LampLight - Volume I Issue I by Jacob Haddon

Author:Jacob Haddon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: horror, fiction magazine, horror magazine
Publisher: Apokrupha LLC

Summer Break

Mandy DeGeit

Turning the key in the deadbolt to her new place, she glances over her shoulder out of habit, and like always, there is nothing there. As she steps over the threshold into her new apartment, she hopes everything will be okay.

Moments turn into days, while days flow into weeks, and weeks become months. Day after day, her apartment is perfect. It’s everything she needs and more. Open and spacious, bright and airy, the apartment is all she’s ever wanted in a place to live.

The summer goes by quickly and quietly. She loses herself in hobbies—simple things—as she figures out what makes her happy. Everything is different from the past now that she’s no longer afraid. Everything’s different, but she feels safe now, much safer than she did before. She knows she’ll be just fine. She doesn’t need help living anymore. She has served her time in the darkness. Gone are her days of constant sadness as she now spends most days in the sun with a smile on her face. This is her new life; it’s her time to shine.

September is just another month and begins without her noticing.

It’s an early morning like all the others, but somehow different entirely. Her eyes spring open as shrill screeching penetrates the double-paned windows of her “perfect” apartment. She bolts upright in bed, the tears already forming in the corners of her eyes. Her knuckles whiten as she grips the blanket tight to her trembling body. Her blood pressure rises, coloring her cheeks in a rosy blush. She is oblivious to how tightly she clenches her jaw. A molar cracks, and she swallows the tiny chips of enamel, but they go down unnoticed. Her teeth grind back and forth, catching the inside of her cheeks and a coppery taste floods her tongue as she begins to bleed.

She remembers the screams and blood flowing from their little bodies. She thinks of the ones who ran, and the ones who didn’t move at all. She remembers the gun—not pointed at her—but in her hands, the metal hot with use. Everything she had forgotten, she now remembers.

Their high-pitched squeals gouge at her sanity, both then and now.

NO! It can’t be, she thinks as she stifles a wail, throwing herself out of bed. She stumbles to the window, jerking open the blinds. The sunshine hurts her eyes, as her retinas adjust to the sudden outpouring of light into the room. She looks down to the street. The tiny, evil creatures—the ones from her worst nightmares—gather in front of the house across the street. The tiny forms scurry and skitter around the enclosure, swarming over a plastic swing set and congregating in a sandbox. SO MANY! Her eyes narrow to slits as she stares down at the sea of colour and movement.

“They are everywhere, Monsters everywhere!” She mutters as she pulls the window coverings closed and heads over to the bedroom closet.

“So many monsters in this world. So many tiny monsters.” Her voice is muffled as she rummages through to the back of the storage closet.

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