The Point

by Tony Rabig

One night, Diana Harris, heartbroken and lonely, walked away from campus; she walked out to The Point and was never seen again. Campus legend says that her ghost still haunts The Point.

Over the years, four young men walked alone at night to The Point, and vanished without a trace.

Tonight Bill Spender is walking away from campus, not caring where--just away. He's walking out to The Point...

10 pages

First published April 24, 2011

About the author

Tony Rabig is a former bookseller, librarian, computer programmer, and teacher. He has written book reviews, articles for librarians, and (now that he's retired and the family won't miss any meals or mortgage payments) is now working on fiction. Several of his short stories are now available in the Kindle store and at other ebook retailers; a novel is planned for late summer or early fall 2011.

Reviews

[Ren · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the idea of the story, but there were way too many things with the author's writing style that got on my nerves and irked me throughout the whole thing. I disliked greatly how the main setting of the book, known as the Point, had to be capitalized "The Point". I felt the 'the' to be entirely unnecessary and my eyes twitched every time I saw it. I also felt that the vocabulary was very strict and repetitive, which also took away from the enjoyment. The ending summary of the narrator's life, I could have cared less about but I understood why it was put there. Overall, I liked the idea. I did. I thought it had great potential and I was very much curious to see where the story was going. 2 stars; one for effort, and one for what could have been.

[Kelly/yllektra · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this to be a really compelling story.
Though the story is in a sense well-known, it still manages to feel fresh, what with the first person narrative and a matter-of-fact quality when describing things that are a bit out of this world, but maybe even too much of this world, too.

I really liked how the "evil" in this story, the ghost, wasn't something atrocious like a monster or a beast that would capture you with fear, but an innocent girl that lured you in with sympathy and sorrow.
Very enjoyable.

[Naomi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read alot of short stories. Very few authors can nail the short story. They either have little character development or the storyline starts strong and then abruptly drops off.

I did not see this with Rabig's writing. This book immediately sucked me in with its' storyline and heartbreaking events. The author managed to keep it creepy without having to go overboard in descriptions, even showing a main character with a bit of dysfunction which could explain the event which occurred to him. Absolutely loved this!

[Tony Rabig]

I'm a bit partial to this one, being the author. Just a note here to say this one is now free at Smashwords, B&N, Sony and the Amazon Kindle store.

Bests,

--tr

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nicely written and gently chilling, happy to recommend this story as I thoroughly enjoyed it.