Secret Story
by Ramsey Campbell

Description:
You’re an underpaid civil servant who dreams of chucking it all to become a famous author. You live with your overbearing mother who always seems to interrupt when you’re writing a key scene. Who always wants to know why you haven’t brought home a nice girl.

What you really are is a writer. A brilliant one, too, though like any writer, you sometimes have a dry spell. Your imagination is dark, your inspiration the terrible things that can happen to a young woman traveling alone . . . .

Suddenly, success! You win a magazine contest—first prize is publication for your terrifying short story about a horrible murder on an underground train. A director wants to make a movie of your award-winning story and wants your input on the script. A pretty young journalist seems to be taking a personal interest in you and your career.

Except.

The family of a girl murdered on the underground threatens to sue you and the magazine for glorifying the grisly details of their daughter’s death, despite your insistence that you didn’t read the news coverage of the murder. The magazine asks you to supply a different story.

The film director wants you to make a few changes in your story. Especially with the lawsuit hanging over everyone’s head.

The journalist’s interest turns out to merely be professional.

You’ve been fired.

And, worst of all, your imagination has run dry. You don’t have another story in you.

You’ll just have to kill someone new . . .