Unlucky Luck
Fortune is a fickle thing in the Macabre Monday realm
I endured a homeowner’s nightmare unfolding in real life.
Shortly after moving into a new house last month, my air conditioner, dishwasher, washing machine, and dryer all broke in rapid succession. All four were beyond repair and needed to be replaced. Definitely not an ideal way to start life in a new place. The experience got me pondering about luck and the role it plays in the horror genre.
The Final Destination film series is an example of good luck turning bad and creating a nightmarish ordeal for the main characters. In each movie, a vision leads a few characters to escape from dying in a disaster that kills dozens of other people. Their apparent good luck quickly turns bad when death itself decides to eliminate the survivors one by one through convoluted and grotesque means. (Seriously, do you ever see a Final Destination victim simply die from a heart attack or a stroke?)
You can argue many characters in horror stories are victims of bad luck. They’re in the wrong places at the wrong times doing the wrong things. That’s what makes a well-written horror story so terrifying. It creates fear of people, places, or activities that shouldn’t logically inspire fear.
This line of thought inspired me to create a new Macabre Monday horror prompt for this week:
Write a story where “good” luck influences how a single day or night unfolds for the main character in an unexpected and terrifying way.
No word limit for your story. Go nuts and be creative. Then feel free to share the link to your tale in our weekly chat thread, in this newsletter’s comments section, or in a note posted on Substack Notes and tagged to the Macabre Monday crew (
, , ). We’re excited to see what your twisted minds will conjure.
New Horror Stories
In This Way We Bind Them, a limited-edition folk horror zine, drops today. It features four stories from
, , , and , that will take you through beautiful, yet hellish landscapes of four towns. Each story pays homage to one of the seasons and reminds us to always honor the old ways.You can get a copy of this terrifying new limited-edition zine from any of the four contributing authors by clicking on one of the links below.
If you’ve enjoyed reading their stories on Substack, grabbing your own copy of In This Way We Bind Them to own is a no-brainer.
The Weekly Digest
A selection of last week’s memorable Macabre Monday offerings:
Stealing a couple of books takes a dark and complicated turn in Lucifer’s Lieutenant: Part Two — the second part of
’s 3-part supernatural crime story.
Can Alexandra and Antonio stay a step ahead of the Sluagh horde? Find out in Carnival of Deepest Desire, Part 6 — the latest chilling episode in a sequel serial from
to his earlier work North of Midnight.
- introduces us to a bat-winged devil, Popobawa, that may cause you to rethink visiting Tanzania any time soon in her latest Monster of the Week entry.
If you’re afraid of roaches, reading The Tenants from
will just be pure nightmare fuel for you.
Finally, clearing an empty lot in a neighborhood is best left alone as illustrated in Thorn Cathedral — a short creepy horror tale from
.
Thank you for mentioning In This Way We Bind Them! 🖤
Thanks for sharing my story 💜