The Dark Issue 18: The Dark, #18
()
About this ebook
Each month The Dark brings you the best in dark fantasy and horror! Edited by award winning editor Sean Wallace and brought to you by Prime Books, this issue includes two all-new stories and two reprints:
“The House That Jessica Built” by Nadia Bulkin
“Neithernor” by Richard Gavin (reprint)
“And In Our Daughters, We Find A Voice” by Cassandra Khaw
“Full Up” by Mark Morris (reprint)
Related to The Dark Issue 18
Titles in the series (100)
The Dark Issue 6: The Dark, #6 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dark Issue 7: The Dark, #7 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dark Issue 13: The Dark, #13 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dark Issue 1: The Dark, #1 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dark Issue 2: The Dark, #2 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dark Issue 9: The Dark, #9 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dark Issue 24: The Dark, #24 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dark Issue 18: The Dark, #18 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dark Issue 8: The Dark, #8 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dark Issue 33: The Dark, #33 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dark Issue 14: The Dark, #14 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dark Issue 3: The Dark, #3 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Dark Issue 39: The Dark, #39 Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Dark Issue 5: The Dark, #5 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dark Issue 16: The Dark, #16 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dark Issue 19: The Dark, #19 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dark Issue 12: The Dark, #12 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dark Issue 29: The Dark, #29 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dark Issue 21: The Dark, #21 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Dark Issue 25: The Dark, #25 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dark Issue 4: The Dark, #4 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dark Issue 37: The Dark, #37 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dark Issue 10: The Dark, #10 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dark Issue 42: The Dark, #42 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dark Issue 20: The Dark, #20 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dark Issue 22: The Dark, #22 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dark Issue 36: The Dark, #36 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dark Issue 15: The Dark, #15 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dark Issue 11: The Dark, #11 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dark Issue 35: The Dark, #35 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related ebooks
Southern Blood: Vampire Stories from the American South Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Sputnik’s Children: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Curse of Onegin: Stories and Poems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Ghosts of Blood and Innocence: The Wraeththu Histories, #3 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dark Issue 64: The Dark, #64 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dark Issue 2: The Dark, #2 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Creative Surgery Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dark Issue 35: The Dark, #35 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Collectors and Other Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dark Issue 5: The Dark, #5 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Where There's Smoke, There's Liars: Woke Island Battle Royale Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDouble-Booked: Dan Shamble: Zombie P.I., #8 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dark Issue 46: The Dark, #46 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInfidel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bone Garden Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTemporary Monsters Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBlack Cat Weekly #19 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKilling Time: Physics, Lust and Greed Series, Book 3 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dark Issue 14: The Dark, #14 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEven in the Grave Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSurfing with The World Wide Dead Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNightmare Magazine, Issue 134 (November 2023): Nightmare Magazine, #134 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRapture Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dark Issue 1: The Dark, #1 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5If Living Is Seeing I'm Holding My Breath: A Short Horror Story Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGrace Falls: An Anthology of Wonder & Fright Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Best of Jeffrey Ford Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dark Issue 32: The Dark, #32 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNight of Dracula Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsScreams of the Jungle Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Horror Fiction For You
It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Am Legend Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Annihilation: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Stories of Ray Bradbury Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leave the World Behind: A Read with Jenna Pick Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Brother Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Cabin at the End of the World: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Misery Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Troop Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Complete Short Stories Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Only Good Indians Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pet Sematary Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Outsider: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Needful Things Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Best Friend's Exorcism: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Last Days Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hidden Pictures: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Pale Blue Eye: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Slewfoot: A Tale of Bewitchery Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dracula Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Whisper Man: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We Have Always Lived in the Castle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Different Seasons Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Revival: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Edgar Allan Poe Complete Collection - 120+ Tales, Poems Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Hollow Places: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hell House: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Weiser Book of Horror and the Occult: Hidden Magic, Occult Truths, and the Stories That Started It All Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Dark Issue 18
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
The Dark Issue 18 - Nadia Bulkin
The House That Jessica Built
by Nadia Bulkin
We discussed this, Mark. She’s acting out because she’s trying to radically redefine herself.
Rue knelt down by the upstairs banister and pushed her face between the bars. She used to feel a certain sophisticated glow from being driven across town for grief therapy sessions—it satisfied her to trudge into Dr. McKinley’s office with all the other broken people knowing that she had been marked fragile, handle with care.
The girls at school worshiped sickness almost as much as they worshiped purity, and now they looked at Rue with the same adoration they bestowed on Jennifer, who was bulimic, and Nikki, who’d had an abortion. But now Dr. McKinley was coming over for house calls, and Rue had the disconcerting feeling that she had been marked something worse. Radioactive, perhaps. Terminal.
This is common in girls her age. Especially after a traumatic loss, and a change like a new house. Negative energy can manifest in powerful ways. Try to be supportive.
Rue’s father asked how he was supposed to accept this unacceptable behavior. He asked, again, if there wasn’t something he could do to make her stop this nonsense. Rue knew his instinct was to punish her, but he had already tried that—taken away her phone and internet privileges and sent her to her room, in the hopes that denying her information would put a stop to the house’s paranormal activity. It didn’t work. Even with Rue quarantined upstairs, the Ghost was still turning on faucets and banging on the basement door.
You should think of the ‘ghost’ as a message from your daughter. Rue is trying to talk to you about something. Probably her mother. This ‘ghost’ is an easier way for her to communicate right now.
Dr. McKinley really seemed to care about her mother’s death, so Rue had answered her questions honestly. What does the Ghost look like? How old is she? What color is her hair? Do you think she’s a friend? Does she ever tell you to hurt yourself? Or anybody else? She’d hoped to convince Dr. McKinley, and thus her father, that she was neither crazy nor lying. But it turned out Dr. McKinley wasn’t interested in the Ghost at all. Downstairs, her father wanted to know if playing along wasn’t just going to feed the delusion.
She takes comfort in the delusion right now. It gives her back a sense of power and control that she feels like she’s lost.
She could hear her father scoffing. She’s fourteen, he said. What sort of power and control does she expect to have? Jesus Christ. Just because we moved? This is unbelievable.
I think for now you should try to meet the ‘ghost’ halfway, Mark.
When she heard Dr. McKinley gathering up her coat and walking to the door in her patent leather heels, saying to please let her know if things got worse before next week, Rue hurried into the shadows toward her new bedroom. She took a deep breath before opening her door, just in case. Thank God, the room was empty. She stayed sequestered there until nightfall, when her father lured her out with the promise of Thai food, her favorite. Downstairs, her little brother Trevor was sitting anxiously at the dining room table with his inert Gameboy cradled in his hands. Her father had been very excited about this table, about having a dining room to put it in.
Hi Rue,
Trevor said, are you still sick?
She glanced briefly at her father, who was focusing very deliberately on opening the sweaty little brown boxes. I’m okay,
she said. Trevor knew about the Ghost too: not only had he overheard her screaming at their father about it, not only had he heard the bumps in the night, but he had felt its presence. She was sure about that. He had once crawled into bed with her, eyes wide with alarm, saying there was a woman in his room. Maybe it’s Mommy,
he whispered under the sheets, his breath hot and his fingers ice-cold. Coming to say goodbye.
It’s not Mommy,
she immediately whispered back.
So,
said her father, once the table was piled with heaps of pad thai and shriveled egg rolls, is Jessica going to be joining us tonight?
Rue looked at him in confusion. He never called her by her given name. It had been Rue from the start, Rue after her mother’s mother, Rue because she just didn’t seem like much of a Jessica. Besides, there was another Jessica in her grade, Jessica Snyder, who wore the name like a pair of tight designer jeans. She would rather be Rue, a little rough around the edges, than Ugly Jessica. I’m right here.
"Yes, Rue. I know you are. I mean your special friend. Jessica. He raised his eyebrows at her and motioned idly with his fork at the ceiling, at the air above them, at the seen and unseen universe.
Is Jessica going to come by, or is she busy tonight? I don’t know what ghosts do when they’re not messing around with the utilities. Rattle chains, I guess?"