M.E. Solomon
Horror
Short Stories
"When the stranger turned immediately to look at me, my heart stopped mid-beat while a paralyzing terror held my body in suspension. As I glimpsed his face, it was as if – unless I could look away immediately – he were suctioning my very soul right from my body. I strained to pull my gaze from his, as if he had attached a noose to me."
from "Doppelgäng"
It was Echo who insisted on trying to conceive again and again, even if she was increasingly convinced that something unnatural was at play.
It was after the delivery of the stillborn—after some light started to seep through the billowy haze of her ordeal—that Echo paid closer attention to the somnolent visitations. Around then, they became more lucid. Lying in bed one night, Echo sensed a presence next to her in the dark. Its whisper awoke her.
"Thank you," it said.
"Have another," it said.
from "Pulse"
"Amid the decomposing animal flesh, Trevor reached into his jacket pocket for a book of matches so he could light Abby’s cigarette. Through the wooden vertical slat fence surrounding two sides of the back area, he heard the crack of a branch underfoot and glimpsed a passing shadow under the streetlamp."
from "Killed"
"... Harper always felt their black orbs on him -- Cassiopeia and Mayflower and Sable Glory and Red Beauty, and finally Lady Lenore. He knew their frozen positions by heart, their nightly stillness just before dawn. He also knew when they weren’t still."
from "Chump-Twister"
"After one of those nightmares the other night, I got up to get a glass of water, and I noticed that Mother left a basket of folded laundry for me in the hallway.
I like that, how Mother folds the fresh laundry. It smells good.
Like those potatoes she’s making. Well, except for that off smell."
from "Mother"
"...There was a new ache in her gut. The sharp, hard slice of betrayal, right where it hurts most. And now there was nobody to scream at, to question, to rail against, to right this wrong. For the second time in less than a year, Silvia felt voiceless, and now it was like she was falling off a cliff, about to hit rock bottom..."
from "Feature Dancer"
"I awoke hours later in a sweat. The television monitor, still on, showed something in the grainy black and white image that seemed not to belong. As I watched the monotonous scene of the rails passing under the train, I saw a dark shaft hanging from a distant streetlamp – a figure hovering six feet above the ground.
In a fit of fear, I looked away. Grabbing the remote control, I swiftly turned off the despicable image."
from "Box Car"
