The Bugbear

2350 words.

The Bugbear is a short story I wrote in 2019. It’s about a group of adults playing Dungeons & Dragons. But it’s also about seeing things—and people—in a different light. I liked playing with the juxtaposition of switching from the role-players around a game table to the fantasy world of their actual D&D campaign. I’ve done some role-playing in my time, and the name of this fictional creature (a bugbear) had always tickled me.

The Bugbear was published in 2021 in the Sans. Press collection, Because That’s Where Your Heart Is.