james barry: two!

i'm andrew, and i occasionally put effort into things // i follow back from rayonets!

[antinousmondragone]

Drummer magazine ads

[anthropoetics]

[recapitulation]

[id: the poem “Night walk” by Franz Wright. It reads:

“The all-night convenience store’s empty

and no one is behind the counter.

You open and shut the glass door a few times

causing a bell to go off,

but no one appears. You only came

to buy a pack of cigarettes, maybe

a copy of yesterday’s newspaper –

finally you take one and leave

thirty-five cents in its place.

It is freezing, but it is a good thing

to step outside again:

you can feel less alone in the night,

with lights on here and there

between the dark buildings and trees.

Your own among them, somewhere.

There must be thousands of people

in this city who are dying

to welcome you into their small bolted rooms,

to sit you down and tell you

what has happened to their lives.

And the night smells like snow.

Walking home for a moment

you almost believe you could start again.

And an intense love rushes to your heart,

and hope. It’s unendurable, unendurable.” /end id]

[cornbreadlesbian]

Visible Mending Guide

[metamorphesque]

— Franz Kafka, Letters to Milena

[text ID:   Yesterday I advised you not to write me every day, I still hold the same opinion today and it would be very good for both of us, and so I repeat my advice today even more emphatically- only please, Milena, don't listen to me, and write me every day anyway, it can even be very brief, briefer than today's letters, just 2 lines, just one, just one word, but if I had to go without them I would suffer terribly.]

[julykings]

unmade bed no. 27

[julykings]

from Tiny Beautiful Things, adapted for the stage by Nia Vardalos. 

[camcorderghosts]

2003 The Breathing Bullets Tour scraps

[zegalba]

Nintendo Game Boy Color Magazine Ad (2001) Dazed & Confused Magazine, Issue 77

[evertestati]

Protect me from what I want

[everythingstarstuff]

‘Don’t Look Up’ by Cameron Burns (Captvart)

[vintageadvertising]

1980s Sony cassettes ad.

[holyisthenameofmyruthlessaxe]

after a suicide attempt in 2016

[holyisthenameofmyruthlessaxe]

“When Daddy comes in, he carries you to bed. Is there anything you feel like you could eat, Pokey? Anything at all? All you can imagine putting in your mouth is a cold plum, one with really tight skin on the outside but gum-shocking sweetness inside. And he and your mother discuss where he might find some this late in the season. Mother says hell I don’t know. Further north, I’d guess. The next morning, you wake up in your bed and sit up. Mother says, Pete, I think she’s up. He hollers in, You ready for breakfast, Pokey. Then he comes in grinning, still in his work clothes from the night before. He’s holding a farm bushel. The plums he empties onto the bed river toward you through folds in the quilt. If you stacked them up, they’d fill the deepest bin at the Piggly Wiggly. Damned if I didn’t get the urge to drive to Arkansas last night, he says. Your mother stands behind him saying he’s pure USDA crazy. Fort Smith, Arkansas. Found a roadside stand out there with a feller selling plums. And I says, Buddy, I got a little girl sick back in Texas. She’s got a hanker for plums and ain’t nothing else gonna do. It’s when you sink your teeth into the plum that you make a promise. The skin is still warm from riding in the sun in Daddy’s truck, and the nectar runs down your chin. And you snap out of it. Or are snapped out of it. Never again will you lay a hand against yourself, not so long as there are plums to eat and somebody-anybody-who gives enough of a damn to haul them to you. So long as you bear the least nibblet of love for any other creature in this dark world, though in love portions are never stingy. There are no smidgens or pinches, only rolling abundance. That’s how you acquire the resolution for survival that the coming years are about to demand. You don’t earn it. It’s given.”

excerpt from Cherry by Mary Karr, context being after a suicide attempt at age 13

[screenshotsofdespair]

[wouldyouliketoseemymask]

This is a compiled list of some of my favorite pieces of short horror fiction, ranging from classics to modern-day horror, and includes links to where the full story can be read for free. Please be aware that any of these stories may contain subject matter you find disturbing, offensive, or otherwise distressing. Exercise caution when reading. Image art is from Scarecrow: Year One.

PSYCHOLOGICAL: tense, dread-inducing horror that preys upon the human psyche and aims to frighten on a mental or emotional level. 

“The Frolic” by Thomas Ligotti, 1989

“Button, Button” by Richard Matheson, 1970

“89.1 FM” by Jimmy Juliano, 2015

“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 1892

“Death at 421 Stockholm Street“ by C.K. Walker, 2016

“The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” by Ursula K. Le Guin, 1973

“An Empty Prison” by Matt Dymerski, 2018

“A Suspicious Gift” by Algernon Blackwood, 1906

CURSED: stories concerning characters afflicted with a curse, either by procuring a plagued object or as punishment for their own nefarious actions.

“How Spoilers Bleed” by Clive Barker, 1991

“A Warning to the Curious” by M.R. James, 1925

“each thing i show you is a piece of my death” by Stephen J. Barringer and Gemma Files, 2010

“The Road Virus Heads North” by Stephen King, 1999

“Ring Once for Death” by Robert Arthur, 1954

“The Mary Hillenbrand Cassette“ by Jimmy Juliano, 2016

“The Monkey’s Paw” by W.W. Jacobs, 1902

MONSTERS: tales of ghouls, creeps, and everything in between.

“The Curse of Yig” by H.P. Lovecraft and Zealia Bishop, 1929 

“The Oddkids” by S.M. Piper, 2015

“Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” by Richard Matheson

“The Graveyard Rats” by Henry Kuttner, 1936

“Tall Man” by C.K. Walker, 2016 

“The Quest for Blank Claveringi“ by Patricia Highsmith, 1967

“The Showers” by Dylan Sindelar, 2012

CLASSICS: terrifying fiction written by innovators of literary horror. 

“The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe, 1843

“The Interlopers” by Saki, 1919 

“The Statement of Randolph Carter“ by H.P. Lovecraft, 1920

“The Damned Thing” by Ambrose Pierce, 1893

“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving, 1820 

“August Heat” by W.F. Harvey, 1910

“The Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe, 1843

SUPERNATURAL: stories varying from spooky to sober, featuring lurking specters, wandering souls, and those haunted by ghosts and grief. 

“Nora’s Visitor” by Russell R. James, 2011

“The Pale Man” by Julius Long, 1934

“A Collapse of Horses” by Brian Evenson, 2013

“The Jigsaw Puzzle” by J.B. Stamper, 1977 

“The Mayor Will Make A Brief Statement and then Take Questions” by David Nickle, 2013

“The Night Wire” by H.F. Arnold, 1926 

“Postcards from Natalie” by Carrie Laben, 2016

UNSETTLING: fiction that explores particularly disturbing topics, such as mutilation, violence, and body horror. Not recommended for readers who may be offended or upset by graphic content.  

“Survivor Type” by Stephen King, 1982

“I’m On My Deathbed So I’m Coming Clean…” by M.J. Pack, 2018

“In the Hills, the Cities” by Clive Barker, 1984

“The New Fish” by T.W. Grim, 2013

“The Screwfly Solution” by Racoona Sheldon, 1977

“In the Darkness of the Fields” by Ho_Jun, 2015 

“The October Game” by Ray Bradbury, 1948

“I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream” by Harlan Ellison, 1967 

HAPPY READING, HORROR FANS!

[wouldyouliketoseemymask]

I’ve been doing some reading and have more stories to add: 

PSYCHOLOGICAL: 

“Paradise Pine” by C.K. Walker, 2016

“Suffer the Little Children” by Stephen King, 1972 

“Rocking Horse Creek” by C.K. Walker, 2016

“The Ledge” by Stephen King, 1978

“Ted the Caver” by Ted, 2001

“The Fly-paper” by Elizabeth Taylor, 1969

CURSED:

“The Reaper’s Image” by Stephen King, 1969

“Correspondence” by Bloodstains, 2011

“Casting the Runes” by M.R. James, 1911 

“The Dionaea House” by Eric Heisserer, 2004

“1408″ by Stephen King, 1999

“Stinson Beach” by Walter Smith, 2011

MONSTERS:

“The Crawlers” by Jimmy Juliano, 2014 

“Pickman’s Model” by H.P. Lovecraft, 1927

“Dollhouse” by C.K. Walker, 2016

“I Love My Grandparents’ Fireplace” by Rona Vaselaar, 2016

“Click-clack the Rattlebag“ by Neil Gaiman, 2015

CLASSICS:

“Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad” by M.R. James, 1904 

“The Voice in the Night” by William Hope Hodgson, 1907 

“The Cask of Amontillado“ by Edgar Allan Poe, 1847

“A Sound of Thunder” by Ray Bradbury, 1952

“Cool Air” by H.P. Lovecraft, 1928

SUPERNATURAL:

“It Was a Different Time” by Cymoril Melnibone, 2018

“The Testament of Magdalen Blair” by Aleister Crowley, 1929 

“Instructions for the Babysitter” by CR Jones, 2018

“The Hand” by Guy de Maupassant, 1880 

“63 Years Ago” by Jake Healey, 2016

UNSETTLING:

“Window” by Bob Leman, 1980 

“No Matter Which Way We Turned” by Brian Evenson, 2016

“The M Show Fan Club” by lenalona, 2013

“The Dune” by Stephen King, 2011

“Jacqueline Ess: Her Will And Testament“ by Clive Barker, 1984

“The Judge” by Rona Vaselaar, 2015

ENJOY!

[wouldyouliketoseemymask]

Here’s some more stories I’ve enjoyed, bringing the list total to 125 scary tales:

PSYCHOLOGICAL:

“Nightcrawlers” by Robert R.  Mccammon, 1984

“Burn” by C.K. Walker, 2016

“Examination Day” by Henry Slesar, 1958

“Miriam” by Truman Capote, 1945

“To See the Invisible Man” by Robert Silverberg, 1979 

“A Conversation with a Stranger on the Bus” by C.M., 2019

“The Man Who Loved Flowers” by Stephen King, 1977

“Paleontologists Were We” by C.K. Walker, 2016

CURSED:

“The Hourglass Tattoo” by The Dead Canary, 2019

“I Uncovered the Disturbing Truth Behind a Haunted Film…” by Joel Farrelly, 2015

“Moomaw’s Curses” by Pippinacious, 2017

“A Curse is Killing My Friends and I’m Next” by Zamil Akhtar, 2017

“The Cat From Hell” by Stephen King, 1977

“I’ve Been Getting Strange Letters from the St. Louis Prison” by Andrew Harmon, 2015

“The Ash-tree” by M.R. James, 1904

MONSTERS:

“The Midnight Meat Train” by Clive Barker, 1984

“Recluse” by Jimmy Juliano, 2016

“The Raft” by Stephen King, 1982

“Mr. Widemouth” by perfectcircle35, 2010

“The Beast of Averoigne” by Clark Ashton Smith, 1932

“Graveyard Shift” by Stephen King, 1970

“The Puppet in the Tree” by Dopabeane, 2018

“The Autopsy” by Michael Shea, 1980

CLASSICS: 

“The Triumph of Night” by Edith Wharton, 1914

“Specialty of the House” by Stanley Ellin, 1956

“The Oval Portrait” by Edgar Allan Poe, 1842

“The Mezzotint” by M.R. James, 1904

“The Occupant of the Room” by Algernon Blackwood, 1917

“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates, 1966

“The Waxwork” by A.M. Burrage, 1931

“The Terrible Old Man” by H.P. Lovecraft, 1920

SUPERNATURAL:

“The Stillwood King” by Kris Straub, 2008

“She’s Gotten One Step Closer Every Night…” by Nick Botic, 2018

“Beauty” by Robert R. Mccammon, 1990

“My Girlfriend Talks in Her Sleep…” by Ryan Matthews, 2018

“The Everlasting Club” by Arthur Gray, 1910

“Char” by C.K. Walker, 2016

“The River Styx Runs Upstream” by Dan Simmons, 1981 

“Lemon Blossom Girl” by Kris Straub, 2008

“How to Summon the Butter Street Hitchhiker” by Chris Hicks, 2018

UNSETTLING:

“Soft” by F. Paul Wilson, 1984

“The Taxidermied Child” by Tobias Wade, 2019

“It’s a Good Life” by Jerome Bixby, 1953

“Magnum Opus” by C.K. Walker, 2016

“Something Passed By” by Robert R. McCammon, 1990

“The Stretching Party” by Nick Botic, 2018

“Incident On and Off a Mountain Road” by Joe R. Lansdale, 1991

“Other People” by Neil Gaiman, 2001

HAVE FUN!

[ryegarden]

ceaseless watcher turn your gaze upon my fucking gay emotions

[bon-bona]

Glass Animals - How To Be A Human Being

[somethingherbal]

Jarchivist sketchdump