My newest book, “Things We Found,” is available now on Amazon. It is a collection of short stories inspired by found footage horror and captures a bit of that essence in its tales. This is a book about the echoes that call back to us from the darkness, which, while they may sound familiar, are from nothing human at all.
Here is an excerpt from the story “Stickman.”
A Stickman
My son was the one who saw it.
It figures.
He was the one who saw everything.
If there was a bug in the house, the smallest, most insignificant thing, he’d see it.
If there was a random zit on your chin that you hadn’t even seen, he would.
His eyes were always out the window and on the world around him, and he was gobbling all of it down, so it made sense he was the one who saw it.
And I hate that.
I hate it so much.
He and I had been coming back from the orchard after picking up some apples and taking a look at the easy corn maze they had to offer. He hadn’t felt up to the maze, and that was fair. I was never one for mazes either. I didn’t want to get lost. Kiddo’s mother had been at the hospice with her sister, and so I figured it was a good time to get Isiah out of the house and not thinking about the impending death of his favorite aunt. There was nothing to say to my wife, no balm to offer, nothing soothing to say.
Her sister was too young to be dying and too young to be dying the way she was, but the lord and mysterious ways and all that, and that’s all there was. All I could do was be there for Ami when she needed me and to make sure I was present for Isiah.
“Stickman!” He shouted from the backseat.
I had been deep in thought, driving on a sort of automatic, and wondering what we were going to have for dinner and whether I should text my wife about picking up something to make when Isiah spoke.
“What?” I asked, confused.
“STICKMAN! STICKMAN!” He said, pointing out the window.
I turned and looked outside and saw only house after house, all abandoned and run down and looking desperate for a ‘dozer. I wasn’t sure what he was talking about.
“What, buddy? Did you see a picture of a stick man out there? Some graffiti? You know, that spray paint art I showed you in the city?” I looked into the rearview mirror and gave him a smile.
He shook his head.
“NO! I saw a stickman!” He said, kicking his feet and pointing out the window as he strained against his car seat.
I looked again and saw a gap in the houses like a tooth that had been pulled, and instead, there were overgrown shrubs and two tall trees, one full of leaves and one utterly bare.
“I don’t see…”
“There he is again! He’s waving daddy, he’s waving!”
Isaiah started waving wildly.
I looked in the side mirror, and there were the bushes and the big tree, and nothing else.
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Read the rest of the story in “Things We Found” today. Order it here.
