K.L. Fothergill
Bio
A mix of horror, contemporary, urban fantasy fiction and personal essays.
https://linktr.ee/KLFothergill
Stories (15/0)
Lonely Friends
When I was a little girl, my mother purchased a house in the country. After moving from place to place my entire life she scraped together her dimes and nickels to give me a forever home. The house was a fixer-upper but a real steal in her opinion and with a little elbow grease she’d make that house our home. I didn’t know what she meant by that, but I did know it was far from the nearest neighbor, and with no other children to play with I was lonely. I wandered the vacant halls while my mother worked to restore decaying rooms. The sound of a hammerhead on a nail echoed against the walls like she was a worker in an underground mine. She wouldn’t resurface until dinner when she wiped the sweat dripping from her forehead with the back of her filth-covered hand and ask me how my day was.
By K.L. Fothergill 2 years ago in Horror
Into The Yard (2021 Version)
In the yard, behind the little blue house on Tamea Rd, I wielded a wooden sword on top of a dirt hill mountain. I fought with gallantry next to you, my friend. You and your brother were kings, and I was a queen; our castle a barren rabbit hutch and our thrones forged from the bones of the fallen giant whose branches once held home to robins and their hungry babies. Our Papa watched from shabby single-pane windows happy to give us refuge from our lives at home.
By K.L. Fothergill 3 years ago in Families
Born To Breed And Die
I reach out and pet the calf on the nose, his tongue stretches out, and tries to pull my hand towards his mouth. He’s hungry and he thinks that I have a bottle. I scan the pasture for his momma, she’s nowhere in sight. The only evidence that she was ever here in the first place is her famished baby crying out for nourishment. The velvet on his bridge is soft beneath my fingertips as I assure him that I’ll bring him some food soon.
By K.L. Fothergill 3 years ago in Fiction
Rewind
The black window on the VCR illuminates numbers that glow. The only light that emits throughout the room is the green hue that casually changes from 10:59 to 11:00. The face of it says AM but the darkness outside of the window makes Sadie certain that it's PM. Sadie doesn’t think much of it though, she hasn’t left the den since her mom brought her boyfriend over two days ago. Sadie’s mom has a problem, a few problems really. Drugs, men, keeping jobs – but Sadie stays out of it, she keeps to herself and watches the green light turn to 11:01.
By K.L. Fothergill 3 years ago in Fiction
Boxed Cats
Like Schrodinger’s cat, until I open the box, my hope is neither dead nor alive. I’ve been expecting this package for a while now, it is post-marked no further than the other side of the city. My address is hastily scribbled in black Sharpie, if it were more legible then maybe it would have made it here weeks ago. The paper it has been wrapped in has worn out on one of the corners where it rubbed against other packages in the mail truck, I wonder if the absence of love and care is any indicator of the contents.
By K.L. Fothergill 3 years ago in Fiction
Blood In The Water
An ache swelled within Carly McMahon’s ribcage as she walked across the porch, muscle memory navigated her steps to avoid the soft spots where time had been unkind to raw wooden planks in the rainy climate. Coniferous trees loomed around the property; the wind whistled through their branches like whispers telling her to go back inside.
By K.L. Fothergill 3 years ago in Horror
Fool's Gold At The End Of The World
“Children who grow up with nothing don’t know what they’re missing out on.” I tried to remind myself of Kat’s words as I looked at her face reflected in our daughter. I remember how I felt when she first told me we were expecting, absolute gut-wrenching dread. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to be a father, I had just never imagined I could be, not in this world at least. And who was I to bring a child into a world that couldn’t sustain her? I thought it to be cruel, but Kat assured me that life always finds a way.
By K.L. Fothergill 3 years ago in Fiction
Thank You, Rory Newbrough
It started with just one plant. A tiny Aloe Hawthoria called to me from the garden racks at the Home Depot. Honestly, it was kind of a joke a first. Love Is Blind had just aired on Netflix and an emotionally intelligent brunette by the name of Rory Newbrough gave great advice to hopeful men in the pods…yet we never got to see him find love? It felt fishy, but I have trust issues which is why I could never be on a show like that. Still, I was convinced he was a house plant. Placed in the pod to help the stereotypical slightly more reserved gender open up. I needed to open up too, I needed a Rory Newbrough in my life; So, I put the aloe Hawthoria into my cart and called him by the name of my new favorite reality TV star.
By K.L. Fothergill 3 years ago in Motivation
The Boy In Room 103
On special occasion’s Evalyn Baxter, who had returned to using her maiden name after the ink dried on her divorce papers, would make the effort to go above and beyond for her son Dallas. Dallas meant the world to her, and she didn’t get to spend as much time with him as she’d like – really these special occasions were all she had left.
By K.L. Fothergill 3 years ago in Fiction
