Robert M. de la Torre has showcased two of his short stories
within his book titled, A Pair in Horror. As a prolific writer of short stories,
Robert M. de la Torre has submitted other books to Pacific Book Review and each
has his distinct flavor of originality.
The first short story titled Trechula is told by narration of the captain of a ship called the Seeker. The crew set forth on a
mission to find sunken treasure when they discovered an underwater wreck of an
old Spanish galleon. Upon investigating
the history of the sunken vessel, named the Poison
Gull, they learn it was sunk intentionally to put at rest the threat of a
cursed sarcophagus containing a vampire-ish creature called Trechula. It was believed that Trechula was a hideous creature about the size of a midget, half
human, half spider – with the face of a human and body of a spider, having four
legs and four hands, it would paralyze its prey while sucking out the victim’s brain
through the ears. It does this disgusting
act while the victim is still alive, causing the person to become a “living-dead”
zombie. Creepy, huh? Absolutely! Believing the creature is already dead for hundreds of years and poses
no threat, they pry open the coffin only to awaken the curse. The beast was created by a curse set upon a
maiden refusing to marry a vampire in the fifteenth century. Becoming reincarnated by the captain and
crew, they again need to battle the evil force of Trechula in the twentieth century.
In the second of two stories titled, The Green Shutters, Robert M. de la Torre changes from supernatural
storytelling to psychological suspense of the “hillbilly” type. Nestled by a river, set out of town is the old
house of the Fetchersons. The outside shutters
are on a house a hundred years old, that has gone without any exterior maintenance. The rickety wood slats of the floor creak,
ivy covered its outer walls and the moss growing on the shutters gave it the intense
color green, noticeable from a distance. Local kids believed the house was haunted and would keep their distance. The town folk tell stories of the
Fetchersons, as their recluse behavior and secretive lifestyle are an anomaly
in that part of Alabama. Once when a
local boy went missing, never to be found, everyone suspected one of the
Fetcherson boys, but no evidence nor the body was ever uncovered to prove
murder -- yet the theories prevailed. Oddly,
the old man Fetcherson was known for his good quality moonshine, although the
local sheriff could never find the still. The law enforcement were kept off
the property by unwelcoming threats by the shotgun carrying boys, accustomed to
hunting rabbits as much as shooting at people jeopardizing their secrets. What happens in the town, when others come up
dead, unravels a whirlwind of suspicion, fruitless investigations, and secrets.
Aside from a bit of grammatical and punctuation proof
reading that Robert M. de la Torre should correct, the stories carry his
signature style of being quick moving, to the point with character development,
and interestingly embellished with creative details pertaining to each
story. His writing is ideal for young
adults looking for some “Goosebumps” reading, and others seeking a story one
can start and finish in an evening.
