As a little Yule present, in addition to my Friday Review have a scary 100-word story I wrote for Loren Eaton’s Advent Ghosts 2014.
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Carl snapped awake. Another nightmare. Wasn’t even his fault: the clamp was loose, but the girl shouldn’t have played on the scaffolding.
Carl.
His eyes flinched around the room.
Here.
Sweat turning chill, he peered down. She smiled up at him, unconcerned by the crater in her forehead.
Fumbling for the lamp, he knocked it over. It thudded on the rug.
He lay back; at least he hadn’t woken Jen.
Clumsy.
The light flared. One of the after-images grinned.
Something bounced off his chest. A scaff bar?
He plead insanity, but the jury decided bludgeoning his daughters first showed planning.
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Woh- great job! I was super intrigued by how you were going to tell a complete scary story in 100 words. That last sentence was a shocker!
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Good to hear it works. All authors have an image in their head, so there is always a risk of leaving out to much.
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Dave, have you ever read M.R. James’ “The Malice of Inanimate Objects”? It has a similar vibe going on, what with a vengeful spirit setting up a murder.
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I was aiming for Susan Hill, but I will take M.R. James. 🙂
I have read ‘The Malice of Inanimate Objects’: the fear is good, but I found the introduction a touch dry; a difference in the expectations of audiences since it was written I suspect.
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I’m impressed! Not many people nowadays read James. And, yes, you’re absolutely right about his dryness. Of course, he was a British professor of biblical scholarship, so I suppose we’d have to expect him to be a bit dull.
Very glad you could join us this year!
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I can cope with a certain amount of dryness; but ‘Malice’ is almost flash fiction, so the introduction is about a third of the text.
Of course, if you are looking for something to really challenge your attention span, there is always Melmoth the Wanderer.
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