#local gothic

[7vvitches]

Forgive my northern attitude

I was raised on little light

Self portrait by @ashovertheriver

[existential-cryptid]

The Gas Station at 1 AM

There's few people on the road at this late of an hour. Some unfavorable folk may take advantage. Tired, empty eyes gloss over your silhouette. Try not to move too quickly, you'll draw their gaze.

You try to avoid stopping at all costs, you know that this land is ancient and you don't belong in this neck of the woods.

You find the restroom. You position yourself at the sink, splashing cold water onto your face. Don't look yourself in the eyes, just try to wake up.

You swear hear someone walk out behind you, but there was no reflection in the mirror. The door lightly taps shut.

You walk up to the register to prepay. There is someone there, buying coffee for five people. As they walk to their car, you see there is no one else in their cab. They've finished two of the coffees.

The cashier stares through you. You ask for twenty dollars on pump three as you hand them your card. They do not take it, they simply smile, "Payment accepted." You still cannot find what they are looking at.

There is twenty dollars on pump three. You pump gas in your car and try not to look into the now vacant parking lot. The empty space tries not to look into you as well.

As you drive away, you look in your rear view mirror. The gas station does not exist. Where have you been? Your gas tank is full.

[livius-varro]

Okay so

MAYBE there's a cult in my hometown that's overly friendly and always trying to get you to go to church with them but once you go they never let you leave and MAYBE my mema had a twin sister that drowned in the river when they were kids who she talks about having conversations with now that she has dementia and just maybe the church signs are always weirdly specific and perhaps there's an old plantation house down the street that we would make up ghost stories about as kids not knowing that the truth of that house is more sinister than anything our then innocent minds could have imagined but I really feel like y'all from up north exaggerate the whole southern gothic thing.

[n4turef3els]

Decatur, AL Gothic

>You drive up to the window of the news Dunkin’ Donuts only to be handed a Diet Mountain Dew. This is not what you ordered. “No refunds at the window,” the cashier says, smiling too wide.

>You sit in the bleachers during the Austin-Decatur Football Game. Is it just you or has the other side started morphing into their mascots? “Black Bears!” they yell, “Red Raiders!” they yell. You start to think the heat has gone to your head.

>You go to pick up a friend on the Austin side of town. You drive past Cedar Ridge, and find only pasture. You drive some more and there is simply nothing there. Your car breaks down.

>You wake up one morning to no cat food smell. “Where’s the Meow-Mix?” you ask. You only get stares in return.

>You sit by the river at Rhodes Ferry Park, and look over to see something hanging from the bridge. You don’t know when it got there, or what it is, but you know it isn’t going to leave.

>You drive by the Rose Garden late one night and see the flash of eyes coming from inside the bushes. The stoner kids emerge from the darkness, and they all stare at you while taking long drags off their joints.

>The Austin Kids are performing Shrek: again. Legend has it it’s the only thing they’ve ever performed. “Would you like to see the show?” they ask with blank eyes.

>You go downtown to The Brick and order a Ham and Swiss. Your waitress passes you your sandwich and the meat is still dripping blood. “Eat Fresh,” she says.

>You go to the mall and only see middle aged moms. They start to tail you, and you speed towards the Belks only for them to form a barricade. “Bless your heart” they say in unison.

>”We used to have a world record for most amount of churches per square mile!” says one girl. You go into them one by one and find nothing there, only burnt and decaying wood.

[cliffsandcastles]

South Georgia Gothic

There are four corners in this town: the church, the City Hall, the diner, and the graveyard.

The doors of the Baptist church are shut tightly, squeezed into their ill-formed doorframe. They say this is to keep the devil out. What you can’t see are the deep, desperate, clawing marks on the inside of the doors. You will never know what it is they are trying to keep in.

The City Hall houses the police station and the post office as well. An old woman sits behind a desk. You cannot remember a time when she was not here. Neither can she. A rattling metal fan pushes around the stale air. The woman does not draw breath. You swallow hard and hurriedly shove your postcard behind a creaking metal flap. It drags slowly down the rusty chute.

There are only five tables in this diner. One of them is taken by three elderly men who stare at you as you ask the waitress for an ice water. There is no ice in your glass. You drink the lukewarm water. The men do not blink.

You are on your way out of town. A young woman stands in the center of the graveyard. Her long dress and hair are blowing in the wind, but the air is still. The sun is weighing down heavily upon you. You gasp for air as the woman falls to the ground and claws her way into a newly dug grave. Don’t stay here.

In the late afternoon, the sun and full moon are on opposite sides of the sky. As they align, you are unable to tell them apart. You are on your way out of town. Which way were you going? Be sure to make up your mind before the sun falls below the horizon.

Your postcard rests between the bones of a long-dead animal in the basement of the City Hall. On one side, an ink drawing of endless green fields and blue skies. On the other, four stamps and two words: help me.

[bakurapika]

canon city gothic

in honor of the city i’ve lived in for nearly a year now. kudos to the series set in canon city with a protagonist with my name

There’s a dark figure on the road for just a moment out of the corner of your eye. You think it’s a deer. You hope it’s a deer.

Everyone in town belongs to a geology club, which you hear meets in a nondescript ex-church building. You’re always invited to come. They insist it’s not a cult.

Some nights as you drive home, the sky is lit a sickly, hazy neon green. You try to take a picture of it. It never shows up.

The cute girl at Burger King gets your number. Soon you read about an accident. You never see her again.

There’s a road named after the phantoms that supposedly haunt it. Everyone you ask has a different tale of how they died.

You go to the store and the manager recognizes you. The person beside you at the bar recognizes you. The pedestrians on the street recognize you. They always call your name and stare into you before they put on a cold wooden smile. 

The town is surrounded by mountains. Surrounded on every side. No one mentions them. They only stand, foreboding, judging.

There’s a food pantry in town for the hungry. They’re open a couple hours per month.

You pull into a McDonald’s and order your food. They tell you they have no food. You wait in line half an hour before they let you leave.

Everyone in town says Canon City has a history. When you look it up online, the only history you can find is... unpleasant.

It’s a tourist town, people tell you. You’ve never seen a tourist here.

The air here is thick. You can’t breathe. Locals laugh and tell you you’ll get used to it. The supermarket sells cans of oxygen for $14.99.

The people here have always lived here. They’ve never left the state. Why would they? they ask you. Why would they leave Colorado? Who would want to leave Colorado? Who would dare try to leave Colorado? 

One day you find a vertebra in your yard. It’s large. You think it’s a deer’s. You hope it’s a deer’s.

[zarkonnen]

Seven-Factor Authentication

1. Something you fear 2. Something you are trying very hard to forget 3. Something that lurks just beyond your comprehension 4. A buried hope 5. Something that will never go away 6. The thing you see when you close your eyes 7. What you cannot admit to yourself

[7vvitches]

purgatory