Matt Dovey

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They Say

Content Warning: Gore, bullying

They surround us both in the school car park, enough of them that numbers don't matter, their shadows snatching the hot sun from our faces. Boys stalking like hyenas; a pack mentality of cruelty and fear.

Madeleine hides behind me. I try to stand tall and brave for her sake, to show her the only honest way to justify your existence in this world: pride.

Read the rest at Nightmare Magazine (issue 129) →
(exclusive until 1st January 2024)

Horror; 496 words; first published 28th June 2023 at Nightmare Magazine (issue 129) →


A Spider Trapped in Wax

Content Warning: Abuse of children: emotional (bullying, belittling) and physical (hitting)

Lindom Hall was a cold place; a lonely place; an empty place of stone and echoes. Margaret had her servants, of course, but they hardly counted. She had grown used to the silence, perhaps, but never truly comfortable with it.

Yet now that her son was returned at last to the Hall, she took no solace in the company.

"Mother, please," he said. "It is not so much money to ask for, is it?"

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Horror; 5128 words; first published 28th December 2018 at PseudoPod #628 →; podcasted 28th December 2018 at PseudoPod #628 →


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About

Matt Dovey is a writer of short speculative fiction. He is very tall, very British, and probably drinking a cup of tea right now. His surname rhymes with “Dopey”, but any other similarities to the dwarf are purely coincidental. More →

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You're not a person, they say, circling. You're one of Them. From the other side.

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Narrations

We looked at our face in the mirror. Or rather, she looked at me looking at her, even if she couldn't see me. For many years I have looked out of those eyes, biding my time, saving my strength, waiting to speak.

It doesn't have to be like this, I often tell her. You don't have to fight me.

The Girl in the Glass by Joshua Grasso
Tales to Terrify #517

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