-
Newsletter
Sign UpKeep in touch with what's going on at Gay Authors and get emailed story recommendations weekly.
- Fiction
-
- Authors:
-
Mark Paren
Stingy Jack’s Last Trick — A Halloween Tale
About this story
A note on this story: it is written in the dense, melancholy register of 19th-century Gothic fiction, and does not shy from grief, loneliness, or loss along its way to its ending.
For a hundred and fifty years, Jack has walked a county that has forgotten him, a farm boy who bartered his soul at a crossroads and paid twice over for it. Refused by Heaven, unclaimed by Hell, he has only a stolen coal to light his way, and windows he can watch but never touch.
Then he finds Julian's: nineteen, ill, certain no one would notice if he stopped waking. As October nears Halloween, the veil thins, and an old bargain comes due.
- Author
- 09/20/2026 (Updated: 10/16/2026)
- 8 Chapters
- 23,100 Words
- 1,810 Views
- 53 Comments
Story Recommendations (1 member)
- Great Pacing 1
- Great Characters 1
- Dialog / Banter 1
- Beautiful Writing 1
- Satisfying Ending 1
- Fresh / Original 1
- Counldn't Put It Down 1
Table of Contents
-
1.
Chapter 1 The Peddler's Boy
- 3,911 Words
- 390 Views
- 8 Comments
-
2.
Chapter 2 Obadiah
- 2,362 Words
- 207 Views
- 7 Comments
-
3.
Chapter 3 Ash
- 2,465 Words
- 245 Views
- 16 Comments
-
4.
Chapter 4 Windows
- 2,107 Words
- 113 Views
- 4 Comments
-
5.
Chapter 5. The Whole Clean Shape of It
- 1,870 Words
- 99 Views
- 4 Comments
-
6.
Chapter 6. What the Storm Carried
- 4,476 Words
- 121 Views
- 6 Comments
-
7.
Chapter 7 The Last Trick
- 3,131 Words
- 122 Views
- 4 Comments
-
8.
Chapter 8. What Was Freely Given
- 2,778 Words
- 106 Views
- 4 Comments
Recommended Comments
User Feedback
There are no reviews to display.
