Horror Story...

(excerpt from "Gravy on My Mashed Potatoes", KAYFABLES)

All Stories are true as Stories. For instance, the first Horror Story I read was not Salem's Lot by Stephen King, but 'The Story Of Abraham and Isaac' in my little 'Bible Story Book'. It had no serial killers, vampires, werewolves, ghosts, or zombies. Just a Father with a knife, who was going to cut his Son's throat and burn him because a Voice in his head told him to, and the Voice was, as we know, God. So that was all right, we GUESS...

But what if Abraham was just some dude suffering from mental illness? Then it becomes a Horror Story--one which terrified me as a child, even more so as a parent. I am still somewhat sickened when I think of that story, which disturbs me far more than anything I've ever read by H.P. Lovecraft, Dean Koontz, or even "splatter-kings" Clive Barker and Edward Lee. That is, it horrifies me that someone might base their real-life conduct on it. But it's part of a whole Series of Stories in a Book that many people believe to be literally true, and the perfect, ONLY guide to human conduct...