Letters

Katie's Stories

The Taint Rises Part Two

The Past Cannot Stay Hidden

Trigger Warning at bottom of the page.

The next three days were quiet. I suspected that whoever was doing this to granddad was someone in his cul-de-sac, someone who had seen us put up the cameras. While we hadn’t hidden the cameras, they weren’t exactly obvious. Small black boxes dotted around the outside of the house. Someone knew they were there. 

But on the fourth day they showed that cameras or not, they would not stop harassing an old man. 

I got the alert at 2am, my phone beeped, the notification read “Motion Detected”. Then again, a few minutes later, another notification “Motion Detected” and another, and another. By the fourth notification, I was awake. 

I opened the app to see someone well covered in black clothing, hood pulled up over their head, scarf wrapped around their face. They were in the driveway, and they were hurling paint at the house, car and garden. 

Continue reading “The Taint Rises Part Two”
Katie's Stories

The Taint Rises Part One

The Past Cannot Stay Hidden

Trigger warnings at bottom of the page.

They say everyone who looks into their family history will find a secret, eventually. I had always thought that didn’t apply to my family. They were all far too dull, too prim and proper to have any interesting secrets. 

Then someone killed my granddad’s dog. 

We found Rufus in the garden, eyes wide, blood and foam running from his mouth. He was cold and hard to the touch. Granddad had lifted him up, cradling the small dog in his big-knuckled hands. Watching my grandfather like that reminded me of when grandma had been dying. She had been so frail towards the end, a collection of bird bones cradled by Granddad’s gentle, powerful hands. 

We buried Rufus behind the house, near the rosebushes. 

A few days passed, then someone started defacing his car. Great long scratches appeared down the side, more and more every day. Then the following week the tyres were cut, then a few days later the windscreen broken.

Someone was targeting granddad.

Continue reading “The Taint Rises Part One”
Katie's Stories

A Man in Winter got another 5-star Review!

Five Stars!

UK author Katie Marie studied law at Aberystwyth University in Wales, and has gained notoriety for her ghost stories and horror stories. Her books to date include FIREFLY, GREY WINGS, and now A MAN IN WINTER, in addition to multiple anthologies. The author demonstrates her ability to create the dark atmospheres of her novel as she opens the gate to her story: ‘We pulled up outside the cottage and even from the road you could see it was a hollow shell. The windows were curtainless and dirty, the faded paint was peeling on the frames. It wasn’t the home it had been. Sophie helped me out of the car and let me walk up the garden path alone. The garden was still neat; it had been my domain…The front door creaked as it opened directly into the living room. It was bare…’ And so Arthur revisits his home after his wife Molly was murdered and the tale begins.

Though brief this book is a sound presentation of a horror story that deals with response to tragic death, advancing dementia, and ghosts of the past in a sensitive, refreshingly unique manner. The plot: ‘Arthur, whose life was devastated by the brutal murder of his wife, must come to terms with his diagnosis of dementia. He moves into a new home at a retirement community, and shortly after, has his life turned upside down again when his wife’s ghost visits him and sends him on a quest to find her killer so her spirit can move on. With his family and his doctor concerned that his dementia is advancing, will he be able to solve the murder before his independence is permanently restricted?’

Katie Marie makes the horror real, but in creating a man dealing with loss of his beloved wife while attempting to cope with the equal horror of advancing dementia, she takes horror stories to a new level. This is an important, sensitive author to watch. Very highly recommended I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book

Real World Horror

Real World Horror: Bobby Dunbar

Bobby Dunbar

Today I am writing to you to talk about the Disappearance of Bobby Dunbar.

You may be familiar with this story, especially if you’ve seen the Clint Eastwood film changeling, which was inspired by these events.

Four-year-old Bobby Dunbar went missing in 1912, during a trip to Swayze Lake. The disappearance was big news and the police went to extreme means to find the lost boy, including but not limited to blowing up the lake (aka throwing dynamite into the lake).

Eight months after Bobby vanished everyone was losing hope of ever knowing what happened to him and the police were at risk of looking like failures. But an arrest was made, a man named William Cantwell was taken into custody as he had a young boy with him who matched Bobby’s description.

The boy claimed to be Bruce Anderson, son of Julia Anderson. Despite this the police took him to Bobby’s home where Bobby’s parents confirmed this was not their son. Bruce did not recognise Bobby’s parents or his brother.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

However, after meeting Bruce a second time and bathing him Bobby’s mother changed her mind, and claimed this was Bobby, that she recognised him now.

Julia Anderson travelled to claim her son but was put under an undue amount of stress and pressure which caused her to fail to pick Bruce out of a line up of similar boys.

And so Bruce effectively became Bobby.

In 1999 the truth was revealed, when a descendant, Margaret Dunbar Cutwright carried out research and had her father and his cousin (Bobby’s brother’s son) undergo DNA tests which revealed that the two were not blood related. Bruce Anderson was not Bobby Dunbar.

This is a very sad story, two mothers lost their children and the authorities seemed more interested in keeping their record looking good than getting to the truth. While this is not as dramatic as a lot of film/TV/Book horror, it is deeply unsettling due to the truth of the matter.