Meimei dates really bad guys. Who want to use her. Who don't know what they're in for.
Content warnings 5
abusebody-horrordeath-of-a-loved-onegoreviolence
Dread
512 free-to-read stories tagged “Dread”
Stella’s helping an old high-school friend clean out his dead brother’s house, but the brother was a hoarder, and the task is horrible in several ways.
Content warnings 2
death-of-a-loved-onemental-illness
"1926 Washington, D.C. Shaw District “There’s a man on the front stoop.” The words spilled from her in a much more mundane way than Judy had expected, considering how her neck was fluttering with her excited pulse. Alvin looked up from the new Langston...
Content warnings 3
abusedeathviolence
Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
Content warnings 4
body-horrordeathsexual-contentsubstance-use
A woman about to leave on an overseas business trip, calls home from the airport and discovers that “daddy” isn’t there and her six-year-old son is all alone in the dark…
Content warnings 1
abuse
Technically dead after a terrorist attack, Asante gets a new body and second chance at life, provided he serves 5 years as an experimental supersoldier.
Content warnings 3
child-deathviolencewar
A professional caregiver’s commute takes an unsettling detour when car trouble forces her to pull over on the highway, where she begins receiving distressing phone calls from strangers…
Content warnings 1
death
Helen comes to Meersee in Germany to be a governess for her friend’s nephew. The child is young and peculiar, the staff are old and peculiar, and more peculiar things turn up by the minute.
Content warnings 2
body-horrorviolence
It’s been two years since Jenna’s ex-boyfriend left her alone in East Texas heartbroken. Now he’s back in town and she wants to payback. One night, she stumbles upon a bloodthirsty Camaro that may be the key to carrying out her revenge.
Content warnings 3
deathgoreviolence
A whaling ship conducts an experiment in generating whale song to try to make it easier to attract whales to kill.
Content warnings 5
animal-harmbody-horrordeathgoreviolence
Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
Content warnings 4
child-abusedeath-of-a-loved-onesuicideviolence
"Episode 60 Transcription by @jbutler22 0:01 Murray: Hey there, I’m Dean Murray and this is a special episode of Homewrecker. We’re on the road this week, heading up to historic [garbled] where we’ll venture [garbled] outside the city to see the colonial...
Content warnings 3
body-horrordeath-of-a-loved-oneviolence
A photographer’s obsession with an unsettled subject exposes two friends to a darkness that won’t be contained by frames…
Content warnings 3
child-deathsuicideviolence
Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
Content warnings 2
body-horrorviolence
In a future Canada, a woman talks to her political-prisoner mother but wonders if it’s just an AI simulation of her.
Content warnings 2
illness-and-pandemicmental-illness
"The campsite looks like it wants to eat them. A fire pit yawns in the middle, an ashy-grey mouth ringed by rocks like rotting teeth. The trees crowd in, sizing them up, knifing the daylight. One gulp of that smoke-and-pine air, and Henry shudders head to...
Content warnings 2
child-deathdeath-of-a-loved-one
When their rental truck breaks down, two friends moving cross-country kill time by telling stories about the strange carving in front of the motel where they’re awaiting a mechanic…
Content warnings 2
deathviolence
"I was kinda worried about being the new kid, but apparently new kids are cool here. This guy named Scott Marsh who seems pretty popular and has a good jump shot was really nice to me, so the other guys were nice to me, too. I think maybe because me and...
Content warnings 3
abusechild-abuseviolence
The sister of an abducted child is haunted by a sinister figure who may or may not be real…
"If you’re looking for a cheap way to kill all this mold—and who isn’t, right now—look no further than Inkicide Disinfectant Concentrate 64oz (4 Bottles). It’ll curl your nose hairs right up into your skull, but that just means it’s working, amirite? Two...
Content warnings 2
body-horrorillness-and-pandemic
Allie and Rooster are heading down to Asheville for Rooster’s new gig, a cushy stint as artist-in-residence at UNC. ... But when they stumble upon an old backcountry church—the perfect backdrop for Rooster’s latest project—they discover that some...
Content warnings 3
body-horrordeathviolence
Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
An Australian detective investigates a woman who apparently killed her husband and children before disappearing.
Content warnings 3
child-deathdeathviolence
Delilah makes some money modeling, and Crispin offers twice what anyone else does. He never lets her look at the works in progress, though. He has his reasons.
Content warnings 1
violence
A woman appears to be helping a child recover from some form of brain damage. His perceptions and memory are off, but something is off about her too.
Content warnings 3
child-deathdeathviolence
Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
Content warnings 2
body-horrormental-illness
Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
Content warnings 3
death-of-a-loved-oneracismviolence
Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
Content warnings 2
body-horrorchild-abuse
Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
Content warnings 2
deathviolence
As the seas have risen, terrible things have come crawling out of them. Jersey wants Mir to come with him and move inland, but she won’t go without her disabled father.
Content warnings 5
body-horrorchild-deathdeath-of-a-loved-onesexual-violenceviolence
"For a long time now I’d been practicing liecraft five or six times before breakfast. I’d roll over to Khao’s side of the bed and murmur through the curls of hair winding around his ear: “Go back to sleep, it’s only just daybreak.” Other times I’d hide his...
Content warnings 3
body-horrorchild-abuseviolence
PseudoPod 963: Mavka is a PseudoPod original. CW: cannibalism, suicide, starvation, use of second person perspective You pray to forget this. You pray to forget the cold. Even under two wool blankets you’re always cold now. Skin and bones, you. A February...
Content warnings 3
cannibalismchild-deathsuicide
Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
Content warnings 3
body-horrorgoresuicide
As a young scholar sets out on a research project to find the stones where the settlers of Iceland made human sacrifices, a long dormant volcano rouses…and other, long-sleeping horrors might also be stirring.
"Scarlett’s eyes had to be perfect. Jon was the artist who’d made her, so it bothered him to think that so much of Scarlett would be crafted by other people. Scarlett’s limbs were carved from silicon polymer and coated in a soft synthetic skin from the...
Content warnings 3
body-horrorsexual-contentviolence
"Umeboshi" by Rebecca Nakaba is an exploration of what it means to be connected through heritage—and chain email. Copyright khōréō magazine 2023. Story by Rebecca Nakaba, edited by Sachiko Ragosta. Audio edition read by Heidi Tabing, with sound design by...
Content warnings 1
body-horror
Author : Leah Ning Narrator : Graeme Dunlop Host : Summer Fletcher Audio Producer : Peter Adrian Behravesh Discuss on Forums PodCastle 679: Pull is a PodCastle original. A content warning for end of life care. Rated PG-13 with a content warning for end of...
Content warnings 3
animal-harmdeathillness-and-pandemic
Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
Content warnings 1
death
Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
Content warnings 2
violencewar
As Charlotte’s husband sinks into early Alzheimer’s, he becomes more and more obsessed with a cult religious figure known only as The Reverend.
Content warnings 2
deathviolence
Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
Content warnings 3
deathsexual-violenceviolence
A songwriter and her boyfriend seclude themselves at his old family cabin back in the woods to work on a new album. But in the isolation, she has trouble getting work done, and reality itself seems a little off.
Content warnings 2
deathviolence
Meshee is one of eight pregnant women whose babies are being auctioned off against their will.
Content warnings 3
body-horrorpregnancy-lossviolence
An estate agent is forced to choose between a sale and his humanity when facing the inhuman eldritch forces that feed off rental tenants across the United Kingdom.
Content warnings 3
abusebody-horrorviolence
A team of pilots is trained to fly ships in a war where it’s become cheaper to send humans instead of machines.
Content warnings 2
deathwar
Espie Droger dreams of war. What else can he dream of? There is nothing left. He has dreamed of world travel and expensive Scotch and lithe young women and sudden uncontrollable laughter. But his vitality has seeped from him like fluid from a dying tree....
Content warnings 3
deathillness-and-pandemicwar
"Sing. Sing the world into being. The world’s misty valleys and sunlit hills are described by the song of all things. So is the work of skilled hands and the begrudging march of soldiers’ boots. Every action, every object, in the past and the present and...
Content warnings 1
violence
"Before you hear what I’m about to tell you, I need you to understand two things. Firstly, I do not know how to swim. When you live in the place I do, it’s more or less a useless skill. I mean, the deepest water around is up to my shoulders at best, can...
Content warnings 3
body-horrordeathgore
"I was so excited to be working on the locomotives I’d loved since childhood. I’d been given an opportunity no one else in the valley had ever received. But suddenly I understood the conflicting emotions of pride and worry I’d seen in my parents. I trusted...
Content warnings 2
child-deathviolence
A transnational adoptee is haunted by the ghost of his birth mother. Content warnings: Self-harm, suicidal ideation Copyright © 2025 khōréō magazine. Story by Woody Dismukes, edited by Isabella Kestermann. Audio edition read by Sam Cavalcanti, with...
Content warnings 3
body-horrorgoreself-harm
"My ghost bled through the shadows, an icy wind stirring the leaves. Eyes like candle flames shuddering and crescent moon mouth, it had found me as a girl and never let go—the only thing that was really mine. It led me to an overgrown graveyard, pelts of...
Content warnings 3
deathdeath-of-a-loved-onesexual-violence
"Post-flight debrief. Subject: Michael Ackine, of the Astronomic Endeavors cargo ship, Zephyr One. Introductory notes: Mr. Ackine is the only survivor of the Zephyr’s maiden voyage. Z-One landed safely, five Earth days overdue and two kilometers from...
Content warnings 3
deathgoreviolence
Following a mysterious world-wide event that makes ghosts visible, a young woman is invited to attend Ghost Camp.
Content warnings 3
deathdeath-of-a-loved-oneviolence
Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
Content warnings 3
gorehomophobiaviolence
"At 5:43 a.m. this morning, residents of Grackle Pointe Apartments awoke to a malfunction in their complex’s multi-spatial engine due to an unprecedented derecho that swept through the Montrose area of Houston. This resulted in tenants being mentally and...
Content warnings 3
body-horrordeathgore
"The first time through this cycle, Devaki does not believe he will go through with it. Kasma is her brother, after all, and for all his fears, he didn’t kill her when he had the chance. So as her baby grows inside her, the first fruit of her marriage to...
Content warnings 3
child-deathpregnancy-losssuicide
"Itsy bitsy,” whispers the girl in the glass tank beside mine. Not a girl anymore, not really, but it’s better for my sanity to pretend she’s still human. That we both are. We had names once—and skin, soft to the touch. In the sterile, blinding white...
Content warnings 3
body-horrorgoreviolence
The spirit of a recently deceased young boy helps a group of ghosts seek revenge on a corrupt and abusive town minister.
Content warnings 3
child-deathdeathviolence
"The woman’s name was lost in The Fall, as was so much else we once thought vital—seasons, rivers, uncharred air—but her image persists, has become indelible. The giant wall of white upon which her travesties are projected once yearly has become a mecca...
Content warnings 3
goresexual-contentviolence
"1. To kill a language, you must first rip it from living throats. Don't look so askance; you knew it already. The dead can't speak unless called and the only way to prevent our enemies calling upon their own hordes of dead ancestors is to strip their...
Content warnings 2
sexual-violenceviolence
"Salty swell over my head, tugging me back, the raw and tender creases of my elbows against the forearms they're linked with. Brine up my nose, in my mouth. The anchor of my feet in the sand holds me fast with the rest. The water recedes and we breathe, a...
Content warnings 3
body-horrordeathsuicide
"It slips, now—I know it slips. There are men in my parlor, in uniforms, crisp navy, badged. Police. Beyond them Eveline wavers in a yellow nightgown, hands clasped to her chest, eyes wide and worried—no, no, she doesn’t, she’s not here, I’m dreaming her,...
Content warnings 3
deathmental-illnesssuicide
In celebration of the 50th World Fantasy Convention’s Toastmaster, Michael Swanwick, Reactor presents a new Mongolian Wizard story about a battle to save Paris from an unexpected new enemy.
Content warnings 3
goreviolencewar
"She’s walking by the river on an overcast day, when sweat runs down her palms, goosebumps all over her neck. The breeze stills. The gray sky turns blood red. Instead of the Sun, through a clearing in the clouds, she finds the Eye. Veins branch across a...
Content warnings 3
body-horrorsubstance-usewar
"Q: What (or who!) is Eudaimon? A: We are a nonprofit organization that empowers people to live their best lives. A “life,” in our view, is best defined simply as a contiguous sequence of experiences, and thus the best life is the one consisting of the...
Content warnings 1
death-of-a-loved-one
"Rally is a dance on wet gravel to the roar of six cylinders and the flutter of turbochargers but I say again, Rally is a dance. I remembered when I discovered this truth, when I stopped jogging in place and began to ice skate on narrow back trails, not so...
Content warnings 3
deathviolencewar
"The low rumble of the train cut through the night and the living flesh of The City, carrying its passengers ever further from the gleam of parliaments and providence. The stop towards Wild Park grew ever closer, represented along the wall of the train by...
Content warnings 3
body-horrorgoreviolence
"Welcome, Stranger! This is a story for you, you who wait for my words to fall into your ear, so that we can share being and become more than we are alone. The tales I have to tell today are woven into this fabric that unrolls before you as I work my Loom....
Content warnings 3
child-deathracismsexual-violence
"Who loves you?” I ask. My daughter looks away. Doesn’t answer. I lean down and turn her to face me, resting my thumb in the dimple in her chin. It’s the same dimple her mother has. Or had. “You love me, Daddy.” “That’s right, so please listen closely,” I...
Content warnings 3
child-abusedeathviolence
"The Whole Foods where Justin works is a block from the beach, close enough to smell it. Apart from the rusting cars in the parking lot and the blood-spattered branches on the Eucalypts, the store looks much the same as it always did. Justin can do his job...
Content warnings 3
body-horrorcannibalismgore
"It forced itself to take that last step onto the ferry. Every step further from land felt like falling. Through space, through time, through every place it had ever been. It kept its eyes open, its features arranged in what it hoped was a neutral...
Content warnings 2
deathviolence
"There’s reasons not to go sit by the banks of the Dequindre. The mosquitoes bite something fierce this time of year, for one. May through September the air is thick with them. The river swells wide on its way through Wyandott."
"Somewhere between the black slopes and the longest stretch of the cratered plains, I came across a traveler who I thought might be leaving the city and headed for the nested forests. I greeted him from a distance, just as the road curved around a copse of...
PseudoPod 807: The Bleak Communion of Abandoned Things is a PseudoPod original. I accept the house in lieu of a settlement. I don’t want Ashley’s dirty money. The house is the least ill-gotten thing she owns, an isolated property she won in a card game and...
Content warnings 3
abusedeathmental-illness
"THE FIRST TIME SHE AWOKE on the bus, Adachukwu Ejiofor discovered that her ankles, wrists, and one kneecap had taken their leave of her while she wasn’t looking. She still had the other kneecap and her hands and feet, though, making her disappearance...
Content warnings 1
body-horror
Haunted by stories he hears while on jury duty, a documentary filmmaker finds himself in an abandoned mall at the dead of night.
A group of five friends rent a cabin in the woods—the next day only four are alive. What happened and why is something the survivors are desperate to unravel.
Content warnings 3
deathgoreviolence
Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
Today’s a big day at work, but just walking there looks to be a death-defying challenge, what with people randomly turning into monsters and such.
Content warnings 3
body-horrordeathviolence
Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
Content warnings 3
body-horrordeathgenocide
Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
Content warnings 2
deathgore
A young couple has enough relationship troubles without a mischievous dog that appears to have telekinetic powers. But there seems to be a pattern to its mischief.
Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
Content warnings 3
abusechild-abusesexual-violence
In midwinter, just after midnight, the narrator hitches a ride with a strange woman as cold as the night itself.
Content warnings 2
body-horrordeath
On Ariel, some people have modified themselves to fly. Other people can't accept that. Anna is going to need to choose sides.
Content warnings 3
pregnancy-losstransphobiaviolence
Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
Content warnings 3
body-horrordeathdeath-of-a-loved-one
"On Miphre, a planet hardly larger than a moon, jagged mountaintops stab above the cloud cover and harbor small ecosystems in the palms of their hands: rock eels and ribbon mosses and seabirds with rodents clutched to their breasts, each one nestled...
Content warnings 3
animal-harmbody-horrordeath
"The formula for how to end the world got published the same day I married the girl who used to bully me in middle school. We found out about it the morning after, on the first day of our honeymoon in Cozumel. I got out of the shower in our small bungalow...
Content warnings 2
mental-illnessracism
"Valentini doesn’t flinch when the purple-bellied storm shakes the house, heedless of the film being shot within its derelict husk. Scene fifteen, take three. The Hollow Places crew rushes to stop the windows’ skeletal rattling before the atmospheric...
Content warnings 3
child-deathgoreself-harm
"Children don’t generally assume their father will abandon them to die in the snow. But under certain circumstances, they might get an inkling. If their mother had died the year before, and their father brought home a woman with a sweet voice and cruel...
Content warnings 3
cannibalismchild-deathsexual-content
"She should go back inside the watchpod. Maree and Blaise didn’t have to be dead. The air hadn’t been gone that long. And even if their current bodies were hopeless, damaged beyond repair, probably the back-up system was uncorrupted. Probably its uploads...
Content warnings 3
body-horrorgoresexual-content
"The angel Azrael rode the dead horse across the broken land under the light of a half moon until he came across a graveyard that seemed to have no end. Wooden crosses stretched away to the horizon, more than he could count. Many of the crosses were bent...
Content warnings 3
deathgoreviolence
"Udo Gehler saw his next opponent was the Virgin Bitch of the Resistance and didn’t even blink. He’d been curled up in his personal ARMOR lounge, holo-projecting the replay of his last match frame by frame, noting every instance he’d lost momentum or ceded...
Content warnings 3
sexual-violenceviolencewar
"Kuyom stood at Death’s door, shuffling from one foot to the other. She patted her head impatiently. She had gotten rid of the lice a week ago, but she still felt the phantom itch. They’d crawled into her hair while she was sleeping under a mango tree in...
Content warnings 3
child-deathdeathsuicide
"You are no poet. The rest of your clan were. But that was before Half-Brilliant came and began eating them. Before Half-Brilliant began chewing up your people and their minds and spitting the bloody remains over snow-white canvases. Now It is the only...
Content warnings 3
body-horrorslaveryviolence
"The girls of our town float down the middle of the street, cheap fabric wings pinned to their clothes. I watch them walk, hobbled by coat hanger curves that refuse to bend with the bow of their backs. I see Min towards the back. She’s been doing this for...
Content warnings 3
body-horrorsexual-violencesubstance-use
"On a Thursday night in Harvestmonth, when the moon rises round and bronze as a new betrothal promise watch, is the warlike thrice-veiled Mother of Mákhesthaines, crowned in her black silk mantles embroidered with skulls, permitted across the Holy Square...
Content warnings 1
death
"Abigail sat at the centermost position at the cafeteria table. For her, it was unintentional. For us, it was by design. Abigail had no idea about the effect she had on people, obviously. It’s a blessing of having seen yourself in every movie, magazine,...
Content warnings 3
body-horrorself-harmviolence
A non-binary disabled woman flees with her infant and toddler from the Arizona Christian secret police who’ve learned they and their wife were running an illegal abortion clinic.
Content warnings 3
death-of-a-loved-oneviolencewar
Long ago, some people leapt from a slave ship, and something transformed their bodies so she they could breathe water. Today, her descendants try to cope with a changing ocean.
Content warnings 3
goresexual-violenceviolence
The Scholast fell to earth in the Low Waters Kingdom and called on them to prepare to defend themselves from an invasion from another world.
Content warnings 3
deathviolencewar
Some nights shining lights appear atop hills in urban areas, and people who walk into them disappear—some say to fairyland. A cop who thinks otherwise tries to talk a young woman out of trying it.
Content warnings 3
deathdeath-of-a-loved-onesuicide
Out on Europa, Marius has vanished and Kotto has come to rescue his partner, Bolaji.
Content warnings 2
body-horrordeath
When newlyweds Courtney and Josh rent an old Victorian in Baltimore, they're told to stay out of the attic. But they hear noises up there at night. Footsteps.
Content warnings 1
violence
You are a lonely ten-year-old boy living in an old house with your mom when a man claiming to be your uncle arrives and strange things start to happen.
Content warnings 2
abusesubstance-use
When her mother is absorbed into the local flesh monolith, Kayla struggles with her identity and looks for a way in. Content warnings: Violence, nudity, racism/discrimination, body horror Copyright © 2026 khōréō magazine. Story by Mary Miseon Wu, edited by...
Content warnings 3
body-horrorracismviolence
A woman slowly smokes herself to death to protest an atrocity. When her cigarette supply runs low, a local kid grappling with both the protest and the atrocity brings her a cigar. Content warnings: Self-harm (smoking), references to genocide, a dead body,...
Content warnings 3
body-horrordeathwar
A man sets out on a voyage accompanied by his fiancée's right arm. Content warnings: Violence (graphic), threat of bodily harm, covert misogyny Copyright © 2026 khōréō magazine. Story by Natalia Theodoridou, edited by Isabella Kestermann. Audio edition...
Content warnings 2
body-horrormisogyny
A young scribe joins a voyage to hunt sea creatures in waters that once belonged to the feared Northerners, but the truth behind the Northern myths is more complex than they first believed. Content warnings: Animal cruelty and death, use of the r-word...
Content warnings 3
animal-harmgoreviolence
Ashwan To be born in the year 2615 on the 21st of March was fortuitous, but to be born at 14:59:30 hours on that same day made you a God. […]
Content warnings 3
abusebody-horrorviolence
This episode features "All the Ruined Doorways of the Moon" written by Eilis O'Neal. Published in the August 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at:...
Content warnings 2
abuseviolence
This was in August of 2019. A day-old newspaper reported civil wars in Somalia and Yemen. A gunman killed twenty-two people in an El Paso Walmart. Jeffrey Epstein had taken a plea deal, promising to name names, promising to name the name .
Content warnings 3
substance-usesuicideviolence
There once lived a boy who paid for a fortune. Nassim wore carob hair and eyes severe like cardamom. He spent his days scouring the souk for unique trinkets he liked to collect or counting the uneven stones of Jerusalem’s cobbled streets as he passed...
Content warnings 3
sexual-violenceviolencewar
Tell me a story where it all goes right. Say that we only ever stopped at the station with the largest wingspan and busiest fuel pipes, the fifty-something spears jutting […]
Content warnings 2
deathviolence
This episode features "Crosstalk, Elysium" written by Carolyn Zhao. Published in the March 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/zhao_03_26 Support us on...
Content warnings 3
deathviolencewar
This episode features "D0G" written by Tania Fordwalker. Published in the April 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/fordwalker_04_26 Support us on...
Content warnings 3
death-of-a-loved-oneviolencewar
Content note (click for details) Depictions of illness and vomiting, religious themes edited by Amanda Helms Sara collapsed into the folding chair in the rhomboid of shade by the camper pod, stared out at Terga’s vast red plains and tried to remember the...
Content warnings 2
deathillness-and-pandemic
Content note (click for details) Implied sexual assault of a teen, death of an animal edited by Hal Y. Zhang I toss the keys on the green Formica counter. I always aim for the same spot: that ugly, little brown ring—bubbled up and cracking—where Bill had...
Content warnings 3
abuseanimal-harmchild-abuse
edited by Ziv Wities Content note (click for details) Body horror; extended description of assisted suicide with dubious consent The attractive blonde technician responsible for your death smiles lovingly, and a smooth plastic pen slides into your gnarled...
Content warnings 3
body-horrordeathsexual-content
Content note (click for details) Sexual assault, child abuse, violence, abduction, death, blood, racism, colonization edited by Hal Y. Zhang ***RAW TRANSCRIPT, FIRST PASS EDIT NOTES*** Njiran Folk Beliefs VOLUME II Collected by Ven Nakai, retired Njiran...
Content warnings 3
racismsexual-violenceviolence
Content note (click for details) Graphic depictions of violence, violence against animals edited by David Steffen We are killers in search of new hunting grounds. We fear only starvation and others of our kind. We are wolfish comrades, strong in our...
Content warnings 3
animal-harmdeathgore
Despite the two hundred and fifty-two million years that separate us, I feel close to you tonight, dear trilobites.
Content warnings 3
child-deathdeath-of-a-loved-oneillness-and-pandemic
Layla was bleeding out. Her neurons began to supernova and transmute into a new electrical form. A maglev of old memories zipped past her. She was thinking about that one […]
Content warnings 3
body-horrorgoreviolence
This episode features "Decimation Circles" written by Raahem Alvi. Published in the May 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/alvi_05_26 Support us on...
Content warnings 3
body-horrorgoreviolence
Author : Premee Mohamed Narrator : Dani Daly Host : Mur Lafferty Audio Producer : Summer Brooks “More Tomorrow” was first published in Automata Review, March 2018, and previously published as Escape Pod 713, in January 2020. A few grade-A curses. More...
Content warnings 2
body-horrorviolence
Author : Rati Mehrotra Narrator : Joe Moran Host : Mur Lafferty Audio Producer : Adam Pracht The Library of the Apocalypse was first published in Clarkesworld, May 2025, Issue 224. Includes death and cursing. The Library of the Apocalypse By Rati Mehrotra...
Content warnings 3
deathviolencewar
Author : C. W. Maurer Narrator : Nicola Chapman Host : Mur Lafferty Audio Producer : Adam Pracht Riftwork originally appeared in Brave New Girls: Tales of Girls Who Invent and Imagine anthology in July 2025. Includes tight, underground spaces. Riftwork...
After the braiding, a low buzzing remains in Memoire’s ear. It reminds her of the low buzzing she heard while they shampooed her hair. They told her she could never submerge her head in water after the braiding. No more swimming. No more drifting on her...
Content warnings 1
body-horror
This episode features "Feed Them on Your Dreams" written by E.N. Auslender. Published in the August 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/auslender_08_26...
Content warnings 2
abuseslavery
The afterlife on Mars is different from the afterlife on Earth. I was the first ghost to experience both worlds: a pioneer like Neil Armstrong stepping on the Moon, minus […]
Content warnings 3
body-horrordeathviolence
This episode features "First Human Ghost on Mars" written by R.L. Meza. Published in the March 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/meza_03_26 Support...
Content warnings 3
body-horrordeathviolence
What I’d taken for white beads are actually human teeth, mixed with white crystals I identified (via taste, to Mole’s horror) as salt. Mole looks at the mixture and shudders. I don’t know how to explain why I keep them. As much as I wish to deny the...
Content warnings 3
body-horrordeathgore
Lise’s personas have no warning when the XexlCo Construct appears at the gate of her memory garden, smiling cheerfully at each of her personas in turn like a neighborhood milkman making his daily rounds. They watch the newcomer saunter by with open...
Content warnings 1
violence
The first time you killed me, I cried like a baby. Stupid, stupid, to cry over something make-believe—stupid and ugly and pathetic, too, when already the only thing I wanted in the world was for you to find me pretty. I couldn’t help it. I hadn’t expected...
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abusegoresexual-content
And all the devils are here. “What’s that from?” Millie asks as she gets her coat. I stand at the back window, looking out. Usually, you can see the downtown skyline from this position. Today, it’s just the hellmouth. A long tube that looks like an...
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deathviolence
Amelia’s favorite time of day is before dawn, when all the beauty is hidden by shadow. She rises from her bed every morning, shivering in the hushed air, and gets dressed in the dark. Sometimes she has to redo the buttons, but she doesn’t turn on the light...
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body-horrorgoreviolence
Bring your sister and I will tell you the story of how the waters returned to Apicuya. No, bring all the children. This is important. Don’t splash. If you cannot hear the thrum of the skymill, you are being too loud. Sit in the shallow pool, otherwise your...
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child-deathdeath
Maybe we overestimated ourselves, I thought, watching the ferries hum against the wine-dark sea. Even if we floated above it, we were still bound to the ocean, engulfed in all its weight and inescapable history. To believe otherwise was a kind of hubris....
I wasn’t even two blocks into the Tumbledown when the walker’s nav crystal started fuzzing out. She veered left like a scavver drunk on coolant, and I knew I was in trouble. I tried sweet-talking her back on route, but she wasn’t listening. I was used to...
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deathviolence
Verity crawled through the endless dark of the tunnel, the false safety of her Colony home now half a mile behind her. All she could see in the dim light […]
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deathillness-and-pandemic
This episode features "Macaroni Art in the Age of Filtration" written by Ryan Cole. Published in the April 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at:...
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deathillness-and-pandemic
“They farm starlight.” “Bullshit.” “Okay, they’re going to farm starlight. For now they’re running fusion rigs. But that’s not their long-term plan.” “No one in the sunforsaken Oort has a long-term plan. Other than slow suicide. You know what they told me,...
I first reached consciousness in a peaceful library. It looked like a library not far from my apartment, though not exactly the same. There were high ceilings and large windows […]
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body-horrordeathviolence
This episode features "Our Revels Now Are Ended" written by Thomas Ha. Published in the July 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/ha_07_26 Support us on...
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body-horrorviolence
Author : C. T. Muchemwa Narrator : Munashe R. Goromonzi Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Wilson Fowlie Previously published by FIYAH 33 (February 2025) Content note for gore Rated PG-13 The Inheritance by C. T. Muchemwa Taona did not shed a single tear...
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deathgoreviolence
Author : T. R. Steele Narrator : Jordan Kurella Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Eric Valdes PodCastle 943: At Death’s Door is a PodCastle original. content notes for suicidal ideation and second-person narration Rated PG-13 At Death’s Door by T. R....
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mental-illnesssuicide
Authors : Gregory Marlow, RJ Aurand and Jeanna Cammarano Narrators : Karen Menzel (née Bovenmyer), Rosie Sentman and Dani Daly Host : Wilson Fowlie Audio Producer : Wilson Fowlie PodCastle 950: FLASH FICTION EXTRAVAGANZA: Reapings is a PodCastle original....
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child-deathdeathsuicide
Author : Chaitanya Murali Narrator : Kaushik Narasimhan Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Eric Valdes Previously published by Kaleidotrope, 2024 Contents Notes for colonisation, enslavement, torture, racism, and references to sexual assault Rated R Of...
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racismslaveryviolence
His app was called Promises Promises, and its download page was one of the last things in Ellie’s search history—behind two hundred chapters of Fruits Basket and six clickbait articles with titles all on the pattern of “17 Spectacular Strategies to...
Content warnings 1
body-horror
“The Book” was first published in 1930 in The London Mercury and later collected in The Weird (Tor Books, 2012) CW: harm to child/animal, reference to suicide On a foggy night in November, Mr. Corbett, having guessed the murderer by the third chapter of...
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animal-harmchild-abusesuicide
“The End Of The Story” was originally published in Weird Tales, vol. 15, no. 5 (May 1930). Link: Weird Tales original text Original layout from Weird Tales The Emperor of Dreams documentary Best collection of Smith’s poetry The following narrative was...
‘Faith, Hope and Charity’ was first published in Hearst’s International Combined with Cosmopolitan, April 1930. C/W strong violence, racist language Here’s a link to the Archive.org of the original text:...
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deathracismviolence
“Left by the Tide” first appeared in Weird Tales, March 1929 “Sirens Chasing Sirens” first appeared in The Gateway Review back in 2018 “Dread and Faith” was originally published in February 2025 in Blood Lust from Black Hare Press Far from the frenzy Of...
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goresexual-contentviolence
‘The Polyamorous Heart of Death’ first appeared in the anthology And One Day We Will Die: Strange Stories Inspired by the Music of Neutral Milk Hotel CW: 2nd person PoV, transphobia, implied necrophilia The Neutral Milk Hotel The music track that inspired...
Content warnings 3
body-horrorsexual-contenttransphobia
PseudoPod 1020: Walking Tour of Scarborough in Nuclear Winter is a PseudoPod original. Rogue One final scene 30 Days Of Night trailer From the author: “All of the landmarks in this story are real places in Scarborough, where my mother grew up and where I...
Content warnings 2
deathviolence
‘Bad Doors’ was originally published in Uncanny Magazine in 2023, and was a finalist for the Nebula Award for Best Short Story. C/W: pandemic, family and animal disappearance/death The country was at just over ten thousand deaths the morning that the door...
Content warnings 3
deathdeath-of-a-loved-oneillness-and-pandemic
‘All the Good You Did Not Do’ originally appeared in Apex magazine in November of 2023 C/W: reference to PTSD, depression When the doors slide open, the screams escape. Saul is summoned from his security podium by the researchers’ howls, and he slides in...
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goremental-illnessviolence
PseudoPod 1023: Grandifolia is a PseudoPod original. C/W: Emotional control, intimate partner abuse The first time I do everything the way I’m supposed to. I wait for the new moon and walk into the woods at midnight. I carry a jar of pig’s blood and wear a...
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abusebody-horrorsexual-content
“Witchcraft” was first printed in Ornaments in Jade, 1924 “How I Turned My Little Brother Human” was first published in Shaky Pictures of Vanished Faces, edited by Eric Raglin, in September 2025 “Visit Seahaven” was first published in Factor Four magazine...
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child-deathpregnancy-losssubstance-use
PseudoPod 1027: This Thing of Darkness is a PseudoPod original. C/W: grief, approaching death Nissa Harlow: nissaharlow.com Tina Connolly: tinaconnolly.com ‘Don’t Put a Rug on a Polished Floor’ public information film Scarred for Life on Bluesky:...
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deathdeath-of-a-loved-onesuicide
“All The Eyes That See” was originally published in Cosmic Horror Monthly issue #42 (ed. Charles Tyra, December 2023); it also won the 2023 Australian Shadows Award for Short Fiction. C/W: child abuse, domestic abuse From the author: “This story is me once...
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abusebody-horrorchild-abuse
PseudoPod 1029: Feeding the Choke-Tree is a PseudoPod original. Okja “Straws,” I said. “Why straws?” “Because they’re cute, obviously,” said Foreman. “Don’t you think?” I squinted at them. Nearly a dozen were inching around his feet. As I watched, one...
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body-horrordeathgore
“Her Skin” first appeared in the anthology, They Walk Among Us: A Collection of Utah Horror (42 Books, April 2020). C/W: intimate partner abuse/control Notes contain possible spoilers: see Host Commentary below He found her in Hells Canyon. After that, my...
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abusebody-horrordeath
PseudoPod 1032: Flash on the Borderlands LXXVIII (78): Terraeque urbesque recedant is a PseudoPod original. C/W: racism, xenophobia, road death From the author: “Othertongue” began as a pastiche of H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Colour Out of Space,” provoked by...
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body-horrordeathracism
“Devil Is Fine” was first published in Cosmic Horror Monthly, in January 2025 C/W: strong body horror, gun violence, animal harm Author notes: “I was still pretty drunk on the experience of playing Red Dead Redemption 2 when I wrote this story and wanted...
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animal-harmbody-horrorviolence
PseudoPod 1034: Only In The Dark is a PseudoPod original. The crackling sound of static fills the room as the screen lights up. We see a simple landscape with some rocks and trees. The outline of a bird appears, its wings flapping softly. The bird takes...
Content warnings 1
body-horror
“Interstate Mohinis” was originally published in Diabolical Plots (June 2023) C/W: sexual violence, cannibalism, reference to drug abuse In the way of Death runs the Vaitarani river. We are flayed open to its woe. We are always aware of its currents in...
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cannibalismsexual-violenceviolence
PseudoPod 1036: A Greater Dark is a PseudoPod original. C/W: Xenophobia, gun violence, harm to animals Gray sheets of rain as the door bangs in, Willard and his men materializing in that opaque haze and shaking the wet from their long coats. They assess...
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animal-harmgoreviolence
“Playing Tricks” was first published in It Was All A Dream: An Anthology Of Bad Horror Tropes Done Right, edited by Brandon Applegate, and later in Angela Sylvaine’s collection, The Dead Spot: Stories of Lost Girls C/W: mental illness, gaslighting, child...
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abusechild-abusemental-illness
PseudoPod 1038: Red Ripper is a PseudoPod original. C/W reference to alcohol and drug abuse Listen, I could still stretch half you pups if I felt like it. Sit down and learn something about the business. Did I ever tell you about the Red Ripper? I got a...
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body-horrordeathsubstance-use
“The Song of the Living” was originally published in 2025 in an anthology Tonja edited titled, “If Fists Could Speak: A Black Speculative Fiction Anthology” CW: harm to animals Please see the host commentary below for notes from the author. When the trees...
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animal-harmbody-horrordeath
PseudoPod 1041: Graves Basin is a PseudoPod original. From the author: “I’ve heard many times, from people wiser than me, that a horror writer fares best when they don’t waste their time trying to figure out what scares other people, but instead write...
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body-horrorgoreillness-and-pandemic
“The Yellow Wall Paper” was first published in January 1892 in The New England Magazine. C/W:emotional abuse/control, medical gaslighting It is very seldom that mere ordinary people like John and myself secure ancestral halls for the summer. A colonial...
Content warnings 2
abusemental-illness
This episode features "Scion" written by Thomas Ha. Published in the March 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/ha_03_26 Support us on Patreon at...
Content warnings 3
body-horrorgoreviolence
I have done my best to transcribe the account found in the recently excavated cenotaph, but, as you’re aware, these experiential simulations don’t easily lend themselves to direct reproduction. Nonetheless, […]
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death
1. Lu Yuan’s company was going to go under if he didn’t find an animator with great potential. Torrential rain thundered against the sheet metal roof. Before him sat ten […]
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body-horrorself-harm
A year of living in the ground had not accustomed Moyer to the smell. He wondered how the French, who’d been at this business so much longer, could stand it. But if the officers who had trained his unit in the intricacies of trench life were any...
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deathwar
Content Warning: religiously motivated ableism and homophobia, both internalized and external; self-harm; and depictions of ritual sacrifice including drowning, hanging, and burning, not very graphic. Alone but for the crows, the priestess peers through...
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deathhomophobiaself-harm
DAY 1 Hello, little switch. Welcome to the world! I’m your Buddy, and I’m very pleased to meet you. You shouldn’t be afraid. Try to orient yourself, if you can. […]
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violencewar
This episode features "The Profitable Sentience of Household Goods" written by Louis Inglis Hall. Published in the May 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at:...
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violencewar
Out in the great expanse of cosmos, little seeds float. They have been drifting for billions of years in the cold darkness of space from one planet to the other, driven by the need for survival and propagation, but most of all driven by spite (they will...
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body-horrorgoreviolence
Draw a rectangular shape. Put a cylinder around it. Add a few small rectangles to any lines, such that they straddle them. At least one on the rectangle, and another on the cylinder. These are airlocks. The engine should look like a lighter stacked on top...
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body-horrordeath
Dreamer AQ#1367-458-MATT stood on the scaffolding of an incomplete skyscraper, hair blown wild by the spring breeze. Skinny legs trembled inside skinny jeans, but he took one step, then another, […]
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suicide
. . . We interrupt our programming- “ . . . for this incredible announcement. The first one thousand customers get an extra 15 percent off during this holiday weekend and . . . ” “ . . . it’s buy one, […]
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substance-useviolencewar
This episode features "This Is an Emergency Broadcast" written by R.S.A. Garcia. Published in the July 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/garcia_07_26...
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deathviolencewar
I beg you, let me tell you about my daughter. My brilliant daughter will be one of the four people who survive their airplane crashing into a giant. Or, more accurately, a giant swiping their airplane out of the sky. Perhaps it meant to catch, or caress....
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death
April It is in the floral heaviness of late-spring that his mother comes home and hands him the present. It fits well in the palms of his hands, neither too heavy nor too light. Perfectly square, perhaps—and later confirmed to be exactly—five inches wide...
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self-harmviolence
You know you are fucked when you see fragments of the broken radio on the floor. Your damaged ship lay nose caked into the sand, and coupled with your sprained ankle that hums an excruciating pain, and slight concussion on your head—your chances of...
Author : Risa Wolf Narrator : Julia Rios Host : Tina Connolly Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Tigers for Sale was first published in Clarkesworld Magazine in July 2023 Content warnings: colonialism, implied genocide, psychological manipulation Tigers for...
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abusedeathgenocide
Here Instead of There By Elizabeth Bear Waking up sick in a punk house shouldn’t be a surprise to anybody so I don’t know why it always came as a surprise to me. My head throbbed so bad I couldn’t tell the difference between the hangover, my sinus...
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substance-use
Here Instead of There (Part 2 of 2) By Elizabeth Bear (... Continued from Part 1) With the launch gone, there was just one rubber dinghy with an outboard motor stowed under the floor of the hangar, along with two kayaks, a sailboard, and a jet ski in an...
Author : Laura Pearlman Narrator : Laura Pearlman Hosts : Alasdair Stuart and Summer Fletcher Audio Producer : Summer Brooks This story was originally published in Mothership Zeta, May 2016, and republished in Escape Pod 650: Some Things I Probably Should...
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cannibalismdeathviolence
In the Palace of Science (Part 1 of 2) By Chris Campbell Track One– If you’ve found this recording, two things can be said for certain. The first is that I have passed my greatest test as a man and, in doing so, have passed from this world. The second is...
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racismwar
In the Palace of Science (Part 2 of 2) By Chris Campbell (...Continued from Part 1) B-Side Track Five– The automaton was unfinished, but even in a transitory state, it was a thing of marvel. In form, it was like a man. With two legs meant for bipedal...
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deathsubstance-useviolence
Author : Alexis Ames Narrator : Eric Valdes Host : Valerie Valdes Audio Producer : Summer Brooks “Sanctuary” first appeared in Kyanite Press, Winter 2020 Sanctuary (Part 1) by Alexis Ames 1. The king of the galaxy died the day before the biggest holiday of...
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violence
"Damian Marshall was a prisoner to his own brain. He was beating his fist against the glass of his cell, hoping someone could hear that this was not the real him. It was never meant to be this way and, truthfully, he had a heart swelling with love to give....
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mental-illnessviolencewar
"At 2:26am, police were radioed in to a casualty at a residence in (redacted), according to witness accounts and the child present at the home, a woman was found deceased at the bottom of the stairs. There were no signs or history of domestic violence....
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abusechild-abuseself-harm
Author : Louis Inglis Hall Narrator : Pippa Alice Stephens Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Devin Martin Discuss on Forums Previously published by The Colored Lens Content warning for the death of a child Rated PG-13 The Hand That Feeds by Louis Inglis...
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body-horrorchild-deathgore
Author : Somto Ihezue Narrator : Mofiyinfoluwa Okupe Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Devin Martin Discuss on Forums Previously published by Tor – Africa Risen anthology Content warnings for violent murder and the death of an animal Rated R The Carving...
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animal-harmdeathviolence
Author : Brigitte Winter Narrator : Julia Rios Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Devin Martin Discuss on Forums Previously published by New Year, New You: A Speculative Anthology of Reinvention Content warnings for violence and coercive control Rated R...
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abusegoreviolence
Author : Christine Lucas Narrator : Kat Kourbeti Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Eric Valdes Discuss on Forums Previously published by Abyss & Apex Content warnings for ableist slurs and attitudes, violence, and misogyny Rated PG-13 Moths in a...
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misogynyviolencewar
Author : Sarah Prineas Narrator : Steve Anderson Host : Wilson Fowlie Audio Producer : Eric Valdes Discuss on Forums Previously ran as episode 18 and first published by Strange Horizons Rated G The Illuminated Dragon by Sarah Prineas Rafe Greatorex thought...
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animal-harmgoreviolence
Author : Jeanna Mason Stay Narrator : Valerie Valdes Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Eric Valdes Discuss on Forums PodCastle 905: The Next Dead Wife is a PodCastle original. Content warnings for coercive control, domestic violence, and murder Rated...
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abusedeathviolence
Author : Lalini Shanela Ranaraja Narrator : Shweta Adhyam Host : Eric Valdes Audio Producer : Eric Valdes Discuss on Forums Previously Published in Strange Horizons, 15 August 2022 Issue. Content warnings for animal cruelty, blood, and suicide Rated PG-13...
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animal-harmdeath-of-a-loved-onesuicide
Author : Leah Ning Narrator : Amanda Ching Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Eric Valdes Discuss on Forums Previously published in Monster Lairs (Dark Matter INK, October 2023) Rated PG-13 The Hunter, the Monster, and the Things That Could Have Been by...
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death-of-a-loved-onegoreviolence
Author : Jennifer R. Donohue Narrator : Heather Thomas Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Eric Valdes Previously published in issue #3 of Gamut, on March 1, 2024 Content warnings for gore and traumatic birth Rated R Auguries By Jennifer R. Donohue She...
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body-horrorgoreviolence
“Novel of the White Powder” first appeared in The Three Impostors in 1895. C/W: drug abuse, delusions The Angels of Mons: The Bowmen and Other Legends of the War by Arthur Machen The Angel of Mons Jess Nevins on The Novel of The White Powder White Lines by...
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body-horrordeathsubstance-use
“House Traveler” originally appeared in Bourbon Penn #34, Dec. 2024 and is reprinted in Thomas Ha’s debut collection, “Uncertain Sons and Other Stories” C/W: alludes to alcoholism The five of us were gathered on the floor of one of the last houses, trying...
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body-horrordeathviolence
“Madame Painte: For Sale” was first published in Behold! Oddities, Curiosities and Undefinable Wonders, edited by Doug Murano (Crystal Lake 2017), and then in the Word Horde collection ‘Lost in the Dark and Other Excursions’, in August 2025. C/W: 2nd...
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body-horrordeath
“Do It” was first published in the anthology ‘120 Murders: Dark Fiction Inspired by the Alternative Era’ C/W: gun violence, knife violence Note from author: The pizza joint in the story is based on a locally (local to me) famous spot in Boston’s South...
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deathsuicideviolence
“The Children of the Event” was first published in the collection ‘Portraits of Decay’ by Carson Winter, published by Salt Heart Press in June 2025. To support us during our year-end campaign, go to escapeartists.net/support-ea Notes from the author: As...
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deathgoreviolence
‘Christmas Eve at Beach House’ was first published in Routledge’s Christmas Annual, 1870. C/W murder, intimate partner violence To support us during our year-end campaign, go to https://escapeartists.net/support-ea The Oldhammer Fiction Podcast Eliza Lynn...
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abusedeathviolence
“The Old Lady” first appeared in the 1929 collection of ghost stories, Randall’s Round Penda’s Fen Void Merch Hot Singles In Your Area Adela Young must have come up to Oxford at the same time as myself; but no one, in a way, knew that she had. She was one...
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child-deathdeathviolence
“Dead Mabelle” first appeared in the 1929 collection Joining Charles and Other Stories CW: Allusions to suicide The sudden and horrible end of Mabelle Pacey gave her a publicity with the European press worth millions to J. and Z. Gohigh of Gohigh Films...
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deathmental-illnesssuicide
“The Shout” was first published in a limited edition chapbook, The Woburn Books #16, 1929. Jamie Oliver’s controversial children’s book has shone a spotlight on the importance of sensitivity readers Jamie Oliver pulls ‘offensive’ children’s book from sale...
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deathmental-illnessracism
“Mummy” first appeared in Weird Tales, November 1929 The Old Lady The Shout Power of Darkness Them Jones Boys Nathan Drake Lara Croft I have always prided myself on being a practical man; prosaic, if you will. In the old days the boys used to call me the...
PseudoPod 961: Body Heat is a PseudoPod original. C/W: death of a family member, cancer From the author: ‘Body Heat’ was inspired by a reoccurring dream during a 3-week solo expedition in the mountains. Void Merch Hot Singles In Your Area The river is...
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body-horrordeath-of-a-loved-oneillness-and-pandemic
“Hemorrhage” was originally published in the Book of Queer Saints Volume 2 CW: self-harm, drug abuse, addiction, physical abuse and coercive control It’s a dumb fight to pick, but I only learn that later. By the time they drag me out the back door of the...
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abuseself-harmsubstance-use
“Fat Betty” originally appeared in Shock Totem Issue 8 in 2014 From the author: “The story is meant to be set in a slightly dystopian near-future.” Fat Betty Listed Monuments The Watchers Ghost Stories The Woman in Black They say it’s God’s own country,...
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deathgoreviolence
PseudoPod 968: The Vibrations, Louder is a PseudoPod original. Insanity? Sure, why not. My lawyer advised me to plead insanity, and maybe it will help me. At least I’ll be able to talk to somebody qualified. The state of mental health care is deplorable in...
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deathgoreviolence
First published in Opportunity in 1925. When Hurston arrived in New York City in 1925, the Harlem Renaissance was at its zenith, and she soon became one of the writers at its center. Shortly before she entered Barnard, Hurston’s short story “Spunk” was...
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deathviolence
“Tree of the Forest Seven Bells Turns the World Round Midnight” originally appeared in Sleeping Under the Tree of Life and was reprinted in Sycorax’s Daughters Hounds of Tindalos Strange Things Happen at the 1-2 Point Sarah Conner Chronicles Sarah Conner...
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body-horrordeath
This story originally appeared in Splatterlands in 2013 under the title “The Artist” ART: The quality or expression or performance of that which is pleasing to the senses; that which is raised to more than ordinary importance. ARTIST: One who produces art....
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cannibalismgoremisogyny
“The Half-Pint Flask” was first published in The Bookman, May 1927 Racism https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/what-is-gullah-geechee-food-and-how-do-you-make-it...
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racism
PseudoPod 975: James Courtney Goes Home is a PseudoPod original. Get Out The personal effects of the late Mr. James Courtney found their way to me some months after his passing, once the stipulations of his will had been addressed and the remainder of his...
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racism
PseudoPod 976: Every Last Gossamer Strand is a PseudoPod original. CW: narcissism, family abuse and especially spiders. C.J. Dotson’s upcoming novel, The Cut Jess Lewis’s website Brene Brown: When Narcissists Get Older Fleetwood Mac, The Chain The high...
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abusebody-horrorcannibalism
“The Fruits Of” originally appeared in the online Spring 2024 edition of Club Chicxulub CW: dementia, death of a family member and suicidal ideation. They’d long since passed the point where road gave way to trail gave way to forest. Bright green ferns now...
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death-of-a-loved-onemental-illnesssuicide
PseudoPod 978: Where the Brass Band Plays is a PseudoPod original. CW: environmental horror, parent loss; grief, reality vs. illusion, nostalgia, willful blindness From the author: “This story grew out of the feeling that we live in an increasingly...
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death-of-a-loved-one
“Old Things are Meant to Be Found and Shared” first appeared as “Of Lovecraft and ‘He’” in The Book of Starry Wisdom. “The Secret in the Tomb” originally appeared in the May 1935 issue of Weird Tales. From Leanna Renee Hieber: “Much like the introduction...
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body-horrordeathgore
“Nesters” originally appeared in the anthology Lovecraft’s Children CW: Animal death They killed the last calf that morning. Ma wanted to hold off, give the poor thing a chance, but Pa said it were cruel to let a body live like that. He cracked the hammer...
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animal-harmbody-horrordeath
“The Shambler from the Stars” first appeared in Weird Tales, September 1935 I have nobody but myself to blame for the whole affair. It was my own blundering that precipitated that unforeseen horror upon us both; my own stupidity that caused our downfall....
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deathgoreviolence
“The Haunter of the Dark” first appeared in Weird Tales, December 1936 CW: xenophobia H.P. Lovecraft The Horror of the Heights Federal Hill, Providence Voluminous: The Letters of HP Lovecraft Episode 82 Lovecraftian horror — and the racism at its core —...
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body-horrordeathracism
“Grave Worms” originally appeared in Cassilda’s Song: Tales Inspired by Robert W. Chambers’ King in Yellow Mythos an anthology edited by Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. The grey flannel suit might have looked masculine on the rack, or on another woman, but the close...
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mental-illnesssexual-content
“Think of Me” was first published in the anthology DARK RAINBOW: QUEER EROTIC HORROR (Riverdale Ave., 2018) CW: explicit sex, self-harm, transphobia, body horror, S&M kink Strange Darling Sasha and Taylor are fucking and Sasha is thinking about me. She...
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self-harmsexual-contenttransphobia
“The Louder I Call, the Faster It Runs” originally appeared in Bourbon Penn, and will appear in Ellen Datlow’s Year’s Best Horror #16 C/W: death by drowning In the predawn dark, Annie found herself in a bed, holding onto another hand beneath the cool...
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deathgoreviolence
PseudoPod 987: Reflections on Bloody Mary is a PseudoPod original. CW: domestic abuse, coercive control, alcoholism The Pixel Project, https://www.thepixelproject.net, has a list of shelters worldwide “Maaa-reee,” my husband taunts. “Oh, Maaa-reee. Come...
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abusesubstance-useviolence
PseudoPod 988: Anthropology 201 is a PseudoPod original. C/W: references to mental illness, second-person PoV College is a crucible. You go in a dumb kid, and with luck, you leave a less dumb adult, ready to take your place in the world. It took me a...
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goremental-illnessviolence
“Dimorphism” first appeared in SEASONS OF SEVERANCE, an anthology-collection hybrid published by Cemetery Gates Media in 2023. “Dimorphism” was later mentioned as a standout in the Summation section of The Best Horror of the Year Vol. 16. The short story...
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animal-harmbody-horrormental-illness
PseudoPod 990: Hearts and Half-Measures is a PseudoPod original. C/W: · Transphobia · Body horror · Murder · Gore · Grief · Death of a parent · Cannibalism From the author: The Manananggal (“self-segmenter” – the creature in this story) is a Filipino...
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body-horrorgoretransphobia
PseudoPod 991: The Hermit Crab God is a PseudoPod original. C/W: harm to animals, mental illness Notes from the author: I recently spoke with a nature photographer who was very passionate about hermit crabs, and he made me want to not give up. I suppose...
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animal-harmbody-horrormental-illness
PseudoPod 992: Chattering Spines is a PseudoPod original. C/W immolation, guns, animal harm From the author: Oh Spines. I wrote this while at a writing conference called Superstars Writing Seminars back in February of 2022 after attending a session run by...
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animal-harmgoreviolence
“The Bride” was originally published in Black Static in 2020 C/W necrophilia, sexual assault, physical assault, control As you drive south, the heat rushes up to greet you like your name is in the guestbook and it has your room prepared. A wet, eager heat,...
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abusesexual-contentsexual-violence
“Data Ghost” originally appeared in Storyteller: A Tanith Lee Tribute Anthology When the station stats popped up on the screen, the Interface said, Anomalous. Deni batted at their ear and muttered, “No, no, quit it.” In the second cockpit seat, Winnie...
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“The Suitable Surroundings” was first published in the San Francisco Examiner, July 14, 1889 “The Resurrection of Chilton Hills” first appeared in Harper’s Monthly Magazine in October 1929. C/W: suicide (The Suitable Surroundings) Ben Phillips’s music ?...
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suicide
“The Wind Beneath” originally appeared in Cosmic Horror Monthly “They Still Haven’t Found Stevie” has previously been featured on the No Sleep Podcast “Precious Darlings” originally appeared in Bag of Bones: This is Too Tense C/W: pandemic, mass death;...
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child-abusechild-deathgore
PseudoPod 998: The Story-Stealer’s Night is a PseudoPod original. C/Ws from author: Body horror, creature horror, brief suicidal ideation, cancer, child abuse, child death and parent death Story-teller, Story-screamer Tell your tales into this night. The...
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body-horrorchild-deathgore
‘Barghest’ was first published Modern Folklore: A Comma Press Course Anthology, in August 2025 C/W: bullying From the author: “The idea for Barghest came from reading legends surrounding the existence of mythical ‘black dogs.’ These were supernatural,...
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Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
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My entry into her apartments teeters entirely on this precarious pair of facts; one, I am small; and two, I am armed with Mother’s message.
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Author : Tim Chawaga Narrator : James Kaku Pierson Host : Mur Lafferty Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Escape Pod 938: Chug the Tea Leaves, Chuck the Ads is an Escape Pod original. Chug the Tea Leaves, Chuck the Ads by Tim Chawaga I wake up to a message and...
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deathsuicide
The Scientist Does Not Look Back By Kristen Koopman Feb. 17, 3:40 AM. Audio notebook for new project: revival of a clinically dead patient, 36 year old male, died of hypothermia and shock. The technician at the morgue hesitated when releasing him to me....
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Author : Sylvie Althoff Narrator : Serah Eley Host : Mur Lafferty Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Escape Pod 955: Endymion is an Escape Pod original. Contains transphobic slur, adult language, and brief but graphic violence Endymion by Sylvie Althoff It’s...
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goretransphobiaviolence
Vault (Part 1 of 2) By D.A. Xiaolin Spires Chenguang hikes up her sleeves before vaulting over the pile of fuzzy moss and greets Lukas with a nod. The chloropolyurethane fabric flaps in the slight breeze and the double suns beat down onto her arms. Lukas...
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body-horror
Vault (Part 2 of 2) By D.A. Xiaolin Spires (...Continued from Part 1) “Lukas?” Chenguang’s voice echoes in this expanse of dark. A vortex of light opens to her right and she sees a warped head and legs emerge from a point in the dark. It’s Lukas. As he...
This Little War of Ours By Arden Baker SECURE PRIORITY COMMUNIQUE distribution SOLITAIRE, keyword MASQUERADE, source PENTACLE FROM: TRIPLE INTENT TO: ASPHODEL BEGIN CONTENT Even if you’re my enemy, I’m glad to hear from you.
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suicidewar
Author : Rebecca Buchanan Narrator : Nicola Chapman Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Devin Martin Discuss on Forums Previously published by Sherlock Holmes and the Occult Detectives 1 (Belanger Press) Rated PG The Adventure of the Faerie Coffin: Being...
Author : Rebecca Buchanan Narrator : Nicola Chapman Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Devin Martin Discuss on Forums Previously published by Sherlock Holmes and the Occult Detectives 1 (Belanger Press) Rated PG ~ Five ~ Dinner was not silent. While we sat...
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violence
Author : Alexia Tolas Narrator : Omega Francis Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Eric Valdes Discuss on Forums PodCastle 837: Good Fortune For a Beloved Child is a PodCastle original. Content warnings for the death of a child, racism, and allusions to...
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Author : Sara S. Messenger Narrator : Cherrae L. Stuart Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Devin Martin Discuss on Forums Previously published by Fantasy Magazine (Reprinted in The Year’s Best Fantasy, Vol. 2, 2023, Pyr Books) Rated PG-13 Potemora in the...
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violence
Author : Rachael K. Jones Narrator : Heather Thomas Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Devin Martin Discuss on Forums Previously published by Nightmare Magazine Content warnings for gun violence, school shootings, child endangerment, references to child...
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Authors : Anna Mikhalevskaya and Elvira Rizaeva Narrator : Yaroslav Barsukov Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Devin Martin Discuss on Forums PodCastle 846: Against All Odds is a PodCastle original. Content warnings for war, death, injury, and child...
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deathviolencewar
Author : Julia LaFond Narrator : Diane Severson Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Devin Martin Discuss on Forums PodCastle 850: Publish or Perish is a PodCastle original. Content warnings for murder, violence, and abuse of power Rated PG-13 Publish or...
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abusedeathviolence
Author : Albert Chu Narrator : Curtis C. Chen Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Devin Martin PodCastle 861: A Most Lovely Song is a PodCastle original. Content warnings for war, parental death, assault, a racial slur, and references to torture, genocide,...
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Author : Beesan Odeh Narrator : Zeina Sleiman Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Eric Valdes Artist : Iasmin Omar Ata Discuss on Forums Previously published by Lightspeed Magazine Content warning for the death of a child Rated PG-13 Al-Kahf الكهف By Beesan...
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Author : Karim Kattan Narrator : Amal Singh Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Eric Valdes Artist : Iasmin Omar Ata Discuss on Forums Previously published by The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction Rated PG-13 The Witch OF Endor by Karim Kattan There...
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Author : S.B. Divya Narrator : Kaushik Narasimhan Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Eric Valdes Discuss on Forums Previously published by Uncanny Content warnings for fire, violence (including domestic violence), references to rape, and parental deaths....
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Author : S.B. Divya Narrator : Kaushik Narasimhan Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Eric Valdes Discuss on Forums Previously published by Uncanny Content warnings for fire, violence (including domestic violence), references to rape, and parental deaths....
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abusedeathviolence
“The Red Lodge” originally published in the 1928 collection They Return at Evening. I am writing this from an imperative sense of duty, for I consider The Red Lodge is a foul death-trap and utterly unfit to be a human habitation — it has its own proper...
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child-deathdeath
“The Shadowy Escort” was first published in The London Magazine, May 1928 Seigfried Sassoon Base Details by Siegfried Sassoon Almost everybody has at one time or another wanted to write a detective story, but, for the greater well-being of publishers and...
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deathviolencewar
“The Ghost” was first published in The Windsor Magazine, May 1928. “Half-Past Two” was first published in the August 15, 1928 edition of The Daily Mail. She was a girl of fourteen, and she sat propped up with pillows in an old four-poster bed, coughing a...
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deathgoreviolence
“Skule Skerry” was originally published in the 1928 collection The Runagates Club The Excavation of Hobs Barrow The Stone Tape The Woman in Black It happened a good many years ago, when I was quite a young man. I wasn’t the cold scientist then that I fancy...
PseudoPod 904: Jinx is a PseudoPod original. CW: domestic violence/intimate partner violence. Your first date with Jake is perfect. So. That’s fucking weird. Not a complaint, obviously. Actually, it’s a relief: you’ve been on far too many first dates with...
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abusedeathviolence
“The Cask of Amontillado” originally appeared in Godey’s Magazine and Lady’s Book, November 1846 The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could; but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge. You, who so well know the nature of my soul,...
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body-horrordeathviolence
“Rare Providers” originally appeared in Fusion Fragment in November 2022 I like to hunt in the campground that sprouted from the outskirts of our town before we lived here. It’s hard to tell just where the town ends now that the world has grown wild, but...
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cannibalismdeathviolence
“Bring Them All Into the Light” originally appeared in the Great British Horror 7: Major Arcana representing the card The High Priestess. Heathen They’re on holiday when he sees the cottage. Julie and Nico are bickering in the back seat, Maggie searching...
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PseudoPod 909: The Witch in the Whale Bone Hut is a PseudoPod original. Four massive ribs held the hut together, two forming a thick arch near the front door. The bones were pockmarked and yellow, no doubt leftovers from the town’s glory days during the...
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body-horrordeathdeath-of-a-loved-one
“Lidless Eyes That See” was first released by PS Publishing in From the Waste Land, an anthology inspired by T.S. Eliot’s poem “The Waste Land.” The story was a finalist for the 2022 Aurealis Award for Best Horror Short Story [note: The Waste Land was...
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body-horrorcannibalismgore
“Masks” originally appeared in Forbidden Futures and was reprinted in the 2022 collection How to See Ghosts & Other Figments “The Machete at the End of the World” appeared in the collection Nightfall & Other Danger “The Tale of Belette” previously appeared...
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deathgoreviolence
PseudoPod 912: The Eidolonpterist is a PseudoPod original. I was climbing through the window of a ruined castle the only time the police ever caught me. I turned out my bag to show them everything I carried: a torch, pencils, notebooks. I flipped through...
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racismsexual-violenceviolence
“The Vengeance Of Nitocris” was first published in Weird Tales, August 1928 Hushed were the streets of many-peopled Thebes. Those few who passed through them moved with the shadowy fleetness of bats near dawn, and bent their faces from the sky as if...
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PseudoPod 914: Spirit Husband is a PseudoPod original. The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover Don’t collect gifts from strangers. Don’t pick up money on the streets. Don’t take food in your dream. The spicy fried exterior of the akara melts over my...
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deathpregnancy-losssexual-violence
“Heavy Rain” originally appeared in the 2023 anthology Howls from the Wreckage CW: Suicide, bloody body parts Samaritans 988 Lifeline List of suicide crisis lines on Wikipedia I’m standing in the doorway where you last stood before you got up on a chair,...
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body-horrorgoresuicide
PseudoPod 916: Flash on the Borderlands LXX: Through a Glass Darkly is a PseudoPod original. “Three Awakenings: Hello, World” is a PseudoPod original “Mirrors at Night” is a PseudoPod original “A Persistent Woman” was originally published in the 1927...
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abuse
“Henry” was originally published in the collection Strange Fruit in 1928 For four hours every morning and for twenty minutes before a large audience at night Fletcher was locked up with murder. It glared at him from twelve pairs of amber eyes ; it clawed...
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animal-harmdeathviolence
“The Dreadful and Specific Monster of Starosibirsk” originally appeared in Weird Horror in May 2021 Capitalist Realism by Mark Fisher I know what you will say. You will say to me, Arseny, there are enough real monsters in this world—why do you make your...
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animal-harmgoreviolence
‘Chickamauga’ first published in the San Francisco Examiner, January 20, 1889 One sunny autumn afternoon a child strayed away from its rude home in a small field and entered a forest unobserved. It was happy in a new sense of freedom from control, happy in...
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deathgorewar
PseudoPod 922: Something Stirring Underneath is a PseudoPod original. From the author: “At the far northwestern corner of Georgia down an unmarked path off a logging road lies the crumbling ruins of a manor that was host to murder and fire. It is only one...
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body-horror
‘Too Little, Too Little, Too Much’ originally appeared in Cossmass Infinites in March of 2022 Fans of the urban legend of the Russian Sleep Experiment may be excited to see a recent movie release “The Soviet Sleep Experiment” is available online now with...
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abusechild-abuseviolence
PseudoPod 924: The Things That Wash Up on Marble Beach is a PseudoPod original. From the author: “Following the enthusiastic and repeated recommendations of a good friend of mine (looking at you BDM), I read Dan Simmons’ Hyperion a couple of years back....
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body-horrorgoreillness-and-pandemic
“Beach Head” was published in On Spec (longtime Canadian sci-fi/horror magazine) – 2008 & The Best Horror of the Year Volume 1 – 2009 CW: Drug use, problematic language “Are you still alive over there?” Alvy’s voice sounded weak, but it retained the...
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goresubstance-useviolence
“Three Nights With the Angel of Death” was originally published in the anthology ALONG HARROWED TRAILS from Timber Ghost Press in July 2023 The Quick and the Dead Arizona, 1884—Day One The people of Vulture City are calling him the Angel of Death. But that...
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deathgoreviolence
“Bonesoup” originally published in Strange Horizons, July 2022 From the author: “My initial idea was a Hansel and Gretel retelling where the Evil Witch actually has children of her own. It became a story about Greece’s intergenerational trauma, called...
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body-horrorchild-deathdeath
PseudoPod 931: What He Woke is a PseudoPod original. From the author: “This story was written before the 2024 British General Election. The MP whose voting record inspired these events has since been fired by his constituents. We didn’t feed him to a sea...
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body-horrordeath
“The Man With a Serpent in his System” originally appeared in London Mystery Magazine Selection (No. 99) November 1973. Jane reached out to us in 2023. She told us that, back in the 1970s when she was in her twenties, she wrote and had ‘The Man With a...
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“The Hollow Temple” was first published in Black Mask, December 1928. This is the second of four novelettes that were fixed up into the novel The Dain Curse. I Eric Collison came into my office. There was too much pink in his eyes and not any in his skin....
“The Hollow Temple” was first published in Black Mask, December 1928. This is the second of four novelettes that were fixed up into the novel The Dain Curse. IV I spent most of the day fidgeting in and out of my room. The general vagueness of my job in...
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deathgoreviolence
“The Hollow Temple” was first published in Black Mask, December 1928. This is the second of four novelettes that were fixed up into the novel The Dain Curse. The Thin Man (Novel) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thin_Man The Thin Man (Movie)...
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deathgoreviolence
PseudoPod 936: Flash on the Borderlands LXXI: A Gibbet of Flesh is a PseudoPod original. “Every Part of You”: CW terminal illness, body horror, insects “Every Part of You” was first published in OOZE: Little Bursts of Body Horror, edited by Ruth Anna...
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body-horrordeath-of-a-loved-onegore
PseudoPod 937: The Yearning of the All-Devouring Earth is a PseudoPod original. It’s always when we find a moment of peace that the universe remembers we exist—or maybe it’s less that the universe remembers, and more that it feels bored in our general...
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“Sea Curse” was originally published in Weird Tales, May 1928 The Soul Cages And some return by the failing light And some in the waking dream. For she hears the heels of the dripping ghosts That ride the rough roofbeam. —Kipling THEY were the brawlers and...
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deathmisogynyviolence
CW: Ableist slur This material originally appeared in The Hitherto Secret Experiments of Marie Curie edited by Bryan Thomas Schmidt & Henry L. Herz published by Blackstone Publishing (©2023) I didn’t join in as my surviving family members conversed over...
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animal-harmgoreviolence
PseudoPod 940: Controlling Your Weeds is a PseudoPod original. NIMBY https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/not-in-my-back-yard#:~:text=’Not%20in%20My%20Back%20Yard,development%20in%20their%20local%20area https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NIMBY...
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body-horrorracismviolence
“In Haskins” originally appeared in Apex, issue 127 Everyone, both the young and the old, went about their lives as usual on the day of the Mask Festival. The downtown streets were covered with colored leaves and Mr. Burkett still waved at children and...
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abusechild-deathviolence
PseudoPod 942: The Sound of a Jackknife is a PseudoPod original. The Dead Room Pontypool I only took the Tremaine gig because of Shepherd’s recommendation. “This one won’t pay much,” Shepherd admitted over the phone. People chattered in the background...
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“Oneirophobia” originally appeared in NEVER WAKE: A DREAM HORROR ANTHOLOGY, edited by Kenneth W. Cain and Tim Meyer, and published by Crystal Lake Publishing on 9/8/23 From the author: “I’ve experienced sleep paralysis a few times in my life, but the first...
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PseudoPod 944: The House That Stands Over Your Grave is a PseudoPod original. From the author: “For as universal as it is, I find it weirdly difficult to explain grief in a way that feels satisfying. It’s a slippery, nebulous thing. It can hide from you or...
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PseudoPod 945: The Gobstomper is a PseudoPod original. A lot changes as you get older, thought Wilkie Saunders. For example, he’d been sure older boys like Tom Dunn—who was either in 10th or 11th grade depending on if you counted the year he was...
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‘Will They Disappear’ originally appeared in the 2024 collection The Nightmare Box from Cursed Morsels Press From the author: “This piece is based on the horrendous real-life story of Jennifer and Sarah Hart, two white women who adopted six Black children...
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“Less Exalted Tastes” originally appeared in the 2024 collection All Who Wander Are Lost Gemma Amor https://gemmaamorauthor.com/ Total Immersion https://gemmaamorauthor.com/books-gemma-amor/full-immersion-by-gemma-amor/ Hot Singles In Your Area by Jordan...
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“The Slow Music of Drums” was originally published in the 2024 Anthology Northern Nights edited by Michael Kelly TW: features grief, an implied apocalypse, sinister music, a family curse, cosmic horror and bees Astute readers and listeners may be aware, or...
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child-deathdeathsuicide
“If You Don’t Want a Cat, Don’t Get a Kitten” originally appeared in the 2024 collection Recreational Panic From the author: “I dedicated one of my stories, ‘If You Don’t Want a Cat, Don’t Get a Kitten’, to Brian Keene. His adventures with stray kittens...
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I’ll always wonder: did the Timeless come here for the Bog? Or did the Bog come here for them?
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Common Speech By Elise Stephens Dr. Jaiyesimi Obiaka tugged at her sweat-damp collar, wiped her eyes, and tried to focus on the copied pages of the final experiment she and Ganiru had created together. Just looking over his familiar handwriting blurred her...
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death-of-a-loved-oneillness-and-pandemicviolence
Author : Monica Joyce Evans Narrator : Julia Rios Host : Mur Lafferty Audio Producer : Summer Brooks “The Hagfish Has Three Hearts” was originally published in Cossmass Infinities (September 2021) The Hagfish Has Three Hearts by Monica Joyce Evans The...
If My Body Is a Temple, Raze It to the Ground By Lauren Ring Thea helped me with my upload today. Decent response speed. Props to whoever designed her—so realistic! — anonymous customer review for Acheron Uploads, four out of five stars I know, I know....
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Bishop's Opening (Part 2 of 4) By R.S.A. Garcia (Continued from Part 1...) Bishop was alone in the Grandmaster's Penthouse suite when the call came from the Kingston. Once it was over and his Grandmaster's virtual form had dissipated, Bishop cursed under...
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violence
Bishop's Opening (Part 3 of 4) By R.S.A. Garcia (Continued from Part 2...) The Pawn was seated at the table with arms outstretched along its surface. Metal restraints held their forearms and wrists immobile. They had been stripped naked and their mask...
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goreviolence
Author : Maurice Broaddus Narrator : Cherrae L. Stuart Host : Mur Lafferty Audio Producer : Summer Brooks “Itoro fe Queen” was originally published in The Sunday Morning Transport, May 2022 Itoro fe Queen by Maurice Broaddus “It’s all gone.” The ethereal...
#buttonsinweirdplaces (Part 2 of 2) By Simon Kewin (... Continued from Part 1) The news the following morning was bad. An explosion in the middle of a market-square in Libya had been variously blamed upon a suicide-bomber and upon over-zealous security...
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Author : Ava Kelly Narrator : Ben Gideon Host : Tina Connolly Audio Producer : Summer Brooks “The Confessionist” was previously published in the anthology: Community of Magic Pens, edited by E.D.E. Bell, released May 2020 by Atthis Arts The Confessionist...
Author : Victor Forna Narrators : Moustapha Mbacké Diop, Ada Nnadi and Somto Ihezue Host : Shingai Njeri Kagunda Audio Producer : Eric Valdes Discuss on Forums Previously published by Bad Form (African History Issue) Rated PG-13 In The Woods Somewhere (or...
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Author : MacKenzie R. Snead Narrator : Heather Thomas Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Devin Martin PodCastle 770: The Dragon Killer’s Daughter is a PodCastle original. Content warning for the death of a parent. Rated PG The Dragon Killer’s Daughter by...
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Author : Z. K. Abraham Narrator : C. L. Clark Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Devin Martin Discuss on Forums PodCastle 772: “Mama uat-ur” is a PodCastle original. Content warnings for references to torture and suicide Rated PG-13 Mama uat-ur By Z. K....
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abuseself-harmsuicide
Author : Somto Ihezue Narrator : Pemi Aguda Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Devin Martin Discuss on Forums Previously published by Rain Dance: Afritondo Prize 2022 Anthology Strong Content Warning for assault, violence, and female genital mutilation...
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Author : Deborah L. Davitt Narrator : Dave Robison Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Devin Martin Discuss on Forums Previously published by The Overcast Rated PG-13 A Thousand Echoes in One Voice by Deborah L. Davitt You’ve snuck through doors that should...
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Author : Eugenia Triantafyllou Narrator : C. L. Clark Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Eric Valdes Discuss on Forums Previously published by Beneath Ceaseless Skies Content Warnings for animal death and themes of infant death Rated PG-13 Of the Body By...
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Author : Lauren Ring Narrator : Rebecca Fraimow Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Eric Valdes Discuss on Forums Previously published by Fantasy and Science Fiction Content Warnings for racial discrimination, terminal illness, and the death of a parent...
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Authors : C. L. Moore and Henry Kuttner Narrator : Kaitlyn Zivanovich Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Devin Martin Discuss on Forums Previously published by Weird Tales, November 1937 Content warning for torture PG-13 Quest of the Starstone – Part Two...
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Author : Dorothy Quick Narrator : Valerie Valdes Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Eric Valdes Discuss on Forums Previously published by Weird Tales Content warnings for murder and references to torture Rated PG-13 The Woman on the Balcony by Dorothy...
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deathviolence
Author : Lora Gray Narrator : Jo Moran Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Devin Martin Discuss on Forums Previously published by Fantasy & Science Fiction Content warnings for a surgical procedure, homophobia (including slurs), assault, sexual assault, and...
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abusehomophobiasexual-violence
The original version was first published in “Ghost Stories Magazine” April, 1927, “On the Isle of Blue Men” was an atmospheric, Lovecraftian thriller -almost certainly inspired by the real world 1900 Flannan Isles lighthouse crew disappearance. This story...
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deathgoreviolence
“Browdean Farm” originally appeared in the 1927 collection Some Ghost Stories Check out ll the amazing things W.J. Walton is working on at AWKWARD LABS (http://www.awkward-labs.com) ? Most people with limited vocabularies such as mine would describe the...
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deathsuicide
“Two Black Bottles” originally appeared in Weird Tales, August 1927 Not all of the few remaining inhabitants of Daalbergen, that dismal little village in the Ramapo Mountains, believe that my uncle, old Dominie Vanderhoof, is really dead. Some of them...
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body-horrordeath
“A Short Trip Home” was published in 1927 and is in the public domain F. SCOTT FITZGERALD – “The Diamond As Big As The Ritz” (1922) BLACKWATER 2: MORE TALES OF THE FANTASTIC by Alberto Manguel Stefan Grabinski KRAFTWERK – Trans-Europe Express (1977) Pierre...
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violence
PseudoPod 851: Flash on the Borderlands LXIV: Purification is a PseudoPod original. Candlemas: “February 2, 2023 is Candlemas. I’ve always had a thing for microfiction -tiny, jewel-like figures, acting out their passion play to the chiming of a pocket...
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death
“Every Body Depicted Is Exploited” was first published in PopCult’s Gruesome Love anthology as “Crit.” Everyone knew that Pamela was the only real artist there. The rest of us were just play-acting. The sensible ones, like me, figured out pretty early on...
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body-horror
PseudoPod 853: Oni in the Box is a PseudoPod original. Now, Sobo was our late father’s mother. By our mother’s accounts she was mad, if not wicked. Gossip ran muddy in our family. One relative, now deceased, told me she was once the personal Tay? of the...
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deathviolence
PseudoPod 855: And The Water Said Kneel is a PseudoPod original. Content Warning: Rape Revenge The river claims her like a lover, like someone who needed her whole and open and honest. It feels like she’s supposed to expose her throat, to bow for the very...
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deathsexual-violenceviolence
PseudoPod 857: Of Dark That Bites is a PseudoPod original. CW: Traumatic birth “Where do we go when we die?” asked Bea. She was in her car seat, a masterpiece of straps and safety standards that did less than nothing to assuage the mad patter of Lucy’s...
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body-horrormental-illnesssuicide
“On the Getting of Husbands and the Spawning of Children” previously appeared in Arsenika in April 2021 “The Chairmaker’s Daughter” is a PseudoPod original “Concerning the Fantastic Native Flora of the Indo-Chinese Padma Valley” is a PseudoPod Original....
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“Time Enough at Last” originally appeared in IF Worlds of Science Fiction January 1953. For a long time, Henry Bemis had had an ambition. To read a book. Not just the title or the preface, or a page somewhere in the middle. He wanted to read the whole...
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deathwar
PseudoPod 861: Swing Batter Batter is a PseudoPod original. A baseball clubhouse is a weird place. You’ve got California prep school kids rubbing elbows with good old boys from Texas and Louisiana, and guys from the Dominican and Venezuela mixing with guys...
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violence
PseudoPod 865: Wanted: Bone-White Skull-Patterned Lace Trim is a PseudoPod original. The stroller on the side of the road caught Nina Wong’s eye as her Fiesta rounded the bend on her way to work. She slowed down, noting the FREE! sign taped to its handles....
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abusebody-horrorpregnancy-loss
“Litany In The Heart Of Exorcism” originally appeared in Flash Fiction Online, and is due to appear in Dutch translation in Speculatief “He’s Just Like You” is a PseudoPod Original — “‘He’s Just Like You’ stems from the anxieties of being a father and the...
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“The Dancing Partner” is excerpted from Jerome’s non-genre novel Novel Notes where it is the second half of Chapter 11. The serialization of that chapter first appeared in the March 1893 issue of The Idler. “This story,” commenced MacShaughnassy, “comes...
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deathgoreviolence
“Nymph of Darkness” was originally published in Fantasy Magazine, April 1935 Afflicted Season Two Fundraiser The thick Venusian dark of the Ednes waterfront in the hours before dawn is breathless and tense with a nameless awareness, a crouching danger. The...
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“Bitter is the Sea, and Bright” was first published in Daily Science Fiction, November 2018 “Fishing Season” is a PseudoPod original — Fishing Season: I went fishing at a nearby reservoir, and I didn’t catch anything except water willow and the wisps of...
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This text was extracted from McClure’s Jan 1911, illustrated by Henry Raleigh. The short story was adapted by herself into a novel in 1913; and again adapted into an opera and numerous films (including one by Alfred Hitchcock) and radio plays. “THERE he is...
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deathviolence
This text was extracted from McClure’s Jan 1911, illustrated by Henry Raleigh. The short story was adapted by herself into a novel in 1913; and again adapted into an opera and numerous films (including one by Alfred Hitchcock) and radio plays. “THERE he is...
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deathsuicideviolence
PseudoPod 877: Billy’s Garage is a PseudoPod original. CW: Animal cruelty From the author: “This is my contribution to the “kids on bikes” subgenre of horror. It’s set back when I was a teen, and yes, we did have to dissect actual frogs.” Incidentally, the...
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animal-harmdeathviolence
PseudoPod 878: The Son (El Hijo) and The Feather Pillow (El almohadón de plumas) is a PseudoPod original. “El Hijo” was first published under the title “El padre” in La Nación, 15 January 1928. “El Almohadón de Plumas” was first published in the magazine...
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“Resilience” was originally released as episode 704 of PseudoPod. Jason gets home while I’m at the sink. He comes up behind me, holds me around the waist, and tickles the side of my face with his soft new beard. We watch the young squirrels shake a tree...
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body-horrorchild-abuseviolence
“The King in Yella” was originally published in Under Twin Suns: Alternate Histories of the Yellow Sign edited by James Chambers. It won the Ditmar award in 2022 for Best Short Story. I’m always returning to Rapptown in my thoughts. Unbidden, unwanted, I’m...
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deathsubstance-useviolence
PseudoPod 881: How to Win a Dance Contest During an Apocalypse (In Nine Easy Steps!) is a PseudoPod original. From the author: “While I’m a horror fan first and foremost, I’m also a big aficionado of coming-of-age films and romantic comedies, especially of...
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“Ba’alat Ov” originally appeared in The Jewish Book of Horror In the night, the spirits spoke with hisses and gurgles like serpents wrapped around my head. I awoke covered in sweat, barely able to breathe, so afraid of what they would ask me to do. They...
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body-horrorgoresuicide
“Report on the Flanking Action” was originally published in the braided collection, Tales of the Callamo Mountains. CW: racial slurs M.R. James Shadows at the Door Mark Nixon The Thing Search & Rescue A Podcast to the Curious From the action report of...
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“The Grave of Angels” first appeared in Vastarien Volume 4 Issue 1, June 2021. CW: intimate partner death From the author: “This story incorporates many of my recurrent themes–rituals, religion, the end of the world, and did not end up where I thought it...
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body-horrordeath-of-a-loved-oneillness-and-pandemic
PseudoPod 886: A Wonder of Nature, In Need of Killing is a PseudoPod original. From the author: “This story was inspired by the snapping turtle who lives in a neighbor’s pond. Each spring she crawls from the water to the shrubbery in front of our house,...
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“The Evaluator” was originally published in “A Breath from the Sky” in 2017 and is included in the 2023 collection “No One Will Come Back for Us and Other Stories.” It is the first of Premee’s stories to appear on Ellen Datlow’s annual ‘Honorable Mentions’...
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“The Body Remembers” was originally written for, and published in, the anthology Dark Matter Presents: Monstrous Futures in April 2023. CW: War, death, graphic descriptions of injuries, self-harm, suicidal ideation From the author: “The idea for this story...
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“The Stringer of Wiltsburg Farm” was originally published in Vastarien and was reprinted in the 2023 collection Who Lost, I Found Dark Harvest novel Dark Harvest Daddy called tobacco a quick and dirty crop. Quick because it was one hundred days from...
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“Thirteen Ways of Not Looking at a Blackbird” was originally published in the 2023 anthology No Trouble at All edited by Alexis Dubon and Eric Raglin Hugh Dancy: Will Graham I. I am a baby boy. In the bathtub, looking out, past my mother as she cries and...
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“The Belsnickel” has previously appeared on the online platforms Vocal and Patreon. From the author: ”I loved the stories my German great-grandmother shared about belsnickels – friends and neighbors who dressed in big fur coats and frightful masks and went...
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“The Red Lady” was originally published in the 2023 anthology Collage Macabre presented by the Future Dead Collective SHOW NOTES The Whoniverse The Full Lid ‘Art is never finished, only abandoned.’ – This week’s closing quote has a fascinating, and very...
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“It Takes Slow Sips” first appeared in the anthology Lost Contact and was reprinted in the 2023 collection The Inconsolables CW: Stalking, allusion to date rape From the author: “The word incel, which means “involuntary celibate,” is never used explicitly...
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“Arcanum Miskatonica” was originally published in Lovecraftiana Vol.3, No.1, April 2018 and reprinted in the 2023 anthology The Nameless Songs of Zadok Allen & Other Things that Should Not Be edited by Jessica Augustsson From the editors: The Nameless...
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Payday Weather By Matthew Claxton We wound our way up the curving canyon roads in overloaded pickups and hatchbacks, corners taken too fast, sagging bumpers kissing asphalt, engines redlining from effort and heat. Our procession passed an exodus going the...
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violence
Author : Maurice Broaddus Narrator : Hollis Monroe Host : Mur Lafferty Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Discuss on Forums City of Refuge originally appeared in Escape Pod: The Science Fiction Anthology, November 2020. Contains harsh language, violence, and...
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racismsubstance-useviolence
Author : Lia Swope Mitchell Narrator : S. Kay Nash Host : Mur Lafferty Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Discuss on Forums “Rena in the Desert” was previously published in Asimov’s (March/April 2020) Contains harsh language Rena in the Desert by Lia Swope...
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Vi'hun Heal By Michelle Tang The entrance panels, currently assuming the appearance of Earthian saloon doors, slid open. I rippled a welcoming cadence of light beneath my skin, and then, seeing the newcomer was human, made my best approximation of a smile....
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goreslaverywar
The Heroine Kokofe By Ife J. Ibitayo Kokofe awoke an hour before dawn, crusty-eyed and groggy. She wobbled to her feet and washed her face. Her simuclip projected her reflection before her eyes. Already dressed, her pink all-weather blouse draped over her...
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Author : R.S.A. Garcia Narrator : Maxine Moore Host : Valerie Valdes Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Discuss on Forums This story first appeared in Clarkesworld Magazine (Issue 172, January 2021), and is a finalist for the 2022 Ignyte Award for Best Novella...
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Author : R.S.A. Garcia Narrator : Maxine Moore Host : Valerie Valdes Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Discuss on Forums This story first appeared in Clarkesworld Magazine (Issue 172, January 2021), and is a finalist for the 2022 Ignyte Award for Best Novella...
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Author : Jordan Chase-Young Narrator : Justin Thomas James Host : Mur Lafferty Audio Producer : Summer Brooks This story appeared in the Fall 2020 issue of The Colored Lens (October 15 2020). The Vaulting Vandals of Termina Celeste (Part 1) by Jordan...
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An Incident on Ishtar By Brian Trent Her family tried very hard to never use the word “crazy” with her. So therefore, they didn’t say it was crazy that she was applying for a Venusian post as Tier 3 Balloon Specialist. She tried explaining her reasons to...
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violence
Author : C.C. Finlay Narrator : Heather Thomas Host : Mur Lafferty Audio Producer : Summer Brooks “Time Bomb Time” originally appeared in the May 2015 issue of Lightspeed Magazine. It was reprinted in Rich Horton’s The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy...
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abuse
The Princess, NP By Brian Hugenbruch I sat in the Commander’s office at Hexa Station, in clothes that stank of subspace, and the only polite thing I could do to drown out the universe was compute obscene sums in my head. It didn’t stop the sounds from...
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abuse
Author : Aimee Picchi Narrator : Ibba Armancas Host : Mur Lafferty Audio Producer : Summer Brooks “Solo Cooking for the Recently Revived” was previously published in the Zombies Need Brains anthology “Apocalyptic” in June 2020 Solo Cooking for the Recently...
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Author : Patrice Sarath Narrator : Tatiana Grey Host : Mur Lafferty Audio Producer : Summer Brooks The Way of the Laser (Vernacular Books, May 2020) Don’t miss Spider, Part One Spider (Part 2) by Patrice Sarath Nguyen “Attention. Attention. Stay in your...
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Author : Chip Houser Narrator : Wilson Fowlie Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Peter Adrian Behravesh Discuss on Forums Previously published by Bourbon Penn 20 Content warnings for bullying, injury, and child peril. Rated R Smilers by Chip Houser Aiden...
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Author : Thomas Ha Narrator : Eleiece Krawiec Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Peter Adrian Behravesh Discuss on Forums Previously published in Metaphorosis. Content warnings for fire and bodily harm. Rated R Where the Old Neighbors Go by Thomas Ha The...
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Author : Chaitanya Murali Narrator : Prashanth Srivatsa Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Peter Adrian Behravesh Discuss on Forums PodCastle 723: Just One Last Mango is a PodCastle original. Rated PG-13 Just One Last Mango by Chaitanya Murali “Do you want...
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deathdeath-of-a-loved-onegore
Author : Marina Ermakova Narrator : Srikripa Krishna Prasad Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Peter Adrian Behravesh Discuss on Forums PodCastle 726: The Elixary of the Evanescent Market is a PodCastle original. Rated PG The Elixary of the Evanescent...
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violence
Author : Christoph Weber Narrator : Dave Robison Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Peter Adrian Behravesh Discuss on Forums PodCastle 728: The Fireman is a PodCastle original. Content warning for fire and child harm. Rated R The Fireman by Christoph Weber...
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Author : R.S.A. Garcia Narrator : Omega Francis Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Peter Adrian Behravesh Discuss on Forums Previously published by Devil’s Ways anthology Content warning for domestic violence Rated R Fire In His Eyes, Blood On His Teeth By...
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Author : Eleanna Castroianni Narrator : Alethea Kontis Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Peter Adrian Behravesh Discuss on Forums Previously published by Fireside Content warnings for war, imprisonment, and torture Rated PG-13 An Incomplete Account of the...
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Author : Patrick Freyne Narrator : Eleanor R. Wood Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Peter Adrian Behravesh Discuss on Forums Previously published by Winter Papers Volume 5 Content warning for drowning, malnourishment, and extreme peril Rated PG-13 The...
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Author : M. E. Bronstein Narrators : Rachael K. Jones and Dave Thompson Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Peter Adrian Behravesh Discuss on Forums PodCastle 736: The Gorgon’s Glass is a PodCastle original. Rated PG-13 The Gorgon’s Glass by M.E. Bronstein...
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Author : Vanessa Fogg Narrator : Tatiana Grey Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Devin Martin Discuss on Forums PodCastle 738: The Bones Beneath is a PodCastle original. Content warnings for violence and death Rated PG-13 The Bones Beneath by Vanessa Fogg...
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Author : Jaxon Tempest Narrator : Soleil Knowles Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Eric Valdes Discuss on Forums PodCastle 741: Between The Island and the Deep Blue Sea is a PodCastle original. Rated PG-13 Between The Island and the Deep Blue Sea By Jaxon...
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Authors : Dafydd McKimm and Timothy Mudie Narrators : Alasdair Stuart and Kyle Akers Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Devin Martin Discuss on Forums “I Will You Back to Time and Space” was originally published by Flash Fiction Online “The Ocean-Eyed Boy”...
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Author : Shannon Peavey Narrator : Tina Connolly Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Eric Valdes Discuss on Forums Previously published by Apex Rated PG-13 The music for the promotion intro is “Sneaky Snitch” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under...
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Author : Saki (the pen name of H. H. Munro) Narrator : Kat Day Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Devin Martin Discuss on Forums First published in 1911 in “The Chronicles of Clovis” Content Warning for an outdated racial term Rated PG-13 “Traveler’s Guide...
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Author : Tim Major Narrator : Nicola Chapman Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Eric Valdes Discuss on Forums Previously published in “And the House Lights Dim”, from Luna Press Content Warning for postnatal depression Rated PG-13 O Cul-de-Sac! by Tim...
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Author : Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe Narrator : Somto Ihezue Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Eric Valdes Artist : Cindy Fan Discuss on Forums Previously published by Xenocultivars: Stories Of Queer Growth Rated PG-13 The Tree Whisperer by Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe...
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Author : Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki Narrator : Shingai Njeri Kagunda Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Devin Martin Artist : Cindy Fan Discuss on Forums Previously published by Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores Rated PG-13 The Witching Hour By Oghenechovwe...
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Author : Gabriella Buba Narrator : Vida Cruz-Borja Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Eric Valdes Artist : Cindy Fan Discuss on Forums Previously published by Strange Religion: Speculative Fiction of Spirituality, Belief, & Practice (Strange Concepts: Big...
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“And No Bird Sings” was first published in the magazine Woman, December 1926. “Birdsong & Elemental Slug” soundbed by Shawn M. Garrett, dedicated to Adi Newton & The Anti-Group (TAGC) The red chimneys of the house for which I was bound were visible from...
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animal-harmbody-horrorviolence
‘The Man Who Was Saved’ was first published in Weird Tales, May 1926 ‘Only I escaped.’ The man whom they had found adrift in the dory hung his head. ‘The others—’ the listeners bent nearer to catch his throatily whispered words—‘the others—it got them—that...
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body-horrordeathviolence
‘The Last Seance’ was first published in Ghost Stories, November 1926 Raoul Daubreuil crossed the Seine humming a little tune to himself. He was a good-looking young Frenchman of about thirty-two, with a fresh-coloured face and a little black moustache. By...
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“The Horse Leech Has Two Maws” was originally published in The Jewish Book of Horror This story deals with the Holocaust. This story has an academic frame and that the text on the website has a number of scholarly footnotes that provide additional context....
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body-horrorgenocidewar
“New to It All” first appeared in the collection I Would Haunt You If I Could published in March of 2021 by Undertow. My first girlfriend, Niamh, was a scratcher. Saoirse wasn’t like that. The first time Niamh asked me to stay the night, she was testing me...
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body-horrorsexual-content
“Sometimes Boys Don’t Know” was originally published in the July 2021 issue of Nightmare Magazine. “Human Body as Compendium” is a PseudoPod original. “Never Enough Pockets” is a PseudoPod original Never Enough Pockets: body horror, self-harm “Human Body...
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body-horrorself-harmsexual-violence
“February Moon” originally appeared in Beneath Ceaseless Skies in May, 2020, and was the first in a series of monster stories I’m writing that take place in old Texas. Something killed our rooster and three of our brown hens during the night. Thin ice...
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“The Parricide’s Tale” is an excerpt from a larger work, the notorious Gothic Novel Melmoth The Wanderer (1820) Wikipedia article on Melmoth The Wanderer This week’s quote It was in the midst of one of his most licentious songs, that my companion suddenly...
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cannibalismdeathviolence
PseudoPod 801: The Bear Across the Way is a PseudoPod original. I paid no more attention to the bear than I would have any new neighbors. Despite what my husband might tell you, the fact that he was a bear played into my curiosity very little. It was his...
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“Laughter Among the Trees” was previously published by The Dark Magazine on February 1st 2021. The highway to the campground cuts through the granite Laurentian Plateau like a desiccated wound. It’s been twenty five years since I’ve retraced this road and,...
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child-deathdeath-of-a-loved-oneracism
PseudoPod 803: Them At Number Seventy-Four is a PseudoPod original. When body number four is discovered, Mrs Patterson thinks that surely now she and her husband will be caught. Days creep past, then a week. Two. Three. Their excitement and relief begins...
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“The Fifteenth Green” was first published in Nights of the Round Table, 1926. Yard Act-Land of the Blind If You Build It, They Will Move: The Los Angeles Freeway System and the Displacement of Mexican East Los Angeles, 1944-1972 Another night at...
PseudoPod 806 : Garden Empire is a PseudoPod original. Insects, lots of insects I’d bought the house only the week before, when I was still in possession both of my teeth and of my job as the Head of Machine Learning for an Auckland-based startup. A...
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“Food Man” was originally published in Crank! and was nominated for an Otherwise Award, known at the time as the Tiptree Award. Dinner was the real problem. Mornings, it was easy to rush out of the house without eating; when it wasn’t, when her mother made...
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body-horrorself-harmsexual-content
“A Pearl as Red as Sin” originally appeared as “Baby” to open the anthology Good Southern Witches The baby bit hard into my flesh and held there. It dug into the left side of my womb with a pinprick pinch, sharp and determined. Lying in bed, cheek hot...
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abusebody-horrorsexual-content
PseudoPod 810: Her Face All Teeth is a PseudoPod original. Denny did not want to spy on the confessional, but at the same time, he did. He wanted what he did not want, or he did not want to want what he wanted. As a Catholic, he should have been...
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child-abusedeathviolence
PseudoPod 811: No One Really Lives Alone is a PseudoPod original. When the priest comes to your house to vanquish your demons, draped in ancient symbols with pockets of holy water oozing from her like sap, don’t ask who sent her. She’ll mark your doorstep...
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PseudoPod 813: A Belly Full of Spiders is a PseudoPod original. Alone in a dark basement, Davey’s learned to do much without his eyes. He can hear the groaning of a house that never settles. He can taste different flavours of humidity: rust, cloth, mould,...
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abusechild-abuseviolence
“The Green Scarf” originally appeared in The London Magazine, August 1926 When the Wellingford family became extinct the days of Wellingford Hall as one of the great country homes of England were already numbered. The estate passed into the hands of...
PseudoPod 815: Stinkpit is a PseudoPod original. Ben Wheatley interview A Field in England trailer Under the Earth trailer John Arnold’s traps were full; too many rabbits for one man’s needs. He could try selling a few down The Lamb for a fiver or maybe...
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“The Goatkeeper’s Harvest” was originally published in The Dark. Special thanks to the author for helping us find a reader. From the author: “When I was seven, I spent the summer on my aunt’s goat farm, and it was quite the experience. Anyone who’s dealt...
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PseudoPod 818: Flash on the Borderlands LXII: Flash Fiction Contest 7 Winners is a PseudoPod original. Position: Overnight home companion for shut in. Must be able to read. Lack of imagination a plus. Salary: 250 dollars a night. I’ve never seen who pays....
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“Balloon Season” has previously been featured in Fusion Fragment and Dark Matter Magazine. I’ve never gotten used to the sense of urgency of summer afternoons, that feeling of being drenched in the thickness of that still, blanketed heat, and trying to...
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PseudoPod 821 Special Anniversary Episode: THE DIRECTOR’S CUT! is a PseudoPod original. Towards the end of July 2022 we released a special episode to mark Alasdair Stuart’s 15 years as the voice of PseudoPod. It included the story Celestial Shores, written...
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PseudoPod 821: Celestial Shores is a PseudoPod original. Britt drove silently while Ray gazed past her at the beauty of the rock-strewn ocean, beyond the sheer drop-offs and flimsy guardrails that separated the coast road from the end of the continent....
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“The Experiment of Erich Weigert” was originally published in Weird Tales in 1926 The moment I gazed out over the audience I saw him. He was seated far back under the balcony that overhung the little auditorium, but even in the heavy shadow I could see his...
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“Little Freedoms” was first published in ‘Shoreline of Infinity’ in December 2017. The room is cylindrical, metal, no doors or windows. Nine of us stand in a circle, not touching, but spread your arms and you’d hit someone. I think I could lie flat in here...
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“Renascent” was first published by Aurealis in 2019. From the author: Renascent means ‘rising again into being or vigor’, an apt title for my story. The origin of this story came from my personal questioning about whether organ recipients take on the...
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body-horrorgoreviolence
“We’ve All Gone to the Magic Show” was previously published in Vastarien: Vol.3, Issue 1 by Grimscribe Press. Earlier this summer, word spread around our town that the Magic Show’s doors were open. Swollen and stained timbers that once barred the entrance...
PseudoPod 831: Idomeneja is a PseudoPod original. From the author: “The speculative elements from this story are based on the death masks found in the grave circles at the site at Mycenae. I have taken serious artistic liberties with the archaeology and...
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deathgoreviolence
Proverbs 16:31 – Gray hair is a crown of glory; it is gained in a righteous life. I suggest you don’t try to struggle, my dear. I’m sure you thought this would be easy. What danger is an old woman, all alone? In and out, simple. Help yourself to the purse...
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cannibalismgoreviolence
“Cockcrow Inn” was first published in the collection Who Wants a Green Bottle? and Other Uneasy Tales in 1926 Cockcrow Inn stands defiantly facing the sea. For countless years it has stood thus, holding at naught the greatest strength of wind and water,...
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PseudoPod 835: Trickin’ is a PseudoPod original. It’s time. Nestled beneath the rolling peaks from the mountain ranges, honeycombs of caves spread out in their like swollen slugs providing shelter from the weeping clouds. Raoul emerged from one of those...
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“Offerings “was first published in Doorbells At Dusk from Corpus Press, 2018 and reprinted in the 2022 collection “Convulsive” Blaine’s head hurts at the sight of Amelia shuffling up the block. Hot from raking leaves, Blaine stretches as she admires her...
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body-horrormisogyny
“Old Haunts” originally appeared in the 2022 collection How to See Ghosts & Other Figments Kim Parks considered himself something of a connoisseur of the haunted attractions that sprang up every year around Halloween. While he was getting his masters, he...
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body-horror
“No Hungry Generations” was published originally in the October 2022 Anthology, Death In The Mouth. The bird looked like the last descendent of a prehistoric mishap. Fatter than a turkey and wild-eyed even after death, it had small feet and a golden beard...
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“Palette” originally appeared in the anthology Howls From the Dark Ages: An Anthology of Medieval Horror. All of the ingredients for the woman’s makeup recipes are accurate for medieval Austria. The line etched across her forehead, deep as a vein, as if a...
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body-horrorgoremisogyny
“Mother Trucker” originally appeared in Mother: Tales Of Love And Terror by Weird Little Worlds in Fall 2022 My mother hits the moose in the pitch black of 4:32 a.m. There’s almost nothing to see, just a blur of limbs burnt sepia by the headlights of her...
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animal-harmchild-abuseviolence
“The Oval Portrait” was published in the April 26, 1845 edition of the Broadway Journal. “Not More Lovely than Full of Glee” originally appeared in A Winter’s Tale: Horror Stories for the Yuletide The chateau into which my valet had ventured to make...
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death
Balancing the Equation by Justin C. Key June 18, 2031 Lauren led her two-year-old son, Sean, slowly to their car while carrying three full bags of groceries. "Up," Sean said, showing her his palms. "Up, Mama, up!" "Ask one more time and you're getting a...
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child-deathdeathracism
Tloque Nahuaque By Nelly Geraldine García-Rosas, translated by Silvia Moreno-Garcia If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe. —Carl Sagan I—The Particle Accelerator They built an underground temple. A well of Babel...
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cannibalismchild-deathsuicide
Ascend, Exalt, Love, Propagate, Rise! By Sarah Kumari The Glory smolders through Jehanne's bloodstream, pulsing its encouragement. The rivals who have survived along with him–officially 'Fellow Eminents' now that selection is over–twitch and moan as their...
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body-horrorsexual-violenceviolence
Authors : Yudhanjaya Wijeratne and R. R. Virdi Narrator : Kaushik Narasimhan Host : S.B. Divya Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Discuss on Forums This story was originally published in The Expanding Universe 5: A Science Fiction Exploration Contains some...
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Author : Lauren Ring Narrator : Alethea Kontis Host : Tina Connolly Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Escape Pod 796: One Hundred Seconds to Midnight is an Escape Pod original. One Hundred Seconds to Midnight By Lauren Ring I wake before the plane lands. It’s...
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Author : Anjali Patel Narrator : Khaalidah Muhammad-Ali Host : Brent Lambert Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Discuss on Forums Escape Pod 806: Bright Lights Flying Beneath the Ocean is an Escape Pod original. Contains harsh language. Bright Lights Flying...
T _ ME By Alex Jennings The portable classroom was larger than Joan Ellen had expected. Lit from overhead with fluorescent lights and busy with seventh-grade artwork, it smelled of chalk dust, old books, and refrigerated air. It reminded Joan Ellen of...
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Author : DaVaun Sanders Narrator : Laurice White Host : Mur Lafferty Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Discuss on Forums This story first appeared in the Dark Universe anthology (November 2015) Warning for violence and gore The First Doom (Part 2) by DaVaun...
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Author : DaVaun Sanders Narrator : Laurice White Host : Mur Lafferty Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Discuss on Forums This story first appeared in the Dark Universe anthology (November 2015) Contains violence and harsh language The First Doom (Part 3) by...
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"The shoes are leather with delicate lines and pointy toes. Elegant shoes for elegant feet. They might have suited her too if she had yesterday’s feet. Chicken’s feet. But today her feet are that of an otter’s, stubby and covered in wet, glistening fur....
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Author : Hamilton Perez Narrator : Karen Menzel (née Bovenmyer) Host : Summer Fletcher Audio Producer : Peter Adrian Behravesh Discuss on Forums Previously published by The Dark. Rated R. Our Mortal Undressing by Hamilton Perez I. Discovery I suppose I’m...
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Author : Dustin Steinacker Narrator : Tatiana Grey Host : Summer Fletcher Audio Producer : Peter Adrian Behravesh Discuss on Forums Originally published by Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show. Content warnings: death, animated corpses, violence...
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Author : Dustin Steinacker Narrator : Tatiana Grey Host : Summer Fletcher Audio Producer : Peter Adrian Behravesh Discuss on Forums Originally published by Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show. death, animated corpses, violence against children...
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Author : Jessica Meats Narrator : Jen R. Albert Host : Summer Fletcher Audio Producer : Peter Adrian Behravesh Discuss on Forums PodCastle 668: Circle of Memories is a PodCastle original. Content warning: plague Rated PG-13. Circle of Memories By Jessica...
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Author : A.C. Wise Narrator : Amy H. Sturgis Host : Summer Fletcher Audio Producer : Peter Adrian Behravesh Discuss on Forums PodCastle 673: Jenny Come Up the Well is a PodCastle original. Rated PG-13. Jenny Come Up the Well by A.C. Wise Jenny come up th’...
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Author : Lora Gray Narrator : Alethea Kontis Host : Summer Fletcher Audio Producer : Peter Adrian Behravesh Discuss on Forums Previously published by Apparition Literary Magazine. Violence, including child abuse. Rated PG-13 for violence, including child...
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Author : Tobi Ogundiran Narrator : Tobi Ogundiran Host : Summer Fletcher Audio Producer : Peter Adrian Behravesh Discuss on Forums Previously published in FIYAH Literary Magazine Guardian of the Gods by Tobi Ogundiran Ashâke shed her priestly raiment and...
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Author : C. A. Barrett Narrator : Kat Kourbeti Host : Summer Fletcher Audio Producer : Peter Adrian Behravesh Discuss on Forums PodCastle 691: The Healer of Branford is a PodCastle original. Content warning for animal cruelty. Rated PG-13 The Healer of...
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Author : KT Bryski Narrator : Tatiana Grey Host : Summer Fletcher Audio Producer : Peter Adrian Behravesh Discuss on Forums Auger Magazine Disordered eating, food deprivation Rated R When the White Bird Sings by KT Bryski Bones show best in cold weather....
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Author : Melody Gordon Narrator : Cherrae L. Stuart Host : Summer Fletcher Audio Producer : Peter Adrian Behravesh Discuss on Forums FIYAH Literary Magazine Content warning for racism, oppression, and intergenerational trauma. Rated PG-13 Excavate by...
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Author : Rati Mehrotra Narrator : Suna Dasi Host : Summer Fletcher Audio Producer : Peter Adrian Behravesh Discuss on Forums PodCastle 695: Black Wings, White Kheer is a PodCastle original. Rated PG-13 Black Wings, White Kheer by Rati Mehrotra The wings...
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Author : Maria Haskins Narrator : Eleanor R. Wood Host : Summer Fletcher Audio Producer : Peter Adrian Behravesh Discuss on Forums Originally published in Kaleidotrope. Rated PG-13 Down to Niflhel Deep by Maria Haskins The dog’s name is Roan. He doesn’t...
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Author : Woody Dismukes Narrator : Roberto Suarez Host : Summer Fletcher Audio Producer : Peter Adrian Behravesh Discuss on Forums PodCastle 698: Solace of the Keeper is a PodCastle original. Content warning: Arachnids Rated PG-13 Solace of the Keeper by...
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Author : Tashan Mehta Narrator : Suna Dasi Host : Eleanor R. Wood Audio Producer : Peter Adrian Behravesh Discuss on Forums Previously published in Magical Women, an Indian speculative fiction feminist anthology, published by Hachette India Rated PG Novel...
Author : Eleanor R. Wood Narrator : Summer Fletcher Host : Summer Fletcher Audio Producer : Peter Adrian Behravesh Discuss on Forums Previously published in Diabolical Plots, and The Best of British Fantasy 2019, edited by Jared Shurin and NewCon Press....
“Lukundoo” was first published in Weird Tales, November 1925 Content warning: Spoiler Racial slurs, systemic racism, colonialism [collapse] “It stands to reason,” said Twombly, “that a man must accept the evidence of his own eyes, and when his eyes and...
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This story was first published in Weird Tales, December 1925. JULY 16—We are caught in one of the great calms. There is water in the well, and our food is nearly gone. Everything is hid from view by the fog. I confess that I am a hopeless coward. The...
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PseudoPod 743: Flash on the Borderlands LIV: Stage Three: The Bargain is a PseudoPod original. Content warning: Spoiler Racial slurs, systemic racism [collapse] “The Kid Learns” was first published in the New Orleans Times Picayune on May 31, 1925 “The...
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PseudoPod 744: This Wet Red is a PseudoPod original. I lie listening to a mouse in the wall. Its tiny feet scrabbling across worn boards; its tiny heart beating and beating and beating. Its not so tiny pursuer winds through the dark, a soft caress of...
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“Cleaver, Meat, and Block” was originally published in Black Static #73 in January 2020. The first thing Hannah learned when she came to live with her grandparents after the Plague, was how to wield the meat cleaver. Grandma taught her, guiding her hands...
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“Rattlesnake Song” originally appeared in July 2019 in the the anthology Triangulation: Dark Skies. The Last Picture Show came to the movie house on the square in the fall of nineteen seventy-one. We snuck in with warm cans of Pearl and sat on the back row...
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PseudoPod 747: Keeping House is a PseudoPod original. “Isn’t it cute?” Keishya, the realtor, spread her arms in the center of the kitchen like a starlet in center stage. “It’s a killer find.” Lydia gingerly put her purse down on the counter. They’d seen...
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“Notes on a Resurrection” was originally published in Strange Horizons (July 2019). The Feast Day of Lazarus is March 17 for the Eastern Orthodox Church. the reporter I heard about the story from the friend of a friend of an acquaintance, and didn’t put...
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“The Artist and the Door” was first published in Weird Tales in November 1952 The advent of the artist and the door was almost simultaneous. I have always wondered if the one would have been as sinister without the other. Of course, the evil was in the...
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PseudoPod 752: It Rises From Between My Bones is a PseudoPod original. Cancer, Chemotherapy Sitting on the toilet for the first sleepy morning pee, I felt my ovaries twist as a little piece of me trying burst through in a micro-explosion of tissue, born...
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PseudoPod 754: Flash on the Borderlands LV: The Easily Digested Hurt is a PseudoPod original. “Step Down, Step Down” is a PseudoPod original “Snip Snip Snip” is a PseudoPod original “My Guests” appeared in a slightly different form on the SFF Chronicles...
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“Exquisite” first appeared in the 2019 collection Served Cold. “On the Eyeball Floor” by Tina Connolly Scarfolk Hookland Tim Rinneman had never met a lock he couldn’t pick. It was his expertise, his pride. And his curse, as it had become a compulsion he...
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PseudoPod 756: To Witness is a PseudoPod original. Though the author is a professional photojournalist and has covered many car crashes, all characters, events, and organizations depicted in this story are fictional. Bad Samaritan (YouTube link) Don’t...
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“The Woman the Spiders Loved” first appeared in Penultimate Peanut and was reprinted in her 2020 collection I’ll Tell You a Love Story. “Edge of the Cliff” was first published in Weird Tales in March 1941 “The Memory of Love” originally published in...
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“Little Worm” was originally published in the anthology Black Cranes Ping-ping-ping-ping. The incessant chiming underscored the cabbie’s music and the occasional blare of a horn. Theresa wondered what the hell it was as she braced herself. There were no...
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“The Withered Heart” was originally published in the November 1939 issue of Weird Tales As this was originally published as a novelette and a bit long for an episode of PseudoPod, staff turned this into an abridgement project to see if we could trim out...
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“The Black Stone Statue” was first published in Weird Tales, December 1937 We can’t help but wonder what Counselman would think of Annihilation. Directors, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Mass. Gentlemen: Today I have just received aboard the S. S. Madrigal...
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“The Thought Monster” originally appeared in Weird Tales in March 1930 Fiend Without A Face resources: Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTLRyLnqCH4 Wikipedia Page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiend_Without_a_Face Fiend without a Face and it’s...
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“Charged” was first published in Queen Victoria’s Book of Spells (Tor Books, 2011) The reader, Joe Williams, would like to dedicate the reading to their Father who recently passed away: “Allan Williams was Joe’s hero. Never short of experiences to share or...
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PseudoPod 765: The Child Feast of Harridan Sack is a PseudoPod original. I plant a whisper in my daughter’s hair when her shoulders shake and hunch up to her ears. It’s only a story, I say. I turn the page; I’ve resolved her fears. It’s only a story. That...
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“Knock, Knock, Wolf” was originally published in Flame Tree’s Gothic Fantasy anthology, Footsteps in the Dark, in October 2020 It was time to kill the sparrows. Every autumn, after the last leaves fell and the bare trees rattled their bone song to an empty...
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“Death Has Red Hair” was originally published in Weird Tales in September of 1942. This story is surprising in being an early entry that is unabashedly feminist with multiple shades of “street harassment” on display. We three men were hugging the open fire...
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PseudoPod 769: Songs in a Lesser Known Key is a PseudoPod original. From the author, “I’ve played saxophone and clarinet in big bands for more years than I care to admit to. And while I have performed Artie Shaw’s Nightmare once or twice (and as far as I...
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“The Garden of Adompha” originally appeared in Weird Tales, April 1938 Lord of the sultry, red parterres And orchards sunned by hell’s unsetting flame! Amid thy garden blooms the Tree which bears Unnumbered heads of demons for its fruit; And, like a...
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PseudoPod 771: The Human Chair is a PseudoPod original. “The Human Chair” was originally published in Kuraku, October 1925, as “Ningen Isu.” As this story is in the public domain in its original Japanese, we thought a new translation would be a fascinating...
“The Floor Above” was originally published in the May 1923 issue of Weird Tales SEPTEMBER 17, 1922. — I sat down to breakfast this morning with a good appetite. The heat seemed over, and a cool wind blew in from my garden, where chrysanthemums were already...
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PseudoPod 774: Vanity, Vanity is a PseudoPod original. The author had this to share about this piece: “Gothic rural horror and the amorphous disposition of evil have long preoccupied me. Moral and spiritual diffidence have weighed on my mind more recently....
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“Miss Mack” was first published in the 1986 anthology Halloween Horrors When Miss Mack showed up in Babylon in the late summer of 1957, nobody knew what to think of her. She had come from a little town called Pine Cone, and had a brother back there who did...
“Papa’s Wrench and the Wind Chime” was originally published by Mocha Memoirs Press in The Grotesquerie (2014) and reprinted in her collection, Cold Comforts (Crossroad Press, 2019). The patch of fog on the window, expanding and fading with each breath, was...
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“The Family” was first Published in Weird Tales in January 1950 This is an abridged version of “The Devil’s Graveyard” which first appeared in First published in Hutchinson’s Mystery Story Magazine, December 1924 and was reprinted in Weird Tales in August...
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PseudoPod 778: Live From The End Of The World is a PseudoPod original. Highway 28 vanished and reappeared as the windshield wipers fought a losing battle against Hurricane Francis. This storm was Harriet’s big chance. She only hoped she’d live through it....
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“Trowel, Brush, Bones” was originally published in the Iron Horse Literary Review in January 2021 Sites that help with and advocate for the safety for women: We arrive at the compound outside Huanca just after midnight. We are tired and hungry and altitude...
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“Screen Haunt” was first published in It Came from the Multiplex, published by Hex Publishers in September 2020 “What are you afraid of?” Jeanne asks, kicking her feet on the top bunk. I’m lying underneath looking up at the springs where they sag down...
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“Sleep Hygiene” was first published in Nightmare’s Realm: New Tales of the Weird and Fantastic and reprinted this year in the collection In That Endlessness, Our End Audio Production & DreamBed, assembled from various field recordings, by Shawn M. Garrett...
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“Closet Dreams” was originally published in PostScripts and was a finalist for the Stoker Award. Content Warnings Child Abuse, Stalking, Abduction, Confinement, Sexual Assault [collapse] Something terrible happened to me when I was a little girl. I don’t...
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“On Seas of Blood and Salt” originally appeared in The Jewish Book of Horror This is what Reb Palache does when he finds a ship crewed by the dead. He does not know it is crewed by the dead, not at first. He is in his cabin, discoursing with the nameless...
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“The Stories We Tell About Ghosts” was originally published in Looming Low: Volume I and reprinted this year in A.C. Wise’s new collection, The Ghost Sequences. Growing up in Dieu-le-Sauveur, my friends and I told stories about ghosts—the Starving Man, the...
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“I Will Not Walk in Darkness” originally appeared in the anthology Georgia Gothic and “High Water Slack” was first published by the IGNYTE Award Winning publication NightLight The song in “I Will Not Walk in Darkness” is Empty Bottle, Empty Bed by the Mini...
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