First published 2023
Three years ago, Brenda Jennings lost her sister to the woods outside of town. Not to a hiking accident or a storm. To something the locals whisper about around fires, a creature tied to an old bridge deep in the Michigan forest, something people claim they hear before they see, a clipping sound on wood, hooves moving in the dark. Brenda has spent three years collecting those whispers. She does not believe in legends, but her sister is gone, and the woods are the last place she was seen. So Brenda goes in alone, at night, armed with nothing but desperation and the need to know. The bridge is real. The sounds are real. And whatever waits on the other side is not interested in being found by a grieving woman who refuses to turn back. This short story from Josh Malerman, the bestselling author of Bird Box, is part of Creature Feature, a collection of short horror fiction designed to be read in a single sitting.
Genres: fiction, short-stories, horror, supernatural, thriller, dark-fantasy
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, eerie, haunting, suspenseful, tension-filled
Tropes: creature-in-the-woods, grief-driven-protagonist, no-turning-back, solo-investigation
Setting: Michigan, Woods, Bridge
51 pages · Kindle Edition · Amazon Original Stories
Content warnings: death