Welcome to Suuopod Towers. Get comfy. Find a cushion to hide behind. You're going to need it.

Suopod, episode 895, or December 1st, 2023, the Bell Snickle by Liz Zimmers.

Narrated by Diane Severson, hosted by Joshua B Tuttle, audio by Chelsea Davis.

Hi everyone, I'm Josh, Associate Editor here at Sudapod, your host for this week, and I'm excited to tell you that for this week's story, we have the Bellsnicle by Liz Zimmers.

This story previously appeared on the online platform's vocal and Patreon.

Liz Zimmer is a writer of dark fantasy and fairy tale.

She is the author of two short story collections, Wilderness, a collection of

dark tales, published under her former name Elizabeth Yawn, and Blackfern girls. Both collections have been included as reading material in Penn State University's fantasy literature course by me.

And several of her short stories have appeared in the Bannerwing Books Anthologies,

Echoes in Darkness and Precipis, volumes 2 and 3.

More of Liz's stories and essays can be found on the platform's medium and vocal.

Find Liz in the fiction community.

Links are in the show notes.

So gathered around the fire, we have a story for you, and Granny promises you, it's true. The Bell's Nickel by Liz Zimmers, read by Diane Severson.

Mary Alice Sherwood disappeared on Halloween night.

Every bit of her right down to her crooked bunny ears and the powder puff tail pinned to her white coat vanished into the chilly bonfire smoky dark of her quiet

woodside suburb. She was eight years old, trick-or-treating with her peers under the relaxed supervision of a young sitter,

and she was never seen again. The respectable households of Woodside shrank in upon themselves in shock and disbelief for a time.

Neighborhood watches became vigilant once again, and parents confined their children to their yards.

Now, as Christmas approached, holiday furor and excitement displaced the sharpest spur of fear.

The Sherwood's tragedy had faded a bit from the forefront of neighborhood conversations.

After all, no one knew them very well, they kept themselves in the lonely cul-de-sac of

...