Last night, I heard a sound, like a cat or an angry dog.
I was woken up at 3.12 am by the sound of the room telephone going off .
It must have been a dream, because my mother was on the line and she’s been dead for five years.
When I got back into bed, in my dream, A woman was in the bed with me.
It was clear she had been dead for a long time. Her eyes were gone and her lips had shrunk back into a horrid smile.
She asked me to stay and then started to howl like a cat.
Hidden in the bible.
Elueutherophobia is a story that is featured in Fear is a Mirror, a collection of stories my friend, Gareth Topping and I produced together and put out last year.
This is one of my favourite stories in the collection despite being one of the shortest. I think it captures a lot of the fictional universe that lives inside my head; a place where the furthest logical conclusion to my own Orwellian paranoia lives.
It’s also the first time I properly tried to write fiction in second person. I remember trying it out for the first time in a writing group held by my friend and fellow writer, Stephanie Victoire and I found it actually quite thrilling to write like that. It’s difficult to maintain, which is probably why this is so short.
I think that is another reason why I decided to try this story in an audio format first.
And just in case you are interested, there is a sequel to this short which is called Freedom is a Crack of Light, and it can be found on my site.
Please excuse any production weirdness, I am still learning. I hope you enjoy this, and I look forward to producing more audio versions of my stories.
I thought it would be okay.
I just wanted to speak to my dad again.
He died here.
There was an accident when this place was being built and he was crushed to death by a wall. It was in this room.
I saw the pictures.
It happened where the kitchen is now, by the door that leads to the maintenance corridor. When I did the ritual, he appeared.
At first, I was so happy, but when I saw his face, his eyes were missing and his teeth were razors.
I’m sorry.
He comes at 1.14 am.
It was when I did the ritual.
Look for the signs
-Hidden in a drawer.
