The Mill (a novelette)

By Mark West

"West's writing manages to be both upliftingly happy and in the same moment breathtakingly sad." — The Eloquent Page

"…this one grabs your heart-strings and twists them like a knife." — Matthew Fryer's Hellforge

Michael struggles to come to terms with the death of his wife. He has visions of her calling to him, inviting him to the beyond.

At the Bereaved Partners' Group, he learns that he is not the only one left behind who can hear the departed beckon them… to the Mill.

This Greyhart Press eBook is a novelette: longer than a short story but brief enough to read through in one sitting.

'The Mill' was previously published by Pendragon Press as part of the anthology 'We Fade to Grey', edited by Gary McMahon.

• Language: English
• Publisher: GreyhartPress
• Release date: Oct 2, 2011
• ISBN: 9781465817112

Mark West

Mark West was born in 1969 and lives in Northamptonshire, England with his wife, Alison and their young son Matthew. Writing since the age of eight, he discovered the small press in 1998 and since then has had almost sixty short stories published in various magazines around the world. His first collection, Strange Tales, was published by Rainfall Books in 2003 and they also published his short novel, Conjure, in 2009. His debut novel, In The Rain With The Dead, appeared from Pendragon Press in 2005 and following this — and the birth of his son — he spent two years wrestling with writer's block. This was broken when his story The Mill, which Mark Morris called 'one of the most moving pieces of writing I have read in a long time', appeared in the acclaimed five-author collection We Fade To Grey, edited by Gary McMahon.

Book preview

The Mill

Mark West

Copyright Mark West 2011

Published by Greyhart Press at Smashwords

Cover photograph ‘Claudia’ Ana Filipa Machado 2010 — used under creative commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)

Cover design by Mark West

An earlier edition of this novelette was published in paperback by Pendragon Press in 2008 as part of the collection We Fade to Grey. This Greyhart Press eBook edition has been revised since the original but remains substantially the same.

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www.greyhartpress.com

Contents

Praise for The Mill

The Mill

About the Author

About Greyhart Press

Praise for The Mill

Note, these reviews refer to the 2008 Pendragon Press edition

...this one grabs your heart-strings and twists them like a knife. — Matthew Fryer’s Hellforge

Praise for Mark West

His crisp, economic style reels you straight in, and the horror hits you hard and quickly and refuses to lay off. — Award-winning author and scriptwriter, Paul Finch

In the Rain with the Dead: ...the story manages to take an old theme (teenage seance) and lift it to new levels. — The Black Abyss

In the Rain with the Dead: ...will grab you from page one and keep you in its clutches until the very last page! Mark West does what he does best - he scares the living daylights out of his readers! — author T. M. Gray

In the Rain with the Dead: You hear people say that they were ‘sitting on the edge of their seats’... That describes what it's like reading this book. — Future Fire

Conjure: ... is a great story with well-developed characters, and a great sense of place. — Xomba

Strange Tales: The bottom line is that if the stories in this collection do not scare you, they will disturb you. And if they do not disturb you, they will make you want to vomit. — Rambles

1:

The trees around him were bare and there was a strong chill in the air that raked his throat as he breathed. A crow cawed loudly, as if he was getting too close to its nest.

He was in a clearing that felt familiar though he couldn’t place it. Ahead of him was a fence, splintered wooden posts set at six-foot intervals, draped with barbed wire and just beyond that a rough-looking hedge. Spindly trees were dotted around, the tips of their apparently hollow trunks knocking against one another in the breeze and sounding like damped bamboo wind chimes. To his left were more trees, thicker with dense foliage and a narrow path led between them into depths that seemed to pulse with darkness. To his right, a mound of earth rose sharply to the height of a double-decker bus and he climbed up it, so that he could get his bearings at the summit. The top of the mound was sunken, littered with the detritus of winter.

From this vantage point, he could see that he was surrounded by fields and a couple of stands of evergreen trees. Ahead, the sun was setting behind another copse, but this one was different, bigger, the branches of the trees spreading out as if they were sheltering something.

He saw movement at the copse and shielded his eyes, squinting into the dying light. There was someone there, a woman with long red hair, wearing a pale dress.

He had to reach her, to find out where he was and he started down the mound, slipping and sliding. At the base, he stumbled and felt a sharp pain in his ankle but ignored it, got to his feet and ran, as best he could, to the gap in the hedge.

No, don’t.

The voice seemed to come from all around him and he stopped, looking around. Nic?

Don’t go, Michael.

At that, as always, Michael Anderson started awake. Quickly, he looked at Nicola’s side of the bed but, as usual, it was empty.

Bugger, he said and closed his eyes.

2:

It was a cold evening in early October and the rain, which had been threatening all day, was now falling as a drizzle.

Michael Anderson pulled into the small car park at the end of Duke Street. Broken glass glittered in his headlight beams, like a carpet of diamonds.

There were four other cars parked, the occupants barely visible behind the misted windows but he didn’t glance at them as he got out, locked the car and walked to the pavement where the lights from the Duke Street Community Centre splashed across the paving slabs. He couldn’t see or hear anything but knew that Drew would be inside, bustling about and setting the room up, waiting for the bereft and lonely to turn up, to try and take comfort from others, sharing a camaraderie they desperately wanted but couldn’t quite give.

*

Michael wasn’t blessed with a photographic memory but now, sometimes, he wished he

Reviews for The Mill (a novelette)

[mistique0130 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was a well written story that I read in just one sitting. It is a ghost story as well as story of dealing with loss and grief. Michael has lost his wife Nicola to cancer and is now trying to deal with her loss and the loneliness. He dreams of a place called The Mill in Coffers Woods where he played as a child. In these dreams he hears Nicola warning him. It turns out that others in his support group also dream of The Mill. I don't want to give away too much of the story as it would contain spoilers.A great story that, even though it was short, was amazingly complete and well told. I couldn't put it down and I liked the way the author ended with a little cliffhanger that let's the reader decide how the story will end. I will be on the look out for more from this author.I received this ebook free through LibraryThing member giveaways in exchange for an honest review.

[roadway2000_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A good short story with a very interesting build up to a shocker of an ending. Very well written and descriptive.

[honoliipali · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Even though this novelette is placed in the horror or supernatural categories, it is so much more. This is a sad story about how people handle loss. It is a frank story placed in a light horror setting. The result is that the reader should not feel like this is a clinical approach to loss. The characters are real, the story is fast paced, and you will have empathy for all you read about.

[sultrydiva · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was a free book from the author! I definitely got my money’s worth too. It’s not the kind of book that I normally read, but because it was a short story, I thought I’d give it a try. It was a sad love story. I hurt for the characters’ loss. The author was able to pull you into the story almost from the first sentence. The descriptions made you see and feel along with the characters. The Mill was a terrifying place; one that I wouldn’t have ventured into as a child. Somehow, the Mill called to people who found themselves without their loved ones.The end was quite a shocker. It was as if the author was leaving his options open. In my mind, I ended the story in my own way.

[mirrani_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An excellent short story about loss and the moments of realization that occur every day afterward, The Mill has an added twist of mixing in some mysterious paranormal activity. You won't go through this book quickly because it's short, you'll go through it quickly because you won't want to put it down. The emotions within are intense, but necessarily so, as they guide the reader through the life of one man and his understanding of his broken heart. Nothing will refresh your need to reach out to the one you love like this book will and nothing will have you thinking to yourself "What would I do" more than this story as well. I expect that your only complaint will be that there just isn't enough of it.Note: Though this book was a free gift from the author, the content of my review was in no way influenced by the gifting. The book speaks for itself and my review would have been worded just this way even if I'd gone out and bought it. I also give bonus points for Text To Speech enabling on Kindle format.... but that also wasn't a factor in the above review.

[chowchow_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A short story about Michael Anderson,how he works through the recent death of his wife Nicola and the supernatural pull the dark ruins of the Mill . I was rivited from the first sentence to the teary eyed ending. This novelette covers the heart pulling strings of love lost to the suspence and horror of the supernatural. If I had to criticise it would be, I wanted more. I have no hesitation in highly recommending this novelette.****DISCLOSUREI received a free copy through members give away in exchange for an honest review.

[bruce_mcnair_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I don't usually like horror tales. But this one was different. If horror can be divided into light and heavy, then this is genuinely of the former type. A sad love lost tale with a bittersweet ending. I found the ending predictable, but the suspense kept me hoping for better. All in all a great read & certainly one I would recommend to others.

[rickgillispie · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Mark West delivers a chilling look at death from the eyes of a widow. This story will test you resolve. What would you do if you love one died? Nobody knows the answer to that question until it happens. A very good short story that makes you think about being alone. West has the ability to draw you into the story very quickly and accomplish his goal in a very few pages.A four star book.

[pixiedark · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

"The Mill" is about a widower named Michael Anderson dealing with the recent death of his wife Nicola. Michael joins the Bereaved Partners group at the local community center. In the group Michael meets Drew and Saskia. Drew is the leader of the group and he often leads discussions on grief and dealing with a losing a loved one. After one session Drew give Michael advice "If you have dark thoughts, dark dreams, ignore them." Michael is having dreams about his dead wife, he is also seeing her on the street and other places. The place in his dreams ends up being a place called "The Mill" Other people, like his group member Saskia, have seen their dead loved ones at The Mill also. The Mill is a place of dark secrets and a haunted past. The Mill has a slow build of suspense. This story treats death and dying with respect. Instead of just briefly mentioning Nicola dying of cancer , The author Mark West took the time to talk about stages she went through. He made Nicola person when he told the story of how she died. What her husband Michael was going through. How much he loved her and missed her after she died. That Michael would do anything to see her again, to have her back with him. Even following his dark dreams. This story has a great but predictable ending. This story shows that sometimes you just have to follow your dark thoughts and dreams. No matter how bad they are. No matter what the cost is. This story makes me wonder what I would do if I dreamed of a dead loved one, would I follow the dream and go The Mill?

[ginger72_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

My jaw totally dropped at the end of this story. I never saw it coming. This is a short suspense / ghost/ grief filled story that can be read in one sitting. NOTE- I received this free in exchange for a review

[lesleymc · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I was hooked from the first page...... This short story hits the ground running - I couldn't put it down and didn't until I had finished it. My mistake was reading it in the middle of the night....creepy. A very human story of loss and loneliness told with a supernatural element. A very atmospheric, good old fashioned ghost story with an ending I wasn't expecting. *I received a copy free in exchange for an honest review and I have no hesitation in highly recommending this if you enjoy a good haunting.

[lizamichelle1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was a short story about a man dealing with the death of the woman he loved. He joins a group to help him cope, finds a friend who needed more help than he did but didn't want it. I liked the ups and downs of the story. How the character is one moment in the present then next into a memory of his wife's death. The ending seemed a little unfinished, which might have been the purpose. Although I am used to books that are way longer than this, I think I would enjoy other writings by this author.

[texicanwife_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Mill visits those who are bereaved in their dreams. It calls to them.Michael hears the call after losing his wife, Nicola. Others hear the call.A supernatural story, with a chilling end.I give this e-Book Five Stars and my Thumbs Up.****DISCLOSURE: I received a copy of this e-Book from Greyheart Press in exchange for an independent, non-biased review.

[jacquietalento · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is the story about Michael and Nicola. Nicola has passed away and Michael is trying to deal with the grief of being left behind. He is in a support group with others that have been thru what he has. His dreams are calling him to a place he went to as a child and it’s called the Mill. The Mill isn’t only drawing him, but others to it. What is the Mill calling them for? You have to read to find out. This is a different kind of story but worth the read.