Blue Eel

Long suspected of guilt in his daughter Madeline's disappearance, Branson Turaco takes an abrupt turn in his life when a lock of Madeline's hair is found in a child predator's home. Branson buys an unlicensed handgun, enlists the help of a disgraced filmmaker and a desperate intern, and heads out onto the open road. Clinging to the dim hope that his daughter might still be alive, he follows a twisted path into an unknown world of terror. What remains of a man once he sheds his humanity in the name of vengeance?

Long suspected of guilt in his daughter Madeline's disappearance, Branson Turaco takes an abrupt turn in his life when a lock of Madeline's hair is found in a child predator's home. Branson buys an unlicensed handgun, enlists the help of a disgraced filmmaker and a desperate intern, and heads out onto the open road. Clinging to the dim hope that his daughter might still be alive, Branson finds himself pursued by a team of post-human assassins with glowing skin and a symbiotic relationship with a mysterious species of eel. Lost in a psychedelic world of uncontrollable substances and bizarre evolutions, he must decide how much he is willing to sacrifice in order to unravel the mystery of Madeline's disappearance. What remains of a man once he sheds his humanity in the name of vengeance?

Lorne Dixon grew up on a diet on yellow-spined paperbacks, black-and-white monster movies, and the thunder lizard backbeat of rock 'n' roll. His short fiction has appeared in dozens of anthologies and magazines, most notably five stories in four volumes of Cutting Block's 'Horror Library' series, including one story that was selected for inclusion in 'The Best of Horror Library'.