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Oct. 2019 (Issue 85)

We have original fiction from Carlie St. George (“Some Kind of Blood-Soaked Future”) and Rich Larson (“Growing and Growing”), along with reprints by Nathan Ballingrud (“The Maw”) and Gemma Files (“Grave Goods”). Benjamin Percy brings us the latest installment of our column on horror, “The H Word.” Plus we have author spotlights with our authors and a book review from Adam-Troy Castro.

Cover art by Elena Schweitzer / Adobe Stock Image

Oct. 2019 (Issue 85)

Editorial

Editorial: October 2019

by John Joseph Adams

Be sure to check out the editorial for a run-down of this month’s shiver-worthy content and to keep up with all our exploits.

Fiction

The Maw

by Nathan Ballingrud

Mix was about ready to ditch the weird old bastard already. Too slow, too clumsy, too loud. Not even a block into Hollow City and already they’d captured the attention of one of the wagoneers, and in her experience you could almost clap your hands in front of their faces and they wouldn’t know it. Experience, though; that was the key word. She had it and he didn’t, and it was probably going to get him killed. But she’d be goddamned if she’d let it get her killed too.

Fiction

Some Kind of Blood-Soaked Future

by Carlie St. George

Author spotlight

Here’s the thing about surviving a slumber party massacre: no one really wants you around anymore. All your friends are dead, and your mom is dead, and you get shuffled off to live with your miserable Aunt Katherine, who blames you for getting her sister killed because she’s an awful human being like that. And you try to move on, but you don’t know how because your nightmares are constant and therapy is hard, especially when a new killer arrives and murders your therapist with his own pencil.

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: Carlie St. George

by Tyhitia Green

Tropes are kinda my jam, especially when it comes to slasher movies. In this case, I had an inkling of an idea about a Final Girl whose virginity was wholly practical, not some indicator of virtue or moral standing, but something she could use to her advantage to survive. Then I thought, “What if she’s asexual, too, either sex-repulsed or just indifferent, and giving up sex to hunt monsters totally isn’t a big deal for her?” Once I had that and the first line, I just kept writing until I found the shape of the story.

Nonfiction

The H Word: Dark Constellations

by Benjamin Percy

When John Carpenter and Debra Hill began to sketch out their ideas for Halloween, they dreamed up a list of scares. The creepiest images, the most unsettling scenes they could imagine. A clown with a knife. A gravestone in a bedroom. A pale face emerging slowly from the shadows. A person pinned to a wall by a blade. Or—how about this one?—a woman gets into a car and finds the windshield fogged up. The wipers kick on with no effect.

Fiction

Grave Goods

by Gemma Files

Put the pieces back together, fit them against each other chip by chip and line by line, and they start to sing. There’s a sort of tone a skeleton gives off; Aretha Howson can feel it more than hear it, like it’s tuned to some frequency she can’t quite register. It resonates through her in layers: skin, muscle, cartilage, bone. It whispers in her ear at night, secret, liquid. Like blood through a shell. The site they’re working on is probably Early Archaic—6,500 B.P. or so, going strictly by contents

Fiction

Growing and Growing

by Rich Larson

Author spotlight

After half a barrel of foaming sour pulque, Ignacio and Hector start the long stumble home. The night is cold but they’re still warm, still cocooned, and they talk in circles about the business, the vermiculture that will turn Oaxaca’s gardens into jungles and fill their pockets besides. Their families’ futures in a tub of worms. If the shadows on the street are deeper than usual, if the barking of the dogs is more desperate, if the waning moon is unnaturally sharp, a shard of bone from a desecrated grave, they do not notice.

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: Rich Larson

by Xander Odell

This is a retelling of a story told by a friend’s grandfather in Oaxaca, though numerous versions of it exist in Spanish-speaking America. The one I was told had two men stumbling across an abandoned baby in the night and carrying it as it grew heavier and heavier. I added a few details—the brothers’ business, the missing eyes, the gasoline—but I can take no credit for the spine-tingling moment when the baby addresses them through a mouthful of teeth (ya tengo dientes).

Nonfiction

Media Review: October 2019

by Adam-Troy Castro

This month, Adam-Troy Castro reviews the film adaptation of the classic children’s horror anthology: Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. Does he think it’s fit fair for adult horror fans? You’ll have to read the column to find out!