The Night Everything Changed

by Kristopher Rufty

No one would ever forget the night the carnival came to town.

Vincent Carlson used to have a good life. He lived on a small farm in Doverton, Wisconsin, with his loving teenage daughter, Leanne. His biggest worries were tending his corn crop and being a good dad to Leanne. But that was before the seedy little carnival came to town, bringing with them the tiny humanoid creatures called “Haunchies”. For Vincent Carlson—and the whole town of Doverton—that was the night everything changed.

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Ebooks

21 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 7, 2012

About the author

Kristopher Rufty lives in North Carolina with his three children and pets. He’s written over twenty novels, including ALL WILL DIE, THE DEVOURED AND THE DEAD, DESOLATION, THE LURKERS and PILLOWFACE. When he’s not spending time with his family or writing, he’s obsessing over gardening and growing food.

His short story DARLA'S PROBLEM was included in the Splatterpunk Publications anthology FIGHTING BACK, which won the Splatterpunk award for best anthology. THE DEVOURED AND THE DEAD was nominated for a Splatterpunk award.

He can be found on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. For more about Kristopher Rufty, please visit: www.kristopherrufty.com

Reviews

[Jess · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ugh, trying so hard not to be a judgmental dick right now. And failing.

I just can't help it...I'm currently reading Salem's Lot by Stephen King, one of the most effective horror writers in the world, and reading this short story at the same time felt like finding the penny in the diamond mine.

It was super short, like chapter-length, and the characters were so dumb and tropey (small-town hick papa basically bonering after his Lolita-esque "little girl" in a grody, not-at-all-disguised incestuous subplot). The villains/monsters were so gleefully un-scary that I almost started laughing...you can't have good horror with buildup and tension and surprise, and a bunch of weird circus elves just isn't going to cut it.

Sorry, Rufty, but this horror fan is just not impressed.

[Bandit · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's always good to sample a new author in a short story form, this way one doesn't get stuck with a book. This was a nice introduction to Rufty, author new to me, but already established with Samhain publishers. This short story itself was decent enough, very quick read, adequate writing dramatically overshadowed by the marvelously creepy humanoid creatures. A whole carnival worth of evil tiny cannibalistic beings, very nicely imagined. Would have totally worked as an opening for a novel, a prequel to a larger work.

[11811 (Eleven) · Rating 3 out of 5]

A part of me wants to give this five stars just to outweigh all of the unjustified one star reviews but someone else already did that so I'll stick with an honest rating. I'm sure some people genuinely hated it and have every right to give it one star but if you browse the Amazon reviews I think you would find a vast number to be disingenuous. Or flat out nonsensical. Or just plain lazy.

This was a 2.5 for me. I generally don't go for short stories and that will negatively impact my rating 9 times out of 10, as it does here. The story didn't blow me away but it didn't suck either. I would certainly read this guy again in my comfort zone of longer fiction.

This is only about 20 pages and has been available for free on Amazon since forever ago. It can't hurt to check it out and make up your own mind. I highly recommend the reviews though. There's some craaaazzzy shit out there.

[Angel **Book Junkie** · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was an odd quirky little book.
I hate giving books (or short stories) low ratings because especially for indie artists but a well-known author who publishes a story that I cannot like it is what it is. The star rating is how I feel about the book and it fell flat for me. I did not find it quirky, scary or anything else except for just plain weird. It was a freebie so that is good but the only the good about this book was the fact that I did not pay for it. Maybe if it was novel length I could have gotten into the book but it just was not for me.

[Gianfranco Mancini · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice short prequel to Kristopher Rufty's The Lurkers.
A creepy origin story of the Haunchies' "Watcher", too short for a stand alone tale, but if you read it before or after the main novel it is a more than good proloque or initial chapter.

[Lia's Haunted Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before diving into my thoughts, I noticed this story has a lot of low-star ratings. The main complaints? The length and the fact that it wasn’t scary. But here’s the thing—it’s a short story, and it’s explicitly stated upfront that this is a prequel to the author’s novel. So, with that in mind, here’s my take:

This was short and weird (in a good way). As a prequel, it feels more like a first chapter than a fully contained story, but that’s the point—it leaves you with more questions than answers, which works in its favor. The setup is simple: a father waits for his daughter to return home from a carnival. Except…the carnival is composed of creatures, and there are some unsettling undertones regarding the father-daughter relationship…

While it doesn’t wrap up like a traditional short story, it succeeds in setting the tone for whatever comes next. If the goal was to intrigue readers and make them want to pick up the full book, I’d say it did its job.

[Mel Raschke · Rating 1 out of 5]

A carnival comes to town and takes over the town? I think...not sure.

[Alicia Huxtable · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quick, creepy read

This book right here is yet another reason why I distrust circus' and clowns!!! This may be a real quick read But it packs a whole lot of creepy

[K. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dr. Vincent Carlson is a country doctor who lives on his farm in a remote area of Wisconsin. He has a very beautiful daughter named Leanne. As the story opens, there is a thunderstorm and it is nearing midnight, the time Leanne said she would be back from seeing a show performed by a traveling circus called the "Haunchyville Carnival". Now all these deep-rooted fears we have of the freaks that used to be the attraction at a circus in the days when there was no television the author of this amazing short story uses to his advantage. He really knows how to scare his readers. I loved the imagery "Vincent could only see his corn in the burst of a lightning flash". Any horror fiction junkie should check this out!

[Yolanda Sfetsos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Since I got my Samsung Galaxy Note last week, and added the Android Kindle app, I've been loading a bunch of my shorter stories and anthologies to it. And it's quite handy.

This is the latest story I read, which was a freebie from Samhain. It's quite a creepy tale about a man who is waiting for his teenage daughter to come home from the carnival, and instead finds his house invaded by some very scary, little guys.

It's a shortie, but very well written. The tension was pretty thick too, and it's darn spooky at times. I also liked the old-style horror feeling it had to it.

[Nev Murray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely good short story that finishes way too early leaving you gagging for more. I will definitely be buying more of Mr Rufty.

This review was written before I started to take my reviewing seriously. I would need to re-read the book to give it a serious and fair review so the above review was what I posted at the time.

[Alenna Burleson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This short story follows a father and a daughter who live on a farm. When his daughter goes to a carnival and doesn’t come back for curfew he starts to worry. Until he sees his truck lights pull into the driveway. But the footsteps he hears might not be his daughter.

Overall this was a really fun short story. I’ve never read something with creatures like this and it was definitely intriguing!!

[Ken B · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fairly decent horror short story that probably should and probably could have been longer. Rufty has all the ingredients in place for a very strong full-length novel.

3 STARS based on length

[The Flooze · Rating 2 out of 5]

Think of an 80s horror movie involving small, vicious creatures who are fascinated by the breasts of human females.

And there's a corn field.

The end.

[Anita Troxell · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hate it

Sucks, hated it, would recommend it to no one. Silly, unoriginal with childishly creepy story line. Don't waste your time.

[David Veith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, an OK read. Obviously, a short story, but wish it was more! Would love to know how it continued. Oh well, such is the life of a short story lol.

[Mickey Tompkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is actually a prequel to The Lurkers. I didn't feel this was needed, however I was interested in how it all began, and now I know.

I did not realize there are two more books in The Haunchies series. Good to know.

[Cynthia Malanowski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short

This was very short but it started out grabbing my attention. I was disappointed it was over so quickly I wanted it to continue

[Artist_carrie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mistake

Well, this was a mistake. It was ok I guess but, I really hate giving bad reviews however I just really didn't like it.

[Kathryn Mary Stahl · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did not realize this was a fantasy story.

The title didn't let a reader know the short story would be sad and fantasy. You will guess that I do NOT like the fantasy genre.

[Mommacat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lurkers prequel

[Shana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Want more.

I liked this book,what I had to read. It was more like a prelog. I want a much longer developed book.

[Ashley Hana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty funny story!

[Paige Ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

Such a bizarre short story. Creepy and just weird as hell.

[Amy Miller · Rating 2 out of 5]

Weird but cool story.

[Grampy · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The Night Everything Changed" by Kristopher Rufty is quite an odd little story. My first hint was when it mentioned there was a carnival in town; any time a carnival is in a story, something odd will happen.

In this case, the carnival was called 'The Haunchyville Carnival' and it was owned and operated entirely by little people smaller than dwarves. Some folks even whispered they might be elves... but of course, elves don't really exist. Do they?

Well, this was the final tour of the "Haunchies" as everybody called them, and they had been denied their usual location for setting up at the fairgrounds. Not far out of town old Dr. Vincent Carlson had 300 acres of farmland he had inherited when both his parents were killed in a tractor mishap. His daughter, Leanne, talked him into letting the Haunchies set up on his property.

Being a short story, I can't say much more without giving away too much. Suffice it to say, when Leanne finally came home from the carnival, she wasn't alone. That night everything changed. The Haunchies were done with traveling the world over, just to put on their show and put up with the insults hurled at them wherever they went.

This story is odd, but it also has a rather large element of horror to it. If you're in the mood for something completely different, and more than a little frightening, this story just might do the trick for you.

[Leslie Lee Sanders · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although short (very, very short) The Night Everything Changed sets up the story, The Lurkers, quite well. In fact, it ends like a well crafted chapter by using a cliffhanger, making you want--no, NEED--to read more!

Brilliant!

The reasons I took off a star from my raving review:

1. I wanted some sort of resolution.

2. I didn't enjoy the description of the daughter's "curved breasts" etc., coming from the father's point of view. I wished he hadn't blushed at her like a hot piece of meat, and instead noticed she was a woman but in a rather noted or even a disgusted way. A way a father would, or rather, SHOULD.

Although the father's description of the daughter was only about a paragraph of the entire story, and not at all the main focus, it was enough to make me take notice and stick in my mind. It makes me wonder if The Lurkers play on this odd attraction or if it was an unintended effect of the descriptive writing.

Speaking of the writing ... absolutely great writing. Dark, suspenseful, detailed. What a great way to prelude another story!

I enjoyed this story. It's definitely for fans of horror. I'm definitely going to take a peek at The Lurkers.

[Dorothy · Rating 1 out of 5]

this is a weird short story to stay the lease. The story line was different the what i normal find my self pick up to read/ choosing to read. i did get t for free from amazon. now i can't say i'd pick it up other wise even though the blurb did catch my attention. it a little bit hard for me to gasp what happened maybe cause i read it in a few hours or maybe the passe of the story was to fast for me to get every thing that happen. don't get me wrong it is interesting read to say the least but it also was to short of a read i would of like it to be a little bit longer and show what happen within the town. with each other those reason it 3 stars good story line and writing style but to short and to fast.

[TheReadingKnitter/ Kasey · Rating 1 out of 5]

"No one would ever forget the night the carnival came to town. "

Vincent Carlson used to have a good life. He lived on a small farm in Doverton, Wisconsin, with his loving teenage daughter, Leanne. His biggest worries were tending his corn crop and being a good dad to Leanne. But that was before the seedy little carnival came to town, bringing with them the tiny humanoid creatures called Haunchies . For Vincent Carlson and the whole town of Doverton that was the night everything changed.

My Review - Weird! Just weird. And short.

[Siobhán Bayertz · Rating 2 out of 5]

I hate giving low ratings, especially when like this, it was for free but I don't do it without good reason to.

The characters, for me, where very 1 dimensional and although the story-line wasn't terrible, it did nothing for me. Came across slightly ridiculous so rather than scaring me in any way, it sort of just annoyed me.

Still an interesting enough read though so I would say to give it a go as it's so short.