Big cities might offer anonymity, but small towns? They have secrets. That’s what makes them perfect settings for horror fiction.
In The Presence, the fictional town of Aurora sits nestled at the foot of a mountain chain, quiet, picturesque, and unassuming. But beneath its tranquil surface lies a darkness that has waited decades to return.
Small-town horror works because it lulls readers into a false sense of security. Everyone knows each other. Doors are left unlocked. Life is routine, until it’s not. The intrusion of the supernatural into the everyday creates a dissonance that’s uniquely unsettling.
Think Salem’s Lot, The Lottery, Midnight Mass, these works show how horror can grow in the most familiar places. Aurora is no different. The town’s park, pharmacy, and narrow alleys aren’t just backdrops; they become part of the story’s terror. What’s more unnerving than finding evil in a place that once felt safe?
Christine Lewis uses Aurora to full effect in The Presence, crafting a setting that’s as much a character as any of the townspeople. The sheriff, the deputy, the doctor, they’re not just battling darkness. They’re battling the erosion of trust in a community that no longer feels like home.
Aurora is a reminder: sometimes the most terrifying things don’t happen in the dark, they happen in daylight, in familiar places, when no one’s looking.
