Trembling With Fear 4-6-25
Greetings, children of the dark. Keeping it short this week to throw all the attention on this one thing: Our April/Spring window for short story submissions is now open! This is your call to submit, submit, submit! And you know what? It’s spring or autumn, depending on which end of the globe you live in, so let’s make a special call for some folk horror coming our way. It’s either planting or harvest season, so lean into those pagan motifs and get your outsiders into a closed community for some shenanigans. This is my greatest wish for this window. You have until 14 April to get something to us, and then we’ll close again until the summer.
Until then, let’s celebrate the talented folks featured in this week’s edition of dark speculative fiction. For our main course, we’re following Bob Gielow’s media coverage of the apocalypse. That’s followed by the short, sharp speculations of a trio of regular contributors:
- Kevin M. Folliard’s mid-air issues,
- Robert Allen Lupton’s genetic manipulations, and
- Weird Wilkins’s brush with the wild.
Over to you, Stuart.
Hi all.
This week was two full days of training, which kept me as busy as last. That being said, the Trembling With Fear crew is officially done with proofing half of the next installment. I’ve almost got the sizing fully sourced to put in the request to have the covers finished size-wise, and then we can push forward! Huzzah!
Now, for the standards:
- Thank you so much to everyone who has become a Patreon for Horror Tree. We honestly couldn’t make it without you all!
Offhand, if you’ve ordered Trembling With Fear Volume 6, we’d appreciate a review!
For those who are looking to connect with Horror Tree as we’re not really active on Twitter anymore, we’re also in BlueSky and Threads. *I* am also now on BlueSky and Threads.
Bob Gielow
A college administrator by day, Bob Gielow (he/him) spins tales in formats we all use when communicating with each other: text messages, diary entries, and fictional Wikipedia posts all allow him to be clinical and thorough in describing his characters, their thinking and actions—without diminishing his ability to explore the resulting human emotions. Bob utilizes these epistolary styles, and others, to tell tales that frequently explore the most common of human experiences, death. Socials: Threads: gielowbob, BlueSky: @bobgielow.bsky.social
A Culling, by Bob Gielow
WMUR Broadcast Transcription: Sunday, April 13, 2025, 6:30 to 7:00 pm
Anchor (Erine Nevin – Live): Now, to our final story this evening, in several minutes, the world will again be braced for The Culling. As we know is true for many of you, we have our doorways and windows open here at the studios in case any of us are chosen. To see how one New Hampshire city is dealing with this unnerving, biweekly occurrence, Reporter Carrie Fong is in Portsmouth to attend a Culling Party. Carrie…
Reporter (Carrie Fong – Live): Thank you Erine. As you said, we are here in Portsmouth, in a neighborhood called Atlantic Heights, built over 100 years ago and located right next to the Route 95 bridge into Maine. We are in what’s called “Big Rock Park” and can see the Piscataqua River just across the street. According to residents of this neighborhood, who we spoke with earlier today, people have been coming together in this spot for almost two years, for what are commonly known as “Culling Parties”.
Neighbor #1 (Jean Samuelson – Taped): When people first started getting taken, folks in this neighborhood either stayed indoors or maybe traveled to be with their families. I think we were all too horrified to be outside when the full or new moon occurred. Once a year or so had passed since the first Culling, and we learned that you can be taken whether you are inside or out and that the odds of any of us being taken are about one in 100,000, someone floated the idea on the neighborhood’s Facebook page that we gather together here in our tiny park. We toast to our shared humanity and reflect on what we understand to be the meaning of our lives.
Neighbor #2 (Mindy Mathis – Taped): Because I live alone, it’s been important for me to be together with others whenever The Culling occurs. When I come to the park for these gatherings, I feel a camaraderie with my neighbors, and a hopefulness, rather than feeling sorry for myself when I stay home. Plus, the weather is warmer now. I especially like it when we take turns sharing our thoughts, our hopes and regrets, knowing it could be our last words. Any divisions we might have in our society, and in the neighborhood, seem to fade away when we know that one of us could be floating up into space at the predicted time.
Narration (Carrie Fong – Taped): Not all of Atlantic Heights’ neighbors are gathering in Big Rock Park this evening.
Neighbor #3 (Chris Roth – Taped): No, I won’t be attending. I suppose it’s nice they are gathering like that, but I think these Culling dates should remind us that we need to be insisting that the world’s leaders combine their forces. Thousands of humans are being randomly taken every two weeks or so and those alien spacecraft are to blame. We tried communicating with them and got no response. I think it is way past time for humanity to come together and blast those [bleep] from space. We can’t just keep sitting around, complacent-like, and waiting to be culled.
Reporter (Carrie Fong – Live): Erine, neighbors have just concluded readings describing their wishes in the form of a “My Last Act.” We were asked not to film those comments, for their privacy. Neighbors offered heartfelt messages to their loved ones, and to their neighbors. I am here, though, with Phil Hopkins who has agreed to be on-camera when The Culling Moment occurs, at 6:57:13. Phil, what are your thoughts at this moment?
Neighbor #4 (Phil Hopkins – Live): Uh, well, it’s always a pretty emotional time when The Culling occurs. I am thinking about my wife and kids over there, and my parents down in Massachusetts, and praying none of them get taken. I am thinking about these neighbors who have come together to support one another and have opened their hearts to share their feelings during these gut-wrenching moments. It really helps to know you are not alone at the full and new moons. I suppose I’m also thinking about the ways in which I can live a better life, so I’ll feel less regret two weeks from today, at the next Culling.
Reporter (Carrie Fong – Live): Thank you very much Phil. My watch indicates we are six seconds away. Erine, we are bracing here …
Camera image raises slightly.
Camera falls to the ground. Camera image shows gathered people, but sideways.
Reporter (Carrie Fong – Live): Dennis! [bleep] Oh god!
Neighbor #4 (Phil Hopkins – Live): Oh no! Somebody! What do we do?
Neighbor #5 (Unknown voice – Live): The cameraman!
Neighbor #6 (Unknown voice – Live): Happening to him!
Neighbor #7 (Unknown voices – Live): [bleeped words and screams]
Neighbor #8 (Unknown voice – Live): Floating!
Neighbor #4 (Phil Hopkins – Live): Should we grab on?
Neighbor #9 (Unknown voice – Live): Hey, buddy! Can you hear us?
Reporter (Carrie Fong – Live): Erine, I don’t know if you can see this, but our cameraman Dennis Worthington dropped his camera and is floating in front of us. We are yelling and grabbing at him, but he is not responding.
Anchor (Erine Nevin – Live): Oh my god!
Reporter (Carrie Fong – Live): No, no! It’s happening! He’s moving up!
Anchor (Erine Nevin – Live): Dennis! Can you hear us! We love you man!
Neighbor #10 (Unknown voices – Live): [bleeped words and screams]
Reporter (Carrie Fong – Live): Erine, somebody needs to call Belinda, Dennis’s wife! Now!
Neighbor #11 (Unknown voices – Live): He’s way up there, already!
Anchor (Erine Nevin – Live): To our audience at home, we are so sorry to have broadcast such a disturbing event live. Our Producer, Joe McNamara, is calling Dennis Worthington’s wife now. I’m sorry to say this is the end of our broadcast. We’re obligated to transfer to Wheel of Fortune. We will ask Carrie Fong to stay in Portsmouth to interview those neighbors and will have more for you on our ten o’clock broadcast. Good evening. Oh god!
The Thing on the Wing
Over a sea of sunset cloud, a purple object latches to the wing of transatlantic flight 337. Followed by another. And another.
A gossamer school of cotton candy flurries drift. One gently covers a window, startling a listless traveler. Bewildered chatter spreads through the cabin. The captain announces for everyone to remain seated as weightless sky tumbleweeds accumulate, causing no turbulence—not a single bump.
Enchanted passengers film the otherworldly fibers flexing and glittering in waning sunlight. Until the strange debris begins to sizzle. Metal cooks. Glass melts. By the time the oxygen masks drop, the wing has already fractured.
Kevin M. Folliard
Kevin M. Folliard is a Chicagoland writer whose fiction has been collected by The Horror Tree, The Dread Machine, Demain Publishing, Dark Owl Publishing, and more. His recent publications include his NEW horror anthology The Misery King’s Country, his YA fantasy adventure novel Grayson North: Frost-Keeper of the Windy City, and his 2022 dinosaur adventure novel Carnivore Keepers. Kevin currently resides in the western suburbs of Chicago, IL, where he enjoys his day job in academia and membership in the La Grange Writers Group.
Bred for Success
Brenda, a hybrid Sirius shark, Capella canine, and Terran humanoid, finished plowing her garden before the second sunset. Her spouse, a Betelgeuse lepidoptera and Polaris porcine crossbred flying pig, shouted from their house. “Dinner’s ready. Let’s eat before the first moonrise.”
After dinner, Brenda said, “Our eggs will hatch this week. I wonder if the children will look like us.”
“Surely not. The mandatory interspecies breeding protocols to eliminate interstellar speciesism mandate that every child be an unplanned mixture of divergent sentient lifeforms.”
Brenda nodded. “I do hope they won’t be bovine. I hate it when they look like food.”
Robert Allen Lupton
Robert Allen Lupton is retired and lives in New Mexico where he is a commercial hot air balloon pilot. Robert runs and writes every day, but not necessarily in that order. Over 180 of his short stories have been published in various anthologies. More than 1600 drabbles based on the worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs and several articles are available online at www.erbzine.com. His novel, Foxborn, was published in April 2017 and the sequel, Dragonborn, in June 2018. His third novel, Dejanna of the Double Star was published in the fall of 2019 as was his anthology, Feral, It Takes a Forest. He co-edited the Three Cousins Anthology, Are You A Robot? in 2022. He has five short story collections, Running Into Trouble, Through A Wine Glass Darkly, Strong Spirits, Hello Darkness,and TheMarvin Chronicles. Visit his Amazon author’s page for current information about his stories and books. Like or follow him on Facebook, follow him on Twitter, or visit his website.
When There Is One…
It all happened so fast.
I wasn’t sure how I’d managed it. How, in my terror, I’d successfully chambered a round and fired the gun with any degree of accuracy.
Still, the results were plain to see. My mysterious assailant lay dead before me. A visceral heap of pulped flesh.
I stumbled backwards in relief. I was still lost in these woods, but at least I would be safe now.
It was only when I dared a glance at its body that I realized how wrong I was.
It was bestial. More wolf than man…
…And wolves hunt in packs.
Gideon Smith
- About the Author
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Lauren McMenemy wears many hats: Editor-in-Chief at Trembling With Fear for horrortree.com; PR and marketing for the British Fantasy Society; founder of the Society of Ink Slingers; curator of the Writing the Occult virtual events. With 25+ years as a professional writer across journalism, marketing, and communications, Lauren also works as a coach and mentor to writers looking to achieve goals, get accountability, or get support with their marketing efforts. She writes gothic and folk horror stories for her own amusement, and is currently working on a novel set in the world of the Victorian occult. You’ll find Lauren haunting south London, where she lives with her Doctor Who-obsessed husband, the ghost of their aged black house rabbit, and the entity that lives in the walls.
