DEAD GIRL RISING

From M.L. Rio, author of If We Were Villains, comes a short but engaging novella about a misfit group of acquaintances who encounter an open grave in the graveyard where they meet for a break during the lonely night.

If you're Gen X, then you probably remember some truly great Halloween programming on local and cable television. You made a note to self to park your butt in front of the television set back in the days of you-watch-it-when-we-say-you'll-watch-it-or-you'll-miss-it. You planned your trick-or-treating around it. You begged to eat dinner in the living room. And I'm willing to bet THE MIDNIGHT HOUR (1985) was one of them.

The full moon bathed her path in silver light, illuminating the way better than most nights. Comforted by its glow, she felt a bond with the moon, always watching over her, guiding her through the darkness, unlike the sun, which just burned her fair skin.

Elise dropped something, and as she bent down to pick it up, in the view from her bedroom window there was a large figure with no face standing in the middle of the street below. Elise stood up straight again, turned off the light, and left the bedroom while continuing her phone conversation. The figure was gone. Must have been a trick of the eye.