Story Overview:
Sam is a fledgling horror writer, struggling to overcome her greatest enemy – herself. Despite her best efforts, she has never been able to complete her debut novel. Ideas flow like water to her mind, but reaching any sort of conclusion seems impossible. After years of struggle, she gives up on her dream, planning to force herself into the real world. However, her novel isn’t prepared to go quietly into the night. Is the frightening world Sam finds herself in created by the ghosts of her own ideas, or has Fate conspired to bring her worst fears into reality instead? Can she survive to discover the truth?
Rating:
This story is rated red. Though the first chapter does not contain anything objectionable, things will get very dark and frightening by the second, and stay that way throughout the rest of the story. Be warned that you are in for the darkest, most graphic and frightening story that I am capable of producing at this point in my career.
Spoiler-Free Author’s Notes:
This is another experiment for me. Though I love the psychological horror genre, most notably the kind found in Konami’s “Silent Hill” video game series, or the board game “Arkham Horror,” I don’t write in this genre, and I’m not a traditional horror fan. I find the typical American gore-fest horror to be repulsive, and hope that the atmospheric, psychological side of fear will someday make more inroads in our culture. I am not at all certain that I can succeed in making this great, but I’m going to try. If nothing else, this will be an exercise in working with dark and macabre subject matter for future stories.
This is also my attempt at working with the first of many writing prompts given by Brandon Sanderson and the “Writing Excuses” series of podcasts that he, Dan Wells and Howard Tayler host for new writers. (The prompt: write a story about a writer who can’t finish anything because he or she is blocked.) Wish me luck!
While Sam shares many flaws with me on a personal level, she is not intended to be a placeholder or a mouthpiece. I share the agony of not being able to finish things, and I hate endings with a passion. I also tend to be very shy around people that I don’t know, though not quite to the extent that she is! Consider her an exaggerated form of myself, but with a few unique additions that are all hers and make her a unique character.
Useless trivia: The character Miles was created to be the main character for an interactive fiction game I wanted to make. At a loss for how to proceed with his story, however, I co-opted him to serve in this one. Many of the minor details of his life are missing from this version, but he has always had a young daughter named Melissa. Someday, maybe I’ll get that game written, and you’ll have a chance to see him outside the Nightmare.
More useless trivia: Poe is based on one of my two cats, Mr. Stubbs. His name comes from his lack of a proper tail tip. He and his brother Trigger were adopted, and neither we nor his adoption mom have any idea what happened to him, or if he was just born that way. During the first chapter of The End, he decided to pester me at the keyboard. I threatened to put him in the story if he didn’t stop. He didn’t. He is indeed a black cat (his brother is an orange tabby) and most of the behaviors attributed to Poe come straight from his.
Team The End, as created by LooseLeaf! Characters are, in order, from left to right: Sam, Miles and Melissa.