Absent Mercies

These six weird tales don’t pull their punches.SUCCOR THE CHILD: After viewing a sixth-grader’s bizarre chalk drawing, one impressionable townsperson begins to see more than just childish scrawls, and curiosity about the drawing’s subject becomes an all-consuming obsession—literally.THE THING IN THE WATER: Daniel, a bitter artist, goes on a cruise to take his mind off his upcoming divorce. He meets Cliff, an old man who gives him a much-needed ego-boost. But when Cliff offers to help Daniel let go of his anger, Daniel discovers Cliff isn’t being altruistic, and the old man may be far older than he appears.THE BOOGEYMAN: What stories do the boogeymen tell their little ones at bedtime? Thomas wishes he didn’t know, but he can’t get the monster under his bed to shut up.THE GRANARY ANGEL: Steffi works on a nighttime graveyard tour in Boston. Recently she’s become obsessed with the statue of an angel at the Granary Burying Ground. The problem: there are no angel statues in that graveyard…and the angel no one else can see appears to be equally obsessed with Steffi.THE BROADCAST OUT OF TIME: A live Christmas old-time radio broadcast is interrupted when the studio is invaded by a weird green mist.THE TWELVE HUNTSMEN: In this grim retelling of the Brothers Grimm tale, Princess Cyrene will stop at nothing to win back the hand of the wayward Prince Roland.