The Empty Danger

“It’s too late. You have seen and you have… been seen. The beasts of the other plane know you now. They’ve watched you watching them. They will haunt you now. You are one of us. Whether we like it or not.” A weird, wildly imagined fantasy novella about facing Fear during the coronavirus lockdown. The pandemic has changed us. With millions of us dwelling on the same new threat, Fear gains immense power. Elina has been exposed to COVID-19 and must self-isolate. Afraid for a young abuse victim called Kyle, her empathy draws her into another plane of existence: a shared mind-space beyond the clouds where Fear has leathery wings, a black tongue and breathes a gas that instils dread. Now that Elina has been "Intrigued" into the secret world of the Watchers, can she help them guard the collective unconscious and fend off the creatures that threaten to take over our world? The Empty Danger is the first release from The Book of Exquisite Corpse, a collection of stories inspired by the surrealist word game of the same name. Written during the 2020 lockdown, this short novel is an ode to hope.