“You claim that Hyde is a beast; but all men are both angel and animal.”
-Robert Lewis Stevenson, “The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”
I write a lot of fantasy and science fiction. It’s fairly rare that I write anything meant to remind you of how much there is to dread in the unseen world.
But with Halloween rapidly approaching…
…yes, of COURSE Halloween is rapidly approaching. At least, if you use the right calendar. If your calendar thinks otherwise, throw it out and get a better one.
At any rate, with All Hallow’s Eve nearly upon us, I thought I’d write something short and just a little on the haunted side.
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A Note From Someone Who Is Not The Monster In Your Closet
I promise: I am not the monster in your closet.
I am not the horrible thing under your bed.
I am not the wound which begins to grow across your chest.
I am not the ghost infecting your phone.
I am not the subvocalized chant which blurs your waking moments.
I am not the thing that lives in the moment just past this one, waiting to still your heart.
I am not the shadows on the wall of your room.
I am not the cold face watching you from the moon.
I am not the part of your mind that has always waited to do things you dare not think.
I am not the presence you sense in the darkness.
I am not the force which pressed half the breath out of you while you slept.
I am not any of those things because they do not exist.
They do not exist because I ate them all.
And gained everything they were.
And now I am much, much worse.
Sleep well, in the shadow of your dear Mr. Hyde.
May your dreams be sweet; for they are my dessert.
My name is Jeff Mach (“Dark Lord” is optional) and I build communities, put on events, and make stories come into being. I also tweet a lot over @darklordjournal.
I write books. You should read them!
