{"id":1484,"date":"2014-12-19T15:13:05","date_gmt":"2014-12-19T15:13:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stoneskin.wpengine.com\/?p=1484"},"modified":"2014-12-19T15:13:05","modified_gmt":"2014-12-19T15:13:05","slug":"teasers-to-lovecraft-nadia-bulkin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stoneskinpress.com\/index.php\/teasers-to-lovecraft-nadia-bulkin\/","title":{"rendered":"Teasers to Lovecraft: Nadia Bulkin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Letters to Lovecraft<\/em><\/a> is our newest genre-blending anthology of original fiction, and as a holiday treat to our readers we\u2019ll be posting excerpts from each of the stories. We started this series with a Brian Evenson story about how you really, really can’t go home, but Nadia Bulkin’s “Only Unity Saves the Damned” poses the opposite problem: what happens when you can’t leave in the first place? Sleepy hometowns can be like snares, tightening around you even as you try to escape, and sometimes growing up in these places can blind you to the all-too-real horror that surrounds you, pressing closer and closer…<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cDude, are you getting this?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Rosslyn Taro, 25, and Clark Dunkin, 25, are standing in the woods. It\u2019s evening \u2014 the bald cypresses behind them are shadowed, and the light between the needles is the somber blue that follows sunsets \u2014 and they are wearing sweatshirts and holding stones.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s on,\u201d says the voice behind the camera. \u201cTo the winner go the spoils!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

They whip their arms back and start throwing stones. The camera pans to the right as the stones skip into the heart of Goose Lake. After a dozen rounds, the camera pans back to Rosslyn Taro and Clark Dunkin arguing over whose stone made the most skips, and then slowly returns to the right. Its focus settles on a large bur oak looming around the bend of the lake, forty yards away.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cHey, isn\u2019t that the Witching Tree?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Off camera, Clark Dunkin says, \u201cWhat?\u201d and Rosslyn Taro says, \u201cCome on, seriously?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, Raggedy Annie\u2019s Witching Tree.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The girl sounds too shaky to be truly skeptical. \u201cHow do you know?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cRemember the song? \u2018We hung her over water, from the mighty oak tree.\u2019 Well, there aren\u2019t any other lakes around here. And First Plymouth is on the other side of the lake.\u201d The camera zooms, searches for a white steeple across the still water, but the light is bad. \u201c\u2018We hung her looking over at the cemetery.\u2019\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The camera swings to Rosslyn Taro, because she is suddenly upset. She is walking to the camera, and, when she reaches it, shoves the cameraman. \u201cBay, shut up! I hate that stupid song. Let\u2019s just go, I\u2019m getting cold. Come on, please.\u201d But Clark Dunkin is still staring at the tree. His hands are shaking. Rosslyn Taro calls his name: \u201cLark!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The camera follows Clark Dunkin\u2019s gaze to the tree. There is a figure standing in front of it, dressed in a soiled white shift and a black execution hood. The figure reaches two pale, thin hands to the edge of the hood as if to reveal its face. And then the camera enters a topspin, all dirt and branches and violet sky, as the cameraman begins to run. Rosslyn Taro is heard screaming. Someone \u2014 the cameraman, or possibly Clark Dunkin \u2014 is whimpering, as if from very far away, \u201coh, shit, oh, shit.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

And then the video abruptly cuts to black.<\/em><\/p>\n

For the rest, get Letters to Lovecraft<\/em> from Stone Skin Press<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Nadia Bulkin<\/strong> \"\"writes scary stories about the scary world we live in. Two of her stories have been nominated for Shirley Jackson Awards, and one won the 2010 ChiZine Short Story Contest. It took her two tries to leave Nebraska, but she has been in Washington, D.C., for three years now. She works in research and tends her garden of student debt sowed by two political science degrees. For more, see nadiabulkin.wordpress.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Letters to Lovecraft is our newest genre-blending anthology of original fiction, and as a holiday treat to our readers we\u2019ll be posting excerpts from each of the stories. We started this series with a Brian Evenson story about how you…<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more ›<\/a><\/div>\n

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