This eerie anthology examines the Slender Man mythology from a variety of angles, from the matter of fact to the delightfully macabre.
Featuring work by: Kami Westhoff, Juliette van der Molen, Christine Taylor, Jack B Bedell, John Dorsey, Amy Alexander, Kristy Bowen, Ashley Bullen-Cutting, Jeanette Powers, J.B. Stone, Effy Winter, Sheena Carroll, Kristin Garth, Julio Montalvo Valentin, Juliet Cook & j/j hastain, Sarah A. Etlinger, Tara Lynn Hawk, Sara Moore Wagner, Justin Karcher, Kiley Lee, Bayveen O'Connell, James Diaz, Tom Snarsky, Tianna G Hansen, Joanna Valentine, & Buck Weiss
____
Girls of Gore
Kami Westhoff
We float dead-man on the lake's curdled skin with fish-belly faces.
Our mouths are full moons, irises eclipsed by black hole pupils.
We are barefoot and forest-bound, hair a tantrum of twigs and leaves.
We run, we trip, we fall, we belly up, resist the knife with only a scream.
We dangle from rafters, wait for the chainsaw's snarl. We are bisected,
brothed, buried. Our skulls become the bowls he will drink us from.
We go to bed, or step into the shower, or put a pizza into a preheated oven.
We don't slap away our boyfriend's hands when they slip under our skirts.
We babysit in apple-bottom shorts, our tits taut, nipples aching for the suck.
We have younger brothers, slightly less attractive friends, dogs named Toby.
We are born from a nightmare on Halloween, Friday the 13th, senior prom.
We are rarely shot, audiences prefer the slit, stab, skewer, impale.
Once, we fought back, but it only made things worse. We've learned we
were designed to suffer, we wait for our chance to make it magnificent.