Today Electric Lit published a great short horror story: “Trogloxene” by Lena Valencia. It’s got a slow creeping quality to it that pulled me in instantly. Valencia does a fantastic job of weaving flashbacks into the story that build a compelling backstory without breaking the tension.

Here’s how it starts:

Max was home.

It had been ten days of sleepless nights punctuated by nightmares, ten days of television news crews in the front yard, ten days of headlines like 11-Year-Old Girl Still Missing in Cave and How Long Can She Survive? No Luck on First Expedition to Find Lost Girl, ten days of fast food for dinner (if there was dinner) after her parents’ long hours at Forrester’s Caverns, overseeing the rescue team. But now, after an additional three days of staring at her sister through plexiglass in quarantine at that dismal Phoenix hospital, Max was home—not home exactly, but back at their vacation rental in Quicksilver Springs—and Holly was looking forward to things going back to normal.

The first dinner after she was back they had spaghetti with meatballs and a kale salad. Holly watched, nibbling a piece of kale, as Max spooled one generous helping of noodles after another around her fork, shoving each into her mouth. When she was done with the pasta, she grabbed a handful of meatballs from the serving dish and took a bite before laying the obliterated mound on her plate and slurping the sauce off her fingers. Marinara bloodied her chin. It was all Holly could do not to gag.

It’s not long, and it’s full of surprises. In some ways it feels like a throwback to ’90s horror, like The X-Files or Poltergeist. It’s from her upcoming debut collection of short stories titled Mystery Lights, which is now on my shopping list.

Here’s the story that gives the collection its title, I think, published in 2019 in Craft Magazine. It’s a longer read and it’s worth it.

I didn’t know her work before this, but she’s published quite a few stories in various places. The LitHub site linked to another story, “The Blue Room”, which is similar in tone, and also a fun, short read:

The Blue Room is lit with a cerulean light. With the exception of a narrow, elevated walkway and a pillow for visitors to sit on, its walls, floor, and ceiling are covered in blue soundproofing foam. In the middle of the floor, halfway sunken into the foam, like something washed up on a beach, is a 1994 Gateway 2000. It pulses the same cerulean, as if breathing. This is where the demon lives. 

It could be the opening sequence of a great movie.

For another incentive to check out the book when it releases next week, here’s a taste of another story from the collection: “Vermilion”, in Bomb magazine (new to me, likely a shopping list item too). It’s the perfect tease — just before the paywall, the characters are listening to a podcast about the events of the first story on this post.

There are a few more stories on her website you can check out too. Mystery Lights comes out next Tuesday, August 6. Here’s one place you can get it.

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