Unsettled Dreams

By Khae Ravenholme

Unsettled Dreams collects 8 short stories and 8 poems written by Khae between 2005 and 2020. Each entry represents a different aspect of horror, including fear, mutation, supernatural entities and locations, monsters, aliens, psychology, and a cat defending the home from a malevolent invader.

Content Warning for some stories and poems in this Anthology: Graphic violence, suicide and self-harm.

The Anthology includes the following Stories and Poems written by Khae:

The Narrow Lane
Lady Murder
Absorption
Full Moon Curse
Night Patrol
Lost Memories
The Mannequin’s Gaze
Acidic Facial Mask
Unwashed Cloth
Rope Necklace
The Horror at North View Farm
Walking Alone
Gorgamo’s Offer
Eternal Rest
Did it Move?
Rain Fall

• Language: English
• Publisher: Khae Ravenholme
• Release date: Jun 18, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463307564

Khae Ravenholme

Khae was born in the north of England and from an early age developed a keen interest in everything science fiction, fantasy and horror. They're pretty sure they never stopped daydreaming as they reached adulthood and figured they should put their imagination to good use and start writing fiction. To say they decided to start writing fiction is inaccurate, they were always dabbling in the art, but it was in their thirties when they decided it was something to put serious effort in.As well as writing fiction they also post articles on their WordPress site about gender and sexuality, their experience and reflections as well as the odd update on the music they sometimes compose.

Book preview

Unsettled Dreams

Khae Ravenholme

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright 2020 Khae Ravenholme

Published by Castle Ravenholme

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

Thank you for downloading this ebook. This book remains the copyrighted property of

the author, and may not be redistributed to others for commercial or non-commercial

purposes. If you enjoyed this book, please encourage your friends to download their own

copy from their favourite authorized retailer. Thank you for your support.

I dedicate this anthology to my past self.

May she face her fears and step forward.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Why Horror?

The Narrow Lane

Lady Murder

Absorption

Full Moon Curse

Night Patrol

Lost Memories

The Mannequin’s Gaze

Acidic Facial Mask

Unwashed Cloth

Rope Necklace

The Horror at North View Farm

Walking Alone

Gorgamo’s Offer

Eternal Rest

Did it Move?

Rain Fall

About the Author

Connect with Khae

Introduction

This anthology brings together eight stories and eight poems that I have written at some point over the past ten years. At least, I think the poems are from the past ten years. They're definitely from the past fifteen years. Okay, so this anthology brings together eight poems that I have written at some point in the past ten years and eight poems that I have written at some point in the past fifteen years. Also, I keep putting poems in the quotation marks as they were originally written as lyrics for songs but were never used. In part, because I can't sing so having lyrics for my songs was pointless. Yes, I could have had someone else sing the lyrics and that was part of my plan but for various reasons that never happened. Anyway, long rambling side-winding story short, those lyrics have been resurrected as poems. Judge for yourself if they're poetic enough to be considered poems rather than musically homeless lyrics.

For a short story writer, I probably could have said this in fewer words, but no, I thought I would let this introduction be undeniably me and ramble if I'm going to ramble. How else are you to get to know the author if I edit myself down to the professionally boring elements of a sentence?

Okay, to the point of this introduction. This anthology is comprised of stories and poems that I consider fit the description of horror. The inspiration for these stories and poems range from my personal experiences and fears to weird and strange thoughts or ideas that I have conjured or dreamed up (The Horror at North View is based on a dream I had, so literally dreamed up).

As some of these deal with serious topics or contain graphic and disturbing descriptions, I have included a content warning at the start of the stories and poems which include these details. I hope I haven't overlooked any potentially triggering content in my stories and poems, but if I have, I am open to feedback regarding this so that I can update this one and remember for future books.

I have also included a section on why I ended up writing horror more than my beloved science fiction. This was interesting to think about and it was only when I started writing it and redrafting it numerous times that I made progress in finding the answer to the question, why did I write more horror stories than science fiction stories?

I hope you enjoy this anthology and I thank you for taking the time to read it.

Khae Ravenholme 30th May 2020

Why Horror?

When I decided to focus on my interest in writing stories, I set out with the intention of being a speculative/science fiction writer. The genre is fascinating in the way it probes our understanding of reality and to look forward at possible futures, both Utopian and Dystopian. It explores ideas and concepts related to advances in science, technology, philosophy, sociology, and psychology while sporting the coolest fashion and driving airborne vehicles.

When I started writing, however, I noticed that I would naturally gravitate towards horror. Maybe this is due to me being best friends with fear (then again who isn't?) that I felt a need to express the fears and tortured ideas that had overwhelmed my mind for many years. Looking at some of the stories I have written, such as Did it Move?, The Narrow Lane and Unwashed Cloth, they are all inspired by fears or unsettling thoughts I have had at some point in life.

The same can also be said for some of the poems that are included in this anthology. Well, I assume that the word poem is correct. They were once lyrics I had written for songs that never came to be and whether they're poetic or not is for you, the reader, to judge. Regardless of that, though, as I said, some of these poems take inspiration from fears I have felt in my life. Eternal Rest, Lost Memories, Hanging Tree, Walking Alone and Rain Fall being key examples of this. So, the idea that I needed to express these fears could account for why I gravitated towards horror.

It also makes sense that horror would creep into my writing as I have been interested in the genre since I was a child. I can't recall the first horror book I read, but I do remember reading Pet Semetary before hitting my teenage years. Embarrassingly, though, I had no idea it was written by the infamous Stephen King until I was at university. I thought it was some obscure horror book I had found at my local library and explained this to a friend who was watching an episode of South Park that parodied the book. It must have been around this time that I also learnt about the 1989 adaptation. Not gaining a lot of credit as a horror fan here.

Before Pet Sematary, I read many of the Goosebumps books by R.L Stine which were a child-friendly horror series and I loved the children's TV series, Are You Afraid of the Dark? which was quite spooky at times. I remember one episode involving a girl turning into a porcelain doll that I found rather unsettling.

Throughout my teens, I read a ton of horror books at my local library, but I don't remember most of their titles. Notable books, though, included Alien: Music of the Spears by Yvonne Navarro, Vampire$ by John Steakley and as I approached the latter part of my teens, Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice.

I could keep going citing horror books and authors who I have enjoyed in