Unseaming

One morning, every person on Earth wakes up drenched in blood, and nobody can explain where it came from. In another piece, a doll from childhood returns to disrupt its former owner's world from the ground up. Hikers on the Appalachian Trail find a gateway to the spirit world opening in the forest, and something that is not human emerges, moving on eight legs. Soothing words lose their meaning as a presence from beyond time speaks through them and turns them into something frightening. A bin of buttons holds a power that can slice open skin and force hidden secrets into the light.