During some slow days at work, I passed the time by writing some two sentence creepy stories. Creating these feels a lot like writing a haiku. Since there's such a small space to work in, I start with a single, potent image and try to punch it up as much as possible. You can read my first go at two sentence horror here.
Also, as before I've titled each story with a time and place to give them a feeling of being "grounded". A feeling that maybe if you visited these towns, you might hear whispered rumors of a strange thing that happened to somebody's cousin or best friend this one time...
Enjoy.
Groton, OH 2:34 PM
Since the main path was flooded, I had to take a detour
through the meadow to get home before dark. As I walked, I did my best to
ignore the brush of invisible fingers through my hair.
***
Bemidji, MN 6:45 AM
He went to sleep figuring he’d have a doctor look at the
discolored patch on his arm in the morning. By the first light of dawn, the
fungal strands spreading from his dried husk had covered everything in the
bedroom.
Aviles, FL
Everyone is careful to never acknowledge the soft, boneless
hands sprouting from the ground all over town. Even glancing at them directly
makes the faces in the trees sob for a full night straight.
Toledo, OH 8:21 PM
I knew as soon as I opened the door that the thing standing
on the porch was not my brother. It wore
his skin, but I could clearly hear the wooden joints creaking inside him and
see the grain in his painted wooden eyes.
***
Ann Arbor, MI 2:05 AM
By this point I’d spent so many nights alone in the graduate
library that I didn’t even flinch when the Lady in Green glided past me in the
stacks, her feet three inches above the floor. I kept my gaze fixed down at the
book in my hand so I wouldn’t have to see her egg-smooth face or the rounded
stump where her left hand should have been.
Arco, ID 7:23 AM
That summer Queen-Anne’s Lace flowers sprouted all over the
burnt remains of my neighbor’s house. When I dug one up, I found that the thick
root bore the face of his daughter who had disappeared the year before the
fire.
Port Jefferson, NY 5:46 PM
I saw him at the bottom of the basement stairs again,
staring up at me without a sound. He can stare all he wants, but I’ll never
tell anyone where I hid his body.
Lahaina, HI 2:53 AM
I turned to look at the hallway mirror. After a few seconds,
my reflection turned to look back at me.
Lewes, DE 9:18 AM
After the storm, I discovered that the old oak in the corner
of the backyard had fallen down. When I cut open the trunk, I found a hollow
shaped like a man curled up in the fetal position.
***
New Paltz, NY 6:34 PM
My son was super excited to get the pumpkin home from the
farmer’s market. That changed, though, when we cut a lid to scoop out the seeds
and found a brain inside.
No comments:
Post a Comment