Welcome to the masquerade.

Two thousand twenty was a reality horror show. And like most obnoxious entertainment reality shows, this one had its own idiosyncratic rules and penalties. Call it The Big Lockdown. We were forced to go to ground, to hide in our holes. Some went underground and never came back. Uncertainty ruled because the rules kept changing. Were we following the science or the mad scientists? Was the light at the end of the tunnel the fiery mouth of hell? We couldn’t say for sure, so we ventured out for food, booze and sundries like scavengers in a slow-motion apocalypse, keeping our distance from fellow human beings because you never knew who might be carrying that heavy viral load.

And everywhere we went, we went behind the mask. So, it became obvious: The theme of our offering of extreme horror tales from 2020 had to be masquerade.

Our masquerading storytellers nevertheless did what they do best. They went deep into the belly of the beast and sent up fictions reflective of these “trying” times. Their stories peel away the masks (or in some cases, the skin) to reveal the inner workings of darkest hearts and minds and deeper fears.

Table of contents

Hey Valentine by Amanda Cecelia Lang

/thestrangethingwebecome by Eric La Rocca

The Pogonip Fog by Sean Patrick Hazlett

The Nipples in Dad’s Tool Box by Ronald Kelly

The Happiest Man in the World by Matthew Brockmeyer

Otto Hahn Speaks to the Dead by Octavia Cade

In Subspace, No One Can Hear You Scream by Hailey Piper

Her Wounded Eyes by Robert Guffey

Gunfire and Brimstone by Alicia Hilton

Going Green by Christine Morgan

The Drinking-Horn by Christine Morgan

Full Moon Shindig by Patrick C. Harrison III

All the Stars in Her Eyes by Deborah Sheldon

Synaesthete by Melanie Harding-Shaw

The Saint by Alessandro Manzetti

The Village by Matias F. Travieso-Diaz

The Smell of Night in the Basement by Wendy N. Wagner

Whiskey to the Wound by Rachel Nussbaum