Bad Man

Every older sibling caring for a younger one has probably wished at one point that the latter would just disappear, but such a wish is furthest from Ben's mind when his three-year-old brother, Eric, vanishes without a trace during a trip to the grocery store. Ben spends the next five years scouring the town for Eric, pestering the neighbors and local police long after the case has been forgotten. Now 20 and in desperate need of money, Ben takes a job at the same store from which Eric disappeared and soon realizes that something isn't exactly right there. From Mr. Palmer, the despotic manager, to the massive baler that looms in the back room, the place seems to taunt Ben with knowledge of what may have happened to Eric. Author Auerbach, a frequent and well-known contributor to Reddit.com's NoSleep page, a forum for short horror stories, has a style well suited to short stories that unfortunately fails to adapt to a full-length novel. The characters, especially Ben, remain underdeveloped, which may lead readers to wish that this was indeed a short story. There are truly creepy moments, but they are few and far between.