A Scary Story by Laura van den Berg: “The river freezes. The child is everywhere, all the time.”
At Gigantic Magazine, the Mini-Monster Issue features an interview with the wonderful writer Kelly Link on The Vampire Diaries and the satisfaction of narrative perversion (“In fiction, at least, there’s a kind of cathartic, discomfiting joy — a pain/pleasure — in people behaving badly”) as well as this wonderfully spare, short and spooky story called “Child,” by Laura van den Berg.
In the new house, we hear strange noises downstairs. It sounds like someone is running circles in the dining room. In bed, we listen to the rush of footsteps, the squeaking floorboards. This house is surrounded by large, hunched trees. We have accepted that things are going to be different out here.
Beyond the trees, there is a field and a river. Now that it is winter and the leaves are disappearing, I stand at our bedroom window and try to find the silver glint of water in the night.
Soon the river will be frozen. What then?
One night, it sounds like footsteps are moving up the stairs. They come all the way to our bedroom door, which is locked tight, and then vanish.
Spoiler alert in the story’s title! The whole piece only takes a few minutes to read.
Photo credit jamesmellor/Flickr
[Gigantic]