Hag

Ray Siplino slowly loses his mind as his dreams are haunted by a woman he calls The Hag...

What starts as possible sleep paralysis turns into much, much more. Supernatural or mental illness? We go back and forth as we watch a teenager's life unravel.

The author brings his usual great character development to this story. Ray is a seventeen-year-old living with his brother and step sister after the death of both his parents. He has an obsession for having blueberry pop tarts for breakfast as he is constantly longing for the blueberry pancakes his mother once made. (And he absolutely flips out if given strawberry ones instead!)

The absence of his mother plays a big part in the story as her death seems to set up his issues and you feel the emptiness in this well not quite broken home, but certainly many things are not right. The two adults allow the underage Ray to drink all he wants and he soon becomes an alcoholic.

We see from his step-sister Jenna's point of view as well and she is always going back and forth from wanting to take to care of Ray to realizing he's not her family by blood and shouldn't be her problem. His brother Matt on the other just simply ignores everything as he has a problem with alcoholism too.

As the encounters with the Hag go on and Ray's mental health deteriorates more and more the story takes a very crazy and dark turn with a lot of out there talk about God and controlling the world with your will. With his newfound “realizations” he comes up with a plan to destroy the Hag once and for all...

Another great story. The shorter length is to its advantage as it would have overstayed its welcome otherwise. The imagery and violence that come later are quite vivid and gruesome. It does have a rocky start as the set up takes a bit of effort but once you settle in you're in for a (crazy) treat.