Nightmare Magazine 47: August 2016

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.
We have original fiction from Amanda Downum ("Fossil Heart") and G. Neri ("The Hunt for the Leather Apron"), along with reprints by Nicholas Kaufmann ("The Rest Is Noise") and Lara Elena Donnelly ("The Dirty American"). We also have the latest installment of our column on horror, "The H Word," plus author spotlights with our authors, a showcase on our cover artist, and a feature interview with horror gaming creator C.A. Suleiman.
"Nan Walker doesn’t mean to fall asleep. She never does. But tonight the creak of the ceiling fan lulls her. Evie curls warm against her side, one long leg thrown over hers. Nan’s eyes sag, her fingers relax, and her worn paperback slides onto the bed. Sleep strokes gentle hands across her eyes. The nightmare waits, constant, unchanging: muddy water, stale wet air. The car shudders in the torrent as the flood rushes past outside. Debris scrapes the doors and windows. Chelsea’s hand clutches hers, cool and clammy, already starting to slip. A child’s fear paralyzes her, warring with the adult knowledge that she has to change it, change anything, but she’s already too late—
The dream the memory slips and shatters. Eyes flash in the darkness the monsters coming for her. Nan wakes to thunder, to the hot press of flesh and a weight on her chest that steals her breath. Her spine is full of razor wire. She thrashes, trapped and tangled, and strikes fur with one flailing hand. Evie’s fat white cat murrs indignantly and leaps away, digging a parting claw into Nan’s stomach."