An apartment resident is recruited for help by four kids who claim that a demonic creature has just laid eggs in the laundry room.

Genre: Horror

 

Excerpt:
“It’s like the thing from the poem that my first grade teacher told us about. ‘There Lived a Crooked Creature.’ Do you know the one? It lives in a corner—“

“—and it can touch us but we can’t touch it—“ 

“’In a corner it did lay; fourteen eggs every fourteen days.’”

“’Nothing can destroy it. No weapon forged by human hand.’”

 

What story or stories am I revisiting in this episode?
Each Season 8 episode is a standalone story, but it’s connected to or inspired by a previous story through a character, a place, an object, a concept, a continuation of events (ahem, sequel), and so on.

This episode is inspired by two previous episodes about humans encountering eerie creatures in their own homes: “The Incident of the Imp,” and “Velutinus.”

 

MY FIRST BOOK (yay)
Ever wonder how I’ve gotten all these hundreds of stories written?  I have a method. And I talk all about it in my book called Fictioneer’s Field Guide: A Game Plan for Writing Short Stories.

It’s now available from Amazon as an eBook, paperback, and hardcover.

You can also get there from my Store page: STORYFEATHER STORE

The Store page also has sign-up forms for my two email newsletters: 
Storyfeather Gazette (if you’d like to keep up with the fiction I create)
Fictioneer’s Field Guide (if you’d like writing tips and guidance from me)

Choose what you want. (Either way, you're choosing high jinks.)

 

MERCH!
Interested in merch, like mugs and notebooks, featuring my artwork?
Please visit my Store page for info on where you can buy: STORYFEATHER STORE

 

CREDITS
Story: “There Lived a Crooked Creature” Copyright © 2021 by Nila L. Patel
Narration, Episode Art, Editing, and Production:  Nila L. Patel

 

Music:
“The ceremonial” by NICHOLAS JEUDY (Intro)
“Creatures of the night” by NICHOLAS JEUDY (Outro)
“Abstract Vision #5” by ANDREW SITKOV (Outro)

 

Music by NICHOLAS JEUDY (Dark Fantasy Studio)
“Trust me”
“Creatures of the night”
“The 4th world”
“The mirror”
“Dark wonders”
“Distant fear”
“Dark echoes”
“Creepy doll”
“Pitch black”
“The ceremonial”
“At the gate of hell”

 

All these tracks are part of a music and sound effects bundles I purchased from Humble Bundle and sourced from GameDev Market.

 

Music by Nicholas Jeudy and Andrew Sitkov is licensed from GameDev Market
Sound effects from AudioJungle, GameDevMarket, and Soundly (through Hindenburg)
Vocal effects created with Audacity
Changes made to the musical tracks? Just cropping of some to align with my narration.

 

Find more music by Nicholas Jeudy and Andrew Sitkov at gamedevmarket.net
Find more stories by Nila at storyfeather.com

 

Episode Art Description:
Digital drawing: Portions of a creature. At upper right, fourteen eyeballs with triangular pupils framed by a mane of shaggy hair and held up by a segmented neck that looks like a series of polyps. The neck extends to the left and out of frame. Along the length of one polyp a mouth that looks like a tear with rows of small sharp teeth. Behind the neck is the creature’s body with cricket-like legs emerging from the side. Watermark of “Storyfeather” along leg at bottom right. The rectangular image is made square with borders at top and bottom with a rough textured pattern of colors pulled from the image.