Tagged: Drabble

Trembling With Fear

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Unholy Trinity: “Red Sky Morning” by Shilo Morlang

Our church worships at the altar of the Unholy Trinity. Its gospels are delivered as a trio of dark drabbles, linked so that Three become One. All hail the power of the Three.

 

Day 3

 

It was August when the sky turned red. A couple days passed before the scale and explanation were known: An electronic storm, or plasma, a strange bending of light and spectrum the world over. Temporary. 

And that was the problem. The plants were fine. The animals too. Fish in the sea, and birds in the trees. Only the people would not, could not, accept it. The sky had turned red. 

“No need for a panic,” representatives at NASA assured. “A week, maybe two. Blue skies will return.”

It was enough for most people. Others not.

It would be over soon. 

 

Day 13

 

“How the hell am I supposed to retire!” Charles raged.

His financial advisor frowned. “I’m sorry. This thing with the sky, it has everyone spooked. It’s temporary.”

“I’m sixty-seven years old! My entire life. What did you do with my money?”

“Please, Charles, understand. These things happen. They take time. But they always work out in the end.”

Charles stood up, the financial advisor, too. An open hand extended across the table.

Charles shuffled to his car. “All the time in the world,” he said to himself, opening the glovebox and unsnapping the buckle on the holster of his glock.

 

Day 27

 

“This too shall pass!” the Preacher bellowed from the concrete steps of the corner church.

“God, I hope he’s right,” Marci thought, steering through the right-hand turn and the red light. The suicides and occasional sacrifice were piling up in the morgue at the hospital where she worked. She slammed the brakes.

“Damn it all!”

A crowd of protestors had filled the street ahead. “Repent!” demanded the faithful. The guy behind her laid on his horn.

In the distance, between high rises, Marci saw a flash in the sky. That unforgettable blue and gray clouds.

A crack of thunder.

Rain.

 

Shilo Morlang

Shilo Morlang is a writer in the Minnesota NorthWoods. His stories explore the thin places where science, faith, truth, and terror intertwine. If you like this work, please check out his book The People Who Came from Nowhere available on amazon.com and wherever books are sold.

Trembling With Fear

 by 

Trembling With Fear 5-12-24

Greetings, children of the dark. ‘Tis a dark week in TWF Towers as yours truly deals with a death in the family on the other side of the world, so it’ll be short and sweet this week. Let’s dedicate this edition to the strong women who move mountains for a better life for their family. I’ll miss you much, Granny M. Rest in peace.

Anyways, this week’s TWF menu is really quite devilish, thanks to the Armenian flavours brought by short story writer Robert Nazar Arjoyan. That’s followed by the short, sharp speculations of:

  • Siân O’Hara’s lovesick lament
  • Liam Kerry’s airborne issues, and
  • Weird Wilkins’s poetic darkness

Quick reminders:

  • We’re technically open for the summer special edition, but Shalini won’t be looking at those subs for a few months yet so maybe hang on to them—early entry does not guarantee a spot!
  • We’re not open again to general short stories until July, so any we receive before then will be returned unread.
  • I know quite a few are still waiting to hear the result of your subs to the last short story window; I’ll get to you ASAP.
  • And we’re always, always looking for drabbles, Unholy Trinities, and serialised serial killer stories! Like, 24/7 needs. Details over on the submissions page.

Over to you, Stuart.

Lauren McMenemy

Editor, Trembling With Fear

First things first, please support our latest sponsors!

First: Order a copy of Backwaters on Amazon! “Like Flannery O’Connor, but with toxic mermaids and body horror.” — CARLTON MELLICK III, author of Full Metal Octopus and The Haunted Vagina

Second: Get 99 horror stories that range from quiet horror, hinting at the things buried there in your psyche – the thing that will come out to play after dark, and visceral horror that leaves no doubt what lies in a bloody heap in the middle of the floor. This UNHOLY TRINITY combines three of L. Marie Wood’s horror collections, Caliginy, Phantasma, and Anathema.

Order a copy today directly from Mocha Memoirs Press or Amazon!

 
***

We’re SO CLOSE to having new things to share with you. Internally, I’ve been really working on catching up on a lot of outstanding small items and getting us setup for success with new expansions and side-projects. I just wish it was all coming together a bit quicker so I have something to share with you. Please note our new sponsor above and pickup a copy of Backwaters today! 

Now, for the standards:

  • We have Patreon who raised their monthly donation; THANK YOU! The more Patreons we get the closer we are to lowering even more the amount of ads we have to display! WHEW! (We should also be cutting back when the new theme eventually gets launched.)
  • Belanger Books has a cool new Kickstarter worth checking out! They’ve previously had some neat open calls that we’ve shared so wanted to let the authors and readers who follow us know about it!

Offhand, if you’ve ordered Trembling With Fear Volume 6, we’d appreciate a review! 🙂

 

Stuart Conover

Editor, Horror Tree

(more…)

Trembling With Fear

 by 

Unholy Trinity: “Crab” “Spawning Time” & “Hermitage” by Lew Lashmit

Our church worships at the altar of the Unholy Trinity. Its gospels are delivered as a trio of dark drabbles, linked so that Three become One. All hail the power of the Three.

 

Crab

 

Shipwrecked, I despaired of surviving. When the giant crab scuttled ashore, I prepared to die. To my surprise, it didn’t attack when I swallowed clumps of its pale, tough little eggs. With deft claws, it built me a shelter and warded off wild animals. My heart warmed toward the strange, beneficent creature. I went willingly when, with gentle nudges, it urged me to the sea one night. Suddenly, a squirming, scrabbling stomach pain drove me to my knees. The crab towered over me, scalpel-sharp claws poised. I realized then it wasn’t me that the crab loved . . . it was her children.

 

Spawning Time

 

Miles below the surface, it sleeps. And when the time comes, it wakes and spawns . . . its seed mindlessly seeks flesh to infest and mutate into its hybrid Offspring. 

The last spawning time, extraterrestrial Guardians nudged a comet from orbit and destroyed the Offspring, at the cost of nearly extinguishing all life on Earth. But in the millions of years since, the Guardians themselves have gone extinct. 

This time, the beaches are populated by little apes – happy, innocent, frolicking in the warm surf. This time, the Offspring will have minds, and hands, and technology. 

This time, the Offspring will have space.

 

Hermitage

 

She bends down to pick up what she thinks is a half-buried seashell. Digging it out from the damp sand, she turns the smooth, white dome over. 

Sees eye sockets, tiny teeth, a clinging scrap of dry skin and wispy hair. 

A skull. Small. A child’s.

Something glints deep within – beady eyes.

With a bleat of fear and disgust, she drops it.

Too late.

The inhabitant springs out and clutches her face with all ten segmented legs. Feelers probe her eyes. Claws dig and rip, excavating. The soft, pulsing underbelly slips neatly inside.

It is time for a new home.

 

Lew Lashmit

Hi, I’m Lew, a queer trans writer from Maryland. I try to give my stories a tongue-in-cheek, slighty cheesy 80’s rubber monster movie sensibility. I wrote these three drabbles set on the beach, which I love and which is commonly thought of as a lovely summer playground, but the ocean is dark, deep and unforgiving, and hides many secrets . . .

 

You can find more at https://twitter.com/EvilViergacht and https://bsky.app/profile/viergacht.bsky.social

Trembling With Fear

 by 

Trembling With Fear 5-5-24

Greetings, children of the dark. I’m writing this fresh off my happy place: a f*cking awesome gig in a great venue. Live music is a real lifesaver for me, and totally helps to replenish the batteries – something that’s much needed right now. (My therapist says I’m totally burned out and need a break, but when has that ever stopped me 😂)

I’d love to hear more about how you get creatively recharged – drop a comment below, or hit us up on social media! I’ll leave all the tagging details at the bottom of this week’s missive.

But before we get to the good stuff, I’ll repeat this plea:

Our drabble cupboard is looking awfully bare right now. Thanks to everyone who saw the plea and sent some in—it’s all much healthier now, and you definitely hit that arbitrary goal I set last week. Thank you! But it’s a neverending task, and a very hungry beast. We need more, and more, and more. Bloody insatiable! Keep it up, keep subbing, keep being brilliant. 

And speaking of submissions, I’ve noticed a few subs for the summer special starting to drip through. That’s great, but you’ll be waiting a while for any sort of feedback—Shalini won’t even start thinking about the summer special for another couple of months. Maybe keep them on the backburner for a little while longer? 

Anyways, this week’s TWF menu is inadvertently on a theme, for the most part. We start with the beautiful lamentation on loss (until it’s… not) that is Chip Houser’s short story. That story is followed by the short, sharp speculations of:

  • Alan Moskowitz’s apocalypse,
  • Evelyn Morgan’s denial, and
  • Sean MacKendrick’s escape

Feel free to jump onto socials and have a chat – about your creative recharging, the stories you’ve read this week, or just to say hi!

  • Twitter: @horrortree / @novicenovelist 
  • BlueSky: @horrortree.bksy.social / @laurenwrites.bsky.social    
  • Instagram & Threads: @horror_tree / @lozthewriter 
  • Mastodon is just me! @[email protected] 
  • Or follow HorrorTree on Facebook

Over to you, Stuart.

Lauren McMenemy

Editor, Trembling With Fear

 
 

First things first, please support our latest sponsor! Get 99 horror stories that range from quiet horror, hinting at the things buried there in your psyche – the thing that will come out to play after dark, and visceral horror that leaves no doubt what lies in a bloody heap in the middle of the floor. This UNHOLY TRINITY combines three of L. Marie Wood’s horror collections, Caliginy, Phantasma, and Anathema.

Order a copy today directly from Mocha Memoirs Press or Amazon!

 
***

Thanks for taking a moment to read that and hopefully order a copy as well! Okay, I’ve made some real progress on my two overdue outstanding items and hopefully that means you’ll be seeing some changes soon. Also, there has been further discussions internally on a few ways that we’re looking to expand the site and we’ve brought on a new book reviewer, interviewer, and am back in talks on someone who may be helping with our YouTube channel. More on everything, soon!

Now, for the standards:

  • We have Patreon who raised their monthly donation; THANK YOU! The more Patreons we get the closer we are to lowering even more the amount of ads we have to display! WHEW! (We should also be cutting back when the new theme eventually gets launched.)
  • Belanger Books has a cool new Kickstarter worth checking out! They’ve previously had some neat open calls that we’ve shared so wanted to let the authors and readers who follow us know about it!

Offhand, if you’ve ordered Trembling With Fear Volume 6, we’d appreciate a review! 🙂

 

Stuart Conover

Editor, Horror Tree

(more…)

Trembling With Fear

 by 

Unholy Trinity: Skin & Fur by Jack Reigns

Our church worships at the altar of the Unholy Trinity. Its gospels are delivered as a trio of dark drabbles, linked so that Three become One. All hail the power of the Three.

 

I.

 

Dan walked the row of kennels, reviewing each dog up for adoption. Most of the pens were filled with either a snarling chihuahua or a smiling pit-bull. Evie said she’d kill him if he brought home a pit-bull. An idiotic looking lab mix was licking the concrete wall. The last kennel held a dog like he’d never seen before. A mix of black, red, and brown, the eyes were bright yellow and staring up at him, inquisitively. “Hello” Dan said, picking up the info sheet. The dog smiled, as if greeting him. He smiled back. “Says here you’re a kelpie.”

 

II.

 

Evie picked up another stuffed animal and threw it into the toybox. Since her husband had brought home that fucking dog, she had to be extra vigilant about not leaving things out. She hadn’t agreed, but he brought it home, the kids squealed, and that was it. She didn’t hate all dogs, there was just something so off about this one. It made her skin crawl, the way it stared, like it understood everything. She rounded the corner into the kitchen. The dog was standing on its hind legs, rummaging in a cupboard. She gasped and it turned to her.

 

III.

 

“MOMMY!” The screaming made both Dan and Evie sit straight up from a sound sleep. In a microsecond they were bounding out of the bedroom in search of the source. Their youngest stood in the entryway to the kitchen, screaming and pointing. Dan flicked on the overhead light. Blood painted the walls and floor, dripping off every surface. The stench was overwhelming. At the far end of the room sat the dog, yellow eyes glinting, perfectly clean. Its lips curled back, somewhere between a snarl and a smile. It got up, then continued to lift its body until standing upright.

 

Jack Reigns

Jack Reigns was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest but has lived and travelled all over the United States. A lifelong horror fan, Jack would get in trouble for scaring family with stories as a child and is thankful to now share them with willing participants. Jack is the author of The Reigns of Terror series of short horror collections, and a proud member of the Seattle Chapter of The Horror Writers Association. Available works can be found at jackreigns.com.

Trembling With Fear

 by 

Trembling With Fear 4-28-24

Greetings, children of the dark. Hope you’re all enjoying the shorter / longer days (delete as applicable according to your hemisphere). I’ll tell you what: this has been a massive energy-draining week for me for various reasons, and I’m sure glad I’m staring at the weekend. I had wanted to get started on reading your (I’m sure all amazing) short story submissions, but I need a day off already! I’ll get to working through them ASAP, though.

What I do need, though, is MOAR DRABBLES. Our drabble cupboard is looking awfully bare right now. We’ve got some going through the process now, but it’s only a couple of weeks worth. And that means I’m challenging you, dear reader, to get your drabble hats on. I’d love it if next week I can report that I’ve had a ton of drabble subs. Shall we set a goal? I would like to see at least 10 drabbles in the inbox before I write this column for the first issue of May. Can you make that happen? Get ’em ready and head to the submissions page. Remember when you’re using the form (here) to choose TWF from the first dropdown menu, and then choose ‘drabbles’ so it can be routed to the right place. 

Anyways, this week’s TWF menu is kicked off by a nihilistic museum visit with Adrian Fahy. That story is followed by the short, sharp speculations of:

  • Michael Bettendorf’s hunter-gathering,
  • JB Riley’s imaginary friend, and
  • Lynn Kristine Thorsen’s tortured experiments

Over to you, Stuart.

Lauren McMenemy

Editor, Trembling With Fear

 
We have a new site sponsor for the month, so if you’re looking to pick up a new book, I highly suggest The Dark Man, by Referral and Less Pleasant Tales by Chuck McKenzie!
 
***

Hi all! 

Another week of sick children, though finally, they’re both better now! Outside of that a bit more progress on the new layout as well as Shadowed Realms. Really hoping to have some solid details on both of those soon. Also, a couple of quick news bits:

  • We have a new Patreon; thank you so much for joining, the more Patreons we get the closer we are to lowering even more the amount of ads we have to display! WHEW!
  • Belanger Books has a cool new Kickstarter worth checking out! They’ve previously had some neat open calls that we’ve shared so wanted to let the authors and readers who follow us know about it!

Offhand, if you’ve ordered Trembling With Fear Volume 6, we’d appreciate a review! 🙂 

 

Stuart Conover

Editor, Horror Tree

(more…)

Trembling With Fear

 by 

Unholy Trinity: “See Some Evil, Hear Some Evil, Speak Some Evil” by Liam Kerry

Our church worships at the altar of the Unholy Trinity. Its gospels are delivered as a trio of dark drabbles, linked so that Three become One. All hail the power of the Three.

 

Cold Caller

 

The Avon lady informed Amelia and Riya that she believed the elderly lady at number 13 had passed. Thoughts of the rich widow’s jewellery enticed them into her home, where they found the basement door ajar and entered hesitantly.

In the corner of the room stood the Avon rep, facing the wall, whispering.

“Hello?” they asked nervously.

Turning to greet them, her face became visible – the face of the deceased resident, wild-eyed, her mouth foaming.

The pair ran, tormented by her whispers. Her words rang in Amelia’s ears.

Amelia fell, choking. Her spine arching violently as death’s verse consumed her.

 

Lege Haec Et Peribis

 

Extract from a 999 call, placed at 18:15 13/02/2024:

Call Handler: Police, what’s your emergency?

Female Caller: Help! Police?

Call Handler: Hello, Miss. How can we help?

*Heavy breathing*

Female caller: Oh fuck, oh fuck, OH FUCK! 

Call handler: Miss, I need you to stay calm. 

*sobbing*

Female Caller: She’s… She’s all bent up. She’s broken in half! No… The lady… She’s coming!

*screaming*

Call Handler: Miss, are you okay?

*Inaudible whispering*

Woman’s voice: Diabolum vocare; coprus frangere. Vocatis spiritibus; accipere animam. Diabolum vocare; coprus frangere. Vocatis spiritibus; accipere animam

*Choking sound*

Call terminated at 18:24

 

Thirteen

 

Four editors died during the creation of this publication. suicides, the police concluded. Suspectly, they were each found in the same position, folded in half. The expressions on their faces were haunting; photographs published online show bloodshot eyes opened wide, staring from their head’s new position by the back of their pelvis. Their mouths stretched so far open that their jaws dislocated. Human incarnations of Munch’s The Scream.

There is a theory – Editing started on the 13th. It’s possible that reading the 13th entry on the 13th of the month seals your fate. Hopefully, I’m wrong.

Better check your calendar.

 

 

Liam Kerry

Liam Kerry is a thinking enthusiast with a bad memory. Writing helps him recall his daydreams. An anthology of his micro-fiction will be available later in 2024.

Trembling With Fear

 by 

Trembling With Fear 4-21-24

Greetings, children of the dark. Sad to say our April short story submissions window is now closed, and I thought I’d bring you a very real statistic to show why we moved our submissions process to this strange quarterly beast. 

The statistic is this: in that 2-week window, we got more than 50 submissions.

Yes, 50 stories. Each of you should have now received an email to acknowledge your story is in the system, but if you haven’t and were expecting one, please do get in touch. We are very old-school here at TWF Towers and there is no automated email immediately going back to you to say “hey, we got it!”—it does take an actual human (i.e. me!) to go into the inbox and fish them out, catalogue them, and put them into our system—but I’ve now moved every submission into the next step of the process. From here, Stuart, Shalini and I get to reading, reviewing, analysing, arguing, and finding those stories that we’d like to accept. Of course, with 50+ stories for essentially about 12 spots, we’re going to have to be very critical and maybe let go of something that would’ve made it once upon a time. For that, I’m sorry.

Before the move to a staggered submissions process, we would be getting around the same number of submissions every single month. And there are just a handful of us, all volunteers, trying to make our way through those submissions. And we can only publish one short story a week, alongside our three drabbles. (If you want us to be able to afford more, get to supporting us on Patreon!)

If we didn’t try to limit the opportunity to submit, we would currently be scheduling stories several years in advance—and no one wants to wait a decade to see their story in digital print! (And yes, we still haven’t made our way through all of the stories from the last window, and there’s actually a handful of stories I need to edit and send back to writers who submitted in the last half of 2023. Life, sorry, etc.)

This process is to protect our writers from frustration as much as it is to protect our tiny team from burnout. We do, of course, have many other opportunities within the Horror Tree ecosystem to flex your creative muscles and submit your works. Your story might fit one of the many open calls we list on this site—the very reason for our being!—or maybe you’d like to write for a special themed edition or submit a story for serialisation. We also have our short sharp speculations, aka the drabbles, of which we publish three every single week! Maybe try your hand at some teeny tiny stories, or stringing three of those together on a theme to tell a longer story as an unholy trinity? 

Anyways, this week’s TWF menu. Our main course is a silent one, and it comes from the dark mind of Mitchell Strickland Jr—and it’s so great to put a strong disabled protagonist on these pages. That story is followed by the short, sharp speculations of:

  • SG Perahim’s monsters under the bed 
  • Santiago Eximeno’s stranded mermaid, and
  • RJ Meldrum’s renovation surprise.

Over to you, Stuart.

Lauren McMenemy

Editor, Trembling With Fear

 
We have a new site sponsor for the month, so if you’re looking to pick up a new book, I highly suggest The Dark Man, by Referral and Less Pleasant Tales by Chuck McKenzie!
 
***

Last week, I was busy with my youngest being home all week sick; this week, it’s been my oldest. (I swear… if I’m sick next week…) So. I’ve been doing a lot of prep work. There’s not much to show off quite yet, but there is more progress on Shadowed Realms, which is long overdue, and we are starting to hone in on our new layout as well as starting to plan for our next physical release. On the upside, we have a few new contributors interested in helping out on the site, which is exciting news! 

And now the regular announcements:

  • Don’t forget – Trembling With Fear Volume 6 is out in the world, and if you’ve picked up a copy, we’d love a review! Next year, we may be looking to expand past just the Amazon platform. If we do that, what stores would you like to purchase your books from?
  • ATTENTION YOUTUBE WATCHERS: We’ve had some great responses so far but are open to more ideas – What type of content would you like to see us feature? Please reach out to [email protected]! We’ll be really working on expanding the channel late this year and early into next.
  • For those who are looking to connect with Horror Tree on places that aren’t Twitter, we’re also in BlueSky and Threads. *I* am also now on BlueSky and Threads.
  • If you’d like to extend your support to the site, we’d be thrilled to welcome your contributions through Ko-Fi or Patreon. Your generosity keeps us fueled and fired up to bring you the very best.

Stuart Conover

Editor, Horror Tree

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