The ancestors of mermaids that came to land in human form can never go back to the sea. If they do, they become foam— but we yearn for the water, we that are stranded here, a biological impulse in us to join with our sisters again. We still choose to live by the ocean, unableContinue reading “The Killing Sea”
Tag Archives: Horror
ABBESS
It was the tenth child her husband had put in her now, and she would not bring it forth alive. Could not without her mind unspooling like intestine tugged free of a wound; this Angeline had known since the family doctor, with a nervy, congratulative titter, had informed her of its conception. Ethaniel—the father—had wantedContinue reading “ABBESS”
Our Dear House
For three weeks the children had the smothering dream before I did, as well. The dream, as the twins described it, was of being pressed into a narrow room by a number of dark figures until their shapes were one, a breathless, pulsing shadow, flat against the wall. Nightly this vision came, provoking both boysContinue reading “Our Dear House”
Magdala
From the steps of the railway station she descended from the rain, a woman like quartz, like dusk, and amber. She walked as if without true weight. Her hair, though soaked, floated about as if it, too, were water. Her eyes—so dark—looked through me. They were the holes of stigmata within her face, black andContinue reading “Magdala”
The Tower
The dark girl in the black coat walked to a disused railway bridge by night. Her eyes were as her clothes—the sky—were, and her nails were lacquered with the red that they would soon be from other matter. A man awaited her, his white hair blown up into the wind like a waterfall in reverse.Continue reading “The Tower”
Trap
The sun beat down like a hammer stroke on the day Angie found her husband’s car in the driveway again. She sunk back under the shaded ledge of the porch, uncertain whether she was about to fall over or to vomit in the trough of flowers under the nearby windowsill. In the end she didContinue reading “Trap”
The Morgue 