In McKnight Malmar's frightening story "The Storm" she
weaves a violent storm and murder together to heighten the
horrific fear that engulfs Janet Willsom. The storm is a
combination of mother nature, Janet's emotions and her
The story begins with Janet Willsom coming home from a
vacation seeing her sister who is very ill. She has come back
a week early hoping her husband, Ben, would be home so
she could surprise him but he's not. There is a very strong
storm unfolding outside and Janet gets concerned with
Ben's whereabouts. She wonders if he is still in the city
working late. There is a letter addressed to Ben on the table
but she destroys it because she knows that this letter is
probably no different from the others that have been sent to
Throughout this suspenseful tale she is lonely in the isolated
home far away from the busy urban city. As the storm got
worse, she started to hear footsteps and she thought she
saw a face at the window in the living room. Was this
ghostly face in the window her husband? Realizing that
maybe it was her imagination, she went to the basement to
The basement was damp and dark and there was a chill in
the air because the basement door was wide open. Janet
wondered if the wind was so strong that it blew it open or if
there was an intruder. She grabbed the doorknob and closed
it as hard as she could because the wind was so strong.
The fire wood was in the corner so she walked towards it.
All of a sudden she noticed that her old trunk was opened
just a crack, she walked to over to it and threw it open.
Lying in there was a body of a woman in a red dress with a
man's diamond ring on her finger. In terror Janet ran up the
basement stairs, locked the door and reinforced it with a
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