Tag Archive for: dark moments

The Shape of Darkness

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by K.B. Elijah

 

At first, I thought it was the real estate agent. Who else bothered to come onto the property but Sandy White, her box of cheap biscuits in one hand and annual lease documents in the other?

But Sandy was pink cardigans and curls, not this hunched figure that loomed in the shadows of the moonlit driveway. Why did the shape of its head angle so? Was it just a trick of the darkness that lent it a gaping hole instead of a mouth?

I switched on the headlights, preparing to laugh at myself.

But the thing was wearing my face.

K.B. Elijah

K.B. Elijah writes for various international anthologies, and her work features in dozens of collections about the mysterious, the magical and the macabre. Her own book of short fantasy novellas with twists, The Empty Sky, is available on paperback and Kindle now: see her website at www.kbelijah.com.

Once

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by Raven Corinn Carluk

 

Maggie stirred the stew, staring vacantly at it. Daddy would be home soon, would expect dinner to be hot and beer open and on the table. She didn’t want another spanking; her behind still had welts from the last time.

Daddy stomped in through the back door. “Smells just like your momma’s cooking.”

You look like your momma. You taste like your momma.

Maggie had learned a lot from Momma. Cooking. Cleaning. When enough was enough. Where to forage in the woods. What could be eaten or not.

Momma had always said all mushrooms could be eaten. Some only once.

Raven Corinn Carluk

Raven Corinn Carluk writes dark fantasy, paranormal romance, and anything else that catches her interest. She’s authored five novels, and has appeared in various short story and microfiction anthologies. Keep up-to-date with her and enjoy many free reads on RavenCorinnCarluk.Blogspot.Com

 

Lady in White

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by Harry J. Canis

 

“Headless horse-riding monk! Really?”

Harry gazed into the flames “It’s true! And then there’s the Lady in White story.”

The group of teenagers looked uneasily at each other. The Abbey ruins were spooky enough at night, without ghost stories.

“She promised her only love that she’d walk this trail every day until he returned from a voyage. He never did. Legend says she still walks here, waiting. Anyone who blocks her path dies.”

“The path we are sitting on?”

Harry grinned “Yep!”

Police found all but one of the missing group, dead beside a burnt-out fire, seawater in their lungs.

Harry J. Canis

Harry J. Canis is a writer based in the beautiful English Lake District. You can often find him running or hiking within the area and being immersed in nature. His genre is Fantasy/Sci-Fi/Horror, with strong environmental and natural survival themes. Within his writing, he tries to bring an understanding that our planet is precious and needs our care and respect.

I Can’t Stand the Rain

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by Frances Tate

 

“And the dreams?” the psychiatrist asks.

“Stopped,” I lie, won’t admit the rain still brings them on. Worse than ever.

I drive home, wipers dancing.

Cooking makes me feel better; a romantic meal for one. Italian. Plenty of wine. I go to bed feeling relaxed.

Dream.

I wake, soaked and shivering.

In my dream, a monster entered a random family’s home. Tore the children apart first.

Shredded Mum as she tried to reach them. Took a bullet, didn’t stop. Ripped Daddy asunder.

Rising, whimpering and sore, I see the blood-streaked monster at the bare first-floor window: Scream.

At my reflection.

Frances Tate
Frances Tate is a British self-published writer of vampires and drabbles who has recently rediscovered short stories. She has been published in The Dark Sire, CommuterLit and The Drabble. She’s had drabbles accepted for a number of Black Hare Press Anthologies.  

She enjoys gardening, historical sites, cinema, reading and travelling.

twitter.com/tate_writes

 

Night Drive

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by R.J. Meldrum

 

He woke, disturbed.  The dream had been vivid, violent. Their car had crashed; metal, glass and flesh, all ripped apart.  His mood changed when he saw everything was the same.  The same road, the same darkness.  His wife was still driving, staring out the windshield into the night.

“I just had the strangest dream.”

She didn’t answer.

“I dreamt we crashed.  That we died.”

She turned to look at him.  The front of her face was a bloodied mess, her eyes missing.  Blood oozed out of her wounds.  She grinned with a toothless mouth.

“That was no dream, my love.”

R.J. Meldrum

R.J. Meldrum has been published by Culture Cult Press, Trembling with Fear, Black Hare Press, Smoking Pen Press, Tell Tale Press, and James Ward Kirk. He’s had stories in The Sirens Call eZine, the Horror Zine and Drabblez Magazine.  His novella “The Plague” was published by Demain Press.

Facebook: richard.meldrum.79

Sausage Soup

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by Jacob Baugher

 

When the three sweating golfers in Speedos sink into the hotel’s Jacuzzi, I float to the pantry. Chef Jimmy never notices me. He’s too old to believe in ghosts. I grab onions, carrots, and the butcher knife too.

When I return, I add the veggies, some spices, crank up the heat. Conversations cease. They drift off to sleep.

I slit their throats, crack their heads. The sluggy, grey ramen slops into the bloody bubbles. I follow, nibble at their bones.

The stained Speedos float to the surface. Housekeeping will clean up later. For now, I slurp my noodly sausage soup.


Jacob Baugher

Jacob Baugher teaches Creative Writing at a small college in Ohio. You can find more of his work in Black Hare’s Deep Space, Area 51, and Dark Drabbles anthologies. He’s received honorable mentions for his work in the Writers of the Future contest and he co-edits a series of Fantasy and Science Fiction anthologies titled Continuum. His website is: authorjbaugher.com  

Blame it on El Trauco

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by Ximena Escobar

 

Knowing the fate befalling virgins in the forest, Mirén never sent her daughter for firewood. Therefore, her husband’s claim that she’d been taken by El Trauco, met her suspicion.

Although the ugly dwarf was to blame for every fatherless child in Chiloé, something about her daughter’s eyes told of a far uglier monster. El Trauco’s victims slept unaware through his attacks, but her daughter hadn’t since held her mother’s gaze and couldn’t lose a painful frown.

When the child was born, bearing a hideous singular eyebrow like her husband’s, Mirén gripped his axe, splitting his head—and monobrow—in two.

Ximena Escobar

Ximena is writing short stories and poetry. Originally from Chile, she is the author of a translation into Spanish of the Broadway Musical “The Wizard of OZ” (2011), and of an original adaptation of the same, “Navidad en OZ” (2018). Having started a family in the UK in 2005, it took her a while to feel confident enough to write in English, despite speaking it since childhood. In the meantime, she ran her own business teaching extra-curricular Spanish in primary schools and telling ‘traditional stories with a twist’ in schools and festivals, with “Pie in the Sky Storytellers”. Though her degree in Arts & Communication Science/TV & Media set her aspirations on writing for the screen, she has, since resuming writing in 2018, devoted her time to poetry, short stories and micro fiction. Whilst her first literary novel waits to be written, she is enjoying every minute of this exploration through different forms and genres. Ximena lives in Nottingham with her husband, three children, two rabbits and a hamster.

Next Time, Take the Stairs

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by Nicole Little

 

My new job has phenomenal perks: travel, luxury accommodations; no expense spared. So the booking at this creaky old London hotel surprises me, I’ll admit.

Late for a meeting, I hop on the empty elevator; impatiently check my watch as the slow descent halts several floors down. The group waiting there shuffle their feet, glance at me awkwardly, but no one makes a move to get on. As the doors whisper shut, I hear a woman mutter something that chills me to my core:

“Why are there so many people on that bloody lift?”

But…I’m alone.

Aren’t I?

Nicole Little

Nicole Little is an award winning short story writer living in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada. Her work has appeared in eight anthologies in the past year. In her spare time, Nicole has either a pen in her hand or her nose in a book. She is married with two daughters.

www.facebook.com/NLitNon 

The Kiss

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by Michael Crow

 

The bite wasn’t what I expected. A gentle wispy kiss just below the beard line, whispering honey-laced allurements in my ear. Languor took hold of me and warmth filled my body and before long I passed into darkness. It wasn’t the terror and pain that stories tell but gentleness and quittance.

There was plenty of scalding, piercing pain like being impaled by a thousand searing pikes. The pain came when I awoke from death. After pain came gelidity and nihility, a void in my being. A gnawing urge deep within to fill the void. A hunger for succulent satisfying blood.

 

Michael Crow

Michael has been dabbling with writing for over a decade. His area of focus is dark fiction. He is also published sports writing having work published by USA Today and The Guillotine. He lives in Central Minnesota with his wife, daughter, and two cats. 

 

The Fliers Club

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by James Lipson

 

“Are you kidding me?”

“I might be. Why?”

“Seriously? Look in the mirror, tell me what you see.”
“I see a well-appointed Armani suit, impeccable Testoni Oxford shoes, one of twelve Rolex Zerographe Reference watches and a pair of Bvlgari BV 106K glasses.”

“Really? Is that all you see?”
“Dimitry, I’m sure I don’t know what you speak of.”

“You do realize your fang implants aren’t invisible, yes?”

“I thought they gave me an air of terror.”

“Vladimir, while impeccably dressed, an aging vampire with dentures does not invoke the level of fear or terror our membership requires. Application denied.”

 

James Lipson

James Lipson’s debut book, Fallen and Other Stories, was published in 2019. His short stories have appeared in Black Hare Press Anthologies, Teleport Magazine, Inner Circle’s Writers Group Anthologies, and others. With a background in art, James has naturally turned to illustrating as he writes, bringing many of his short stories to life not only with descriptive detail, but also detailed visual imagery.

Website: www.jameslipson.com

Instagram: jameslipsonart