Absent Mercies: Six Weird Tales

These six weird tales don’t pull their punches.

SUCCOR THE CHILD: After viewing a sixth-grader’s bizarre chalk drawing, one impressionable townsperson begins to see more than just childish scrawls, and curiosity about the drawing’s subject becomes an all-consuming obsession—literally.

THE THING IN THE WATER: Daniel, a bitter artist, goes on a cruise to take his mind off his upcoming divorce. He meets Cliff, an old man who gives him a much-needed ego-boost. But when Cliff offers to help Daniel let go of his anger, Daniel discovers Cliff isn’t being altruistic, and the old man may be far older than he appears.

THE BOOGEYMAN: What stories do the boogeymen tell their little ones at bedtime? Thomas wishes he didn’t know, but he can’t get the monster under his bed to shut up.

THE GRANARY ANGEL: Steffi works on a nighttime graveyard tour in Boston. Recently she’s become obsessed with the statue of an angel at the Granary Burying Ground. The problem: there are no angel statues in that graveyard…and the angel no one else can see appears to be equally obsessed with Steffi.

THE BROADCAST OUT OF TIME: A live Christmas old-time radio broadcast is interrupted when the studio is invaded by a weird green mist.

THE TWELVE HUNTSMEN: In this grim retelling of the Brothers Grimm tale, Princess Cyrene will stop at nothing to win back the hand of the wayward Prince Roland.