They Watched From The Hollows: Chilling horror stories inspired by ancient folklore from around the world

By A Purkes

Our typical understanding of horror is centered mostly in the modern day. However, the monsters our ancestors conjured around their hearths on stormy nights can still terrify us if we let them. This book contains a collection of short stories based on the folklore of cultures from around the world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ian A Purkes
• Release date: Oct 18, 2021
• ISBN: 9781088000137

Book preview

They Watched From The Hollows

They Watched From The Hollows

They Watched From The Hollows

Chilling horror stories inspired by ancient folklore from around the world

I.A. Purkes

Ian A Purkes

Contents

1 Introduction

2 The Horse In The Creek

3 Fomorian Depths

4 The Odd Fellow

5 The Changeling

6 The Owl

7 Breath of Salt

8 Laughing at The Moon

9 Traction

10 They Watched From The Hollows

Author's Note

For those who purchased the previous edition of this novel, thank you!  However, the novel you previously read was not as polished nor as complete as I would have liked and did not include all of the stories I would have liked. All of these issues have been remedied in the copy you hold in your hands now.

One of the stories, which seemed to resonate with readers the least, has been removed. The single silent individual who might have liked Old Reef Eye, I am sorry. However, in its place are two new stories written in the interim between that edition and this one which are of much higher quality.

Furthermore, considering the obscure nature of most of the source material, small sections of educational material regarding the creatures of folklore referenced in their respective stories are included. For those unfamiliar, these are intended to shed some light on the myths themselves and expand understanding of the stories themselves. For those familiar with the myth in question, these blurbs are here to assist in narrowing down the exact version of the myth used. With so many stories being told with these creatures in them, there is far more variation to them than any one story can encapsulate.

I hope you all enjoy it! as always, thank you for reading!

1

Introduction

Most people’s idea of horror is grounded entirely in the modern age. We have horror movie monsters tenured from the earliest days of cinema such as Frankenstein's Monster and The Wolf Man, themselves grounded in popular stories from years before their own emergence. We have more human villains like Michael Myers and Leatherface that make us feel on edge in our own comfortable lives or in the company of our fellow man. And we have witnessed how the concept of horror stories and campfire tales have made their way onto the internet in the form of creepypastas.

But horror served a much different purpose to our ancient forbearers. Rather than being restricted by ratings and parental controls, most scary stories were geared specifically toward scaring young children into behaving. The dubious ethics of this parenting strategy aside, these intentions influenced the appearance of most of the monsters from folklore around the world. Even the word monster denotes an intention of teaching or demonstrating a point or moral. 

Why is the kelpi of Celtic myth a horse? Because the point of stories featuring it sought to warn children away from touching strangers’ horses and possibly offending their local noblemen. Why are kishi always depicted as attractive, seductive men? Because they existed as a cautionary tale warning young women not to go home with smooth-talking strangers who may not have their best interest in mind. Depicting these real-world threats as evil monsters allows our mind to wrap around abstract concepts without becoming paranoid or misled… or at least that is the likely intention.

More than just the practical, these stories are profound chances to look into the world view of people living long before us, and some of them even can be seen to still inspire us today.

Baba Yaga existed as an anecdotal matronly figure who rewarded hard work and punished laziness and entitlement. Rather than frightening anyone, the story shows the values of the cultures that dreamt up the legends. On the other hand, old English stories of the fay are often linked to a sense of quiet optimism measured against the harsh realities of life in uncertain times. Fairies were often blamed for anything from birth defects to random disappearances in a community. Historians often put forward the belief that the people suffering these losses would rather believe that their loved ones were off in the land of the fay, safe and sound, rather than facing the fact that they died a slow and painful death or were born with some handicap that they could not hope to understand. Belief in the fay offered a way to cope with the loss.

So in the grand tradition of folkloric monsters scaring and intriguing us on dark and stormy nights, here is a collection of horror stories inspired by mythical creatures from around the world and throughout history.

The Kelpie

The Kelpie is a malicious water spirit from Celtic and Gaelic folklore, often taking the form of a jet-black horse with a perpetually wet mane with water weeds tangled in it. While it is not the case for every story involving a kelpie, the majority are cautionary tales of children wandering too close to the fast-flowing water and trying to pet what they mistakenly assume to be a friendly horse. Most stories end with the victims being drowned by the creature.

The Kelpie is also usually understood to be a notorious shape-shifter. While the majority of stories depict it as looking like a horse, some stories describe the creature as appearing as a dark-haired man mending clothing or tools by the riverside who will entice passers-by to join him before dragging them into the water and eating them. Others describe a shaggy older man simply leaping from the water and attacking people. Many of these stories also allude to the hores shape being its natural or true form.

Regardless of what form the Kelpie takes, people in the stories it features in can usually recognize the creature based on a few details about it. For instance, the horse may have backward-facing hooves that it tries to hide under murky water. A kelpie in its human guise may also keep its perpetually-wet hair with water weeds in it.

The Kelpie is often associated with the implicit danger of bodies of water, with the creature's primary means of killing being drowning or otherwise dragging victims underwater to devour. The stories often had the dual morals of being cautious near bodies of water and being weary of unfamiliar people and animals.

2

The Horse In The Creek

I started seeing it again, Annie whispered, I haven’t seen it in two years, but there it was this morning. Usually, when a young woman came into my office and opened with that line, I would be in for a long session of attempting to separate repressed trauma from outright delusion and probably would be informing child protective services or law enforcement by that evening. Such was the life of a childhood trauma specialist.

Is this the horse, then, I asked.

Annie nodded. She started coming to me as part of a rehabilitation program. Annie was one of the few I saw regularly that wasn’t in the program for drugs or alcohol. In fact, she graduated high school only a month prior with honors. But therein was the problem. The poor girl was so terrified of leaving the safety of her room that she did nothing but study, the fear was most prominent around water. She refused to bathe for weeks or months at a time, hence her entrance into the program. Once there, she would not take any fluids that did not come out of a bottle, and only if she personally broke the seal on the cap herself. She was once hospitalized while seeing me due to a severe panic attack brought on by a rain puddle. 

She spoke at length of a single delusion that plagued her: a large black stallion that watched her from the creek behind her childhood home. Her parents no doubt attempted to comfort her, but their methods were far too blunt for her needs, based on what she often reported to me in our sessions.

It’s not a horse, I keep telling people! It looks like a horse… but it isn’t! I don’t even think it’s really an animal. Annie tensed more than before. I watched her shrink away from the empty water glass on the table beside her. Filling it for her was a mistake I only made once in our months together.

Yes, the creature then, I corrected, I don’t believe you have ever told me what these sightings entail. You say it isn’t always a horse, have you seen it as anything else?

"You still don’t believe me! I told you, it looks like a