Contrition

In her late teens, Meredith Berg-Olsen had had all the makings of a runway model. Now in her late forties, after everything she had been through – including horrors that John could only guess at – she looked bloodless instead of pale, skeletal instead of slender, more dead than alive. John Penrose has two secrets. One is the roommate he keeps hidden from the world: his high-school sweetheart, Meredith. His other secret is the reason he feels compelled to look after her. Contrition is a horror story with noir undertones and an atmosphere of mounting dread.

Deborah Sheldon is a professional writer. Her latest releases include the dark fantasy and horror collection Perfect Little Stitches and Other Stories, the dark literary collection 300 Degree Days and Other Stories, the bio-horror novella Thylacines, and the monster-horror novel Devil Dragon. Her short fiction has appeared in many well-respected magazines such as Aurealis, Island, Midnight Echo, and Quadrant. Her work has been shortlisted for numerous Aurealis Awards and Australian Shadows Awards, long-listed for a Bram Stoker Award, and included in “best of” anthologies. She lives in Melbourne, Australia.