HELLMOUTH: A novella

Short horror story from central Bohemia during middle ages. It has thick atmosphere in the second half but I wish first half was paced faster. We get some basic info about the main character and his group of mercenaries. Some exposition is necessary but I just wanted to get to the good part while reading it.

Once the plot is set up the story finally starts to move and doesn't let up until the end. It feels like a cliché to say it but it had Berserk vibes. It's brutal at some places.

I do wish there was more at the end, though. It felt rushed, like one or two scenes were missing before the twist reveal. And after the twist is revealed there's a hard cut for the last paragraph which skips some time. I know what the author tried to do there but for me it was too abrupt. I didn't like it, you might. It's not the worst ending to a short story.

Author mentions that this was originally thought of as movie script and that something might be in the works. I hope so! This would work even better as atmospheric horror movie or a story in some horror anthology show. I don't think any exists, though... Lastly, I have to praise the author for getting the local names correctly including punctuation. Now that's rare!