Category: Short Stories

The Ferris wheel groaned, a metallic leviathan against the bruised twilight sky of Ashbourne’s annual Veridia Festival. Evelyn Hart, perched on a wobbly bench, nursed black coffee, her gaze sharp, missing nothing. Around her, revelers, oblivious to the subtle unease that prickled her skin, jostled and laughed. Then, a child’s thin wail sliced through the… Read more

Emma Parker navigated the fog-choked alleyways of Ravenwood, her slender frame agile as she scaled a crumbling brick wall. Her goal: bypass the locked gate barring access to the old district. A metallic click echoed – the lock she’d picked gave way. As she dropped to the other side, a raven screeched from a nearby… Read more

Rain lashed against the stained-glass windows of Ravenwood Chapel as Alex Morgan gripped her coffee cup, the lukewarm liquid doing little to thaw the chill clinging to her bones. She watched the casket descend, the heavy thud echoing the hollowness in her chest. A hand touched her arm. Sam Thompson, his face etched with an… Read more

Elena Thorne, slender and sharp-eyed, navigated the fog-choked streets of Duskwell, tattered map clutched in her hand. The abandoned clock tower loomed, a skeletal finger against the bruised twilight sky. Her goal: find answers in this town that felt like a tomb. Reaching the tower’s base, she found the heavy oak door secured not by… Read more

Amelia Harper adjusted her black gloves, eyes sharp as obsidian scanning the mourners. Rain lashed against the canvas awning of the cemetery tent, but a thicker dampness clung to Crescent Falls – the notorious fog. Elias Thorne’s funeral. A gust rattled the tent flaps, extinguishing a nearby candle, plunging the immediate area into deeper shadow.… Read more

Dust motes danced in the single shaft of light piercing the fog-choked window as Liam Everett traced a finger across the brittle page. He wasn’t supposed to be in the restricted archive, but the cryptic symbol etched into the margin of the ancient manuscript had snagged his observant eye during the chaos of the research… Read more

Alex Harper gripped the cold metal railing, her gaze fixed on the churning grey river. Each eddy seemed to whisper secrets, none of them comforting. She wasn’t here for comfort. A child was missing, swallowed by Ravenwood’s gloom three days ago. Constable Davies had called it a runaway, case closed. Alex knew better. Children didn’t… Read more

Fog clung to Hollow Creek Cemetery, each breath Amelia Hartman drew tasting of damp earth and decay. She wasn’t here to mourn; funerals were for the living, and Elias Thorne had been anything but alive for years. Yet, duty called. As the eulogy droned, a sharp CRACK echoed from the Thorne family crypt. Heads turned.… Read more

Rain lashed against Olivia’s black umbrella, mirroring the tears she refused to shed. The funeral procession shuffled through the fog-choked streets of Ravenswood, a gray serpent winding towards the cemetery gates. Old Man Hemlock was dead, and with him, a silence that had always hung heavy over the town seemed to deepen. As the casket… Read more

Alex Mercer ran, mist clinging to his slender frame as he navigated the Aetheron underlevels. Pipes hissed steam, casting eerie shadows in the perpetual fog. He wasn’t supposed to be here, not scavenging discarded tech-scraps again, but rent was due. Suddenly, his hand brushed against something smooth, cold. He pulled out a data crystal, pulsing… Read more