18 Comments

Holy moly. This is so good. And it’s DEFINITELY horror, the mind-bendy, too-real kind. Stunning.

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“'What I called up about was a pair of shoes I left there. I wonder if it’d be too much trouble to have the butler send them on. You see, they’re tennis shoes, and I’m sort of helpless without them. My address is care of B.F.——'

I didn’t hear the rest of the name, because I hung up the receiver."

F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby

Another Long Island setting with privileged characters terrorizing the working class around them? More tennis shoes?

Absolutely fantastic buildup of tension and creepiness, EJ. Class-war undertones plus creepy sex vibes giving an excellent texture of fear. Was just talking with a friend recently about near-horror, how in some ways it can be more effective than overt horror. This story is textbook.

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pulitzer prize winning comment right here. thank you so much. 🖤

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This is like one of those "in the light of day" horror stories. The tension was palpable throughout, brilliant job!

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believe it or not i worried so much that it wasn’t a horror story at all. talk about getting in my own way.

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I think it is 100% a horror story. It has a slasher vibe to it, running but being unable to hide.

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my heart

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Jun 25Liked by EJ Trask

Well, that was creepy. Loved it!

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Nice tension throughout. Well done!

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So completely original! I love how she goes from STALKED to STALKER!!!!!!

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Great modern day. Sussspppeenncce! Is it a stalker or just an overreaction !!!!! Wow great read of the way one’s head trips out

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Creepy and kinky! Now I need to know…will the shoes satisfy him? Will they scare him? I love how she falls back onto what so many of us have forgotten, buried, or never fully experienced. The real world, red in tooth and claw.

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I like to think he offers to give a teammate a ride home 😈

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How are you so good? Stop!

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i’m surrounded by incredible writers so I have to try so hard

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Jun 23Liked by EJ Trask

OMG this was such a read… I kept going back and forth about whether this woman was over reacting and whether Jacob was just a bored teen who liked to mess with people…I would never have given a second thought to selling my shoes and wouldn’t have bothered to research the buyer either. You kept the tension at maximum and told a spellbinding tale!

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ooh creepy!

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Fuck!! This was GOOD

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