There was a policeman on the corner and she thought, Why don’t I go to the police—you go to the police for a missing person. And then thought, What a fool I’d look like. She had a quick picture of herself standing in a police station, saying, “Yes, we were going to be married today, but he didn’t come,” and the policemen, three or four of them standing around listening, looking at her, at the print dress, at her too-bright make-up, smiling at one another.Shirley Jackson's widely established as a master of horror. I'm not sure if this is the best example of something horrifying, but it really is a masterclass in unsettling a reader. The premise is simple enough - on her wedding day, a bride desperately tries to find her missing husband. Only, there's an undercurrent here that tells you it's not quite that simple. That something is bubbling just below the surface, and that's perhaps scarier than anything jumping out of closets.
You can read 'The Daemon Lover' by Shirley Jackson over on Literary Fictions.com
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