Christa Carmen & L. E. Daniels
CHRISTA CARMEN lives in Rhode Island and is the two-time Bram Stoker Award-nominated author of The Daughters of Block Island, Something Borrowed, Something Blood-Soaked, and the forthcoming Beneath the Poet’s House. She has a BA from the University of Pennsylvania, an MA from Boston College, and an MFA from the University of Southern Maine. When sheʼs not writing, she keeps chickens; uses a Ouija board to ghost-hug her dear, departed beagle; and sets out on adventures with her husband, daughter, and bloodhound–golden retriever mix. Most of her work comes from gazing upon the ghosts of the past or else into the dark corners of nature, those places where whorls of bark become owl eyes, and deer step through tunnels of hanging leaves and creeping briars only to disappear. Visit her at www.christacarmen.com. L. E. DANIELS is a Bram Stoker Award® nominee for short fiction and an American author, poet, and editor living in Australia. Her novel, Serpent’s Wake: A Tale for the Bitten (Interactive Publications) is a Notable Work with the HWA’s Mental Health Initiative. Lauren co-edited Aiki Flinthart’s Relics, Wrecks and Ruins (Cat Press) with Geneve Flynn, winning the 2021 Aurealis Award and with Christa Carmen co-edited We Are Providence: Tales of Horror from the Ocean State (Weird House Press), a 2022 Aurealis finalist. Recent publications include “Silk” in Hush, Don’t Wake the Monster (Twisted Wing Productions) and “Hangman’s Coming” in Where the Silent Ones Watch (Hippocampus Press). Lauren’s personal essays appear in Holistic Horror, Quick Bites, and 34 Orchard. Her recent poetry is published in The Cozy Cosmic (Underland Press), Under Her Eye, and Mother Knows Best (Black Spot Books), with “Night Terrors” (HWA) a finalist for the 2022 Australian Shadows Award. Lauren runs Brisbane Writers Workshop.
from “Mill Dues” by Jason Parent
Running.
Aron had been doing it his entire life—first from his violent drunk dad and schoolyard bullies, then from former friends and now-estranged family members after he riffled through their wallets or pawned their things for a fix, then finally from the cops as he turned to scamming and stealing to feed his addiction. He had pretty good cardio for a junkie and all the taut muscle his five-foot-nine, one hundred twenty-pound frame could hold.
This time, though, he was running for his life. Shaky and in imminent need of a fix, Aron would have traded the billfold of cash—a few thousand, he’d guessed, though he hadn’t paused long enough to count it—for one more blessed gallop through the snow. His heart raged against its cage, the adrenaline almost distracting him from his need.
Almost.
Who am I going to buy from now? He cackled, then threw a hand over his mouth to silence his hysterics. Still, the irony that he’d stolen from his dealer forced nervous laughter up his throat, even as tears clouded his eyes and snot smeared his upper lip. Vic had just left it sitting there on the kitchen table, too preoccupied with his cuddle puddle in a back room to notice his return customer. Door unlocked, Aron had just walked right in, the money positioned in front of him like a worm on a hook. All he had to do was grab it and back out of the apartment as quietly and as unobserved as he’d entered, and he would have been set for a few weeks, if he didn’t get too stupid.
A toilet had flushed as his fingers folded around the bill stack. He’d already pocketed the wad in his likewise-stolen North Face jacket by the time Gage, Vic’s steroidal enforcer, entered from the hallway opposite the entranceway. Gage froze, his belt ends unclasped in his hands. His gaze shifted to Aron, then to the table, then back up.
Cue running. Aron had been running since. He ran past the gym, the CBD shop, and the other businesses that had taken over half the space in one of Fall River’s former mill districts. The other half remained un-redeveloped, ruins of the past with little hope for a future. A lot like Aron in that way, equally untouched, corrupted, unclean, and always in regress.
A perfect place to hide.
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Monsters in the Mills
¥1,465.62Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page Compare
Monsters in the Mills
¥1,465.62Edited by acclaimed author/editors, Christa Carmen and L. E. Daniels, Monsters in the Mills presents the short fiction of eighteen authors and two poets with an introduction by professor emeritus, Dr. Faye Ringel.
In this showcase, past and present converge like the towering granite structures themselves against a bleak New England skyline. History weeps from the foundations, etched by the unethical practices and insatiable overseers of nineteenth and twentieth century industrialization. Visions span the legend of Dollie Cole to the snowy forest of the Ardennes in 1944, when soldiers relied on the production of these mills. From the exploitation of child labor to the atmosphere of powder-keg and carcinogenic sweatshops, not even the finest renovations can disperse these ghosts. Like many tales of horror rising up from New England, Monsters in the Mills suggest that when abandoned mills beckon, it’s best to pretend you didn’t hear them calling your name.
Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page Compare
