Welcome to the Nightmare Magazine Story podcast.

Enter freely and of your own free will.

I am your humble host, Terence Taylor, one very much at home with the children of the night.

Stay close as my muse, the medieval demon goblin, guides us down into beautiful darkness.

In this episode, we have three short shots for you. Up first is eight ball, written by

Martin Cahill and narrated by Roxanne Hernandez.

But first, a word from our sponsors. And now, Roxanne Hernandez.

Eight Ball by Martin Cahill.

There's an eye in the back of my husband's head.

It opens only after he's fallen asleep, lid splitting silent as a dream in the night.

My husband's eyes are amber, no brighter than a penny in the sun. The eye on the back of his head is different. It looks out at me through his dark hair, pupil white and glowing,

drifting in a sea-dark jelly. The first time I saw it, I thought it was just another nightmare.

Anxiety and paranoia have always danced through my head, day and night.

Seeing movement on his head faced away from me, catching a glimpse of that

lighthouse eye before shutting my own, rolling over, praying, for a moment I wondered if I had

brought it to life, my fear warping reality,

conjuring it even. Surely just a nightmare, no more than that. But one evening, hunkered under

my booklight, and regretting Afligato, I heard a wet parting, glanced over, down, saw the pupil float up staring at me.

It was not round like I thought.

Triangular. It bored into me.

I went very still, breath shallow, rapid, closed my book.

Even when I turned the light off, yes, the secret eye emitted a little

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