Haunted Legends (46 page)

When I was growing up in the sixties, I began to hear about the black van, or sometimes the black car. I think it became a van because a lot of folks were scared them there hippies was gonna come get us. But the story goes back farther, and was not only a car, but a buggy, and sometimes a stranger on a horse, and sometimes just a shadow that walked, or so my grandmother told me in some old tales when she was in the mood. I heard it from other people, too, usually the black car part. I got to wondering. All right, let’s say there is something bad in that car. What is it? The imagination took over.

Ellen Datlow has been an editor of short science fiction, fantasy, and horror for almost thirty years and has won multiple awards for her editing, including the World Fantasy Award, Locus Award, Hugo Award, International Horror Guild Award, the Shirley Jackson Award, and the Bram Stoker Award. She was named recipient of the 2007 Karl Edward Wagner Award, given at the British Fantasy Convention for “outstanding contribution to the genre.” She lives in New York. For more information, check out her website:
www.datlow.com
.

Nick Mamatas is the author of two novels,
Under My Roof
and
Move Under Ground,
and over fifty short stories, many of which were collected in
You Might Sleep
. . . . His work has been nominated for both the Bram Stoker and International Horror Guild Awards. He does not believe in ghosts.