A young woman travels with her boyfriend to his parents’ house in a seaside resort. She gets a warm welcome, but insists she isn’t intending to stay long. As the days pass, she feels increasingly uneasy – about her boyfriend, his parents, the town and the locals. Will she ever leave?
At first glance, there is nothing unusual about this seaside town and even by the end it’s hard to put your finger on what exactly is wrong about the place, but Moore plants subtle details – for instance the rust that comes away on the young’s woman’s palms when she grips the promenade rail – that gradually build to a climax. There’s no blood or gore, no jump scares, but the creeping sense of dread is even more powerful.
First published in The Spectral Book of Horror Stories, Spectral Press, 2014. Collected in Eastmouth and Other Stories, Salt 2022
A Personal Anthology 