A Scare at Bedtime: The Stud
THE STUD
A Scare at Bedtime Series
Some transformations are best left unimagined.
In the small Irish town of Ballycarrick, Pony Mahony is a legend in his own mind, a self-proclaimed ladies' man who's never met a "no" he couldn't ignore. When a beautiful young woman opens a bookstore in town, Pony sees his next conquest. The fact that she's newly married doesn't stop him. Her repeated rejections don't stop him. Her visible discomfort doesn't stop him.
Nothing stops Pony Mahony.
For weeks, he visits the bookstore daily, making increasingly explicit comments, touching her without permission, describing in graphic detail what he'd do if given the chance. When the woman finally snaps and calls him what he is, an old, fat man she finds repulsive, Pony's vanity is wounded. His solution? Cosmetic surgery. He'll transform himself into the man she can't resist.
He finds a highly recommended surgeon in Dublin offering a promotional consultation. The doctor is professional, sympathetic, and thorough. The procedures sound perfect: facelift, liposuction, a complete physical transformation. Pony signs the consent forms without reading them carefully, too excited about his planned revenge to notice the doctor's cold eyes.
Too desperate to recognize the name: Dr. Michael Brennan.
The woman's husband.
What Pony doesn't know is that for weeks, Dr. Brennan has been meticulously planning. Building documentation. Constructing legal justifications. Preparing for the moment when his wife's stalker would voluntarily put himself on the operating table.
And when Pony wakes from surgery, bandaged and broken, he discovers that transformation can mean many things. He got younger-looking skin and a slimmer body, exactly as promised. But Dr. Brennan performed additional procedures. Permanent procedures. Procedures buried in the consent forms under medical terminology and behavioral health interventions.
Procedures that ensure Pony Mahony will never harass another woman again.
Biologically can't.
Trapped in a remote recovery facility, confronted with the full horror of what's been done, Pony must choose, expose Dr. Brennan and expose his own predatory behavior to the world, or accept a financial settlement and disappear forever into exile and silence.
"The perfect bedtime horror, disturbing enough to haunt your dreams, compelling enough to keep you reading past midnight."
"These aren't jump scares. These are slow-burn nightmares that get under your skin and stay there."
"Irish gothic horror at its finest, atmospheric, unsettling, and impossible to put down."
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