Nightmare Magazine, January 2026
Lane is a thirteen-year-old homeschooled girl living with her mother in rural Florida. Her mother, who was tortured to death as a teenager in a scenario reminiscent of the film Jennifer’s Body, returned as something inhuman—unable to bear children naturally. She adopted Lane and now sustains herself by hunting at night, returning home covered in blood while Lane pretends not to notice.
They move frequently, currently living in an abandoned house in the swamp. Lane’s mother forbids her from talking to boys, explaining this through movie night: showing Lane the sacrifice scene from Jennifer’s Body and then Juno, revealing that Lane was adopted from a couple who didn’t want their baby. Lane understands the warning—her mother was victimized by boys, and the world is dangerous.
Despite the isolation, Lane becomes fascinated with a boy she nicknames Paulie (really named River) who bikes past their house daily. When he crashes his bicycle, she impulsively runs out to check on him. They begin meeting secretly. River bikes her to Lou’s store where they share lemonade and talk. He’s dropped out of school, works at a bait shop, and lives without electricity due to his father’s strict Luddite rules. River’s hand was damaged in a trap set by developers who wanted his father’s wetland property, fueling his father’s hatred of outsiders.
Lane meticulously hides these outings—showering immediately, washing her clothes, lighting candles to mask River’s scent. She sees River as her connection to normalcy, to being a regular teenager. He promises to take her to the library to watch pirated horror movies and share the outside world she’s been denied.
Their friendship deepens when River takes her to his secret spot—a beautiful mangrove swamp where he communes with alligators. But then he devastates her: his father discovered their friendship and forbade further contact. Lane, desperate not to lose her only friend, refuses to accept this.
That evening, distraught, Lane impulsively follows River through the woods to his backyard. There she witnesses something shocking: River standing surrounded by a perfect circle of giant alligators, speaking to them in an inhuman language. When the alligators notice her, something massive chases her back home.
Lane’s mother smells the woods and the boy on her daughter. Enraged, she transforms into her true monstrous form and storms to River’s house. Lane follows, finding River and pulling him into a protective embrace. Her mother confronts them but stops when something emerges from the hallway—River’s father, revealed as an equally monstrous creature with a crocodilian snout embedded with fishing hooks, emanating swamp stench.
The story ends with Lane and River holding each other in the corner, watching their inhuman parents face off, understanding that they share far more than either realized—both children of monsters, both isolated from the world, both struggling between their humanity and their inheritance.
Sara S. Messenger (sarasmessenger.com) is an East and West Asian writer and Nebula Award winner. She is using this bio, dear reader, to call upon you to join her in refusing and resisting the genocide of the Palestinian people. Wherever you are, throw what sand you can in the gears of the death machine. We are stronger, together. Together, we must resist, resist, resist.