15 Comments
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Leigh Parrish's avatar

I love that you've turned Ohio into this terrifying eldritch location. Or maybe revealed what was there all along?

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L.L. Ford's avatar

I’m so glad you enjoyed my pulling away of the curtain…

Thank you for the inspiration to create this one!

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Honeygloom's avatar

I love stories like this! Great job building tension!

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L.L. Ford's avatar

Thank you! This was a tricky one for me, but I had so much fun building it out!

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Andy Futuro's avatar

Just the word fiber makes my skin crawl now.

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L.L. Ford's avatar

Then my work here is done 🔥

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Bill Hiatt's avatar

Creepiness with a drop or two of surrealism.

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L.L. Ford's avatar

Thank you! That's exactly how I like my creepy stories 👀

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Jon T's avatar

Supercreepy. Got my nervicles chatterin

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L.L. Ford's avatar

So glad you liked it! I'm grateful thay you came up with the prompt idea that lead to this and to Leigh for sharing her 1 sentence that sparked this story.

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Scoot's avatar

This was a thrill. Are you familiar with the web comic "Romantically Apocalyptic"? I couldn't help but think of that, and i'm not 100% clear why. The black tendrils having a life of their own, a kind of low-key tension building. Now that i've finished reading it's like the Ranger was being hunted all along and didn't realize it until it was too late. Very well done!

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L.L. Ford's avatar

I've never heard of it, but I looked it up just now and it looks like something I'd probably enjoy, so it's cool that I was able to remind you of that in some way!

Either way, thanks so much for reading and I think - unlike the poor park ranger - you're on the right track 👀

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Jon T's avatar

Oh!? What was Leigh’s line and the prompt idea?

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L.L. Ford's avatar

It was the single sentences that people had saved as drafts but didn't go anywhere - if I remember right you had made a post on notes asking if anyone would be interested in using random ones for microfiction and then it came up in the Macabre Monday post afterwards!

https://open.substack.com/pub/macabremonday/p/macabre-monday-6fc?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=1v5vok

And I used Leigh's which was "just for Ohio" for the microfiction, and then I asked her if she would mind if I expanded on the prompt and made a bigger story of it and she consented and here we are now! 🔥

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Jon T's avatar

Ah yes. I remember. Thank you. I will revisit those

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