by Charles EP Murphy
(585 words)
Un-themed “dread inducing” shorts, okay, what causes dread? Think about something. C’mon, c’mon, you have to think, you have to get this done—no, not bloody zombies, come on. Try harder. You need to keep your mind off things.
The Tube, what if you got on the Tube and you ended up at a station that didn’t exist? That’d be “dread inducing”. Yeah, think about that. There was that Northern Heights Plan from 1935 to extend the Northern Line, what if you ended up on it and found yourself at Crouch End—
No, don’t look over there, keep thinking.
Damn it, there was a Stephen King story called Crouch End, are you thinking of that? Or did that just have the name Crouch End? Maybe it’s too complicated an idea—
“I’m still here.”
Horror on the London Underground can still work. Okay, you’re on the Tube at night, that can get scary, good start, and then something scary happens. But what? What happens, what happens, c’mon, you’re supposed to be a writer, and you need to not think about
DON’T look
“Look at me.”
Okay, okay, scary things on Tube, the sketchy lads and drunks, you’re worried they’ll do something, pull a knife or get angry or – That’s not horror though, is it? Not the right kind of horror. There needs to be something else. A twist. Got to have a twist.
“Look at what you did.”
Wait, got it, yeah, you spend the whole story with this guy who seems to be the scared wimp with scary men all around him, but actually the ‘wimp’ is a serial killer or monster that’s worried they’ll get caught. That’s the twist! You were following the bad guy all along—
No, no, no. You can’t think that. It wasn’t your fault. It’s understandable. Don’t think of it that way.
“I’m still going to be here even if you don’t look. It’s too late to regret what you did.”
Stop DWELLING. Think of the STORY. You need to do SOMETHING.
“You did something, alright.”
No no no that’s just all in your head they can’t be speaking.
THE. STORY. Go back to the Tube. There’s something bad on it at night, when the carriages are near empty and victims won’t be missed. And it eats the lead. Don’t overthink this (don’t think), just have a monster and it eats him. Check Dread Stone’s older stuff, see what sort of monster you can do. Maybe you can get away with a vampire. And then, and then—
“Look at me. Look at what you did in malice.”
IT WAS JUSTIFI
story story focus on the STORY
The guy notices the vampire (check if you can get away with vampire) early into the story, that’s the dread inducing, right, it’s clearly weird and unsettling. But it’s the Tube at night, so the guy doesn’t want to pay too much attention in case attention is paid to him. So he tries not to look
NO
something else write something else. Don’t look.
“You’re going to look. It’s going to happen. All this time-killing won’t save you. You haven’t even washed the blood off your hands yet.”
IGNORE HER THINK OF THE STORY
Un-themed “dread inducing” shorts, okay, what causes dread? Think about something. C’mon, c’mon, you have to think, you have to get this through – no, not bloody zombies, come on. Try harder. You need to keep your mind off things.
Security guards, okay, they’re isolated, something scary could happen to them…
END
Charles EP Murphy started writing and nobody’s made him stop yet. He has both self-published and written short stories, articles, & novellas for various indie presses including Sea Lion Press, Fantasy Magazine, and NeoText. He has predominantly written in the alternative history sub-genre, which serves as an unholy union of his interests in history, politics, and deep-cut comics continuity trivia, but has also written self-published horror novels Off Campus and The Rotting City.