Fitness-trainer Winston settled in Corbeau Woods for a quiet life with his husband, free of the superstition and madness of his childhood. When a mysterious statue of an eye circulates the town, people go missing and he and his husband make a shocki...
Mike placed my mother's brass candelabra in the centre of our dining table and filled it with red candles for my father's visit. I smiled and wrapped an arm around my husband's shoulders. After the possession in Corbeau Woods, I opened up to my husband about my mother, her magical past and what I suspected transpired in the woods. He listened without judgement and commended me for being so strong. Some days, I still believed the events in the town were a hazy dream.
The officer who'd witnessed the earth spirit's magic had resigned from the force and moved away. No one understood the events of the night of the full moon. The body I had seen and those Mike had claimed to have heard about had vanished. Potts and the other officers had no recollection of them either. Every missing person except Mrs. Crawford returned with fuzzy explanations for their disappearances. We continued caring for Milo in her honour.
As the only witness with surviving memories, I questioned where reality ended, and my imagination began. My only proof was a semi-bloody piece of paper with the recipe for the perfect pumpkin pie that on the old full moon still read words I'd never forget.
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Thank you for reading my novella! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I loved writing it. Your support has made writing this a blast! To all those keeping or catching up with my updates, you are amazing and I can't thank you enough.
I'm curious, do you believe Winston's interpretation of the events? Do you think something different transpired or someone else was responsible? I'd love to hear your theories.
This novella turned out much differently than I planned considering I initially had no interest in writing a paranormal novel yet here I am and it turned out to be fun. I followed Chekov's gun principle to make every word count where if I introduced a detail I had to try to make it relevant so that's how Milo's role was born as well as the eerie scene at the clinic. Since it was an ever-evolving story I had to go back and add a few hints like the candelabra to chapter 1 so my apologies if that was a surprise for those who've been here since the beginning.
Further reading
If you're looking to check out more Open Novella Contest entries, I have a reading list on my profile of some of the wonderful ones I've had the pleasure of reading this year. As the novellas are completed, I'll be starting a 'Great Complete Novellas' list with some of my favourites so you can find complete and awesome novellas there.
If you want to check out more of my writing, the story most similar in theme to this one, my novella 'Remember Me' has more of a sci-fi fantasy twist but is also a mystery/thriller. I genre hop a lot so you'll also find a blend of contemporary fiction, dystopian, and non-fiction travelogues.
