GOD HATES HEAVY METAL: Three Days to Animal
Hal Hefner Hal Hefner

GOD HATES HEAVY METAL: Three Days to Animal

Three days without food or water. That’s how long it takes for a person to regress—mind, body, and soul—into a state of pure, animal survival. Three days, and morality starts to rot. Compassion peels away. You’re not human anymore. You’re a creature that will do anything to live—even kill.

That’s what they say, anyway.

But what I saw… he didn’t turn into an animal.
He became something hungrier. Something crueler. Something worse.

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GOD HATES HEAVY METAL: BROTHER
Hal Hefner Hal Hefner

GOD HATES HEAVY METAL: BROTHER

He was seventeen when the call came.

They said it was a miracle—finally a matching donor, with a perfect heart. My parents cried tears of joy. I just stared at the carpet. I didn’t know what to feel. My big brother Danny had been sick for most of my life. Dilated cardiomyopathy, they called it. His heart was too weak, too big and just not good at being a heart. For years, I watched him fade—pale, tired, sometimes blue-lipped and wheezing after walking upstairs. But then came the transplant and then came the change.

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GOD HATES HEAVY METAL: THE CRYSTALLINE VOW
Hal Hefner Hal Hefner

GOD HATES HEAVY METAL: THE CRYSTALLINE VOW

They say when you’re dying, your life flashes before your eyes. But mine won’t stop replaying just one night—one scream, one blade, one name I still whisper in dreams. I broke a vow I never made, and they killed him for it. Now the crystal is humming again, and I don’t think I have much time left. So if you’re reading this, listen closely—because once I tell you, it won’t just be my secret anymore.

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GOD HATES HEAVY METAL: THE GATEKEEPERS
Hal Hefner Hal Hefner

GOD HATES HEAVY METAL: THE GATEKEEPERS

There’s something lurking in the code, in the algorithms that’s preying on us—If you’ve seen this post, it might already be too late.

The door was open. It wasn’t supposed to be. It gaped like an invitation no one wanted, humming with silence. I stepped inside Justine’s apartment, whispering their name. No response. Just the kind of stillness that feels loaded. And then I saw the blood.

It was smeared along the edge of their keyboard—a perfect, curling half-print of a fingertip. Beneath it was a tiny message written in red Sharpie on the back of a Post-it note:

"Rule 0 is real."

That was the last thing they ever wrote.

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GOD HATES HEAVY METAL: POLLY MILLER ROAD
Hal Hefner Hal Hefner

GOD HATES HEAVY METAL: POLLY MILLER ROAD

If you grew up in upstate New York, you’ve probably heard some version of the Polly Miller story. Witch. Murdered lover. Cursed swamp. The older kids always dared each other to go out there, to Polly Miller Road, after dark. I used to think it was all bullshit. Just local legend. But in the summer of 1999, I found out it wasn’t. Polly’s real—and she’s been waiting.

All we wanted was to run—me and Jess, two girls who’d gotten too deep in Carter’s bullshit. Swayed by the money, the free drugs, and that so-called safe compound tucked deep off Vickerman Hill. We had it made, but the cost was our souls, and that was too steep for me.

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GOD HATES HEAVY METAL: THE CURIOUS CASE OF JORGE THE VAMPIRE HORSE
Hal Hefner Hal Hefner

GOD HATES HEAVY METAL: THE CURIOUS CASE OF JORGE THE VAMPIRE HORSE

This is Jorge.
Jorge was a good little horse.
He came from Mexico.
He didn’t have papers—just dreams.

This is the Man in the Red Hat.
He was not the sharpest tool in the shed.
He was very mean.
He hid behind a cross and a gun.
And he treated politics like his favorite sports team.

The Man in the Red Hat hated Jorge.

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GOD HATES HEAVY METAL: JACK’S TONIC
Hal Hefner Hal Hefner

GOD HATES HEAVY METAL: JACK’S TONIC

WARNING: Never drink a 150-Year-old Snake Oil Tonic—My Aunt did, and now she’s not human anymore

They told me the old milk house hadn’t been opened since 1947. My great-grandfather, Jack “The Milk Man,” died there—collapsed by the churn with his boots on. The room had stayed sealed ever since, the cold stone cellar beneath it undisturbed.

Until now.

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GOD HATES HEAVY METAL: THE CROOKED ONE
Hal Hefner Hal Hefner

GOD HATES HEAVY METAL: THE CROOKED ONE

(HE WHO HAUNTS THE TOWPATH - as told in German Flatts, New York – circa late 1850s)

​In the late 1850s, the towpath connecting Ilion and Mohawk, New York, was a vital link along the Erie Canal, bustling with activity. Running parallel to the Mohawk River, it was not only a hub of commerce but also a place of whispered legends among the locals.

One such tale was that of The Crooked One.

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GOD HATES HEAVY METAL: THE DIRT WITCH
Hal Hefner Hal Hefner

GOD HATES HEAVY METAL: THE DIRT WITCH

My best friend stole a cursed crystal. Now she’s gone, and someone—or something else has her face.

We were just two art students crafting costumes for Comic Con—until my best friend stole a strange red crystal to cosplay the Dirt Witch, a local legend known for vengeance and blood. Now she’s missing… and something wearing her face won’t stop staring at me.

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GOD HATES HEAVY METAL: THE JESTER
Hal Hefner Hal Hefner

GOD HATES HEAVY METAL: THE JESTER

My family is dead and everyone thinks I killed them—but it was the Jester, I swear.
I didn’t hurt anyone. He did. He tricked me. It was all just a joke. A bad joke.

I’m getting out tomorrow. Ten years in juvie. They say I’ve made “progress.” That I’ve “accepted responsibility.”

But they’re wrong. I didn’t kill my family. I was the victim. Preyed upon by that toy—that evil thing. 

The Jester.

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GOD HATES HEAVY METAL: PREACHERMAN
Hal Hefner Hal Hefner

GOD HATES HEAVY METAL: PREACHERMAN

I visited my girlfriend’s hometown in the Mohawk Valley to film a doc on local legends. The forest near Columbia Center is supposedly haunted by something they call “Preacherman.”  They say if you hear a sermon in the woods at night…don’t respond.

I didn’t listen. And now I can’t.

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GOD HATES HEAVY METAL: THE FEAST
Hal Hefner Hal Hefner

GOD HATES HEAVY METAL: THE FEAST

I should have known something was off the moment I downloaded an app specializing in underground food pop-ups. It was just another weak attempt by me to fit in with the young millennials at work. But this was the perfect chance to get Vanessa to go on a date with me.

“Sublime Bites” had no address, no reviews—just an invitation-only system and the promise of a "once-in-a-lifetime underground dining experience." As a programmer whose whole world is based on logic, I should’ve been skeptical. But as a single, socially awkward man trying to impress his way-out-of-his-league date, I was admittedly desperate.

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GOD HATES HEAVY METAL: HARVEST OF ASH
Hal Hefner Hal Hefner

GOD HATES HEAVY METAL: HARVEST OF ASH

Jaycen’s parents always told him that progress came at a cost. He just never thought the cost would be their lives.

The fire in the main house cast long, twisting shadows across the greenhouse as the masked men dragged him forward. The air reeked of burning plastic, blood, and gasoline. His mother’s screams had stopped. His father’s body lay somewhere in the inferno, their life's work crumbling with them.

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GOD HATES HEAVY METAL: POWER CHORD APOCALYPSE
Hal Hefner Hal Hefner

GOD HATES HEAVY METAL: POWER CHORD APOCALYPSE

Power Chord Apocalypse

Troy’s off key voice bellowed through the room as Wolf’s fingers moved up and down, strumming and wishing his vocal chords could match that ego. Nothing he could do could drown out the weak voice of his lead singer. But he had no other options now and he just wanted to play with a band and hope they’d notice his talent.

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GOD HATES HEAVY METAL: The Algorithm’s Final Trick
Hal Hefner Hal Hefner

GOD HATES HEAVY METAL: The Algorithm’s Final Trick

Rob used to be normal—at least, as normal as a guy who vaped bubblegum-flavored smoke and owned a "Live, Laugh, Lift" poster could be. His diet was 70% energy drinks, 20% Taco Bell, and 10% the free samples at Costco. Life was fine. Then the Algorithm happened.

It started with quirky conspiracy videos. Harmless stuff. "The moon is a hologram," "Tom Hanks was two raccoons in a trench coat," "Your microwave is a government informant." He chuckled, shared a few ironically, and moved on. But the more he saw the videos the more they burrowed into his brain. What if Reptilian shapeshifting aliens really did run Hollywood, he wondered.

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GOD HATES HEAVY METAL: CHAMP 2.0

GOD HATES HEAVY METAL: CHAMP 2.0

Billy Walsh was a shitty, mad scientist whose anger caused a lot of issues in his life. With an emphasis on mad—he was also an arrogant, grudge holding asshole with mommy issues, whose rich parents footed the bill for his life. The people of Ticonderoga, NY, had shunned him after The Incident (which involved a genetically mutated squirrel, a taser, and an unfortunate explosion at the Stewart’s gas station). But tonight, revenge would be his.

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