An illustration done for the Lovecraft eZine #15. For a churning tale of unease by horror scribe Simon Kurt Unsworth called ‘Station Waiting Room‘.
And a fine Gothic style tale it is, things start off dreary and get weird, then dismal and so on until the inevitable end.
Simon knows his way around the average man who lets the world around him define him rather than the other way around. His characters are often flawed to the point of pity, you can feel the weight of each sigh as scenes set in and the creeping dread steadily grows to the point of no return. ‘Station Waiting Room’ offers up heaps of interesting moments as our main character Gaskin becomes enraptured by the personal story of a distressed local, and his curiosity to “go down the rabbit-hole” against his better judgement pushes him beyond return, no matter how fantastical the circumstances of one mans story seems. Gaskin’s dismal day job, daily travel and beige lifestyle allows for him to be sucked into details between the day-to-day banality of life, an inquiring mind like his ought not to know.
Is the town of Middle Fell Drop cursed, is the stranger at the train station insane, haunted or worse? What’s lurking in the shadows of this little towns ruined past and what stirs in the ruins of the Station Waiting Room?

‘Station Waiting Room’ illus. by Nick Gucker ©2012