Publications
Shopping done. Check. Car gassed up. Check. House cleaned for Maya and Gahan, due back tomorrow. Check.
Everybody out and about seemed to amp up their visible behaviors—counting objects unseen, nodding and agreeing on things unheard, declaring war upon presumed enemies. The Target clerk hummed long notes behind unsettled, nearly nystagmic eyes.
Hauling things in from the car: something like a flash of breeze encircling my neck. Nothing seen or heard, only felt. Gone as quickly as it came.
*
New stuff streaming this week. You click through icons. They disappear. A solid screen replaces them—black, with the faintest of greens straining under it. You click. The screen won’t budge. Click again. Same. A low, sedate hum fades up. Words pierce the darkness of your living room. You forget.
<<<<<<<< A SPECIAL HELLO. >>>>>>>>
"When You See It", it's too late. But go there, anyway. You'll find this story, along with one drabble and one Unholy Trinity feature, in Horror Tree's Trembling with Fear, Year 6.
The bird. The projectile. The woman crossing the street. The truck that spilled. The kids fighting. And two pedestrians without a care as to their demeanor or safety. (Was the second one trailing a string of something from the face?)
Trembling with Fear: Year 5 from The Horror Tree, is waiting for you to take it home. Includes the short story "Crosstown Scherzo" and two other drabbles.
"You see, Charley, there are things whose amazing secrets only reveal themselves in the absence of words, at the moment a man sees that it's time to shut up and let his work do the talking."
Dig into The Killer Collection from Nick Botic Horror, where you'll find "Shop Talk", a 1960s-era tale of jealousy, revenge, and mythos.
His cat stood facing the wall near the spare room, her back arched as if something had compacted her. Her eyes darted about...At once she jumped and swatted at something above her head. She started after it, then came to a sharp halt at the door of the spare room. Whatever she saw had apparently gone in there.
Get Serial Killers: Volume 2 from The Horror Tree, and wind up face to face with "The Child of Hyacinth Road".
And while you're at it, grab more of The Horror Tree's Trembling with Fear books, including more flash fiction and drabbles by F.M. Scott.