Short Horror Story Review – Katy Harrison – Please Let Me Get What I Want

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2015 Manchester Speculative Fiction – Spoiler Alerts. A creepy idea for an off-beat ghost story set in a busy commercial telesales environment about a revenge attack that goes horribly wrong. Annabel Morgan is the kind of boss no one likes or wants. Everyone who works for her hates her, especially the narrator. When Anabelle takes a fortnight’s holiday abroad as part of her annual leave, the narrator plots a rather odd revenge, with bogus claims that the boss died on the holiday. She arranges false obituary and media reports and organizes for flowers to be collected for her family. The plot seems problematic as the narrator is bound to be in trouble when she returns and doesn’t appreciate the joke. Also, the narrator finds hat everyone starts to miss Anabelle terribly despite their previous thoughts on her. When Anabelle does return, only the narrator can see her. The death appears to be an actual occurrence and only the two main characters know of it but Annabel can’t accept it. The narrator’s irrational behaviour as she freaks out starts to jeopardise her job and her sanity. Ultimately, there is no rounded conclusion or explanation for what has happened to Anabelle or I the narrator is mad, but the build up is very well handled. Arthur Chappell