Sunday Short: 'Magdala Amygdala' by Lucy A. Snyder

“So is the new job going well? Are you able to sleep?” My doctor shines a penlight in my eyes and nostrils and marks off a couple of boxes. Thankfully, she doesn’t ask to see my tongue. It’s the same set of questions every week; I’d have to be pretty far gone to answer badly and get myself quarantined. The endless doctor-visits wear down other Type Threes, but I hang onto the belief that someday there might be actual help for me here.

I've been tentative about engaging with horror short fiction. It's not exactly a secret that I adore horror cinema, but it's no more a secret that there are huge sectors of the genre bogged down with brutal misogyny. I've become very good at navigating those waters, but dipping my toe in the pool of horror shorts revealed a lot of the same hatred that has taken me longer to sift through. Some days it feels like panning for gold, waiting for a nugget of good, bigotry-free fiction to catch. That said, when little gems like Lucy A. Snyder's 'Magdala Amygdala' show up, it makes them all the more special. It's taut, original and all in all a pretty horrifying monster story, with the implications of a bigger, bolder new world.

You can read 'Magdala Amygdala' by Lucy A. Snyder over at Nightmare Magazine.