Death in the Blink of an Eye: Twenty Great Short Short Horror Stories

 

I love short horror fiction, and even short-short horror fiction, because at its best it's a quick ice pick through the back of your skull. No time to brace yourself, no time to prepare, just boom.   

The first thing I do when I pick up a new horror collection is look for the shortest story I can find, because i) it lets me get a quick taste, and ii) those stories are often some of the most surprising and nasty pieces.

Short-shorts/flash fiction can often be more gimmicky than good, but there are some writers who have made a masterpiece out of them. In terms of horror fiction specifically, Richard Christian Matheson (whose collection Scars and Other Distinguishing Marks provides the image for today's post), Jeff Strand, and Michael Arnzen come to mind as particularly effective.

Some of these are more 'short short' than others--but this is my blog, so they're what I consider "short-short." Some of these are true flash fiction; others are a couple of pages long. All of them are short, though. No summaries here, since it's hard to say anything in a lot of cases without giving the game away.

1) "Red" by Richard Christian Matheson

A quick little sucker punch that you'll never forget. It captures what I think is the most important element of splatterpunk, which is. . . empathy. The story is appalling, but the gore is mostly kept at a level of abstraction, while the emotional horror takes the foreground. 

Where to Find It: Originally published in Night Cry and Fantasy Tales; you can find it in The Best Horror from Fantasy Tales (ed. Stephen Jones & David Sutton), Splatterpunks: Extreme Horror (ed. Paul M. Sammon), and Matheson's own collections Scars and Other Distinguishing Marks and Dystopia. 

2) "Blind Man's Buff" by H.R. Wakefield

One of those classic ghost stories I'd heard about for years before finally reading. And, I'm ashamed to admit, I didn't even specifically seek it out. I had bought Hugh Lamb's A Wave of Fear solely on the basis of one story (Charles Birkin's notorious, and otherwise uncollected, "Marjorie's on Starlight," which is its own whole thing), and figured I should see what the fuss was about. 

I think it's the perfect English ghost story in its most horrific form. If you could only read one such story, I'd say this is it. 

Where to Find It: This story is in dozens of ghost story anthologies, and justly so. I'd expect to see it in more, since it just entered the domain in the US this year. Some of them include The Oxford Book of Twentieth-Century Ghost Stories (ed. Michael Cox), The Young Oxford Book of Supernatural Stories (ed. Dennis Pepper), Ghosts (ed. Marvin & Saralee Kaye), and 65 Spine-Chillers by Mary Danby. And you can always try to track down A Wave of Fear and get "Marjorie's on Starlight" into the bargain. 

3) "A Woman Seldom Found" by William Sansom

I love this one, especially because it's not necessarily a horror story. There are a few ways to read the ending. Some of them are happy. Some of them aren't. Go see for yourself. 

Where to Find It: Lots of places, although mostly out of print mid-century anthologies. Your best bet for finding it currently might be the exemplary anthology The Weird (ed. Ann & Jeff VanderMeer).  

4) "55 Miles to the Gas Pump" by Annie Proulx

Didn't expect to see her on here, did you? Yup, the same Annie Proulx who wrote The Shipping News and "Brokeback Mountain" also gave us this quick, nasty little story (almost a prose poem, really). When I was in high school, one of the anthologies we used in English class had this in there, and word soon got around that this was an all-time gag-fest. It is, and it's the best short Joe R. Lansdale story of all time that's not a Joe R. Lansdale story. 

Where to Find It: If you bought Close Range: Wyoming Stories when Brokeback Mountain came out to read the source material, then you already have this. I don't recall what anthology we were using in high school, unfortunately. Another place you could find it is the gargantuan Vintage Book of American Women Writers (ed. Elaine Showalter). 

5) "Family Album" by Adam Troy-Castro

The premise here--grieving dad obsesses over the photo album showing a serial killer's torture and murder of his son--does not suggest a pleasant time, and the small number of pages feels very long indeed (even with most of the graphic details taking place off the page). But there's a lot more to it than a sicko endurance test. . .

I'll discuss this one more when I start my trip through John Pelan's Darkside anthologies later this fall. 

Where to Find It: I read it in Darkside: Horror for the Next Millennium, and that's the only place I'm aware it appeared. A shame, as a story this potent should be better known. 

6) "Cottonmouth" by John Boden

One of the few fully text based (that is, no illustrations) pieces of horror I've ever read that had the same effect on me as a jump scare. I say no more. 

Where to Find It: The Etiquette of Booby Traps by John Boden. 

7) "The Picture in the House" by H.P. Lovecraft

The first page or so is some of my favorite HPL writing, where Lovecraft situates the starkest terror not in ancient tombs or gothic ruins, but in the backcountry. There's a portent of modern American horror, here, where, years before Ed Gein and his crimes, Lovecraft tells a story of a New World that is already very Old in its degeneration and decay. And it has one of his best lines: "Sometimes one feels that it would be merciful to tear down these houses, for they must often dream."

Where to Find It: Any number of Lovecraft collections, as well as here.

8) "The Coffin-House" by Robert Aickman

Aickman's longer stories are usually stronger--he gets more room to stretch out and lead you slowly down his own Winchester House built out of language (and just as many ghosts). And, I do wonder whether I'd think the story as strong if I didn't know it was an Aickman story, because part of what makes it so bracing is how much more graphic it is (comparatively) to his usual work. 

Where to Find It: It's not in any of the classic Aickman collections that came out during his life, but it appears in Compulsory Games, which is one of a few great Aickman collections put out by New York Review of Books under their great NYRB Classics line. 

9) "Dollburger" by Lisa Tuttle

Gosh, I love this one. It's the edgiest Goosebumps book that never was, condensed to just a few pages and ending exactly when it needs to. The title screams 90s Nickelodeon kiddie horror zaniness, but I defy you to read this right before going to sleep.

Where to Find It: It's one of the many stories that make Tuttle's A Nest of Nightmares essential, so start there. It also appears in Tuttle's Stranger In The House: The Collected Short Supernatural Fiction, Volume One, and the anthologies Horrors (ed. Charles Grant)  and 100 Fiendish Little Frightmares (ed. Stefan Dziemianowicz and Martin H. Greenberg and Robert Weinberg).

10) "Endless Summer" by Stewart O'Nan

Achingly, yearningly beautiful, a sort of The Things They Carried approach to the crimes of Ted Bundy. Haunting, tasteful, violent.

Where to Find It: This got a reprint in Volume 14 of Datlow & Windling's Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, and Ellen Datlow just reprinted it in the exemplary anthology Fears: Tales of Psychological Horror. 

11) "A Southern Night" by Jane Yolen

You read 90% of it and think, "Okay, this seems just sort of pointless and also pretty tasteless and sad." Then you read the final 10% and realize, no, it's actually REALLY, REALLY TASTELESS. :)

Where to Find It: As far as I know, the only place this appears is the Horror Writers of America anthology Robert Bloch's Psychos (edited by, well, guess). 

12) "Hell" by Richard Christian Matheson

 Plenty of splatterpunk tried to capture the seedy, seething nature of the big city, but nothing ever succeeded as well as "Hell." If Dennis Etchison is Miracle Mile (Los Angeles as synthesized post-punk that's moody, elegiac, yearning, apocalyptic), then RCM is Repo Man (Los Angeles as hip, edgy, playful, and, well, also apocalyptic). 

Where to Find It: Again, this is in Scars and Other Distinguishing Marks and Dystopia. It also forms half of the RCM "double feature" in Silver Scream (ed. David J. Schow) (story for story, one of the best theme anthologies ever printed) and appears in Urban Horrors (ed. William F. Nolan & Martin Greenberg) as well.  

13) "The Stocking" by Nigel Kneale

I almost wrote "by Charles Birkin" here, because this is a really mean and Birkin-esque story. I actually think this is meaner than almost anything Birkin ever wrote! And it takes place on Christmas Eve, to really stick it to you. We'll revisit this in December...stay tuned!

Where to Find It: Kneale's collection Tomato Caine, which finally came back into print a couple years ago, is the best place. It's also in Richard Dalby's Horror for Christmas. 

14) "Every Litter Bit Hurts" by Michael Avallone

Not a horror story per se, this falls into that macabre horror/crime territory.  In fact, the old mystery magazines (Mike Shayne's Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine) have a high hit rate of stories that, while rarely supernatural, scratch a macabre itch. Avallone pulls a nasty formal trick with the ending which still horrifies me today.

Where to Find It: I encountered this in the Young Oxford Book of Nasty Endings (ed. Dennis Pepper), and I think that's the easiest place to find it. Although if someone wants to track down Quickie Thrillers: 25 Mini-Mysteries (ed. Dr. Arthur Liebman), be my guest!

15) "Pieces" by Ray Garton

 The trauma metaphor in this story is not subtle, and it's not supposed to be. This tale taps into the pain and intensity of Garton's best writing, but in a compassionate way. 

Where to Find It: I encountered this in The Best of Cemetery Dance. It also appeared in Garton's own Pieces of Hate and in Dark Terrors 3 (ed. Stephen Jones & David Sutton).

16) "City Fishing" by Steve Rasnic Tem

 I often go to a Tem story first when I get a new anthology (and more often than not there will be one in there; the dude's prolific). One of the reasons is that they're always good; another is that they're usually short, and I like to start a new anthology with a few nibbles. "City Fishing" is a classic SRT story in that it slips between metaphor and reality.  Tem's stories are usually personal and psychological ("concerns of the mind and spirit," as J.N. Williamson might put it), but this engages in a bit of world-building that expands the story just enough to make this one really stick in the memory.

Where to Find It: "City Fishing" appears in the SRT collection of the same name (the fact that it's the title story should indicate the quality here), as well as Figures Unseen: Selected Stories. It also appears in Volume 1 of Ramsey Campbell's New Terrors. 

17) "Identity Crisis" by Thomas F. Monteleone 

I've never been a huge Monteleone fan (aside from his Borderlands anthologies), but when he brings the goods, he brings the goods. This is another one that slots into the horror/crime intersection, and it is nasty! 

Where to Find It:  Terrors (ed. Charles Grant) and 100 Hair-Raising Little Horror Stories (ed. Al Sarrantonio & Martin Greenberg), as well as Tom's own collection Fearful Symmetries.

18) "Sitting in the Corner, Whimpering Quietly" by Dennis Etchison

Most of Etchison's greatest stories are just a little too long for this list. This is far from my favorite of his stories, but it's short enough to qualify. And, it is effective, and taps into some of what makes his fiction so great--the haunting liminal spaces, the bizarre interrupting modern urban life, and the way that the story doesn't focus on an 'on-screen' act of violence, but the emotional damage that both caused and will result from it. 

Where to Find It:  The best place to find it is Etchison's The Dark Country, which is one of the best collections of horror stories of all time. It also got reprinted in Cemetery Dance magazine (issue 30) as part of George Clayton Johnson's "Resurrections" series. That's worth tracking down because Johnson (no slouch himself as a writer!) provides additional commentary. 

19) "Oh Susannah" by Alvin Schwartz

I tried reading the Scary Stories series a few times in grade school, but it was too much even for me. The illustrations (which we won't be showing on this blog, thank you very much) are notoriously terrifying, even though the stories are sparse. That makes sense--they're intended for telling aloud to a young audience, so the focus isn't on the details. In the case of this one--a riff on the "Dead Roommate" urban legend--the lack of detail and logic takes the story from a creepy diversion for slumber parties to a nightmare of hideous, weird violence. Add in the surreal ink-spattered illustration (which feels like something you download from a Bulgarian torrent site instead of something you can buy at a grade school book fair) and we're in business. 

Where to Find It: More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (either on its own, or in the three volume Scary Stories omnibus). Whatever you do, make sure you get one with the original Gammell illustrations. 

20) "Born of Man and Woman" by Richard Matheson

This was almost "Dress of White Silk," which I'm very fond of, but "Born" is better. It's a nasty little story, and just when you think "okay, yeah, I get the idea," Matheson gives you one last horrible mental image in a story that's already packed a few in.

Where to Find It: Any number of Matheson collections, including one with the same name. It's a staple of science fiction and horror "best of" anthologies as well (and for good reason).