By Rick Kennett
Angie suddenly awakes, suddenly aware, staring into the fragile night, listening.
Was that a creak on the stairs? A step in the hall? Is that a shadow at the door? Movement at the foot of her bed?
Warm air caresses her face, so brief was it just a twitch of nerves?
Hours ago a giggling girl party, a Ouija board evening. Hesitant questions asked, answers eagerly sought. “Will I marry? Will I be happy? Will I find love and will love ever find me?”
The heart-shaped planchette moves chaotically under their fingers with their garish nail colour. Nothing answers. Excitement dissipates. Someone says “Fake” and someone says “Kids’ game” when something seizes the planchette with brutal force and tugs it through the letters painted on the board, spelling out Sunex Amures, spelling out angie dies ugly and alone.
Disturbed, each suspects each other of a tasteless prank. But what the hell is a Sunex Amures?
Google conjures the transcription of a séance held in a hideously haunted rectory long, long ago.
“Is anyone else there?” FORBID.
“Does anyone else wish to speak?” DO NOT REACH INTO THE DARK.
“Who are you?” IT COMES AND IT PASSES BY.
“Who are you?” I [indecipherable]
“Who is this?” SUNEX AMURES
“What is your purpose?“ TO BURN THE RECTORY AT 9 O’CLOCK REMAIN IN THE RECTORY AND SEE US ENTER INTO OUR OWN.
Nothing happens, not at nine, not at any time that night.
Eleven months later the rectory burns to the ground.
And now?
Now Angie lies suddenly awake. A faint scent like faraway charring, like the smoke of forgotten things, tickles her nose and conjures a memory buried in dreams, something once-was, something never was, there and gone. Her nose tingles with an imminent sneeze.
She lifts a hand, too late to block a squidgy expulsion loud against the soft night silence.
Breath held, eyes wide in the dark, she lies tense and ready for something to touch her, fingers at her throat, intimate on her body. A mist of mucus falls back cold on her upturned face. Adrenaline stings cold in her bloodstream. Her heart races rat-a-tat drumbeats. It must’ve heard! It heard! It will touch! Anxiety spikes … and as quickly subsides. Relaxing, she allows herself to smirk at the idea of such fancies growing teeth in the night. Nothing enters slithering and shambling in belated responses to Ouija board musings, teen-angst queries. No one and no thing ascends the stairs, drifts in at the door, stands ethereal by her bed to hear a silly girl’s sneeze.
The thought comforts Angie in her white woollen blankets, assures and persuades her — even up to when Sunex Amures whispers, “Bless you” close in the dark.
About the Author
By Rick Kennett
Rick Kennett, the popular Melbourne misanthrope, sneezed this story out in the dead of night.
The mysterious and under-appreciated entity Sunex Amures has always been a favourite, especially when it comes to arson, so I just had to invite it into the story.
In December, Tales to Terrify podcast an interview with me in which I waxed knowledgeable on World War 2 minesweepers and the US state of Massachusetts while mumbling my way through a discussion on the Art of Writing, a subject of which I know less than I do of World War 2 minesweepers and the US state of Massachusetts.
Geraldine Borella writes fiction for children, young adults and adults. Her work has been published by Deadset Press, IFWG Publishing, Wombat Books/Rhiza Edge, AHWA/Midnight Echo, Antipodean SF, Shacklebound Books, Black Ink Fiction, Paramour Ink Fiction, House of Loki and Raven & Drake
Barry Yedvobnick is a recently retired Biology Professor. He performed molecular biology and genetic research, and taught, at Emory University in Atlanta for 34 years. He is new to fiction writing, and enjoys taking real science a step or two beyond its known boundaries in his
Ed lives with his wife plus a magical assortment of native animals in tropical North Queensland.
Sarah Jane Justice is an Adelaide-based fiction writer, poet, musician and spoken word artist.
Emma Louise Gill (she/her) is a British-Australian spec fic writer and consumer of vast amounts of coffee. Brought up on a diet of English lit, she rebelled and now spends her time writing explosive space opera and other fantastical things in
Mark is an astrophysicist and space scientist who worked on the Cassini/Huygens mission to Saturn. Following this he worked in computer consultancy, engineering, and high energy research (with a stint at the JET Fusion Torus).
Tara Campbell is an award-winning writer, teacher, Kimbilio Fellow, fiction co-editor at Barrelhouse, and graduate of American University's MFA in Creative Writing.
Merri Andrew writes poetry and short fiction, some of which has appeared in Cordite, Be:longing, Baby Teeth and Islet, among other places.
Alistair Lloyd is a Melbourne based writer and narrator who has been consuming good quality science fiction and fantasy most of his life.
My time at Nambucca Valley Community Radio began back in 2016 after moving into the area from Sydney.
Brian Biswas lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
Tim Borella is an Australian author, mainly of short speculative fiction published in anthologies, online and in podcasts.