The Hay Bale is written by Priscilla Bettis, who is a huge supporter of many booktube channels including mine.
The Hay Bale is 42 pages, but reads like 20. I flew through this story. Because it's very short, I can't give too many details without ruining the story but I found a lot of meaning in the choices made here.
Our main character's history hit close to home for me. The objects in the story and the memories the main character experiences represented emotional and physical scars. What I thought would be a folk horror story (it is) delivered on that promise and much more.
For such a short story it definitely is loaded with emotion, loss, horror, history with physical and emotional trauma. While it can be enjoyed as a quick horror story, there's much more to be explored if you look under the surface.
The Hay Bale can be found on Amazon and is available via Kindle Unlimited