Trembling With Fear 5-4-25
Greetings, children of the dark. As this goes to digital print, I’ll be somewhere along the Amalfi Coast having an extended weekend with my mum, who’s visiting Europe from the land Down Under. And so we are short and sweet with the intro this week, just looking at a few reminders:
- We are now closed to short story submissions, and will next crank open that window at the beginning of July. Anything submitted while we’re closed will be returned unread.
- We are, though, always looking for your dark and spooky drabbles! Get those teeny terrors of exactly 100 words over to us, please.
- We’re also always open to Unholy Trinities (3 connected drabbles) and Serials (fiction of up to 15,000 words that can be serialised over several weeks, just like Dickens used to do).
- The Summer Special is fast looming, so get those thinking caps on for your summer horrors – campsite terrors, blooming folk horror, wild swimming encounters, and all that fun stuff.
For now, let’s head over to this week’s edition of dark speculative fiction. Our main course is a quick bite from the nightmares of Maya Dodsworth. That’s followed by the short, sharp speculations of:
- Steven Patchett’s local tourism,
- Autumn Bettinger’s Lovecraftian fable, and
- Weird Wilkins’s final moments.
Quick reminder: the next edition of my Writing the Occult online event series is fast approaching. We’ll be talking relics on 10 May, which is next weekend! It’s focused on all those cursed things dug up from the ground, found under the water, buried deep in the hope they would never again see the light of day. We’ll be chatting about the weird things we do with human remains, about Egyptology, about archaeology and shipwrecks and museums and more. There will even be a workshop with acclaimed horror writer Ally Wilkes, who will lead us through an adventure in cursed objects. You know you want to join us, right? Head over here for details and tickets.
For now, it’s over to the boss man.
Hi all.
One of the two Trembling With Fear books appears to be in final proofing, and the other is close behind! We’re almost there, folks! *twitches* It’s so far overdue, and I’m so thrilled that it is about to come out!
Outside of that, I had a rather busy week. I sent out some interview questions for an interview on the site, worked on the new layout, worked on a new page we’re adding, and worked on our new newsletter format.
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.
Maya Dodsworth
Maya Dodsworth is a writer from South Yorkshire. Maya currently works as a teaching assistant and is studying Creative Writing at Falmouth University. She loves dark fantasy and speculative fiction, and has been an avid fan of the horror genre since childhood. She also studied A-Level English Literature at Hillsborough College. When she’s not writing, Maya enjoys a variety of creative outlets such as reading, sketching, painting, and playing video games.
The Nightmare Men, by Maya Dodsworth
The nightmares will be visible soon.
Dad hangs our dreamcatchers on the hook at the top of our driveway every Tuesday, ready to be emptied. As always, I leave the curtains open a crack whilst I watch from the safety of my bedroom window. The sun rests low on the horizon, bathing the street in reddish-purple light.
I hold my breath as the Nightmare Men steer their truck onto our road. The heavy wheels chunter along the uneven tarmac before rumbling to a halt outside our house. The men disembark and position themselves at evenly spaced intervals across the pavement. Meanwhile, the truck’s rear doors crank open with a metallic groan, revealing a giant net held together by peacock feathers. From a distance, they could almost be mistaken for eyes.
The men switch on their protective masks – which come equipped with eye holes and a rotating fan over their mouths – and aim them at our dreamcatchers. The steel blades whirr to life, kicking up freezing gales that plunge the street into sub-zero temperatures.
The dreamcatchers jangle as the strong winds knock the nightmares free. Swarms of black moths whizz through the air, their wings flapping helplessly as they’re gusted towards the jaws of the Nightmare Truck. My heart pulses in my mouth as the moths strain against the net, trying to peel themselves free.
I pull the blanket tighter round my shoulders as the truck’s iron doors finally slam shut. The men turn off their masks and scurry back to their vehicle, picking up any dreamcatchers that blew loose, and returning them to their hooks.
When Dad pins my dreamcatcher back in its usual spot above my headboard, I watch the feathers dance along to the frantic rhythm of my heartbeat as I try and will myself to sleep. Moonlight streams in through my curtains, making the beads sparkle.
The web may be empty now, but it will be full again before the week is done.
The Locals Offer a Warm Welcome to Adventurous Tourists
Everywhere is closing at the sound of the church bells; children pulled off the street, doors slammed. We ask what is happening in our broken book-taught dialect. Not a glance at us as they pull the shutters down. We hammer the cafe’s windows, watch waitresses disappear into the back, lights off, only darkness inside.
The ringing peels soften into silence. The only sound is the wind howling through the streets.
The sun’s already setting as we reach our hotel. As we push against the locked doors, the howl rises again.
This time we are certain it is not the wind.
Steven Patchett
Steven Patchett is an Engineer, Father and Writer in the North East of England. His works have been published in the National Flash Fiction anthologies, CommuterLit, Skull and Laurel Magazine, amongst many others. He can be found on BlueSky, being encouraging. linktr.ee/stevenpatchett
Aesop’s Apocalyptic Fables
She found the book in the little bayou outpost—bubbling up from the muck one day after school.
Peeling open the slick, waterlogged cover was all it took: everything froze. The sun winked out. A tundra flexed itself over southern cypress groves.
Ice poured across the world.
Now, snow creeps along glossy pages—pictures sliding from the book and burrowing into the permafrost. Charlotte’s tears solidify as she watches through broken windows.
A pulsating tendril cracks through the landscape.
She reads.
Chapter One: The Little Girl and the World Eater.
Charlotte’s hand presses against the window.
The tendril shatters it.
Autumn Bettinger
Autumn Bettinger is a short-form fiction writer and full-time mother of two living in Portland, Oregon. When not folding laundry or slinging snacks, she can be found writing in the wee hours of the morning before her children wake up. She was the 2024 Fishtrap fellow, has won the Tadpole Press 100-Word Writing Contest, the Not Quite Write Flash Fiction Prize, and the Silver Scribes Prize. Her work has been audio adapted for The No Sleep Podcast and her stories can be found in Elegant Literature, The Journal of Compressed Literary Arts, The Good Life Review, and others. All of Autumn’s published works can be found at autumnbettinger.com.
Last Moments Alone
I thought the worst part was the noise, the screaming, the cries for help. I’ve sat huddled in this closet for what feels like hours, covering my ears in a futile attempt to muffle it all. After a while I noticed a pattern: panic, pain… Silence… Then, their voice joins the chorus, crying in faux distress.
It’s been quiet for too long now. That THING – it’s stopped calling my name. It knows I know. It knows I won’t come to it, so that must mean it’s started looking for me…
At least I’ll be with my friends again, soon enough.
Weird Wilkins
Hailing from the deepest, darkest pits of England, Weird Wilkins is a fresh-faced writer and lifelong horror fanatic. He writes firmly in the weird fiction sub-genre and has a particular passion for folklore, the supernatural and healthy lashings of body horror. Find him on Facebook.
- 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.
