The humming began quietly, one voice in the growing darkness. Rumbling clouds thickened the sky outside but in the classroom the students were still and silent, heads bent studiously over their textbooks. It was only when the thunder paused for breath that Stella first noticed the humming.
 
She looked up from her desk and mustered what little authority she had as a substitute teacher to shush the class. But the humming grew louder, one voice, then two, three—blending and merging, ever louder. The students exchanged glances, all pretence of study abandoned, slouching, stretching, their eyes shining and impatient. Twenty minutes of school left.
 
“Class,” Stella said warningly. She stood up and walked around her desk, leaning against it with her hands on her hips. Even from her new vantage point she could not pinpoint the instigator. The students watched her, the girls cool and indifferent, the boys thrumming with adolescent hunger as they looked Stella up and down. She fought the urge to cross her arms.
 
It had to be Marco’s fault: he was the class troublemaker, and the others always followed his lead. She frowned at him. He was sitting casually with his chin propped up on one hand, his dark hair half-covering his face. The moment their eyes met Marco stopped humming, his shoulders raising in an innocent shrug. But the others continued, like car engines left to idle. She took in the class, the oversized jeans and unbrushed hair, and felt old at twenty-six; the ten-year age gap between them was all of a sudden insurmountable.
 
The humming had steadied now to a regular drone, a permanent echo of the thunder rumbling outside. The storm was almost upon them; the sky had darkened into an early evening that cast the students into shadow. Sitting at their desks, speechless, humming, there was something predatory about them, like a pack of wolves drawing in for the kill.
 
“You need to finish reading,” Stella said, unnerved. She walked over to the door and hit the light switch, but the bulb was dead. The students tracked her every movement and a boy near the front had clenched his hands into tight fists, his knuckles white. Fifteen minutes.
 
She looked across the classroom in time to see the storm clouds part outside, revealing a full moon low on the horizon, pale against the gray sky. The students kept watching, humming. Ignore it, her mother would have said. The attention only encourages them. But these were her students, damn it, not her brothers, and she refused to be yet another notch in this class’ belt. They’d sent the last substitute teacher out crying but not her. Not her.
 
“If you sit quietly I’ll let you out early,” she said. The promise had no effect other than to make Marco smile slowly, knowingly. This wasn’t what she’d signed up for, Stella thought, feeling her face flush with anger at the thought of students planning against her.
 
She moved away from the door, walked back to her desk and leaned against it to remind the students of who she was. That was when she realized they weren’t humming, they were—yes, the students were growling, so low and deep that the hairs on her arms trembled with the vibrations. She looked at them properly now, saw the white sharpness of their teeth, flashes in the dark.
 
“Do you behave like this with all your subs?” she asked, and it took all her will to remain calm in the face of their wilderness. She made a mental note to tell the staff off for not warning her properly; the cryptic clues about a cursed class had done nothing to prepare her for this insolence.
 
Marco’s eyes strayed to the wall clock. Five minutes left. His smile sharpened. He looked at her and raised an eyebrow in challenge.
 
There was no point in fighting him. Stella scowled, gave up. “Class dismissed,” she said.
 
But none of the students moved.
 
“I said, you can go now,” she repeated, and when the students didn’t react the panic set in. What did they want, if not to leave early? She’d assumed they were only messing around but now she was not so sure, especially with the way their eyes remained intent on her as they leaned forward in their chairs, growling.
 
Marco stood up slowly, his right hand dragging across the surface of his desk, and Stella watched in disbelief as fur sprouted across his skin and his nails grew twisted and yellow. And the others were the same, all shifting, changing, licking their lips as they stared at her. She heard a choked cry, realized then it had come from her.
 
The bell! Its sweet ring filled the air and Stella sprinted to the classroom door. Her hand slipped off the door knob—once, twice—finally her fingers found the strength to hold on and twist the handle. But the door didn’t open.
 
“Going somewhere?” Marco whispered, his breath hot against her neck. He pressed up behind her, forcing her against the door.
 
Her stomach churned. Through the door came the end of school cacophony: slamming lockers and a hubbub of teenaged voices, the tread of many feet against the linoleum floor. The perfect cover, Stella realized with dawning horror.
 
She took a slow breath and tried the door again. Locked. Behind her came whispers of movement as the students edged closer. “Get back to your seats,” she said, but her voice was thin and fragile.
 
Marco huffed against her neck—a silent laugh—and his nose brushed her collarbone. Then teeth against her skin, sharp.
 
“Scream,” he said into her shoulder. “No one will hear you.”

___________________________

©2010 A.M. Harte 

A.M. Harte is a speculative fiction enthusiast and a chocolate addict. She runs a free dark fantasy publishing project called Qazyfiction, which is home to the Above Ground series and “DarkSight”, and is featured in Ergofiction’s brand new webfiction anthology, “Other Sides”. She is excellent at missing deadlines, has long forgotten what ‘free time’ means, and enjoys procrastinating over at amharte.com.

A.M Harte, author of Above Ground, returns with a new, chilling story called DarkSight.

Tell our readers about the plot of your new serial, DarkSight.

Set in present-day London, DarkSight is the story of small-town Irish girl Maeve Nealon who has the rather unusual ability to see demons. This ability is perhaps more of a curse: since Maeve can see demons, they can see her, and let’s just say their intentions aren’t exactly friendly. It doesn’t help that at the beginning of the story, Maeve’s not even entirely sure what she’s seeing.

 
It’s my understanding that you don’t like scary stories, but there are elements of fear in your work. Why do you think that is?

I think that at the core of any story is a basic emotion, propelling the characters forward — greed, or lust, or joy, or jealousy — and that the darker sides of human nature are the ones that are most fascinating. Fear is a very strong driver; it can make people do things they’d never have thought possible, and it’s very much a test of someone’s character.

There’s that age-old adage that a writer should write about what they know. So perhaps fear crops up often in my writing because it is the emotion that resonates the most with me. I avoid scary stories because I have a hyperactive imagination. Reading or watching horror inevitably results in recurring nightmares. I scare easily, and so when it comes to writing a story and putting a piece of myself into that story to bring it to life, the emotion that’s the easiest to access is fear.

Besides, putting my characters through horrible situations is very entertaining. And it’s my way of experiencing fear in a nice, controlled environment!
 
Tell us a little about your protagonist, Maeve.

Maeve is from Southern Ireland, a small town near Dublin. She has green eyes and auburn hair, slightly curly. Outwardly, she is strong, self-confident, a perfectionist. She’s curious, thirsty for knowledge, and sets high standards for herself — perhaps too high. Inside, there is a lot of carefully concealed darkness: insecurities, fear of losing control, and something not-quite normal which has given her the ability to see demons.
 
Why do the themes of faith, belief, and the unseen appeal to you?

Religion is something I’ve always grappled with. I was raised a Roman Catholic, but have had a prickly relationship with faith. I’m fascinated by the dichotomy between logical thought and hope for the unseen, for a promise that we aren’t just born to inevitably die. I am the type of person that craves proof, and yet with proof religion wouldn’t exist anymore — it would become fact. Not to imply that religion doesn’t have a truth of its own, and definitely faith is a powerful motivator. I suppose it is just an element of human nature that I can’t quite understand, and that is why it appeals to me.

 
What sparked the idea for this story in particular?

DarkSight as you see it first came into being whilst I was doing my daily write on my way into work. I travel into work on the tube, and I began writing about a girl travelling to work on the tube (how inspired, I know!). The lights in my tube carriage kept flickering, and I was still unsettled from the previous night’s awful case of sleep paralysis, so everything blended together into a hopefully spine-tingling scene. Then I realized I wanted to expand it further than just the one story, and planning for the whole serial began.

 
How do you find writing DarkSight to be different than Above Ground?
 
Very different! Above Ground is written as a novel in instalments, with each chapter picking up exactly where the previous left off, whereas DarkSight is written as a series of short stories that (I hope) can be read out of order. I’ve been calling DarkSight’s updates “episodes” rather than “chapters” to highlight that difference. Also, the much slower update schedule means I have far more time to plan ahead and edit my writing — DarkSight is a polished piece, whereas Above Ground is very much a pants-ing panic-inducing endeavour written five minutes before midnight. Each method has its pros and cons, but after the stress of writing Above Ground: Affected (the first book in the trilogy), I’m enjoying the more laidback approach.
 
With one completed web serial and DarkSight in full swing, what are your writing objectives for the next year or so?

Well, Above Ground isn’t entirely completed yet! The first book, Affected, is finished, but I do hope to write two more. In any case, it’s hard to think ahead. But let’s see…. In a year’s time I want DarkSight completed, Above Ground: Affected edited and released in ebook form, Above Ground’s Book 2  in-progress, perhaps a short story or two published in a magazine, not to mention have a substantial amount of work finished on my other as-yet private writing projects — perhaps even have a couple other novels finished, one a romance and the other urban fantasy. I like to keep myself busy! I always bite off more than I can chew, but I need the pressure to get any writing done. 
 
If you had a chance to cast actors for DarkSight, who would you chose?
 
I always find these questions difficult, because I never really think of actors or famous faces when creating characters — more often I mash together features from random stock images and from friends (without their knowing!). At a push, I’d say Maeve would be acted by Amy Adams (Enchanted, Junebug) or Alyson Hannigan (Willow in Buffy), her friend Tom by someone with boyish floppy blond hair like Jamie Bell, and the dark and mysterious Seth (who hasn’t had a huge role yet) would be acted by Ian Somerhalder.
 
Have you seen any movies (or read any books) recently that stick out in your mind as entertaining?
 
Hm. I’m not much of a movie-watcher. I did only recently watch J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek film and enjoyed it muchly. Oh! And the 2007 Spanish film Timecrimes is definitely worth watching, really weird and twisted and thought-provoking. I only saw that on TV the other day.

Books-wise? In hard cover, I just read The Prince of Mist by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, which was really unexpectedly good — a young adult fantasy/almost horror. Yes, it’s for kids, but it’s a great story, and spooky too! And when it comes to webfiction, I read the free ebook How to Disappear Completely  by David Bowick, a tragic comedy about relationships from a male perspective.

 
Do you plan any special episodes or reader requested writings in the near future?

For DarkSight I haven’t yet considered it. I fear that reader requested stories would be too revealing! I am however hoping to write ahead of my schedule and be able to publish episodes ahead of time, or even write shorter side-episodes! I am also considering making Above Ground’s Book 2 much more interactive (with reader polls influencing the story), although I haven’t pinned down the details just yet. I definitely have had a great time bouncing ideas off of my readers, and they’ve already helped shape a lot of my planning (something without realizing it!) so the more they’re included, the better!

Will we find any of the characters on Twitter?
 
I’m still considering it. I already have about 5 Twitter accounts (yes, really!), two of which are characters accounts for Above Ground — the werewolves @lakesidejake and @hoowl . DarkSight is set in contemporary times, and thus it’d be entirely feasible for someone to have a Twitter account, but I can’t decide on whom! Maeve might be too spoilery, Tom wouldn’t use Twitter… Perhaps when some more characters are introduced I will reconsider. There is a society of sorts who could have an account, now that I think about it…. Ha! You’ve just given me an idea. No, I’m not telling. 
 
Where can our readers go to keep up with all of your work?
 
My “official” author hub is http://amharte.com  where you can find links to everything I’m involved in, from writing to other online fiction projects like Ergofiction magazine and the WFG. To just jump straight to my online serials (Above Ground and DarkSight), point your browsers towards http://qazyfiction.com  !
 

What would you like to write one day that people would be surprised to find you’re interested in?
 
I can’t think of anything people might be surprised to find me interested in! As a matter of fact, most of my family and friends are already surprised by the fact that I enjoy speculative fiction — apparently, from my appearance, they’d expect me to write contemporary/literary work. I guess I look too serious or something.
 
I would like to try write something for every genre, and I do my best on http://amharte.com to write a wide range of short stories to develop my genre-bending. So how about I open it up to you guys? What would you be surprised to find me writing? Challenge me, send me a prompt or an idea, and I’ll do my best to scribble a short story to prove you wrong.
 
Is there anything you’d like to add?
 
Firstly, thank you very much for the interview! And secondly, thank you to the dear readers for getting to the bottom of the page without clicking away! I invite all of you to take up my offer in question 13.
 
Other than that… I’d put in the usual “feedback is awesome blah blah blah” but we’ve all heard that before and I’d hope by now all readers now how awesome they are, so perhaps the best thing to finish on is a shout out to all my fellow members of The Unpaired Socks Appreciation Society (you don’t want to know).

__________________

©2010 Lori Titus