Read this excellent ghost story by Aimee Picchi

I've fallen out of the habit of reading short fiction on a regular basis, but there are a couple of authors for which I'll drop everything and check out their work when I hear that they have something out. One of those authors is a good friend of mine, fellow Vermonter Aimee Picchi, who recently published a short story in The Deadlands, "Image Not Found: Francesca's Bridge."

The story plays out through a series of forum posts as an amateur ghost hunter goes searching for a Vermont bridge that's rumored to have been the site of a young woman's murder in the Northeast Kingdom, and ends up finding a little more than she bargained for.

Give it a read here:

Image Not Found: Francesca’s Bridge, by Aimee Picchi - The Deadlands

I’ve tried to post the photo of Francesca’s Bridge—yes, the bridge—about a gazillion times. Hopefully you all can see the pic? This might be the biggest discovery yet for our Haunted New England group!

The Deadlandseditor_td

I highlighted one of Aimee's flash stories about a year ago, "9 Lies You Tell Yourself About Ghost Hunting", which appeared in Nightmare Magazine. One of the things that I really appreciate about her work is that she's an expert at really finding a neat formatting hook, like a list of Google search queries or a Reddit AITA post, and playing out a tiny story that feels bigger than the couple of hundred words that she jots down. It's harder than it looks! (You can find more of her stories via this list on her website.)

This story fits nicely into that same style: it's told through a thread of posts, the back and forth of the forum's users. It's a clever format, and it's as much a ghost story as it is about internet culture and misogyny. It's well worth the read.