Special Feature: Some spooky miCRos to raise your heart rate

Wax impressions, in black and white, of skeletal images from Gray's Anatomy, on white paper. — Photo by Joyce Hankins on Unsplash

We’ll be honest: sometimes we scare ourselves with our editorial selections (in a good way). We’ve featured some pretty freaky miCRos over the years, clearly so we could present you, our esteemed CR reader, with this Halloween roundup. Here’s a list of the scariest tiny fictions and poems from our archives.

“Evening Caller” by Kate McIntyre

In this recent feature, death is here — and he’s really, really cute.

“Ghost Words” by Vimla Sriram

Some ghosts want to scare. In Vimla Sriram’s “Ghost Words,” ghosts just want to inhabit the everyday world.

“Checking on the Devil” by Alyson Mosquera Dutemple

The devil is still around, and still delights in your misfortune. These days, as Alyson Mosquera Dutemple shows us, he sometimes needs someone to check in on him.

“Child-Witch” by Hussain Ahmed

Witch hunting, specifically of children, is still practiced in parts of Africa. In “Child-Witch,” Hussain Ahmed gives voice to the accused.

“What a Ghost Can Do” by Cady Vishniac

In Vishniac’s story, the daughter-ghost is eerily alive, and the narrator-mother is a bit ghostly herself. The ambiguity is a useful one, and the story highlights how relationships can turn us into phantoms.