No one’s sure what woke it, but the dirt is hungry. The fallen and decaying don’t satisfy it anymore. One spring morning Janie saw mushrooms poking through and, one by one, she watched them get sucked back in. The grasses followed, then the brambles, and even the trees. The rabbits and moles sit on the patio now, whimpering and shaking. Worms no longer rise when it rains. We stay off the dirt; our house is built on concrete. But the bugs have begun their muffled screaming. They’re everywhere, and I know if they escape they’ll crowd us out.
Scott Lambridis (he/him) writes literary speculative fiction about the stories people rely on to make sense of the world. His debut novel, St. Ulphia’s Dead (Regal House Publishing, 2026), is a darkly comic, psychologically unsettling literary mystery exploring the uneasy territory between belief, folklore, and reality.
With a background in neurobiology and an MFA from San Francisco State University, Scott has also toured with a progressive rock band, founded an independent press, tended a forty-acre olive farm, and read a book from every country in the world. In Bellingham, he produces Action Fiction, a live literary performance series, and creates the weekly SANA comic for the Cascadia Daily News. He lives here with his family. More at scottlambridis.com
Scott’s short “Jackie Makes a Call” was featured in Issue 06 Winter Solstice: Without Pause.
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