Invisible Dead Person and Other Weird Tales

By Phee Stringer

A collection of 10 short stories about supernatural entities and forces of the unknown that a variety of different characters must explore and ultimately survive. Another world where a young boy creates a mechanical companion that is more than it seems, three ships lost on the waters within a mysterious mist with strange events to follow are some of the tales you will find within it's pages.  

• Language: English
• Publisher: Phee Stringer
• Release date: Jan 13, 2021
• ISBN: 9781386849391

Phee Stringer

Phee Stringer tries to be an author and composer of strange fiction and music. He lives in Michigan with his wife, and an assortment of grown kids, reptiles, rodents, and dogs.

Book preview

CURSES

It’s cursed.

I don’t even know what that means. The word ‘cursed’ is so vague.

Well, I just mean that bad things happen to people when they are around it.

Bad things? That is keeping up with your whole vague theme that you have been going with.

They sat at a table together in the bed and breakfast. The table was quaint, old and wooden, just like almost everything else in the building. It was a lighthouse that had been converted to a bed and breakfast a few years ago. Everything in the establishment looked old, although some of it had clearly been deliberately aged to keep up with the theme of ‘quaint and old’ to keep the atmosphere consistent.

Pauline had stopped looking at the very antique and yet very broken compass that Ralph had found on the beach a few days ago.

Ralph, I twisted my ankle, you had a bad reaction to the seasoning on the fish yesterday. That is not because you found a compass on the beach.

Ralph shrugged.

I know that this weekend was important for you. She glanced up and immediately decided to correct herself when she saw the muscles tighten in his jaw. It was important for me, too, but maybe bad things just happen.

Pauline could almost predict the next hour of the conversation. She wanted to go home, she wanted to rest her ankle. It would mean leaving a day early. Ralph, however, wanted to stay and try to ‘just make the best of things.’ Ralph, when he started to feel sad, also started to think and act like a child. He wanted to blame things around him for what was happening instead of just facing the reality.

In this case he was trying to dodge the unpleasantness by changing the discussion to a compass he had found when they had been walking on the beach. Within five minutes of his finding the object Pauline had taken a bad step and twisted her ankle. Nothing broken and likely not sprained, but still painful. Within an hour after that they had been eating dinner and Ralph had some kind of allergic reaction to the seasoning on the fish that one of the two owners had prepared for dinner. He had been up in the night on the toilet and was quite sleep deprived.

Ralph, Pauline started again, you did not sleep very much last night, maybe we can just rest for an hour and talk about this after a nap or something. Pauline thought that perhaps when Ralph started acting like a child a naptime to cure a grouchy mood might take care of some things.

*** 

It’s cursed

You said that yesterday and it still sounds silly. Pauline knew he was poking some fun at himself but decided to play along. He was feeling a bit better. They had decided to stay one more day, but leave one day early. The compromise was reached, and things had settled.

Sure, but that was about a compass yesterday, but today it is about this coffee mug from the giftshop.

Is it the mug or coffee itself that’s cursed? she said while taking a sip of hers. No, the coffee is really good.

No, Ralph chuckled, definitely the mug.

And why is that?

Well, he started, I bought this mug yesterday and this morning I checked my bank account and it got triple charged. He took a large gulp of coffee. After I went down this morning and fixed it with the bank on the phone, I got a hole in one of my socks.

That is overwhelming evidence, she smirked. I am going out on the balcony to curse my lungs with a cigarette. She walked out after lighting it, her eyes moving to the horizon. She thought the strange light of the day must have been playing tricks with the optics. For a moment it looked like the line that divided the water from the sky moved down.

Ralph shook his head but conceded. He had been trying to get her to quit for some time now, but the harder he pushed the more she smoked. He realized, much to his self congratulation, that he had to be mature enough to let her quit when she wanted to, and be supportive. He was also relieved that he had found a loophole in his conscience to get out of fighting with her about it so he could enjoy his coffee.

***

It’s cursed.

Pauline did not say anything this time because she was angry. She also knew that when he said it, it probably had not been trying to make a joke about the previous two days. The SUV was rolling to a stop on the side of the dirt road. The check engine light had only given about a 5 second warning before the vehicle made noises that no vehicle should ever make, shuddering and then ceasing its vehicular nature altogether.

The silence surrounded the two of them like a fog that had risen suddenly.

Where are we anyway? Ralph asked. His question met with more silence.

Pauline opened the door and stepped outside. Ralph popped the hood of the car and got out himself. He walked around and lifted the hood and looked at it. Pauline looked at him with a blank expression. She knew Ralph was just doing what a guy was supposed to do. When the car breaks down you stop and look under the hood. For someone with both Pauline’s and Ralph’s skill set that is where the narrative ended. Neither one of them knew anything about cars or what one was supposed to look for under the hood of a car once it’s been opened.

Pauline looked down at her mobile phone and was relieved to see that the cliche of having no signal being stranded in the middle of nowhere had at least not followed them to her device. There were plenty of bars. She called her roadside assistance and took a step away from Ralph, who was still looking at the machinery under the hood the same way a frog might look at a Rubik's cube.

The call went to the usual recording, asking for button pressing and then went silent before any commands could be entered. The line was still open but no activity could be detected. She hung up and tried again. This time no recording at all answered before the line went dead. Still full bars when she looked.

She tried calling her sister in Grand Rapids to see if she could get a hold of roadside assistance for her. The phone simply made a loud hissing sound, followed by some kind of squawk, and the line dropped.

For fucks sake, Pauline said and walked back to Ralph. Let me see your phone. He looked up at her like he had just been removed from a trance. Your phone, Ralph? Mine is not working right.

Oh sorry. Ralph reached into his pocket and took the device out, handing it to Pauline.

Pauline started to walk back where she had attempted to make the calls. Your phone is dead, Ralph, she said flatly.

Oh, yeah, I guess it is. When I got up this morning the cord was not all the way in the wall charger.

She looked at him with an expression that contained volumes of information as to her opinion about how stupid she felt he was at that moment. Okay, she finally said and handed him the object back that was now about as useful as the vehicle.

I guess we start walking? Ralph asked.

***

It’s cursed Ralph said with no humor in his voice.

They had been walking back towards the nearest service station they agreed they had seen a few miles back. It would take a few hours of walking, but they decided it was the best way to proceed. They had walked for the first hour in silence. The sky was a strange blend of overcast and yet extremely bright.

What is it? asked Pauline.

We have been walking here for an hour, and neither of us wants to say anything. The whole trip was about reconnecting and trying to work some of our stuff out, and here we are walking with nothing specific to do other than move, and neither of us is saying anything.

So you are saying the trip is cursed or our relationship.

I don’t know.

If I understand curses, they would be things involving bad luck and misfortune. Our not talking is not that, it’s just neither of us has anything to say right now.

But that’s the thing, Ralph said, a bit agitated. I have a lot I want to say.

Then say it? Pauline said, not attempting to hide the annoyance in her voice. She was one for direct communication Ralph knew, and when that was not happening, it got on her nerves.

Ralph was silent for another moment. That’s just it, I haven’t even said anything and you are already pissed off, which makes me not want to say anything.

Pauline did not respond and took out her phone again, once again trying to call. It was clear to Ralph from her reaction it had not worked very well.

***

It’s cursed.

They stood at the edge of whatever it was they were looking at.

Pauline was in too much shock to respond. The road had ended. It should have ended in a ‘T’ shape but instead there was a large hole hundreds of feet across. Ironically, the flashing red traffic light that was suspended above the intersection still remained, the light’s two telephone poles barely managing to stay above the vaguely circular chasm. The strata of the earth was visible, but eventually it had gone deep enough so the light simply could not reach low enough to see anything else.

After a few minutes, Ralph spoke again. A sinkhole?

She glanced over to him at first like he had said something crazy but then simply shrugged.

I mean, I have heard of stuff like this, Ralph said in almost a whisper, but not... A rich crackling sound from somewhere in the distance made him stop talking and start looking around at the surroundings.

Pauline heard it, and her eyes instead moved upwards. She saw in the blank gray sky what appeared to be the reflection or mirror image of the hole in the ground. Another hole of pure black hovered some hundreds or thousands of feet above. Ralph looked at Pauline and followed her eyes to the circle, the hole in the sky.

Christ, said Ralph, and he instinctively grabbed Pauline’s hand with his.

Fuck! she exclaimed, clearly startled by his touching her. She yanked her hand back and looked at him at first with a startled expression. She then looked at his hand in confusion but less alarm. She finally figured out the meaning of his gesture and shook her head,  putting her hands in her pockets. It was clear she would take no comfort in hand holding right now.

We need to get to shelter, said Ralph. He clearly almost realized how silly the statement must have sounded. I don’t mean shelter. I mean this is not weather so some place safe.

Pauline nodded Yeah, she said, let’s try to keep going towards that service station. She started walking in the brush on the side of the road to the right, cutting across terrain now that there was no road to speak of for a few hundred feet or so. Ralph followed, keeping his eyes on the sky.

***

It’s cursed. Ralph said yet again.

They had walked up a hill which gave them more of a vantage on the land around them.  What they saw was at least two more of the phenomena that involved the hole in the ground and the mirroring hole in the sky. But there were other things they could see happening as well. The ground and the sky appeared to be sharing or exchanging things with one another. There were clear currents moving both up from the earth into the sky and vice versa. In these currents dark objects were traveling from unknown subterranean places into the sky, and things were falling from the circular abyss in the sky then disappearing under the surface.

It almost looks like a vertical highway, Ralph said.

Pauline said nothing in reply and shook her head. Her eyes moved to the road. I think I see the service station. She pointed. Food and water. She looked down to her pocket. Maybe a working phone too.

I hope so, answered Ralph. Maybe some other people.

They walked for a time in silence that hung between the two of them. The surrounding land and sky were beginning to sound strange. The wind was carrying otherworldly sounds. The woods and clearings in natural areas on either side of the road were also far from quiet. Rumbles and large cracking sounds were coming from the distance. The light itself was slowly becoming undefinable, neither day or night, but an unsettling grey twilight.

This reminds me of the time when the tire blew when we were on the way back from your sister’s beach house.  Ralph tried to smile reassuringly. When that storm was coming in from the ocean when we were walking back, remember?

Pauline did not say anything but continued walking without expression.

Ralph continued. All those crazy wave crashing noises coming from the beach, and you were holding my hand so tight, it actually was sore the next day.

I’m sorry, said Pauline with no emotion.

No, it was good. I am glad we could be there for each other like we are now. Ralph tried to grasp her hand casually once again. Pauline, however, quickened her pace just enough to avoid his physical contact.

Yeah, I was scared back then, she said with more softness in her voice. I’m glad my sister was leaving for groceries so she ran into us on the way back, or we would have been soaked or worse.

Ralph nodded.

But this is totally different, Pauline said.

Ralph was going to try to say that he knew it was different, but it just reminded him of it at that moment, maybe just to try to keep talking about it. Talking made him feel more normal. In this case, however, he could tell that any discussion would not be appreciated, so he decided to once again remain silent.

***

It’s.... Pauline started.

...cursed, Ralph finished.

They hid behind an abandoned van that was about 300 feet away from the service station. It was slightly off the road, so they also had some cover from the trees.

I mean, if this is the end of the world, aren’t we supposed to be getting zombies or something? What the hell even is this? whispered Pauline, half to Ralph and half to herself.

What they were seeing had a strangeness mixed in with the mundane. If what they saw had been people working the pumps, entering and exiting the