Three friends have a clandestine sleepover in a beautiful, empty, secluded house in the woods, with disquieting results. Another from the “When Things Get Dark” anthology of stories inspired by Shirley Jackson,…
Tag: short story
“A Hundred Miles and a Mile” by Carmen Maria Machado
A woman who suffers “moods” – moments of dread and quiet despair – finds a kind of relief in a department store encounter. This is a quiet and haunting little story, extremely…
“Funeral Birds” by M. Rickert
Lenore attends the funeral of Dolores, one of her home health care clients, but upon returning home discovers that Dolores has taken up residence in her apartment. This story, from a collection…
“A Lot of Things Have Happened” by Adam Levin
The narrator recounts anecdotes that may be connected by vermin, or animal cruelty, or human cruelty, or kindness, or just general cluelessness. This is a very “New Yorker” story: not much by…
“These Last Embers” by Simon Strantzas
A young woman returns to her childhood home to find it and her family transformed by a fire that has turned her bedroom to ash and her twin brother’s into a seemingly…
“Union Falls” by J.S. Breukelaar
A dive bar in an upstate town hires an armless piano player whose gifts are more than musical. This is a quiet and haunting story about grief, wrapped in what could easily…
“The Trickle Down Effect” by Annie Proulx
A desperate rancher, a trucker chronically behind on his bar tab, and a Wisconsin farmer who wants to go to film school walk into a burning hay bale … Like the last…
“The Box” by J. S. Breukelaar
After a terrible car crash, a man keeps his wife alive through virtual reality. The outside world continually intrudes, breaking the illusion, while she tries to break free herself, forcing him to…
“Red Brick” by Cynthia Gómez
An ICE agent is haunted by an apparition of a man who died during a raid on a restaurant, driving him further and further into paranoia and madness. This is a slippery…
“Book of Veils” by Keith Rosson
A white supremacist who runs a flea market stall selling Confederate and Nazi mementos is approached by a strange man to acquire a mysterious occult book. In a series of double crosses…