Jackknife

Disgraced and hoping for a comeback, college professor Dennis Lange rents an out-of-the-way house after his life falls apart. On the property stands a huge sycamore half torn from the ground, an old jackknife embedded in its trunk beside strange words carved into the bark. On a nostalgic whim, Dennis works the knife loose and takes it home — and in doing so frees something the tree had been pinning down for decades.

The opening story in The Shivers, Joe Hill's Jackknife is a short, mean, satisfying piece of folk horror about buried guilt, vigilante justice, and roots that remember. Selling the tale of a cursed tree could resurrect Dennis's career — if it doesn't kill him first.