by Ivy Pochoda
First published 2025
Erin works behind the bar at Red Hook's final dive establishment. The gentrified Brooklyn waterfront has changed around her workplace, but regulars still gather to share stories about the neighborhood's criminal history. Her employer Jimmy owns much of the area's recent development. He built his real estate empire after years as a police officer walking the beat. Jimmy tells Erin about two abandoned children who once showed him something extraordinary. They introduced him to an old creature that granted his wishes. The same being also delivered terrible consequences. Erin dismisses Jimmy's account as fiction. She dedicates herself completely to running the bar. Yet something dangerous lives within the building's walls. This deadly presence searches for someone new to inhabit. The establishment sits at the boundary between the neighborhood's rough past and its polished future. Erin must decide whether Jimmy's warning carries truth or madness.
Genres: mystery, crime, supernatural, contemporary
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, suspenseful
Tropes: unreliable-narrator, urban-fantasy
Setting: Brooklyn, Red Hook
Period: contemporary
72 pages · Kindle Edition · Amazon Original Stories