"Old Haunts" by Richard Matheson

As he walked back to the room that evening after supper, he had the definite impression that someone was following him.

A nameless protagonist has returned to his college town while on a business trip. He decides to stay a night in the same room that he once rented while he was a student, even going so far as to pay a much higher rate than the room is worth. Walking around the campus, reminiscing, the protagonist starts getting an feeling that something is...off. We, the reader, soon find out that there is...

Richard Matheson writes about the bittersweet past of a solitary man very well. The fact that he does not name or describe the man in great detail makes it easy for the reader to imagine themselves as the main character, and that is where the strength in this story lies. With each scene, Matheson lulls the reader into a melancholy state that anyone can relate to. We all wish that we could go back. To another town, another school, another house...Some of us even realize, much like the protagonist of "Old Haunts", that you can never truly go back.

"Old Haunts" can be found in the short story collection Nightmare at 20,000 Feet, which consists of short stories written by Richard Matheson.

"The Camping Wainwrights" by Ian R. MacLeod

I realized, even as my feet buckled and I slipped back into the mud, there would be other nights, other tents, other holidays - that the lives of us camping Wainwrights would continue to go stupidly and unbelievably wrong.

The Wainwrights are a family that have defined themselves as campers. They look forward to the road trips to the country, the set up of the giant canvas tent, and the cooking of meals on the grill while sitting under the stars. At least, Mr. Wainwright looks forward to these things. The rest of the family (Mom, Terry, and Helen) have grown to despise these camping trips, where things always seem to go wrong in the most unlikely of ways. When Terry begins to notice that these setbacks seem to never involve Dad, he begins to pay closer attention. When the Wainwrights are forced by Dad to wait out a violent storm that has cleared the camp of other vacationers, it appears that the family finds a way to make some things right for once...

Ian R. MacLeod does a wonderful job of describing the Wainwrights lives in a way that is both nostalgic and subtly off kilter. There is clearly something brewing within their family, and the pace that the story takes in leading up to the final act is perfect. I did not expect the events to occur exactly as they did, but I was very satisfied with what actually happened. The real eye opener (and what really makes this story go from enjoyable to unforgettable) is the final twist that MacLeod puts on the story. I will not ruin it here, but I will say that the last six or seven paragraphs make this story a must read.

You really imagine I do all those things, our Terry?

"The Camping Wainwrights" can be found in the anthology The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror: Volume Twenty, which was edited by Stephen Jones.