Hungry Business

A gothic horror short story by Maria DeBlassie

From the multi-award-winning author of Everyday Enchantments: Musings on Ordinary Magic & Daily Conjurings comes a cozy Gothic short story about searching for soul, meaning, love in a world that\’s forgotten the power of everyday conjuring.

Looking for love can be deadly…

You know how it goes. You go out, hoping to meet someone. You wade through your fair share of brainless automatons, lifeless bodies, and ravenous undead good at passing as human.

The more you go out, the less hope you feel and the colder your body gets. But you keep at it. All you need is one beating heart to match your own before yours stops pumping altogether. How hard can it be to find one living, breathing human in a city full of bodies?

Dating.

It’s hungry business.

CW: Assault

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Excerpt

The things you do for love.

Like talking yourself into thinking that the lifeless body across the table from you has his own kind of charm. Surely his gray pallor is only a trick of the light. His skeletal frame might even be considered athletic. You try not to look at his chipped and bloodied fingernails as you force down your mediocre steak tartar. Sadly, that room temperature appetizer will be the hottest thing on the menu tonight.

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Review

This was chilling. There’s no other word. It was also a really interesting concept with some truly terrifying implications about life, love, and the aftermath of a pandemic (or life a during a pandemic, not that we know anything about that). I found myself equal parts disgusted and intrigued. This was the proverbial train wreck—I wanted to look away but couldn’t. I wanted to feel like the emotions in this story were foreign, but I couldn’t. It struck me in an uncomfortable place, but I suspect that was the point. Very interesting reading experience, and a story I won’t soon forget.

Mind the content warning if you need to, but otherwise, I definitely suggest giving this a read. But don’t make the mistake of reading this while eating (I did). That was a poor choice. That said, it’s not overly graphic. Just…not something you want to read while eating.

About Maria DeBlassie

Maria DeBlassie, Ph.D. is a native New Mexican mestiza blogger, award-winning writer, and award-winning educator living in the Land of Enchantment. Her first book, Everyday Enchantments: Musings on Ordinary Magic & Daily Conjurings (Moon Books 2018), and her ongoing blog, Enchantment Learning & Living are about everyday magic, ordinary gothic, and the life of a kitchen witch. When she is not practicing her own brand of brujeria, she’s reading, teaching, and writing about bodice rippers and things that go bump in the night. She is forever looking for magic in her life and somehow always finding more than she thought was there. Find out more about Maria and conjuring everyday magic at mariadeblassie.com.

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Giveaway

Maria DeBlassie will be awarding a free ecopy of Hungry Business to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

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