This is a collection of my older stories that I never assembled in a single place before.
I will add new ones from time to time, and each will be re-edited to improve readability but will be kept the same in terms of story and action. I will also b...
I wrote The Face of Fear for a Halloween-themed anthology here on Wattpad. Don't go look for it, it was taken down some time ago.
Now, this anthology was the first time anyone had ever asked me to write a story for a specific purpose, and although I was honored by the invitation, coming up with an idea was a daunting prospect. I'd always written whatever story was in my head at the time, I'd never had to come up with something to meet the needs of someone else's project before. I spent a good week turning the prospect over in my mind until inspiration finally struck.
When this story came out on an October day in 2014, it received a mixed reaction. Many readers didn't like how ambiguous the story was. They wanted to know exactly what the main character was going through and why. Personally, I think those answers would have eliminated any sense of horror. Fear lives in the dark spaces of the unknowable. It's far better for each reader to fill in the blanks with their own imagination.
Without answering these questions or getting into spoilers, what I will say about this story is that it's about alienation. It's about finding oneself on the outside, separate from the society you thought you were a part of. It's also about how societies can react to outsiders with fear, hatred, and violence. This is just a distilled and exaggerated version of what happens every day in schools, neighborhoods, and governments. People fear a monster, and they end up making monsters, both of themselves and others.
To republish the story in this collection, I set to clean up the grammar and the more sloppy passages, but I got carried away and gave it a major overhaul. Even going so far a to tweak the ending and spin it in a different direction. This was always a tale I looked back on fondly, but I think it's better for the changes. I hope you will agree and enjoy the end result.
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After the door opened, the costumed children on the stoop screamed and fled down the walk. Gary Brice slowly loosened his grip on a handful of candies, letting them fall in a slow rain over the bowl while the trick-or-treaters disappeared into the night. He stood in the drizzle-laced October air for some time, listening to their high-pitched howls of terror fade in the distance.
With sudden selfconscious, Gary traced his fingers over his face, seeking out a splatter of gravy, a spray of acne, or even a wayward booger. He found nothing but his slightly dry skin and a couple of days worth of stubble. But he couldn't shake the memory of the way they'd focused in on his face right before dissolving into senseless panic.
It must be a prank. A modern take on the flaming bag of dog poop. Something meant to annoy and bewilder adults on Halloween. One of the brats probably had a camera hidden in their mask to capture his stunned reaction. It would be up on YouTube any minute.
But despite these reassurances, he shuffled through the living room to his dingy, little downstairs bathroom to check himself in the mirror.
The cheap compact fluorescents in the fixtures made him look washed-out and a little green, but they always did that. The sickly light played over the angular bends of his young but not particularly attractive face. His nose was too broad, lips too thin, eyes marred by permanent bags. Same as the day before, except the beard was a bit thicker, and his eyes were a little more bloodshot. All perfectly normal. There was no reason for the children to scream like that.
