Un hombre malo

One day, in a small town in Florida, a teenager goes to the supermarket with his three-year-old brother. Everything seems normal until the child disappears. Five years later, without any discovery and the family undone, Ben decides to work at the same store where his brother disappeared. Little by little he begins to find tracks left behind by dark characters with unrecognizable features and foul odors. He can feel that something is wrong there. The store has much to tell him, so he keeps searching while missing the most important message of all. That he should have stopped looking.
 
Un día cualquiera, en un pequeño pueblo en Florida, un adolescente va al supermercado con su hermanito de tres años. Todo parece normal hasta que, repentinamente, el niño desaparece. Cinco años después, sin ningún hallazgo y con la familia deshecha, Ben decide entrar a trabajar a la misma tienda. Poco a poco comienzan a aparecer pistas acompañadas de personajes oscuros, elementos irreconocibles, olores fétidos. Hay algo extraño en la atmósfera; la maldad cohabita en los trabajadores del supermercado, en la gente del pueblo, en la policía misma. Pero su incansable búsqueda y su desesperada necesidad de saber la verdad le cobran un precio muy caro: debió ver las señales, escuchar las advertencias, ignorar las pistas, detenerse cuando ya estaba muy cerca… simplemente dejar de buscar.

Dathan Auerbach was born in the southern U.S. and has lived there for most of his life. In 2011, he began posting a series of stories to a forum dedicated to horror. After a KickStarter that raised over 100% of its goal, he was able to release the revised and expanded versions of his story as the novel "Penpal." He lives in Florida.