K. Marvin Bruce

  What could you do about a monster who doesn’t fear religion?   This spirit carried a Bible, for God’s sake!   A crucifix would frighten an old-style vampire, but now a former religion professor found himself helpless.   His concern for Mich taking hold, he burst from his bed with a surge of energy and launched himself across the room in a way that surprised even himself.   He hit some resistance but it wasn’t exactly solid.   His momentum carried him through, right into Mich’s hammock.   The boy awoke with a shout and began flailing.   Tangled in the netting, Terah couldn’t extract himself, breathing in the earthy tones of his companion.   Finally he found his voice. “Mich!   It’s me!   I was trying,” he gasped between blows, “to stop Wednesday!” At the mention of Wednesday Mich stopped swinging his fists and deftly dropped out of the back side of the hammock.   “What the hell were you thinkin’?” he shouted at Terah.   “...

  It looks like there may be a little more space between the atoms since I have a bit of news to share this week.   My story “Planet Heaven” has appeared in Sein und Werden —check it out.   This is an irreverent tale that I wrote years ago.   It was rejected for making fun of religion, but I know whereof I speak. Right on the heels of this happy appearance came the news that my tale “Between the Sheets” has been accepted by Yellow Mama for its Valentine issue.   Love and horror often go together, but this is very gentle horror.   Unsettling rather than terrifying. “Planet Heaven,” however, came from my somewhat common experience of being raised religious only to wonder about those who’d been raised in other religions.   Why were they damned to hell just for being born elsewhere?   Why couldn’t true believers just sit down together and talk about it? The story, although set in space, isn’t really science fiction.   I grew up reading sci fi, an...

  We’ll take another brief break in The Space between Atoms here—the story will continue and it will take some twists and turns, but for now I wanted to point out that Ghostlight is available on Amazon and the latest issue includes my short story “The Pain of a Caterpillar.” This particular story was an attempt to write a fairly straightforward horror story.   Most of my writing falls between genres, which is why I struggle as a writer.   (Either that, or my writing sucks.)   This one tries to stay close to the expectations of something definitely being wrong. It is actually based, partially, on my own living in Scotland.   The town where it’s initially set, Breck, New Hampshire, is a place I made up as the setting for many of my stories.   I actually have a novel underway about the town and why it’s so weird, but I haven’t had any luck yet in getting my novels published. In any case, “The Pain of a Caterpillar” derives from my own insect phobia, and also...

  “What do we do?” Terah asked in a whisper. “Ya don’t have to keep your voice down,” Mich replied.   He let go of his mattress and it slid down the steps emitting a serpentine hiss.   Patting himself down, Mich pulled out batteries and replaced them by sense of touch alone.   When the light came back on, the mattress was nowhere to be seen. “There’s somebody else here!” Terah whispered fiercely. “I been tellin’ ya that all along.   They ain’t alive, though.” “Maybe it slid around the corner, out of sight.” “You can go look if you like,” Mich said, thrusting the flashlight in his direction.   “I know it’s gone.   We can grab another.” Terah took the light.   “It’s not that I don’t trust you.” “You still don’t believe.   Go check it out.” Gripping the mattress he was carrying, Terah made his way to the base of the pyramid.   The mattress Mich had let go was nowhere to be seen.   While he was still searching, Mich silently reappeared,...