The Two Musics

by Michael Cisco

Genres: Horror; Crime Fiction

Synopsis

Simon thought he left his fascination with the infamous “The Sunshine Killer” and his cult, the “Sunshine Circle,” behind in childhood, but the past may be closer than he realized…

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Release date: May 1, 2024

Publisher: Tor Publishing Group

Print pages: 32

Sample

1

Simon first became aware of the two musics in no particular moment, although there did come, a little later on, a confirmation of that awareness. His understanding of the two musics crystallized then; although, as a boy of eleven, he didn’t quite recognize the problem they posed at the time, and he never fully did.

When he was ten, he moved with his family to a new home in Southern California. A veiled allusion by a neighbor, in reference to the hill peak above the house, infused it with mystery. A little research revealed to Simon that it had once been a place of worship for a group of ravers who called themselves “Sunshine Circle” and lived together just a quarter of a mile away, on the far side of the ridge. The hilltop—that was where they had all killed themselves.

There had been a string of murders in the mid-1990s, all evidently committed by one man, a member of the Circle. His name was Jeremy Rensselaer, but the media dubbed him “the Sunshine Killer.” Simon read all about him on the internet. He came from Ojai. He’d dropped out of high school and left home. When he was seventeen, under the mistaken impression that a child was trapped inside, he’d run into a burning house, and it wasn’t until about five minutes later that firemen managed to reach him and drag him back out, ...