“Harmony” by Carolyn Parkhurst

Terror, as best realized in fiction, comes from that which we invite in. Jack takes his family to the Overlook Hotel; the child kneels to join Pennywise in the sewer. What draws us to give up our power, our agency? Normalcy? Yeah, what folly that is, you'd never fall for that, which is why you don't dress up to go to work or school, right? Perhaps there's a version of these stories where Jack writes his novel without incident, the child walks away, and Alexandra Hammond doesn't give Scott Bean the time of day. Stories for children, these small comforts.

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