15 Short Stories

By Elizabeth Livingston

This is a collection of 15 short stories, all in the horror genre. Some of the stories have to do with other-worldly horrors while others have to do with the horrors that exist in our world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Elizabeth Livingston
• Release date: May 30, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311882219

Elizabeth Livingston

Elizabeth lives in Vermont and is studying music education and performance at Johnson State College. He loves both writing and music, but also enjoys hiking, watching movies, and cooking. After college, Elizabeth plans to become a music teacher and continue writing, as time permits. He loves to read and write, especially horror and poetry.

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15 Short Stories

Elizabeth Livingston

Published by Elizabeth Livingston at Smashwords

Copyright 2015 Elizabeth Livingston

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1. The Christmas Concert

It was 7:30 pm on the evening of Saturday, December 17th, 2011. People were beginning to gather in the sanctuary of a church in downtown Burlington, Vermont for a Christmas concert set to start at eight. As time wore on and 7:30 became 7:45, Samantha decided that it would be a good idea to make a last-minute run to the bathroom so that she wouldn’t have to go in the middle of a song.

I’ll be right back, hon. I won’t be long, she told her girlfriend, Grace.

Okay, just hurry up, Grace said because it’s not going to be long before the concert starts and I want to actually be able to sit next to my girlfriend. It would kind make my Christmas, you know?

I’ll be back, I promise! Besides, the bathroom is only one floor up or one floor down, depending on which one I decide to use and which ones are open.

When it was 7:55 and Samantha had failed to return from the bathroom, Grace was beginning to get worried. It never takes Sam this long to go, she thought. She began to wonder what might have happened, and that made her worry even more. She decided to run upstairs to check the bathrooms there, only to find no Samantha. When she went to the bathrooms in the basement, Samantha wasn’t there, either. Grace went back up to the sanctuary just in time to see the choir they had come to see gathering in the back. She slipped in and re-found her seat and moved in enough to allow Samantha enough room to sit when and if she came back.

After the second song, when Samantha still had not returned, Grace began to wonder if perhaps she had been stood up. She had only paid 20 dollars for the tickets, but she was still a little annoyed that her beloved wasn’t actually in the Sanctuary to hear the concert. While the applause was still going on, Grace got up and went to ask one of the ushers if he had seen Samantha, by any chance. He said that he hadn’t seen her since she had been walking up and down the stairs to find an open bathroom about ten or fifteen minutes before the concert. He told Grace that he would keep an eye out and ask the other ushers to do the same. Thanking him, Grace went back to her seat and sat down just as the pianist and flutist started to play the third song.

Despite her worry and annoyance, Grace did her best to enjoy the concert. Sitting in the pew and listening to such beautiful music put a huge smile on her face and allowed her forget some of her troubles, leaving her feeling peaceful. This group always had such an effect on her. At first, she couldn’t quite figure out why this happened. It wasn’t long, though, before she realized that it was the pure beauty of the music and the voices and instruments combined to create the music in a world that has so much devastation every day. It was the beauty amidst the cruelty and ugliness that made her feel that perhaps there was something else possible, that maybe the world she lived in could become a better place.

It was right about the same time that she was finally realizing this that Samantha finally showed up and sat back down next to her. Samantha seemed to float, rather than walk, but Grace just assumed that it was because