Short stories by Isabel Yap
** **Isabel Yap writes fiction and poetry, works in the tech industry, and drinks tea. Born and raised in Manila, she has also lived in California and London. She holds a BS in Marketing from Santa Clara University, and an MBA from Harvard Business School. In 2013 she attended the Clarion Writers Workshop, and since 2016 has served as Secretary for the Clarion Foundation. Her work has appeared in venues including Tor.com, Lightspeed, Strange Horizons, and Year’s Best Weird Fiction. Her debut short story collection will be published by Small Beer Press in 2021. She is @visyap on Twitter and her website is https://isabelyap.com.
Listing 1 story.
In a 21st-century all-girls school, a Filipina fifth-grader and her best friends are preparing for the school fair, where their classes are in charge of hosting the annual Haunted House. However, things haven't been the same for the group since one of the best friends claimed to have opened her Third Eye. Despite their classes' superstitions, the protagonist doesn't believe in ghosts and brushes off her best friend's claims. Her callousness challenges their friendship, and when the night of the Haunted House comes, she will realize just how dire the consequences of her disbelief are. In a 21st-century all-girls elementary school, violent lore about a long-dead student dominates hallway gossip. To a certain Filipina fifth-grader, however, the supernatural is all fun and games, so when her best friend claims to have opened her Third Eye, she brushes it off as a grab for attention. Her callousness challenges their relationship, and as her best friend recedes further inside herself, the fifth-grader realizes that her disbelief has consequences far direr than losing a friend.