THE GAKI A special treat served up for you... "The Gaki," by Stephen Mark Rainey, is a haunting tale of bizarre, ravenous, other-worldly hunger. As you enter this world of eerie imagination, you find yourself taking a late-night stroll along a riverbank, lit by torches and lanterns, the smell of smoke and strange spices swirling in the air around you. Whispering voices and strange shadows beckon you, and though they bear a certain ominous aspect, you find them secretive and alluring. They entice you, draw you to investigate. You feel nervous... hesitant... but your blood is flowing and your nerves are charged. And then you see it: the pale, ghostly face watching you from the dark distance, the eyes glowing with an unnatural fire. Your heart pounds as the spectral figure calls your name. And you begin to move toward it, unable to do otherwise. The whispering voices in the woods rise, building to an unearthly crescendo.... This story is available, along with 16 others, in the Dark Regions collection, The Gaki & Other Hungry Spirits by Stephen Mark Rainey Read the The Gaki online   Download The Gaki as a PDF or MOBI file for your Kindle. Click on the book cover to visit the information page, which includes ordering links. Stephen Mark Rainey is author of the novels Dark Shadows: Dreams of the Dark (with Elizabeth Massie), Balak, The Lebo Coven, Blue Devil Island, and The Nightmare Frontier; the short story collections Fugue Devil & Other Weird Horrors, The Last Trumpet, Legends of the Night, and the forthcoming Other Gods; and over 100 works of short fiction. He achieved questionable infamy and absolutely no fortune as editor of Deathrealm magazine, and has edited the anthologies Deathrealms, Song of Cthulhu, and Evermore (with James Robert Smith).