My short story ‘The Sound of Darkness’ is the twelfth of thirteen tales of terror in Red Cape Publishing’s latest anthology, F is for Fear.
F is for Fear is part of their A-Z of Horror series, and submissions are now open for the next collections.
Murat Yildiz is a grown man with a flat in Luton. He has a girlfriend called Cheryl, a steady job, and is big and heavy enough that most people don’t fuck with him. He also has a deep-rooted fear of the dark, embedded at a very early age while growing up in a walled council estate in Pagham-on-Sea.
One night, Murat comes home to find his living room light has blown, and is incapable of going inside. This prompts recollections from his childhood, as he thinks about the council estate he left behind and something that stalked children in its dark places. He remembers his own narrow escape one summer night in 1998, and the terrified whisper of his then-best friend, Tommy Danage:
Have you ever listened to it? The dark?
‘The Sound of Darkness’ is my own (very brief) exploration of childhood fear and trauma, of absences, grief, and mixed heritage identity erasure, and what fear of the dark can represent. It’s also about two lads stuck in a lift as the lights flicker on and off, as shadows shift in the mirrors around them.
There are 13 stories in this anthology including mine, and all are creepy, well-written, engaging and definitely worth a read. From sleep paralysis to spiders, lots of common fears and phobias are explored and while there are content warnings galore (that’s the point of the collection!) there will be something in here to creep you out.
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