Nightmare Magazine, Issue 131 (August 2023): Nightmare Magazine, #131

By Wendy N. Wagner

NIGHTMARE is a digital horror and dark fantasy magazine. In NIGHTMARE's pages, you will find all kinds of horror fiction, from zombie stories and haunted house tales, to visceral psychological horror. Welcome to Issue #131 of NIGHTMARE! This month, we have original short fiction from Nuzo Onoh ("Oyili") and J. Choe ("The Feed"). Our Horror Lab originals include a flash story ("Five Things That Go Through Your Mind After the Masked Killer Decapitates You With an Axe and Your Still-Living Head Has a Few Seconds of Consciousness Left to Gaze at Your Twitching Body") from Adam-Troy Castro and a poem ("Tropical Fish") from Mark Alpert. We also have the latest installment of our column on horror, "The H Word," plus author spotlights with our authors, and a book discussion from screenwriter and author Jamie Flanagan.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Adamant Press
• Release date: Aug 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223035299

Book preview

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Issue 131 (August 2023)

FROM THE EDITOR

Editorial: August 2023

FICTION

Oyili

Nuzo Onoh

Five Things That Go Through Your Mind After the Masked Killer Decapitates You with an Axe and Your Still-Living Head Has a Few Seconds of Consciousness Left to Gaze at Your Twitching Body

Adam-Troy Castro

The Girls That Follow

J. Choe

POETRY

Tropical Fish

Mark Alpert

BOOK EXCERPTS

Fever House

Keith Rosson

NONFICTION

The H Word: The Un-manored Gothic

Suzan Palumbo

de•crypt•ed---Flanagan on VanderMeer

Jamie Flanagan

AUTHOR SPOTLIGHTS

Nuzo Onoh

J. Choe

MISCELLANY

Coming Attractions

Stay Connected

Subscriptions and Ebooks

Support Us on Patreon, or How to Become a Dragonrider or Space Wizard

About the Nightmare Team

© 2023 Nightmare Magazine

Cover by Lumitar / Adobe Stock

www.nightmare-magazine.com

Published by Adamant Press

From the Editor

Editorial: August 2023

Wendy N. Wagner | 515 words

Welcome to Issue #131 of Nightmare Magazine, and welcome to August, a great time to get outside and visit scenic places. I’m hoping to spend it hiking, camping, and running in the forest as much as possible.

Is there anyplace better for telling scary stories than in the woods? There’s nothing like the sense of enormous darkness pressing in around your campsite to sharpen the edge of any ghost story or urban legend, no matter how many times you’ve heard it or its variations. While I spend most of my time reading the newest and edgiest horror fiction in the genre, I admit that when I’m camping, I can still get goosebumps when someone lowers their voice to pronounce: "The calls are coming from inside the house!"

In fact, of all the classic urban legends, the story of the babysitter sharing a building with a murderous caller has always been my favorite. That punchline at the end is the perfect descriptor for an endless array of horrors, because a house can stand in for so many other things—for our bodies, for our families, for our civilization. A house with a serial killer inside makes the perfect metaphor for any place that ought to be safe, but is in fact deeply dangerous.

This issue is all about safe places gone horribly awry. First off, we’re delighted to share Oyili, a short story by the talented Nuzo Onoh, who’s been called the queen of African horror. Oyili is the story of a young boy with remarkable powers who finds they can still be turned against him—with very nasty consequences. We also have a horror short from J. Choe, The Girls That Follow, a story of a romance twisted into pain. And blood. And gore.

For readers more inclined toward AirBnB than camping, Adam-Troy Castro has a new flash story about a trip to a cabin in the woods, and we think you’ll love the title: Five Things That Go Through Your Mind After the Masked Killer Decapitates You with an Axe and Your Still-Living Head Has a Few Seconds of Consciousness Left to Gaze at Your Twitching Body. And our poet this month, Mark Alpert, turns a peaceful-sounding topic quite creepy in his poem Tropical Fish.

Our spotlight team has sat down with our fiction writers for a couple of terrific mini-interviews, and we’re delighted to host the multiple-award-nominated author Suzan Palumbo with her essay for the H Word about unmanored gothic fiction. This month’s installment of our de•crypt•ed review column is penned by screenwriter and author Jamie Flanagan, discussing the works of Jeff VanderMeer. Plus, our ebook readers will enjoy an excerpt from Keith Rosson’s new novel Fever House.

We like to think of Nightmare as a safe space for everyone to come together and enjoy a few good scares. So cuddle up close to our campfire, roast a marshmallow, and let us regale you with these delightful works.

And if the phone rings?

Don’t answer it.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Wendy N. Wagner is the author of The Creek Girl, forthcoming 2025 from Tor Nightfire, as well as the horror novel The Deer Kings and the gothic novella The Secret Skin. Previous work includes the SF thriller An Oath of Dogs and two novels for the Pathfinder Tales series, and her short stories, poetry, and essays have appeared in more than sixty venues. She also serves as the managing/senior editor of Lightspeed Magazine, and previously served as the guest editor of our Queers Destroy Horror! special issue. She lives in Oregon with her very understanding family, two large cats, and a Muppet disguised as a dog.

FictionOut There Screaming edited by Jordan Peele

Oyili

Nuzo Onoh | 6951 words

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CW: Blood, kidnapping, death.

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I

Kachi stroked the yellow python-eye hidden between the cheeks of his buttocks with a distracted finger. The familiar round smoothness of the hard orb calmed his mind as he stared dispassionately at the mangled corpse sprawled at his tiny, blood-coated feet. It was the body of an obese man in his middle years. Like the rest of the bloated body, the man’s leather loincloth was blood-stained. Even the sandy soil around the corpse was damp with drained life-fluid.

Kachi sighed as he observed the dead man, his uncle, Akah. Another corpse he hadn’t meant to create. Now, he would have to endure the discomfort of body-doubling to avoid suspicion—Not that anyone would suspect a mute ten-year-old boy of murder. Still, it’s better to be safe.

Another gust of air escaped his blood-stained lips. He shut his eyes and pressed his yellow arse-eye into his flesh, hard . . . harder. He felt the python-eye birthing sharp little teeth that pierced his skin. It burrowed deeper, goring and spinning into his flesh, till it vanished. His skin rapidly sealed itself, leaving a smooth, bloodless surface that throbbed—Ouch! Oh, Great Asata!

Kachi moaned silently as blinding pain zipped through his veins. His green cross-eyes glazed in agony as his body was doused in sudden hot sweat. With the pain came the unearthly images, the supernatural visions from Mother-Asata, the python-deity. He allowed his eyes to roam.

With his charmed vision, Kachi saw the tiny hut he shared with his widowed mother, as well as