The Horrors | John Grey

Read by Madison Haji

What is The Alembic?

We’re thrilled to introduce you to a brand-new chapter in The Alembic’s history. For the first time ever, we’re offering an audio edition of the journal—an exciting new endeavor for 2025. In this edition, you’ll hear every written piece read aloud by Providence College students, bringing a new dimension and life to the written word.

Many years ago,
Saturday night TV—
kids spread across the floor,
old man on the couch,
a curled up lump of liquor snores.
UHF channel
is showing old horror flicks—
a demon, an ogre, a peek
at the pit and pendulum
or Frankenstein fusing disparate
dead parts together making his monster,
or Dracula in transit from Transylvania
to England, dining out on the ship’s crew.
Our fidgeting,
our muffled screams,
can’t wake the old man.
Same with the growling monsters.
Cackling hags
or blubbering mad scientists
who cuss and threaten
from the television’s tiny speakers.
Suitably terrified,
we slip off to bed,
leave the TV to its test patterns.
Yet, next morning, he’s the one
who wakes with the shakes.
He sees the devil
and a man-made monster in the mirror.
Fangs are biting
and a blade is swinging near.
There’s a troll in his head
and a fiend roiling his stomach.
Oh how we envy him.