if nothing happened to Ryan, Oliver would have never shown any mental issue. But the reader has only few chance to enjoy that love, few brief moments before the tragedy. They are not enough for a romantic reader. After that, it's all an horror tale, and even when the incubus comes back to haunt Oliver, it's not love, and Oliver is well aware of it.
So no, if you are a committed romance reader and what your are searching is a fairy tale love story, Incubus is not probably your choice. But if you consider that this is only a short story, and that often short stories lack in originality to be only a sex scene, maybe well written, but nothing more, than Incubus is surely something more than that, and it's worth a try.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002NOGDW0/?...
In the months after the event, Oliver has replayed every moment of that ride on the El Train and the few steps they took before Ryan's killing. That is probably the strength of the story, the author plays with the reader's mind as he is playing with Oliver's: is it all real, or is it only an illusion? The events Oliver is replaying are really happened, or he is slowly descending into craziness. Oliver has even given an hint towards this second option, saying that craziness runs in his family even before all went to hell.
There is a big love story but this is not a romance. It's clear that Oliver and Ryan were perfect together, and probably if nothing happened to Ryan, Oliver would have never shown any mental issue. But the reader has only few chance to enjoy that love, few brief moments before the tragedy. They are not enough for a romantic reader. After that, it's all an horror tale, and even when the incubus comes back to haunt Oliver, it's not love, and Oliver is well aware of it.
So no, if you are a committed romance reader and what your are searching is a fairy tale love story, Incubus is not probably your choice. But if you consider that this is only a short story, and that often short stories lack in originality to be only a sex scene, maybe well written, but nothing more, than Incubus is surely something more than that, and it's worth a try.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002NOGDW0/?...
September 16, 2019
It really freaks me out, because I will be certainly act like Oliver, and the desesperation that break his mine.
I enjoy/aterrorizó read this book, and the guilty, God!
I enjoy/aterrorizó read this book, and the guilty, God!
August 19, 2011
http://threedollarbillreviews.com/201...
Oliver and Ryan are returning from their marriage and honeymoon in Montreal to their home in Chicago. Unfortunately after spending every last penny they’d saved on the wedding, the guys must rely on cheap, public transportation to get them home. While on their long ride on the el, the men encounter a few truly strange individuals, but it is the one at the end of the trip that rips apart their lives. Barely a block from home, Oliver and Ryan pass a dark stranger, a mysterious man in a leather hood with a zipper across the mouth. Although Ryan wants to avoid the man, Oliver simply wants to get home and they continue on their path…into disaster. The hooded man grabs Oliver and pulls him into the nearby parking garage, and when Ryan makes a move to save his husband, he pays the ultimate price. One push of a switchblade into Ryan’s neck, and the next thing Oliver knows he’s on the ground watching his husband die. Oliver’s life is ripped apart, and he’s barely living due to his overwhelming grief, and when Ryan appears to him, Oliver is willing to overlook the small details that prove this isn’t his lover.
This is not your typical story, and it’s one that has left me quite a bit confused. I have to admit that I’ve only read through the story once, and I have a feeling that this is one of the stories that needs multiple readings to grasp what the author is intending. At the same time, I never put it past Reed to provide a story that leaves the majority of questions open for the reader to answer, and this could easily fall into that category.
Reed sets up Oliver’s grief quite well, starting with the descriptions of their closeness and happiness from their time away from vacation. The beginning of the story is filled with questions, as Oliver is haunted by the decisions he made, wishing he had done things differently that night. However, as much as he might try to change things, the end result is always the same. The depth of despair and anguish at the loss of his husband comes through clearly on the pages, and Oliver is left as a shell of a man. This part of the story worked for me, and my heart was breaking for Oliver.
"Oliver was surrounded by people: people in high-rises, people in cars rushing by, people coming in and out of bars and discount stores less than a block away on Granville. People everywhere…and not one of them heard him screaming."
Unfortunately it was the second half of the story that took a tight turn into the strange and decidedly paranormal that left me unsure of the tale. The title suggests that an incubus is involved, a male demon who sexually preys upon human beings, and the description of Oliver’s “sharp cry of pain at the ice of [Ryan’s] penis as it rammed into him” seems to make it quite clear who is the incubus. Unfortunately there is really no explanation given as to how Ryan returns, or why. Is this being really Ryan or is it a demon using the image of Ryan to prey upon Oliver? I can’t answer that question, and it is most definitely left to the reader to decide.
Still, that’s not the part of the story that confused me the most. It was the ending, as Oliver seeks out the man in the leather biker jacket from the tunnel between el lines who was shouting “Get close to Lucifer!” when Oliver and Ryan passed by on that fateful night. Oliver encounters a woman with a baby on the way to find the biker, and what that means I really don’t know, but Oliver does find who he’s looking for, which drives to the conclusion of the story. What that conclusion means I’m still not clear on, and I think it's up to each reader to interpret.
The writing is solid, and as Oliver is the focus of the story he is given more development than Ryan. His emotional turmoil was clear to me as a reader, but it was the descent into the paranormal aspects of the story that left me unsure where the story was trying to go. This may not be my favorite story of Reed’s, but I am still thinking about it well after I finished reading. This is the kind of story I would love to talk about with other readers, as I wonder if they saw things that I missed with my reading. This is a dark, cruel tale that will definitely leave you wondering when you finish reading.
Oliver and Ryan are returning from their marriage and honeymoon in Montreal to their home in Chicago. Unfortunately after spending every last penny they’d saved on the wedding, the guys must rely on cheap, public transportation to get them home. While on their long ride on the el, the men encounter a few truly strange individuals, but it is the one at the end of the trip that rips apart their lives. Barely a block from home, Oliver and Ryan pass a dark stranger, a mysterious man in a leather hood with a zipper across the mouth. Although Ryan wants to avoid the man, Oliver simply wants to get home and they continue on their path…into disaster. The hooded man grabs Oliver and pulls him into the nearby parking garage, and when Ryan makes a move to save his husband, he pays the ultimate price. One push of a switchblade into Ryan’s neck, and the next thing Oliver knows he’s on the ground watching his husband die. Oliver’s life is ripped apart, and he’s barely living due to his overwhelming grief, and when Ryan appears to him, Oliver is willing to overlook the small details that prove this isn’t his lover.
This is not your typical story, and it’s one that has left me quite a bit confused. I have to admit that I’ve only read through the story once, and I have a feeling that this is one of the stories that needs multiple readings to grasp what the author is intending. At the same time, I never put it past Reed to provide a story that leaves the majority of questions open for the reader to answer, and this could easily fall into that category.
Reed sets up Oliver’s grief quite well, starting with the descriptions of their closeness and happiness from their time away from vacation. The beginning of the story is filled with questions, as Oliver is haunted by the decisions he made, wishing he had done things differently that night. However, as much as he might try to change things, the end result is always the same. The depth of despair and anguish at the loss of his husband comes through clearly on the pages, and Oliver is left as a shell of a man. This part of the story worked for me, and my heart was breaking for Oliver.
"Oliver was surrounded by people: people in high-rises, people in cars rushing by, people coming in and out of bars and discount stores less than a block away on Granville. People everywhere…and not one of them heard him screaming."
Unfortunately it was the second half of the story that took a tight turn into the strange and decidedly paranormal that left me unsure of the tale. The title suggests that an incubus is involved, a male demon who sexually preys upon human beings, and the description of Oliver’s “sharp cry of pain at the ice of [Ryan’s] penis as it rammed into him” seems to make it quite clear who is the incubus. Unfortunately there is really no explanation given as to how Ryan returns, or why. Is this being really Ryan or is it a demon using the image of Ryan to prey upon Oliver? I can’t answer that question, and it is most definitely left to the reader to decide.
Still, that’s not the part of the story that confused me the most. It was the ending, as Oliver seeks out the man in the leather biker jacket from the tunnel between el lines who was shouting “Get close to Lucifer!” when Oliver and Ryan passed by on that fateful night. Oliver encounters a woman with a baby on the way to find the biker, and what that means I really don’t know, but Oliver does find who he’s looking for, which drives to the conclusion of the story. What that conclusion means I’m still not clear on, and I think it's up to each reader to interpret.
The writing is solid, and as Oliver is the focus of the story he is given more development than Ryan. His emotional turmoil was clear to me as a reader, but it was the descent into the paranormal aspects of the story that left me unsure where the story was trying to go. This may not be my favorite story of Reed’s, but I am still thinking about it well after I finished reading. This is the kind of story I would love to talk about with other readers, as I wonder if they saw things that I missed with my reading. This is a dark, cruel tale that will definitely leave you wondering when you finish reading.
February 6, 2010
This is an odd short story without much context and with a weird premise. Oliver and Ryan live in Chicago and are returning from Canada where they combined a wedding and honeymoon into one trip. The blurb is incorrect about that detail. Ryan and Oliver are attacked close to their apartment and Ryan is tragically killed. Oliver is drowning in grief when Ryan suddenly returns, but he’s not the same man Oliver knew.
The story itself is very short and choppy. The first 15 pages or so sets up the scene of Oliver and Ryan returning home on the el train and all the various weird folks they encounter on the journey. This is to lure both men into complacency when confronted with another odd individual so close to their apartment. After Ryan’s death, the next 15 pages or so deals with Oliver’s overwhelming grief. The implication in the story is that Ryan was somehow changed into an incubus, which leads Oliver to seek out a strange man with answers. Unfortunately, this is poorly executed and comes off more as confusing and random than in keeping with the incubus lore and context.
How Ryan became an incubus is a mystery as well as the story never actually identifies Ryan as such. He could be a figment of Oliver’s imagination for what information the story offers. The entire scene following Ryan’s “return” with Oliver and the homeless man in the subway is bizarre and again without much needed context and understanding. Instead each scene seems disconnected and separate, oddly put together to form a disjointed story. Adding to that is the ending, which has no resolution and no purpose per se, the entire story suffers from lack of coherent progression.
The individual elements may have worked if more effort was put into the second half of the story and explained how Ryan re-appeared and what exactly he was. Unfortunately the scene where Oliver scurries under his bed when his mom visits is ridiculous, corny, and totally unbelievable. That bed would have to sit pretty high off the ground for a “big guy” to get under it and then his whispers are just odd. This short story ultimately doesn’t work, even with the engaging beginning. The author is very talented and often has deft skill with horror elements but here failed to give enough context and information to work the theme of the Incubus into the story in an interesting and fascinating way. Instead the story is simply weird with unattractive characters, an ill executed premise and almost no context for the title.
The story itself is very short and choppy. The first 15 pages or so sets up the scene of Oliver and Ryan returning home on the el train and all the various weird folks they encounter on the journey. This is to lure both men into complacency when confronted with another odd individual so close to their apartment. After Ryan’s death, the next 15 pages or so deals with Oliver’s overwhelming grief. The implication in the story is that Ryan was somehow changed into an incubus, which leads Oliver to seek out a strange man with answers. Unfortunately, this is poorly executed and comes off more as confusing and random than in keeping with the incubus lore and context.
How Ryan became an incubus is a mystery as well as the story never actually identifies Ryan as such. He could be a figment of Oliver’s imagination for what information the story offers. The entire scene following Ryan’s “return” with Oliver and the homeless man in the subway is bizarre and again without much needed context and understanding. Instead each scene seems disconnected and separate, oddly put together to form a disjointed story. Adding to that is the ending, which has no resolution and no purpose per se, the entire story suffers from lack of coherent progression.
The individual elements may have worked if more effort was put into the second half of the story and explained how Ryan re-appeared and what exactly he was. Unfortunately the scene where Oliver scurries under his bed when his mom visits is ridiculous, corny, and totally unbelievable. That bed would have to sit pretty high off the ground for a “big guy” to get under it and then his whispers are just odd. This short story ultimately doesn’t work, even with the engaging beginning. The author is very talented and often has deft skill with horror elements but here failed to give enough context and information to work the theme of the Incubus into the story in an interesting and fascinating way. Instead the story is simply weird with unattractive characters, an ill executed premise and almost no context for the title.
August 5, 2011
"Incubus" is the story that turned me into a rabid Rick Reed fan. It's not uncommon to hear Reed refered to as the Stephen King of GBLT fiction. I disagree. Unerringly creepy, technically beautiful, and fiercely emotional, Reed is very much his own man with his own voice and a timeless style. He knows how to scare people, and he does it in a sensuous, compelling reading experience.
I love horror fiction that engages my mind and frightens me deep in my heart. "Incubus" hit the spot in a tight word count. Good short stories always pack punch in a small package. They are often more memorable and compelling due to to their brevity. This story intrigued me, frightened, me, repelled me, and broke my heart, at different times and simultaneously.
I'll never forget my first time read of "Incubus." I was taking a weekend break from my studies and selected "Incubus" because it's a short read. I read it twice Friday and a few more times over the weekend. It was one of those beautifully written things one can't let go of, and so disturbing I slept with the bedroom light on. It's still a favorite of mine, both in creative content and technical structure. Timing, pacing, and tension are particularly good. It's an excellent short horror work and it's also a pleasure to read.
The narrative plays upon the theme of human grief related to loss. That's the "normal" where readers find themselves, only to witness other elements that may or may not be the distorted result of the protagonist's heightened emotional state. Is the protagonist's late husband reaching out to him? Is a demonic spirit taking advantage of the character's emotional exhaustion? Are the only demons in his life the harsh realities of normal life alone after loss? Or are all these things possible?
Lovers of good, atmospheric horror and well-written short stories will devour this story.
I love horror fiction that engages my mind and frightens me deep in my heart. "Incubus" hit the spot in a tight word count. Good short stories always pack punch in a small package. They are often more memorable and compelling due to to their brevity. This story intrigued me, frightened, me, repelled me, and broke my heart, at different times and simultaneously.
I'll never forget my first time read of "Incubus." I was taking a weekend break from my studies and selected "Incubus" because it's a short read. I read it twice Friday and a few more times over the weekend. It was one of those beautifully written things one can't let go of, and so disturbing I slept with the bedroom light on. It's still a favorite of mine, both in creative content and technical structure. Timing, pacing, and tension are particularly good. It's an excellent short horror work and it's also a pleasure to read.
The narrative plays upon the theme of human grief related to loss. That's the "normal" where readers find themselves, only to witness other elements that may or may not be the distorted result of the protagonist's heightened emotional state. Is the protagonist's late husband reaching out to him? Is a demonic spirit taking advantage of the character's emotional exhaustion? Are the only demons in his life the harsh realities of normal life alone after loss? Or are all these things possible?
Lovers of good, atmospheric horror and well-written short stories will devour this story.
May 27, 2011
It wasn't frightening, like other reviewers mentioned, it was just a little bit on the sinister side. Odd tale. Odd ending but, I believe, it was a natural, and almost appropriate (if you can really call it that), ending to the sad, sinister tale. I didn't get the significance of the lady in blue with the baby. Was she supposed to be good - the natural (but weak) foil to the obvious evil? I'd much rather it was a longer story because I prefer them longer than this but I knew it was a short and read it nonetheless.
May 25, 2011
An odd but interesting story. This story is short but intense. It's a love story but not in the sense of being romantic. It is too short for that. But at the beginning it does include enough details for one to realize how deep the love is between Oliver and Ryan. Then everything goes tragically wrong. Oliver's grief is heartbreaking. Be warned...I could not believe the ending! Egads!
June 3, 2010
Only about thirty pages long, I was still completely drawn into the emotions and action of this dark tale. At moments, the narrative got a bit too choppy, so I lost the thread and the tension, but it always built back up. It was good and kept me very engaged in the characters' story.
June 13, 2013
...why do I even read Reed's books? Why?
D: Now I need to go purge my mind.
4 stars because it was well-written.
In terms of how much I liked it...
I didn't.
It's not happy.
But it's still well-written.
D: Now I need to go purge my mind.
4 stars because it was well-written.
In terms of how much I liked it...
I didn't.
It's not happy.
But it's still well-written.
July 1, 2016
I love Rick R Reed's writing; always though-provoking and enjoyable. Incubus was different, but that's what I love about Reed - you never know what you're going to get!~~
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June 21, 2011Read through the On the Edge collection.
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