PHILIP FRACASSI is the Bram Stoker and British Fantasy Award-nominated author of the novels A Child Alone with Strangers, Gothic, Boys in the Valley, The Third Rule of Time Travel, and The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre. He is also the author of the story collections Behold the Void, Beneath a Pale Sky, and No One is Safe!
His stories have been published in numerous magazines and anthologies, including Black Static, Best Horror of the Year, Nightmare Magazine, Interzone, and Southwest Review.
Philip lives in Los Angeles and is represented by Copps Literary Services, Circle M + P, and WME. You can find him on Facebook, Instagram, and Bluesky, or visit pfracassi.com.
This short story is told as if it were a compilation of a series of reddit posts from a young boy having just moved from the city to a new home with a treehouse out back. It chronicles why he thinks his treehouse is haunted and what happens when he tries to "de-haunt" it.
An amazing haunted story in the most terrifying ways. I’ve always loved treehouses in my childhood and found it something fascinating, but never in my worst dreams did I find it scary! Philip takes us into a nostalgic trip to those good old days, with an unexpected creepy twist. As much beautiful as they can look, treehouses can sometimes be dark places too!
Just read this on an early Sunday morning, waiting for the dogs to wake for a walk, the sun is shining, the grass is sparkling from the nighttime rain, cup of tea in hand with a vague hangover. I shouldn’t really be creeped out but I am 😂 Thankfully I don’t have a treehouse because I’d have my axe out right now if I did.
Written as a series of Reddit posts by a young boy who just moved into a new house, this chapbook by Philip Fracassi was a fun and delightfully spooky story. As an exercise in experimental story telling, the format of “reprinting” sequential posts from a social site / forum proved to be a successful way to retell events from the perspective of a young boy who is trying to make sense of strange events happening in his backyard.