Just before the tunnel is a gate. A gate that is locked up tight with several thick chains and even thicker padlocks. Signs line the chain link fence scream ‘Keep out’ and ‘Close the gate’. Not that unusual I hear you say; a chained up gate, there must be thousands of these all over the place. But this gate leads to nowhere. There is no building, no industrial property or driveway that leads to a house in the distance. Just a patch of yellowing grass and not much else. Each time I drive passed, I wonder what the point of the gates are, and why it was so important that they remain closed.
Thuggish Itch’s sixth collection, Close the Gate, features eighteen short stories from a group of authors from all over the world. There are some great stories here, all of which involved gates, doors and rooms that should remain closed (but are invariably opened).
stories:
Goodbye Mama Elena by Kenneth Bykerk
Gloom by James Carlson
Night Shift by Matthew A. Clarke
Scratching Cerberus by Michael A. Clark
The Dweller Below by Scott J. Couturier
The Gate at the End of the Garden by Megan M. Davies-Ostrom
Strays by Mark Dubovec
Ingest by Regina Kenney
The Challenge by Walter Kwiatkowski
The Bed of Tulips by Damien Lee
Hotter than the Hinges by Robert Allen Lupton
The Alpha by Jeremy Megargee
The River Trail by Scotty Milder
Latchkey by David O'Neill
The Failure of Goudier's Fifth Gate by Karl Sigler
The Second Gate by D.J. Tyrer
The Gate to the Green by Scott Wheelock
The Night Guard by Anna Ziegelhof
