Horror short story

 

The hall floor was no place for an old bastard; but as painfully cramped as the contortion was Brendan remained huddled pathetically below the peephole. Fierce shudders flung off hectic sweat in spatters before it could run into his eyes. And hey, with his hammering heart fixing to thrash its way free perhaps he'd never make it up off the crinkly carpet at all - wouldn't that be something?

 

A long time since his corpus ceased being a neglected convenience; by now the damned thing had regressed to a positive hindrance. Luckily the world came pretty much delivered these days, about the best you could say for it. Chuck in a fiver to get it lugged up the stairs he could no longer manage.

 

So far as Brendan saw, the only dreadful thing about being marooned in his apartment lay right across the way: his brightly-smiling neighbours who'd just graduated in a flash from mere troubling to downright terrifying. Straight to the head of the class...

​

​

An isolated, frail old man trapped in his apartment. What possible threat could he pose to the sociopaths next door? Except Brendan has his wife's foolish bravery to live up to ...

Submerged can be enjoyed as part of Orotund: Collected Short Stories Volume Two.

​