Rainy Season (short story)

"Rainy Season"
Midnight Graffiti (No. 3, Spring 1989)
Author	Stephen King
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Horror short story
Published in	Midnight Graffiti (1st release), Nightmares & Dreamscapes
Publication type	Magazine
Publisher	Warner Books
Media type	Print (Hardcover)
Publication date	1989

Rainy Season is a short horror story by Stephen King, first published in the Spring 1989 issue of Midnight Graffiti magazine, and later included in King's Nightmares & Dreamscapes collection. It ended a bout of writer's block from which King had been suffering.

A young husband and wife on summer vacation rent a house in a small town called Willow, Maine, only to be warned repeatedly (if vaguely) to leave by the local inhabitants. They do not comply and, having purchased groceries, return to the house. They never learn the price for prosperity the citizens of Willow must pay: every seven years a husband and wife will go there from outside and will stay, despite protests, to become sacrifices during the rainy season. When the "rain" starts, the couple learns the nature of the precipitation: an army of grotesque black toads the size of footballs, armed with needle-sharp teeth and able to chew through doors and walls.

"Rainy Season" has been adapted by artist for the book "The Secretary of Dreams" a collection of comics based on King's short fiction released by Cemetery Dance Publications in December 2006.

The audiobook version of this story was narrated by actress Yeardley Smith.

"Rainy Season" has been adapted into a 2017 short film of the same name, written and directed by Vanessa Ionta Wright and produced by Above the Line Artistry.

Wiater et al. compared it to Shirley Jackson's short story "The Lottery". Writing at Tor.com, Grady Hendrix called it a "time passer" that was likely expanded from a single surreal image.