Category: Short Stories

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

Alex Solaris hunched over a data crystal, the faint hum of Neo Haven’s systems a constant drone in their cramped lab. Orange floral patterns swam on the tote bag slung over their chair, a splash of rebellious color in the metallic grey. Suddenly, klaxons blared, red lights strobing across the lab. Outside, the controlled chaos… Read more

Amelia Harper hiked the familiar path, herbal tea steaming in her travel mug. Whispering Falls roared in the distance, a nostalgic beacon pulling her back to childhood summers. Reaching the overlook, she gasped. Not at the falls, but at Thomas Blake, her old friend, kneeling beside a disturbed patch of earth, a raven perched on… Read more

Rain lashed against Amelia’s face as she pushed through the heavy oak doors of the Ravenswood chapel. Inside, the air hung thick with incense and unspoken resentments. She hadn’t been back to Ravenswood in a decade, and the oppressive fog clinging to the city felt like a physical manifestation of her unease. Her mentor’s sudden,… Read more

Eleanor Finch, journal clutched tight, navigated the perpetually foggy streets of Silent City. Her boots echoed on the slick cobblestones as she hurried towards the Archives, a place she usually avoided. A raven’s frantic caw overhead, sharper than any she’d heard before, had been the inciting incident – a frantic, almost desperate sound that mirrored… Read more

Amelia Bennett stared at the freshly turned earth, the Ravenwood Village cemetery a desolate patch under the perpetual fog. A low moan, not of grief, but of shifting stone, rippled from the mausoleum behind her. Heads turned. Whispers erupted. The stone door, sealed shut for generations, was grinding open. Anxious murmurs turned to panicked gasps… Read more