Natalie Gray
Bio
Welcome, Travelers! Allow me to introduce you to a compelling world of Magick and Mystery. My stories are not for the faint of heart, but should you deign to read them I hope you will find them entertaining and intriguing to say the least.
Achievements (8)
Stories (189)
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All My Love, Buford McClaine. Runner-Up in Love Letters Through Time Challenge.
July 4th, 1861 To my Darling Rebecca, Not a day goes by that I do not think of you. Right now, I wish with all my heart that I could be there today at your uncle's plantation. My mouth waters at the thought of all I will be missing at that barbecue. I can smell the pit now, with those hogs all dressed and sizzling away on it, just about ready to eat. Were I not a gentleman, I might insist that you try to save some for me, and send it up here in a basket. The mail around here is awful slow lately, however, and some of the boys running it get powerful hungry. If you ask them, though, they will blame the half-open care packages they give us on mice. Such was the fate of that sponge cake you tried to send me on my birthday, which I am told was delicious.
By Natalie Grayabout a year ago in History
Pathogen, Ch. 3. Top Story - February 2025. Content Warning.
Marnie walked around in a kind of trance the rest of the day, unable to process what she'd learned in first period. Trevor Kennedy couldn't be dead. There was no way. Based on everything she knew about him - which admittedly wasn't much - he was healthier than a horse; tall, funny, good-natured, and captain of the varsity basketball team. Captains of high school basketball teams did not just drop dead like fruit flies.
By Natalie Grayabout a year ago in Horror
The Diary of Katherina Minola
February 26th, 1593 My new husband, Petruchio, has once again found our dinner “unfit” for consumption. This maddening behavior has persisted for several days now. As I write, I feel quite faint, and I fear I may not stay awake long enough to finish this entry. He vexes me so; with his foul odor, rough manners, and appalling sensibilities, I feel most days that I share my marriage bed with a filthy, flea-riddled cur! We have yet to consummate our marriage, simply because I cannot bear the thought of him defiling me so. It makes my skin crawl even to think of it!
By Natalie Grayabout a year ago in History
Green Stuff. Runner-Up in A Taste of Home Challenge.
The memory gets hazier every year, but I'll never quite forget the first time I tasted it. Thanksgiving Day was the occasion; we were all gathered together at my paternal grandparents' house, just like every year before or since. I remember it was cold, and that I was pretty young. How young, I can't say for sure. Old enough to feed myself, but not old enough yet to fix my own plate. My Dad walked alongside me down the buffet my Maw-Maw, great-grandmas, aunts, and mother set up in the kitchen. Daddy held the plate for me, loading up that Styrofoam trough with everything I pointed to.
By Natalie Grayabout a year ago in Feast
Pathogen, Ch. 2
"I'm home," Marnie called through the open kitchen door, barely hiding the cringe in her voice. As expected, sharp footsteps answered from up the hall, marching swiftly and with purpose toward Marnie's doom. Within a minute, her mom's stern face came into view.
By Natalie Grayabout a year ago in Horror
Pathogen
"Now, can anyone tell me the property for X? Anyone?" Crickets filled Mrs. Snopes' fifth period math class. Someone in the back row coughed nervously while a few other students shifted in their desks. One guy a few seats over from Marnie was actually snoring. The idiots on either side of her were more interested in trying to lob spitwads into the sleeping guy's open mouth instead of the problem on the board. Marnie herself was too busy looking out the window, listening to her favorite podcast through the wireless earbud carefully hidden in the cuff of her oversized black hoodie. There was only one person with their hand in the air - Bridgette - seated in the front row with a huge, smug grin on her face.
By Natalie Grayabout a year ago in Horror
Jenny Isn't Home
Bobby was probably the luckiest guy in the world. At least, that's how he felt. It was March of 1963, and Jenny Boudreaux - AKA the hottest girl at Lafayette High - had just agreed to go with him to the Spring Formal. She'd already turned down a half a dozen guys who'd asked her before Bobby, one of whom was the captain of the baseball team. All those jocks had their jaws on the floor, though, when Jenny had said yes to Bobby... probably wondering how a nearsighted, ninety-pound asthmatic like him had managed to do the impossible.
By Natalie Grayabout a year ago in Horror
Beautiful Stranger
People are always talking about how hard it is to find love. Especially online. Like, you always have to look out for creeps who just want nudes and fake profiles that try to scam vulnerable, lonely people out of their hard-earned cash. It's pretty scummy, and I'm honestly not sure which is worse. Even with the legit matches you get, it's almost impossible to find someone you really click with. After all that hard work digging through the muck and mire, once in a while you think you've struck gold. That is, until you actually meet them in person. And find out the hard way that the 6'4" twenty-something sensitive jock/poet you matched with is actually an overweight, balding, part-time pizza delivery boy in his late thirties, who hasn't showered since junior high.
By Natalie Gray2 years ago in Fiction
The Spangled Duck
"Come on, come on! It's right there... I can almost taste it!" I stand back and watch my daughter at work with a proud little smile. This is the first time we've been to the arcade in ages, but I never tire of watching her eyes light up with delight in a place like this. I suppose that's part of the magic of an arcade; the second you step through the door, you become a little kid again, no matter what your true age is.
By Natalie Gray2 years ago in Psyche
Royal Match
Have you ever played a match 3 mobile game? Odds are that if you've ever owned a tablet or smartphone, you have. But, in the very odd chance that you've been living under a rock since 1995 and have never heard of such things, match 3 games are fairly straightforward. They're exactly what they sound like: you have a grid of colorful tiles, which you simply swap to form a chain of three or more of the same tiles in a row. After you make a certain number of matches required to pass a level, you are usually given some kind of reward - coins, gems, etc. - and move on to the next level.
By Natalie Gray2 years ago in Confessions
Plans for 2024
This path I've been on for the last handful of years has not been quick or easy. Up until the Pandemic reared its ugly head, I still didn't know what I wanted to do with my life. To be honest, I didn't have much of a life at all: I was on the cusp of my thirties while still clinging fast to my twenties, nowhere near ready to let go, and stuck in a job that caused me so much stress and anxiety I wanted to throw up when I woke up every morning. I had lived nearly a third of my life, but I hadn't really “lived", and I still had no idea what I wanted to be when I grew up. In a way, the Covid-19 Pandemic was kind of a Godsend for me, because if it hadn't happened, I'd still most likely be in that miserable place physically and emotionally.
By Natalie Gray2 years ago in Confessions
Mom's Recipe Box
It's Christmas time again, to no one's surprise. Along with all the carols, tree-trimming, and visiting relatives that you pretend to like comes a few very important holiday traditions… one of which is – in my case – dusting off Mom's old recipe box.
By Natalie Gray2 years ago in Feast
