Midnight Choices by Kathryn Ridall

Column 36. March 3, 2019. Introduction by Benjamin Daniel Lawless.

I am sad to announce that there will be only two more installments of Toast after this one. Thank you for being with us on this journey. We’ll have more to announce soon.

Good horror stories always leave you unsettled, but more than that they reflect sincere human flaws and frailties. This one, by Kathryn Ridall, is among the best.

Photo by Mathieu Stern on Unsplash

Kathryn Ridall

Midnight Choices

I startled awake and she was there
crouched in the corner of my room,

hair yellow and frizzed
her eyes hungry crows.

One mole rose from her chin
like a dab of tar.

I was three, her cackle echoed
with black intent.

Small twitching girl
I scanned my choices,

slid bare feet to the floor
and crept toward mother’s bed,

a place already known,
cold as ice.

Poem copyright © 2019 by Kathryn Ridall. Poem printed by permission of Kathryn Ridall.
Introduction copyright © 2019 by Solo Press, written by Benjamin Daniel Lawless.

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Toast was a weekly email newsletter that ran from July 2018 to March 2019. All of the pieces from Toast’s run and more can be read in Solo Novo 5/6.

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