Sometimes I Scare Myself

This horror collection contains three standalone stories in which ordinary situations spiral into supernatural violence.

"Never Kill the Medium"

Erica, a control-driven event planner in Milwaukee, hosts a thirtieth birthday dinner at the condo she shares with her boyfriend, Chad. The milestone carries private weight: Erica's older sister, Joslyn, died before reaching thirty in a car accident while waiting for Erica, who was running late. Erica blames herself and uses rigid planning to cope. Guests include Beckie, a college friend; Zach, a trusted colleague; and Liv, Erica's business partner, along with Liv's boyfriend, Derek.

An unexpected knock interrupts dinner. Zach reveals he has hired a medium named Elias, hoping to give Erica a chance to communicate with Joslyn. Elias arranges candles, a burn-scarred wooden slab, and a brass bell on the coffee table, asking each guest to place a personal item on the slab. Erica contributes Joslyn's ring.

The séance turns volatile. During Beckie's reading, Elias's voice shifts to something cruel, repeatedly calling her "Bad Girl Beckie." When Erica goes next, Elias contacts Joslyn, who assures Erica the accident was not her fault and warns the group to leave. During Chad's turn, Elias channels a voice implying Chad is having an affair. Chad shoves Elias, who strikes his head on the coffee table and dies.

Zach reveals he knew about Chad and Beckie's affair and hired the medium to force the truth out. Chad produces a gun and forces everyone to help dispose of the body. Liv collapses in the bathroom, where the mirror is fogged despite no hot water running, the first sign of supernatural activity. When Liv regains consciousness, she seizes the gun, hysterical about a figure she saw in the mirror. The lights go out, the gun fires, and Derek is killed. Chad reclaims the weapon.

The front door seals shut, and objects on the slab burst into flame. An invisible force dismembers Chad. Using a Ouija board from Elias's bag, Erica contacts Joslyn. Joslyn assures Erica that her guilt is misplaced and instructs the group to reform the circle of objects and ring the bell to seal the threshold. As the condo erupts in chaos, flames on the slab extinguish one by one. Beckie's flame is the last to go out.

Police arrest the four survivors. At the station, Erica insists the worst is behind them, but Liv's neck suddenly twists and snaps. Officers rushing in are killed by an invisible force. Erica realizes the ritual failed: Because Beckie's flame extinguished last and her hands left the slab last, the entity was invited to stay inside her. Beckie, smiling and blood-spattered, confirms it.

"The Nightmare House"

Kristin Dalton, 12 weeks postpartum, narrates her family's move from Chicago to a remote house in Tillington, Wisconsin, population 256. Her husband, Patrick, a history teacher, arranged the relocation after Kristin's postpartum anxiety escalated. Their Realtor, Lanie, gives a hurried tour of the 70-year-old property. Their 15-year-old daughter, Hailey, resents the move, and infant Henry completes the family. As they arrive, neighbors stare without waving.

Disturbing events accumulate. Kristin hears Henry's cries on the baby monitor but finds him sleeping each time. Three casserole dishes appear on the porch with no footprints in the snow, and an old woman's face appears at the kitchen window before vanishing. At dinner, the casseroles erupt with maggots, and a voice on the monitor whispers "Leave now," though only Kristin hears it.

Hailey meets Eddie, a local teenage boy who warns her about the house: Its original occupants, the Thorn family, were murdered in the 1940s by a local family called the Buckners, and the town covered for the killers. Kristin's experiences intensify: wet footprints in her studio, a child's figure in the basement, and Patrick's voice telling her to leave though he is not home. When a man crashes into her car at an intersection, witnesses falsely blame Kristin. Hailey reports that Kristin stands in her doorway at night for nearly an hour, though Kristin has no memory of it.

Online research reveals deaths and disappearances at the address spanning decades, including a family whose 16-year-old son, Edward, vanished in 1965. Patrick and Hailey attribute Kristin's experiences to postpartum exhaustion. Kristin resolves to burn the house.

While Patrick and Hailey attend a town welcome party, Kristin douses the house in gasoline. They return early after Hailey spots Eddie in the road. The entire population of Tillington, led by Judi Vee, the old woman from the window who reveals herself as a Buckner descendant, surrounds the house. Judi stabs Patrick in the cheek with a fork, and the family barricades inside as the neighbors begin breaking in. In her room, Hailey is visited by the ghosts of every family killed there, including Eddie, who died in 1965. The ghosts reveal they caused the disturbances to warn the Dalton family and urge Hailey to burn the house so they can be freed.

Kristin fights off the invading neighbors and ignites the gasoline. The family escapes through a window and crashes the SUV through the locked gate. On the road, the truck from Kristin's earlier accident deliberately swerves into their lane.

An epilogue set 12 years later shows a new family moving into the rebuilt house. Lanie gives the same tour, mentioning casseroles in the fridge. The new mother glimpses a teenage girl's reflection in the window before it vanishes. The population sign still reads 256. The cycle has restarted.

"All Curses Are Final"

Blair, a college senior, narrates a winter-break trip to a remote cabin in Northspyre, Minnesota, with four friends: her ex-boyfriend Jake, whom she left two weeks earlier for gradually diminishing her; Noah, the trip organizer; Noah's girlfriend, Maddie; and their friend Ricky. They stop at One Stop Shop, a roadside store where a sign reads: "All items cursed. Curse lifted at time of sale." Blair later finds a hockey-stick-shaped pen in her bag that she did not put there and urges the group to return it, but they dismiss her.

At the cabin, Jake weaponizes a truth-or-drink game to interrogate Blair about the breakup. Bill, the elderly cabin owner, warns about the incoming storm, telling them the access road gate is already locked. He instructs them to keep the fire burning and stay inside at night. Blair wakes that night to find the fire dead and Jake sitting rigidly at the kitchen table, unblinking. The next morning, Maddie is missing. On a search, Blair trips over Maddie's body half buried in the snow.

Noah is found dead in the shower with his throat slashed. Jake insists Noah killed himself, though Blair notes the bathroom window was unlocked. The next morning, Bill is found dead with an axe in his chest, and all tires have been slashed. Blair connects the deaths to the stolen pen and discovers Jake put the pen in her bag as a joke. She recognizes in Jake's dismissals the same pattern of reframing reality that defined their relationship. Jake grows erratic and storms off after telling Blair and Ricky he hopes they die.

Blair and Ricky trek six miles through the blizzard to pay for the pen. They arrive to find the store closed. Jake appears, his body moving unnaturally, veins darkening. He briefly fights the compulsion, choking out that he does not want to kill them but must. He kills Ricky. Blair stabs the pen into Jake's eye and then kills him with a knife.

The store opens. Blair purchases the pen for $3.68. The air pressure shifts, and the pen feels lighter. Blair walks away, her bloody footprints erased by the wind.