IF THINE EYE OFFENDS THEE
Terry Sheils
Mundania Press -- October
2006 -- print and electronic format
In the snowy woods of
Northern Ontario, two stories are fusing into one. One is
contemporary; the other as old it seems as time itself.
In the first, twelve students
are rehearsing Shakespeare's Macbeth during a freak
snowstorm which has them trapped in their school and
worrying about "the curse of the Scottish play" as it
affects not only their production but their lives. Their
fears are hardly allayed by their teachers who both have
their private problems—one with a fear of accepting
responsibility, the other with an irrational terror of
blizzards.
One student in particular has
the greatest cause to fear, for she knows that a vicious
avenger known as the Storm Gatherer is stalking her. Her
family long ago sinned against the rules of their ancient
clan and she, as the last survivor, must now pay the price.
The blizzard can only mean that the avenger has found her
and the bloody end is near.
Thus the words—"Pine Hollow
District High School has been deserted since that first
Friday in December. Perhaps—some residents of nearby North
Ridge say—for a day or two longer than that. No one alive
knows for sure. And the dead may walk, but they aren't
talking"—may serve equally as both an appropriate prologue
and epilogue to If Thine Eye…
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