urban fantasy

The First And The Last Forever

How long had I been lying here, watching the stars turn, when I heard singing? Long enough that the rock I settled against had worn down several centimetres…

horror

A Terrifying Landmark Historical Communication

Funny. To think that encountering alien life has been a goal for so long, the dream of most every interstellar scientist. And now it finally happens it’s an unmitigated disaster…

horror

A Soulful Breach Of Contract

Cassius always knew he’d be the next big writer. He just needed his rightful lucky break, and now he had the perfect agent…

horror

Mr Dibble's Rules

It had started as something innocent. Well, Debbie always considered it innocent. Just a clever child’s way of messing with her silly little brother…

fantasy

Children Of The Forest’s Milk

Early spring is the time to hunt such monsters, and this one was easy to track down, its drones leading me straight to its lair. A simple job…

horror

A Rediscovered Family Ritual

Everything is dealt with. Everything is ready. All I have to do now is follow the instructions. For Ryan. I pray he will forgive me…

fantasy

Born A Sorceress, Named A Curse

I wish I knew if this love is what the seer foretold, the one thing which might save me from my fate, or if I am only feeding my dangerous nature…

horror

I'm Not Paid To Monitor The Parking Lot, Pal

It was a perfectly unremarkable franchise location, except for the whispering sinkhole in the parking lot and the fact the milkshake machine had worked in living memory.

horror

An Eventful Stay At Potter's Field Inn

While nobody could figure out what mechanisms were used for the Potter’s Field Haunted House, visitors said the effect was positively MAGICAL…

horror

A Trade Traded And Untraded

Nobody’s called me “DanDan” since I was, what, nine? But that wasn’t even the weirdest thing about the stranger who’d walked up to me on my way home from the shops…

horror

Hiding From The Listening Eel

Given that Adrian Carver had been dead for eleven minutes, and the resuscitation procedure which brought him back was highly experimental, perhaps his symptoms weren’t surprising…

horror

A Calling Seed

In my dreams, nothing I try helps. Nothing stops it. It always comes through, and seeing it makes my eyes burn, and the world screams and I wake up. But this time, it’s real…

horror

A Final Chance To Avoid Russet Revenge

I’m not the sort of person who goes to art galleries, especially insipid little local ones like this, but I found myself wandering into the exhibition…

fantasy

Fed By Coal And Magic And Hate

The Mirrored Palace has loomed over the valley for over two hundred years, an unassailable bastion. Now its walls melt and smoke chokes the sky. And I’m not done yet.

horror

Headhunting The Perfect Puzzle Team

By this point, logging into “The Truth Is Out Here” had slid from a habit to a ritual. Or maybe it’s more honest to call it an obsession…

horror

A Proud And Bloodstained Family Business

All was peace and quiet until the door burst open and a seven foot tall, burly figure stepped in, his heavy breathing causing puffs of steam to jet from the old, battered troll mask he was wearing…

horror

An Unwitting Accessory To Interstellar Smuggling

Hotels are expensive in a major spaceport like this, so friends ask to crash at my place all the time. I didn’t think anything of it…

horror

Facing What Is Unpredictable Yet Relentless

I line up the tests. Staring at the column of little plastic rectangles like they might change their minds. Might say something other than that I’m doomed.

fantasy

Mutual Hunters Reaching Across

The vampire sighed. An unpleasantly dry, leathery sound. “Honestly. So dramatic…”

apocalypse

Dawn After The Nights Turned Poison

Every morning since the world ended, Gus watched the dawn from the window of what had once, centuries before the Fog came, been a tollbooth. Waiting to do his job.

3rd person PoV

Looking Through Another Kidnapped Pair Of Eyes

In Arnold’s defence, it was perfectly reasonable to assume this person was affiliated with the university and the ‘research project’ had been properly vetted…

horror

Don’t Trust Every Ritual You Read On The Internet

Emily hugged her knees to her chin and stared at her laptop. She could recite the ritual by now, but she still couldn’t figure out what went wrong. “I didn’t mean to…”

urban fantasy

All Perfectly In Hand Part 1

Featureless space hastily produced serviceable ground as a pointedly nondescript door appeared. Let the party preparations begin…

horror

A Tragic Premature Physical Meet

[My body is not yet ready to be loved.] Jacob read the message again. His brow furrowed. He rubbed the back of his head. Low self-esteem, maybe? Oh dear...

fantasy

Sure, I Stole From A Dragon

The figure that walked in the tavern doors was so average in every way that all the regulars were immediately suspicious. Nobody so normal would visit the Skulking Bucket…