To say that it made your blood curdle, or that it made your mind race, would make little sense. For what came through that heavy air was not so much acting upon the human mind and body, as it was a part of the human mind and body. To try to combat it was to fight your own mechanism. To free yourself from the scream, was to destroy yourself from the inside out.
In that moment, they were already dead.
The first time was 12 years ago when they were young, and clueless. It was supposed to go away–this wasn’t supposed to happen. But something went wrong, and now it’s back. Something strange stalks the skeletal woods of Willow Park…
But can the park contain it?
“Black Willow” is a horror short story filled with suspense and mystery. It traces the lives of the chosen, three people with the power to see the truth; into the dark unknown and beyond…
READER DISCRETION ADVISED
horror short story, dark, horror stories, disturbing, novella, scary, monster, novella, scary stories, short stories, darkness, monster stories, scary monsters
Free on 10th - 14th Aug 23
Reviews:
" A good coffee-time horror read, that might just darken your boring day."
Reviewer: Angel for Bookangel.
Three people meet up again at Willow Park, twelve years after an encounter with something unnatural that only they could see. Jack Green, Brianna Mulner and Chris Karmen all have a gift, and what they saw with that gift has haunted them. Now, it seems that whatever they saw, so many years ago, is loose and roaming outside the park. They decide to meet up and confront their fears, heading back into the park to try and discover what the creature is, and what it is that they are. As they make their way to the last place they saw it, Jack leads the way only to be split off from the others before hearing screams. As he gets back, he finds Chris lying injured on the ground with a broken leg and no sign of Brianna. As he tries to work out what to do, the forest goes quiet and Jack knows that what they have been looking for is drawing near.
This is a quick, quirky horror story, that never really lived up to it's description. It begins with Jack finding Chris lying injured shortly after they have gone to the park, before cutting back to a few hours earlier, as the trio finish off their mundane days in their jobs, while still feeling the trauma of what occurred and how it has never truly left them. The writing helps to divide their lives between the here-and-now and what is haunting them, and it translates well between the three of them as they each react differently to what happened to them and how they handle it in the current day. The splitting of the characters to react differently helps give a wider feeling to what has happened and more opportunity for the reader to understand at least one point of view. While the set up for the story works really well, it's a little disappointing when it gets to the denouement, as it is a little hard to tell what is happening and also what happened twelve years ago. It should either be completely left vague or described so the readers either know what the situation is or can scare themselves silly with their own imagination, but this falls in the middle. The ending is a little more gruesome than scary and if there is something deeper going on then I did, indeed, miss it.
Aside from that, the spelling and formatting of the book is fine. I didn't notice anything that took me out of the book, in fact I was happy to read it through waiting to see what happened to our protagonists by the end. I have to say , it was a fun coffee time read, and I would recommend it for anyone looking for a good short horror story, which also gives a taster of the author's style. If you like it, there are other books that may take your fancy.
Rating: 3Quicklink to this review
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