Nightmare Magazine 54: March 2017

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 Nate Southard ("Things Crumble, Things Break") and Kathleen Kayembe ("You Will Always Have Family: A Triptych"), along with reprints by Nadia Bulkin ("Seven Minutes in Heaven") and Robert Shearman ("Alice Through the Plastic Sheet"). We also have the latest installment of our column on horror, "The H Word," plus author spotlights with our authors, and a feature interview with Norman Prentiss.
"Sitting at the minefield’s edge, I held Dana’s hand and tried hard not to break it as we waited for the sunrise. Despite the barbed wire crossing back and forth in front of us, we kept a good view of the horizon. Another five, maybe ten minutes, the sky would turn purple and then red and then orange before gold washed over the trees and grass. Dana wrapped a hand around my bicep, squeezing as much as she dared, and rested her head on my shoulder. “Thanks for meeting me.” “Sure,” I said. “There’s nowhere else I want to be.” “Liar.” “Am not.” “Are too.” I kissed her forehead. “Pretty please, believe me.”
“Fine, but only because I like you.” She waved a hand at the wall of trees waiting on the other side of the field. “Do you think there are soldiers there now?” “There always are.” I felt her nod against my arm. “I know, but it’s been years.” “Yeah. I wish they’d get tired, leave us alone.” “Maybe they have.” Dana pulled away then, looked to the field and then back to me. Half a smile pulled her mouth at a funny angle. Mischief tinted her eyes. She looked so beautiful it hurt, a deep ache in my chest I enjoyed a lot more than the pain I felt in every other part of me. Maybe I just liked that she could still smile."