Aaron Polson - The Bottom Feeders and Other Stories

One of the police officers saw me and pushed me back towards the fence, but as I backpedaled, squirming against the push toward the cemetery, I overheard the deputies as they discussed how a body would usually float for a few days after it fills with air, but something held Joel’s body under. When they pulled it from the murk, the other corpse came too — the corrupted body of a man wearing the strips and tatters of an old, black suit. A cheap suit like something you’d pick up at the DAV. The decaying hands of that body had been wrapped around Joel’s ankles, locked tight; it had lured Joel closer, just as I felt drawn on Saturday, hooked him, and pulled him under for the hungry bottom feeders.

“Everything in Its Place” © 2009 first appeared in 10Flash , edited by KC Ball.

“In Hollow Fields” © 2009 first appeared in Return of the Raven , edited by Maria Grazia Cavicchioli

“Tesoro’s Magic Bullet” © 2009 first appeared in Nossa Morte , November 2009.

“A Plague from the Mud” © 2008 first appeared in Monstrous , edited by Ryan C. Thomas.

“Care and Feeding of the Old Flat Mile” © 2009 first appeared in The Black Garden, edited by Christopher Allan Death.

“The Eyes Have It” © 2009 first appeared as an audio podcast at Well Told Tales .

“Grim Adaptations” © 2009 first appeared in Dead Bait (Severed Press).

“Bait Worms” © 2008 first appeared in Niteblade Fantasy and Horror , edited by Rhonda Parrish.

“The Surgeon of An Khe” © 2009 first appeared in Absent Willow Review.

“The Bottom Feeders” © 2008 first appeared in Cemetery Moon #3, edited by Chris Pisano