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Miss Locks
Miss Virginia Locks has a date tonight, but something is wrong. She finds herself standing outside her home without any knowledge of how she got there. But what waits for her once she is back inside, a crawling, gasping thing, is even more unsettling. A short story.
- GenresHorrorShort Stories
6 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 13, 2012
21 people want to read
About the author
Eric Arvin
47 books564 followersEric Arvin resided in the same sleepy Indiana river town where he grew up. He graduated from Hanover College with a Bachelors in History. He has lived, for brief periods, in Italy and Australia. He has survived brain surgery and his own loud-mouthed personal demons. Eric is the author of WOKE UP IN A STRANGE PLACE, THE MINGLED DESTINIES OF CROCODILES & MEN, SUBSURDITY, SIMPLE MEN, and various other sundry and not-so-sundry writings.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 18, 2012
I got this short story, from Making Connections for free, in exchange for an honest review. Get your copy here.
The story caught my interest from the very beginning and the author created a really scary atmosphere with his words, as it progressed.
This short was about Miss Locks, an independent woman who has just settled down after a lifetime of travel. As she's getting ready for her date, she realizes someone's in the house.
At first, I was disappointed by the ending, thinking that the author built our excitement up needlessly. But then I realized, the drooling paralyzed version of Miss Locks could only be her fear of losing control over her own life. She was a lady who has let nothing encumber her from traveling the world-family,love,kids,job etc. Her biggest fear would be living paralyzed, confined to her bed for the rest of her life. And that's when I added another star to my rating.
The story caught my interest from the very beginning and the author created a really scary atmosphere with his words, as it progressed.
This short was about Miss Locks, an independent woman who has just settled down after a lifetime of travel. As she's getting ready for her date, she realizes someone's in the house.
At first, I was disappointed by the ending, thinking that the author built our excitement up needlessly. But then I realized, the drooling paralyzed version of Miss Locks could only be her fear of losing control over her own life. She was a lady who has let nothing encumber her from traveling the world-family,love,kids,job etc. Her biggest fear would be living paralyzed, confined to her bed for the rest of her life. And that's when I added another star to my rating.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 15, 2012
It was...scary. Really. At first, I thought it was just a plain ghost story, but as the story progressed on, I was shocked to find out the truth. I thought that the story would merely be a ghost story. It was a little blurry to me at first, because I didn't know either how the main character got in front of her house in the first place, too, and I couldn't understand the plot of the story. But sooner, the story started doing its magic on me and I understood. It was one of the bet ghost stories I've read. It got my skin crawling.
September 3, 2012
Originally posted at: http://lasrsff.blogspot.com/2012/08/m...
Imagine you’re home alone after dark and hear an unfamiliar noise coming from the next room. How would you react?
One of my favorite types of science fiction is horror stories that are bone-chillingly frightening without the use of blood or gore. It can be difficult to accomplish this but Mr. Arvin clearly understands that sometimes the scariest thing in the world is imagining what’s lurking around the corner.
I sympathized with Virginia Locks from the first paragraph. Her racing thoughts feed into the tension and fear of this piece beautifully and while at times I wondered why she didn’t think through her reactions to certain events more rationally it’s easy to panic when something you don’t understand happens.
It would have been nice, though, to have a female protagonist who doesn’t overreact in this situation. This trope is used quite a bit in the science fiction and horror genres and as much as I enjoyed the plot and Virginia as an individual I kept hoping she’d calm down and think about the decisions she was making instead of stumbling from one reaction to the next.
Unfortunately the ending felt abrupt to me and it didn’t seem to match the tone of previous events. It wasn’t what I had expected to happen and I was a bit disappointed by how little foreshadowing had been included earlier in the tale. The beginning and ending could have been used in any number of other stories and while they were both well done there didn’t seem to be a good reason for them to be linked to one another.
Looking for a good scare? Miss Locks nearly made my heart thump out of my chest and even though I would have preferred a better bridge to the final scene this is still one of the most terrifying stories I’ve read in 2012.
Imagine you’re home alone after dark and hear an unfamiliar noise coming from the next room. How would you react?
One of my favorite types of science fiction is horror stories that are bone-chillingly frightening without the use of blood or gore. It can be difficult to accomplish this but Mr. Arvin clearly understands that sometimes the scariest thing in the world is imagining what’s lurking around the corner.
I sympathized with Virginia Locks from the first paragraph. Her racing thoughts feed into the tension and fear of this piece beautifully and while at times I wondered why she didn’t think through her reactions to certain events more rationally it’s easy to panic when something you don’t understand happens.
It would have been nice, though, to have a female protagonist who doesn’t overreact in this situation. This trope is used quite a bit in the science fiction and horror genres and as much as I enjoyed the plot and Virginia as an individual I kept hoping she’d calm down and think about the decisions she was making instead of stumbling from one reaction to the next.
Unfortunately the ending felt abrupt to me and it didn’t seem to match the tone of previous events. It wasn’t what I had expected to happen and I was a bit disappointed by how little foreshadowing had been included earlier in the tale. The beginning and ending could have been used in any number of other stories and while they were both well done there didn’t seem to be a good reason for them to be linked to one another.
Looking for a good scare? Miss Locks nearly made my heart thump out of my chest and even though I would have preferred a better bridge to the final scene this is still one of the most terrifying stories I’ve read in 2012.
June 22, 2012
Five goose-bumps!
July 30, 2012
Great little story. Do not read alone! Do not read in the dark! Yes, it's only 6 pgs but it is written well enough to send shivers up your back!
February 11, 2013
"Too Short of a Story"
Virginia Locks is a worldly, confident, independent woman who is drawn to a small town which feels comfortable. She chooses to live in an old house which she likes even though the little town had myriad ghost stories, perhaps about the old mansion. She really didn't believe in ghosts, but ... she finds herself outside the house one night, all the lights are out, and not a sound can be heard. This story is much too brief. It's written well but I'd like it to be longer to give me a chill as the intent of all ghost stories. The ending was just too abrupt which really disappointed me.
Virginia Locks is a worldly, confident, independent woman who is drawn to a small town which feels comfortable. She chooses to live in an old house which she likes even though the little town had myriad ghost stories, perhaps about the old mansion. She really didn't believe in ghosts, but ... she finds herself outside the house one night, all the lights are out, and not a sound can be heard. This story is much too brief. It's written well but I'd like it to be longer to give me a chill as the intent of all ghost stories. The ending was just too abrupt which really disappointed me.
July 2, 2012
This was a nice creepy short story, very well written. The author succeeded in creating a chilling atmosphere but I guessed the outcome pretty much from the second page so the end didn't come as a shock or surprise to me. I read a lot of horror and ghostly stories and this may be the reason why I was able to figure out what was going on so quickly. There is no doubt however that Eric Arvin can create the necessary atmosphere and elicit the necessary emotions that make a great chilling tale.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews