A NEW HOME Dawna Temple let herself be moved from the familiarity of Pittsburgh to the wilds of West Virginia, all so her mentally exhausted husband, John, could heal from a breakdown. Struggling with the abrupt change of location, Dawna finds a friend in her neighbor, Suzanne Miller, known to the locals as The Hag Witch of Tripp Creek. A NEW FRIEND Dismissing it as hillbilly superstition, Dawna can't believe the things she hears about her funny and empathetic friend. Suzanne has secrets-dark secrets-and eventually she reveals the truth behind the rumors that earned her the wicked nickname decades earlier. OLD WOUNDS Now in possession of the truth, Dawna has conflicting emotions about Suzanne's past deeds, but when her husband's well-being takes a downturn, she finds there is no one else to turn to. Will she shun her friend as others have done before? ...or can she accept that an act of evil is sometimes necessary for the greater good?

Still hurting from her divorce, Melissa Caan makes a drastic life change for herself and her two young children by moving them out to a rural home. But the country life came with some extras that she wasn't counting on. Doors are slamming, she and her children are violently attacked by unseen hands, and her elderly neighbor doesn't like to talk about the murders that happened in the strangely named hollow all those years ago. Ghost hunters, witches, and a sassy cancer survivor come together to help Melissa fight for the safety of her children and herself. All she wanted was a fresh start, will she get it?

Strange. Surreal. Shocking. Beautiful. APEX MAGAZINE is a digital dark science fiction and fantasy genre zine that features award-winning short fiction, essays, and interviews. Established in 2009, our fiction has won several Hugo and Nebula Awards. We publish every other month. Issue 142 contains the following short stories, essays, reviews, and interviews. EDITORIAL Musings from Maryland by Lesley Conner ORIGINAL SHORT FICTION Spread the Word by Delilah S. Dawson Born a Ghost by Nadia Bongo Just You and Me, Now by KT Bryski When No One Has to Say Goodbye by Elisabeth Ring FLASH FICTION Then Came the Ghost of My Dead Mother, Antikleia by Nadia Radovich For As Long As You Want It by Kanishk Tantia CLASSIC FICTION The Man Who Fed Dilophosaurs by M.M. Olivas The Enduring by Eugen Bacon NONFICTION I Like Movies Too: Loving Movies Made for the Male Gaze by Somer Canon Horror Tells Me I’m Not Alone by John Wiswell Words for Thought: Short Fiction Review by AC Wise INTERVIEWS Interview with Author Nadia Bongo by Marissa van Uden Interview with Author Elisabeth Ring by Marissa van Uden Interview with Artist Adrian Borda by Bradley Powers

Following the deep footsteps of 2017's The Mud Man, The Mud Woman picks up 200 years in the future, when politics, spiritualism, and fear clash in a way that mirrors modern times.Compiled as a series of classified military reports, The Mud Woman searches for truth in a world of deception, and explores the motivations that push us to embrace the soft lie. Meanwhile, an indestructible "man of stone" smashes up military tanks, tears soldiers to pieces, and battles monsters on the ocean floor on his own quest for redemption and change.

Everything That’s Underneath, Kristi DeMeester’s debut powerful horror collection, is full of weird, unsettling tales that recall the styles of such accomplished storytellers as Laird Barron and Tom Piccirilli. Crawl across the earth and dig in the dirt. Feel it. Tearing at your nails, gritty between your teeth, filling your nostrils. Consume it until it has consumed you. For there you will find the voices that have called from the shadows, the ones that promise to cherish you only to rip your body to shreds. In Everything That’s Underneath, Kristi DeMeester explores the dark places most people avoid. A hole in an abandoned lot, an illness twisting your loved one into someone you don’t recognize, lust that pushes you farther and farther until no one can hear yours cry for help. In these 18 stories the characters cannot escape the evil that is haunting them. They must make a choice: accept it and become part of what terrifies them the most or allow it to consume them and live in fear forever. “Kristi DeMeester’s wonderfully disturbing Everything That’s Underneath features a cast of characters who are as emotionally raw and authentic as they are haunted. DeMeester’s mothers and daughters, struggling at the edges of a society/economy as cold and uncaring as the universe, succumb in the face of horrors made even more terrifying by their nagging sense of familiarity. A dark, intelligent, relentless collection." — Paul Tremblay, author of A Head Full of Ghosts and Disappearance at Devil’s Rock “In Everything That’s Underneath, Kristi DeMeester lays out a series of evocative visions and bizarre terrors that deftly meld the gothic, religious, and darkly fantastic to tell tales of body horror and transformation. Her fiction explores the ways we are often betrayed by our flesh and led astray by our own desires. DeMeester is a rising star of weird horror, and this debut collection is evidence that her transformative visions are destined to leave their mark.” — Simon Strantzas, author of Burnt Black Suns “With these stories Kristi DeMeester conjures earthy magic out of seemingly ordinary circumstances. Her characters, through ritual and instinct, discover a rough connection to all living things, but that connection may not bring comfort. This is DeMeester’s particular brand of cosmic horror, coming from deep down in the bones, imbued with animal vitality and ingrained wisdom. She’s bringing themes of every day life, including love and domestic violence, to a much larger canvas and simultaneously taking nature at large to a deeply personal level. The effects are uncanny and unsettling. A young writer, Demeester is already established as a talent to watch in horror and weird fiction. I look forward to more of these dark, fierce, disturbing tales.” — S.P. Miskowski, author of Stag in Flight “When Kristi DeMeester weaves a tapestry of tales, there is no escaping. On every level these stories fascinate, hypnotize, threaten, and reveal. On the surface, your skin will flush; in your heart, lost desires will bubble to the surface; in your mind, these intricate mythologies will teach you what is possible; and in your soul, you are complicit—seeking dark magic to free you from what has been seen. One of my favorite authors writing today, this collection is a visceral, haunting, and stirring experience.” — Richard Thomas, author of Tribulations and Breaker “Kristi DeMeester is not afraid to peel back the skin of things. Like many of the characters in these stories learn, true horror is often inside us, threaded in the tissue and marrow so there is no escape from it. Perhaps even worse, we are horrors to one another. Carrying a Southern Gothic light into the shadows of horror and weird fiction, her prose sings in your ear as her plots reach around your throat. Everything That’s Underneath is an essential collection and shows a major new voice crawling out of the dark.” — Michael Wehunt, author of Greener Pastures TABLE OF CONTENTS Everything That’s Underneath The Wicked Shall Come Upon Him To Sleep Long, To Sleep Deep The Fleshtival The Beautiful Nature of Venom Like Feather, Like Bone Worship Only What She Bleeds (short story original to collection) The Tying of Tongues The Marking The Long Road The Lightning Bird (short story original to collection) The Dream Eater Daughters of Hecate Birthright (novelette original to collection) All That Is Refracted, Broken December Skin Split Tongues To Sleep in the Dust of the Earth

"Exceptional and unique...this story will suck you in!" Armand Rosamilia, author of Keyport Cthulu and the Dying Days series. "Move over Lazarus and Frankenstein's Monster - long live The Mud Man!" Tim Meyer, author of Enlightenment and Sharkwater Beach. On November 8, 2016, a quiet law office in rural New Jersey was savagely attacked by a "Man of Stone." Ten people were brutally mutilated and murdered, the killer was never caught, and the legend of the Franz Rock Monster was born. The Mud Man by Rob Errera is a fast-paced supernatural science fantasy laced with horror and unexpected humor. Inspired by Frankenstein, folklore, and media freakshows, The Mud Man explores what it means to be human, the transformative power of grief, and the fine line between man and monster. The Mud Man by Rob Errera is available in both paperback and digital editions exclusively at Amazon. The Mud Man-some fathers will do anything for their daughters...even raise the dead.