it’s been 3 months, so i’m legally allowed to sharemy first officially published storyfor free. previously published in Massacre Magazine, under the Gorey Skelton pen name
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I’m… shaken. Disturbed? Holy shit.
That is
Holy shit
Read it
my one real goal as a writer is to create content people regret reading
JFC WHAT IS GOING ON IN YOUR MAGENTA GOURD-BRAIN
I have passive aggressive tendencies related to childhood neglect
i was completely submerged into this story
i. am so profoundly disappointed in you
i brought this on myself
Wow you guys really kraken me up here
one could say it’s gorgeous
i’m, going to beat you to death with your own phone
This comment chain really drifted away from what you wanted, huh?
Gaud’s fans have sunk this low…
Yeah, they cant even keep with the current conversation
I’m drowning in emotions after reading that
I was ready to cave in with the weight of them
There was a lot of pressure to read this
I’m ready to take a deep dive into Guads writing.
water
wanted to sea what the buzz was all abt and wow- was not at all prepared for the waves of emotion
This story left me em-ocean-al.
not gonna lie it was pretty fishy to read something from by “Gorey Skelton”
I’m shore I’ve never read such and ominous story
Deep.
What levels of sorrow I found deep inside when I read it
Goddammit guys, are you shore the puns are okay?
we’re drowning in them
ok, before i even read it. i think it involves the ocean, probably somewhere very deep, maybe pitch black deep? also a cave. maybe an underwater cave that ends up collapsing on someone? there was mention of a kraken, but i don’t know if it’s because it’s in the story or because it’s ocean related. some sort of monster. i mean, this is you were talking about. ok. what about: deep sea diving, finding an underwater cave, but there is something lying dormant in there that the character wakes up. they die by the end of it, possibly due to the creature, or maybe the cave collapses on them.
this is my official hypothesis before i read the story. if i am right, yay me. if i am wrong, the puns led me astray. let’s sea how this goes.
ok, i was wrong, but that fine. that was intense. felt like i was shot in the chest by it. left me feeling pretty hollow inside. but it’s good, really good.
my one real goal is to create content people regret reading
an incomplete list of unsettling short stories I read in textbooks
the scarlet ibis
marigolds
the diamond necklace
the monkey’s paw
the open boat
the lady and the tiger
the minister’s black veil
an occurrence at owl creek bridge
a rose for emily
(I found that one by googling “short story corpse in the house,” first result)
the cask of amontillado
the yellow wallpaper
the most dangerous game
a good man is hard to find
some are well-known, some obscure, some I enjoy as an adult, all made me uncomfortable between the ages of 11-15
add your own weird shit, I wanna be literary and disturbed
The Tell-Tale Heart, The Gift of the Magi, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calavaras County, Thank You Ma’am
the box social by james reaney. i remember we all had to silently read it in class, and you would hear the moment everyone reached the Part because some people would audibly go “what”
wHat did I just put my eyes on
“The Veldt” by Ray Bradbury
Not quite a short story, but read in class: “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street” from The Twilight Zone
Harrison Bergeron, Cat and the Coffee Drinkers
“Where are you going and where have you been” by Joyce carol oates
“The Pedestrian” by Ray Bradbury
the lottery by shirley jackson
i can’t believe Roald Dahl’s “The Landlady” wasn’t already mentioned
and also it’s not so much unsettling as more absurdist but “The Leader” by Eugene Ionesco definitely made me go wtf
Ett halvt ark papper. I cried so much.
Ночь у мазара, А. Шалимов
A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury
I Have no Mouth, and I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury
Some of Us Had Been Threatening Our Friend Colby, by Donald Barthelme
I read Ray Bradbury’s “All Summer In A Day” in seventh grade (it wasn’t assigned, I was just going through my textbook for new stuff to read) and as a bullied kid with SAD, it Fucked Me Up.
An Ordinary Day with Peanuts, by Shirley Jackson
Eh, this was more like community college, but The Star by Arthur C. Clarke
Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl
and this story that I can’t remember the name of and can’t find, though it might be by O. Henry? it’s about a bunch of demons who want to stop Santa Claus from going through with Christmas, and he must travel through the mountains they inhabit to escape their vices? (good christ I can’t remember the name for the life of me)
Ok but the laughing man and a good day for bananafish but j.d. Salinger
The City (195) Ray Bradbury. An intense commentary on colonialism and space exploration. I read it for a sci fi survey class.
Another short story I read in that sci fi class was Vaster than Empires and More Slow (1971) by Ursula K. Le Guin. A commentary on humanity and how human we believe ourselves to be. Also, an interesting commentary on mental health.
In the Woods Beneath the Cherry Blossoms in Full Bloom, written in 1947 by Ango Sakaguchi. It made my skin crawl the first time I read it.