As this is an author’s analysis, THERE WILL BE ***SPOILERS***OF THE STORY OF COURSE, so if you are reading this BEFORE you read the actual short story, I have two things to say:
1. Please don’t and
2. This is a post strictly to discuss characters, the ending, and my crazy mind that created this story, so all will be revealed and you will know everything about it before you even had the chance to read it. So, with that being said, let’s begin on this roller coaster of madness!
“The Black Soul House” is a very odd story, I will give it that. Is it one of my favorites? No.
Is it top tier writing and horror? Also no. But is it a story that stands on its own as something weird and outside of my usual writing style? Yes, which is why I have included it on my site.
What is so interesting about this piece to me is that it came from nothing, was thought of in very meager fashion, and was written in less than an hour. How’s that for an origin story?
“The Black Soul House” was born from mad ramblings of words that started popping into my mind together (i.e. the words that begin the story that make zero sense until you are pretty much half-way through the entire piece). I didn’t know what to do with them, let alone why I had them, but I took out my laptop and started typing them, letting whatever thoughts and imaginings that came next follow suit on the page.
This story overall feels more so like a poetry-ish prose piece because of the way that I used the language. It flows like a poem more so than a standard fictional story, I think, and I tried to convey the feeling of confusion and being swung around this house for the reader just like Trent, himself, feels in the story.
I honestly can’t tell you the thought process behind this story. There really isn’t one. I didn’t know how these segments of horror were going to meld together or what their purposes were until the very last paragraph of the story ----- the very end.
I brought all these scenes together as one by making them the result of a “disturbed” mind. Let yourself decide which one is the answer:
--- someone literally trapped inside a literal soul-sucking, supernatural house that makes them see crazy images of past experiences (like a Mirror of Erised -- Harry Potter reference -- only the mirror is the Black Soul House and instead of good things to be seen in the future, the house makes you see bad things from your past that you feel guilt from for whatever reason)
---- someone in a psych ward, who has not been treated yet, tormented by traumatic past experiences or fears of future instances that have not yet occurred (paranoia)
---- someone without any mental diagnosis that is suffering from the deaths of family/friends and thus the traumatic sorrows are only able to be coped with through guilt-driven dreams
Which one is it? I’m not even sure myself, as I like each option for their own reasons. You decide.
What I can tell you about this piece is what each segment represents:
---- The creepy woman with her nails coming off in the wallpapered room represents Trent’s mother, who was stuck in their house while a fire destroyed it, killing her and leaving him with survivor’s guilt. It is implied within this segment, and at the end, that once the fire started, the mother couldn’t get out (Trent was still very young at this point), and Trent got outside but could not save his mother.
----- The bird segment is honestly there because it its unsettlingly awesome (dead birds flooding the floor? Love it!), but it is also because they represent Trent’s friend who got into a car accident and was thrown from the vehicle through the windshield, much like the imagery of the birds hitting the Black Soul House’s windows with the “little red dot of blood” to mark where they hit.
----- The black moths in the bloody bathroom represent Trent’s little sister who was found in her bathtub bleeding out from cutting her wrists (sorry for the goriness, but ‘tis horror, right?). The moths are a dark turn on the butterfly top that his sister was wearing as she died in the tub.
------ The horrible paranormal spirit/monster thing represents Trent in the future if he goes through with his thoughts of suicide (hanging himself, which is shown in the monster whose neck is sunken in and who is gasping for air). This is why Trent feels the same pain at his neck and the loss of breath just like the monster.
The story leaves off with the idea that Trent is, as of now, forever a prisoner to his survivor’s guilt through the Black Soul House’s hold. I also wanted to portray the idea that we all are prisoners to our thoughts if we let them run negative and guilt ridden for forever, although I am hoping, that through horror-like imagery and monsters, it can push us to break free from the Black Soul House, because instead of staying locked inside, we can walk out of the front door through love and seeking help and finding comfort in others. Trent hasn’t turned to the help offered yet, so he is still locked inside. Our Black Soul houses are unlocked as soon as we are ready to understand that they have always been unlocked.