How to create a haunted mood without jump scares.

writing through grief

"The cruelest prisons are the ones built deep inside the mind." Content Warning: Graphic violence, blood, child abuse, psychological trauma, disturbing imagery, and themes of mental illness and death. PROLOGUE: THE MORNING AFTER Red. Not the word, but the thing itself, raw and everywhere. On small hands that won't stop shaking. On white fabric that was once something else, something soft and harmless. It might have been a nightgown, maybe. The girl can't remember putting it o

The roar of an engine shattered the night. Headlights blazed through the corn, bright and blinding, and Nova threw up an arm to shield her eyes. The engine was loud, powerful, American muscle, and it was coming fast. She dove to the side as a black-and-chrome 1967 Pontiac GTO exploded out of the corn rows. Tires churned dirt and dead stalks as it skidded to a stop exactly where she’d been standing three seconds earlier. The driver’s door opened. A man stepped out carrying a s