Small Town Horror

By: Brent Abell

How well do you really know your neighbors? The old dilapidated house at the end of the dead end street sits quiet and foreboding in the driving rain storm. Kids tell stories of the man who killed his family out by the bridge across the creek they’re camping near. By day, the streets are inviting and cheery while the faces are friendly. Once the sun retreats from the sky and the darkness rules, we learn things aren’t quite what they seem.

Small town America always seemed to be a place where the monsters could dwell, albeit hidden for the most part, very easily. Donning their masks, they could blend in with the mundane and emerge once the light faded from the sky. I live near many towns likely harboring such monsters and White Creek is a place hiding its evil well.

A trip to the White Creek Historical Society will fill some gaps in the town’s history in, but most of it is lost to legend and campfire tales. We can stroll back out on White Avenue or stop at the corner to drink a cup of coffee at Mel’s while we catch up on the new gossip. Maybe we’ll take a bike ride to the lighthouse and sit with our feet dangling off the cliffs overlooking the island where the founders are buried.

I chose to create White Creek to avoid the issues using a real location can cause. When I tried to decide on the size, I pictured rural towns and how they appear in both the day and the night. My hometown isn’t small, but it isn’t large either. I wanted to create a place where the evil could run rampant and a small town ended up being the perfect backdrop.

A small town is usually a close-knit family and everybody knows everybody else. In some fashion, you could connect most the population to someone else fairly easily. It’s this façade where I think the true horror is hiding.

As I let you off back at the Crown Pointe Motel, Sheriff Frank Hill cruises by on patrol and gives us a wave. Will you feel safer with him out there? I think he does more than we’ll ever know for the town and even under the moon light; it looks less menacing.

Think about where you live or the places you’ve visited and peel back the billboards, street lights, and shopping malls. What is left underneath is what we need to fear. Beauty is only skin deep and the flesh below can be a little bloody.

So, come and visit the little town of White Creek.

They’ll be waiting…

The Calling – Brent Abell

Carl Volker has a problem. After waking one morning with a hangover to find his wife gone, he notices a crow stalking around his yard.  As days go by with no word from his wife, more and more crows gather.

Frank Hill is sheriff in the seemingly pleasant town of White Creek. Up until recently, his job has been fairly mundane but after a recent spree of murders, bodies are beginning to pile up and Frank has no clue as to who the killer may be.

White Creek has kept its secrets hidden well over the years but the sins of its past are coming to light; the town harbors an evil and the bindings that keep it in check are beginning to unravel.

As Frank and Carl’s friendship is tested and their destinies are revealed, the dead accumulate while the crows watch and The Calling begins!

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