Burden — Michael Marano

The last surviving member of a community destroyed by AIDS shoulders the terrible burden of remembering his dead friends... who rise up in anger when he shirks that duty. This story "captures that fear and that crushing sense of loss permeating a disease-stricken community to (literal) haunting effect" (Theresa DeLucci, Tor.com).

This tale comes from Stories from the Plague Years, the debut short fiction collection of International Horror Guild Award- and Bram Stoker Award-winner Michael Marano.

ChiZine Publications (CZP) curates the best of the bizarre, bringing you the most excitingly weird, subtle, dark, and disturbing literary fiction. Look for more titles in the ChiZine short stories collection to build your digital library.