I had the honor of contributing a short story called “The Slithery-Dee Came Out of the Sea” to the first issue of Creaking Floorboards, an art and fiction zine that showcases tales of the supernatural.
“The Slithery-Dee Came Out of the Sea” is a small-town horror story about a woman in the coastal town of Freeport, Maine who assumes that people are slowly disappearing from her life because of the post-pandemic economic recession and rural depopulation. But nope! They’re being eaten by a sea monster.
This story is loosely based on a poem of the same name (this one here) from Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, a collection of American folklore from 1981 that’s infamous for giving emotional scars to children. What’s interesting about this weird little poem is how the narrator watches everyone else get eaten but never runs away. I was interested in exploring the state of mind of someone in this situation. Surely a part of you must know something strange is going on, but it’s difficult to see the supernatural for what it is when everything in your life seems to be going wrong.
I’m honored to have received an illustration from ChassDraws, who shares her bold and colorful art on Instagram (here) and on Bluesky (here). Of the many things I love about Chassie’s illustration, what I especially appreciate is how it preserves the uncertainty of the situation while still providing an undeniable hint regarding what’s actually going on.
You can download a free digital copy of Creaking Floorboards here:
https://creaking-floorboards.itch.io/creakingfloorboards
I’ve also archived a PDF of my story (here) with a page-by-page layout and higher contrast, which should hopefully make the text easier to read for people who are visually sensitive.
