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HALF-MINUTE
HORRORS
EDITED BY
SUSAN RICH
Contents
Something You Ought to Know by Lemony Snicket
The Chicken or the Egg by Jerry Spinelli
In Hiding by Kenneth Oppel
The Old Man in the Picture by Richard Sala
The Babysitter by Erin Hunter
Grand Entrance by James Patterson
Halloween Mask by Sonya Sones
Tenton by Tom Genrich & Michèle Perry
Nanny by Angela Johnson
The Legend of Alexandra & Rose by Jon Klassen
What’s Coming by Arthur Slade
An Easy Gig by M. T. Anderson
Mr. Black by Yvonne Prinz
The Foot Dragger by M. E. Kerr
Trick by Adam Rex
Hank by Dean Lorey
One of a Kind by Sarah Weeks
A Walk Too Far by Gloria Whelan
A Very Short Story by Holly Black
Deep Six by Faye Kellerman
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, A Novel as Told by Lisa Brown in Fewer than 30 Seconds
The Attack of the Flying Mustaches by Pseudonymous Bosch
Takowanda by Nadia Aguiar
Heart Stopper by Sienna Mercer
Up to My Elbow by Jack Gantos
Four Gleams in the Moonlight by Stephen Marche
The Goblin Book by Brad Meltzer
Worms by Lane Smith
The Dare by Carol Gorman
The Ballad of John Grepsy by David Rich
Soup by Jenny Nimmo
The Creeping Hand by Margaret Atwood
Wet Sand, Little Teeth by Mariko Tamaki
A Thousand Faces by Brian Selznick
Chocolate Cake by Francine Prose
At the Water’s Edge by Ayelet Waldman
My Worst Nightmare by R.L. Stine
The Beast Outside by Adele Griffin
Unannounced by Aliza Kellerman
Krüger’s Sausage Haus by Mark Crilley
There’s Something Under the Bed by Allan Stratton
Cat’s Paw by Sarah L. Thomson
Horrorku by Katherine Applegate
The Itch by Avi
The New Me: A Pantoum by Gail Carson Levine
Always Eleven by David Stahler Jr.
Aloft by Carson Ellis
Skittering by Tui T. Sutherland
Stuck in the Middle by Abi Slone
All Fingers and Thumbs! by Joseph Delaney
Don’t Wet the Bed by Alan Gratz
The Final Word illustrated by Brett Helquist, story by Josh Greenhut
The Shadow by Neil Gaiman
A Day at the Lake by Lesley Livingston
Whispered by Jon Scieszka
A Disturbing Limerick found & envisioned by Vladimir Radunsky
Through the Veil by Alison McGhee
The Rash by Daniel Ehrenhaft
Where Nightmares Walk by Melissa Marr
On a Tuesday During That Time of Year by Chris Raschka
Death Rides a Pink Bicycle by Stacey Godenir
I’m Not Afraid by Dan Gutman
The Doll by Alice Kuipers
Easy Over by Frank Viva
Them by Libba Bray
Tiger Kitty by Joyce Carol Oates
Inventory by Jonathan Lethem
Shortcut by Michael Connelly
Strawberry Bubbles by Lauren Myracle
We Think You Do by Barry Yourgrau
The Prisoner of Eternia by Aaron Renier
In Conclusion by Gregory Maguire
Index
About the Author
Copyright
LEMONY SNICKET
Something You Ought to Know
“The right hand doesn’t know what the left is doing” is a phrase that refers to times when people ought to know, but don’t know, about something that is happening very close to them. For instance, you ought to know about the man who watches you when you sleep.
He is a quiet man, which is why you don’t know about him.
You don’t know how he gets into your home, or how he finds his way to the room in which you sleep. You don’t know how he can stare at you so long without blinking, and you don’t know how he manages to be gone by morning, without a trace, and you don’t know where he purchased the long, sharp knife, curved like a crescent moon, that he holds in his left hand, sometimes just millimeters from your eyes, which are closed and flickering in dreams.
There are, of course, things he does not know about you, either. He does not know what you are dreaming about, but then it may be that he does not care. His clothes are rumpled and have odd rips in them here and there. One of his coat sleeves is longer than the other, and this may be to cover his right hand. The sleeve is long enough that if you were to wake up and see him, which you never do, you might not see that his right hand is strange and crooked. It would take a while, in the darkness of the room, to notice that it is missing three fingers.
He comes every night. His right hand does not know what the left is doing.
JERRY SPINELLI
The Chicken or the Egg
“I was first,” said Egg.
“I was first,” said Chicken.
“I was,” said Egg.
“I was,” said Chicken.
“I was!”