Nightmare Magazine 30: March 2015

NIGHTMARE is an online horror and dark fantasy magazine. In NIGHTMARE's pages, you will find all kinds of horror fiction, from zombie stories and haunted house tales, to visceral psychological horror.
This month, we have original fiction from Chesya Burke ("Please, Momma") and Caspian Gray ("An Army of Angels"), along with reprints by Robert Shearman ("Featherweight") and Lynda E. Rucker ("The Burned House"). For nonfiction, author S.G. Browne talks about the new flavor of zombies in the latest installment of our column on horror, "The H Word." We've also got author spotlights on this month's authors, a showcase on our cover artist, and a feature interview with up-and-coming author Helen Marshall, conducted by acclaimed author Kelly Link!
"1989 In the car. On the way to see Her. She scares us. They say . . . Why do you always do that? I hate when you do that. Do what?
Narrate our story. Where we’re going. What we’re doing. You know I can hear you. I hate it so much. But they’ll want to know one day. She said they’ll need to know. No one cares about you, girl. No one cares about us. They will. Cars never bounce around the way they make them appear in the movies. No, instead they glide, more like the lull of a boat on stale waters. And they’re just as loud as the boat’s engine, even with the windows rolled up there are always loud swooshing noises assaulting the senses. The sounds should be calming, like the ocean, but they never are. They are annoying and invading. Or at least it’s what the girls always imagined what the beach and ocean should sound like. They had never been farther than Kentucky Lake, a few hours away from where they were now. The water there was so muddy that you couldn’t see your hands in front of your face and everything that moved within its depths looked like invading, misshapen piranha out to devour your flesh. But the girls loved it so. Except when the motion threatened to make them sick. The car swerved around a sharp corner, another wave threatening to take over, and the girls swayed in the back, holding on to each other. Their tummies were not holding up well under the stress, though it probably had nothing to do with the car ride and everything to do with their destination. The girls looked at each other, their minds quiet for a moment. There was no need to speak, nothing to say."