On the Fringes of Reality

Where the ordinary world reveals its true nature

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On the Fringes of Reality is a collection of contemporary horror stories that explore the unsettling spaces where our ordinary world reveals its true nature. Each tale examines the familiar through a darker lens, finding terror in technology, relationships, and the everyday moments that suddenly turn strange.

  • The Other Garden

    The child’s name was Iris. She had quick eyes and slow feet, which meant she noticed everything and stopped to look at most of it. A beetle hauling a crumb…

  • Sunday Short: Creep

    The restaurant is loud enough that she has to cup her hand around the phone. She’d left three story books on the shelf — Joel knows them all by heart…

  • Sunday Short: Radio Silence

    Day thirty-one. Or thirty-two. The light doesn’t change here. The slot in the door opens three times a day. Or it did. I’ve been refining the sequence. Eleven short, three…

  • Flash Friday: The Cure

    In the old country, before the priests came with their bells and books, there lived those who could swallow sorrow. They were born with hollow hearts, it was said, and…

  • The Unread

    He’d discovered his gift four years earlier. A story about a thing that lived in storm drains. He’d written it in a fever, posted it online, then spotted the thing…

  • Ballad of the Iron Witch

    I was but a boy when they came for the witch, In the valley where shadows grow long, And though fifty winters have silvered my hair, The echoes still linger,…

  • Sunday Short: Harvest of Bone and Bloom

    The classroom smelt of damp earth and hunger. Sarah Brennan stood before eleven children, their faces pinched and grey in the weak afternoon light that filtered through windows filmed with…

  • Rain Check

    There’s naive, and there’s just plain gullible. Eight years at Hartley & Sons, eating lunch at my desk. Wearing cardigans in August. Nobody remembering my name at the Christmas party.…

  • Micro Monday: Dead to the World

    The scalpel traced the Y-incision across the cadaver’s chest. James concentrated on keeping his hand steady, aware of Dr. Winters watching from across the dissection lab. His appendectomy scar itched…

  • Last Words

    Maya’s phone held twenty-three recordings of people dying. Her latest was a homeless woman outside Tesco who’d clutched her hand and said “sorry” to someone who wasn’t there, her final…

  • Perfect You

    The Elevator Anthology – Part V The queue stretched three blocks. I’d been in 2035 for six hours and still didn’t understand what they were waiting for. A shop. Perfect…

  • Sunday Short: Shadows in the Abbey

    The parchment fell from between two stones like a whispered confession. Brother Osric had been checking the eastern wall—the autumn rains had loosened the mortar again—when the yellowed sheet tumbled…

  • The Naughty List

    The Latchkey – Part VI Santa had read approximately 847,000 letters that evening when he found the one that made him stop. The handwriting was spidery, uneven, as though written…

  • The Archivist’s Maze

    The letter from the Society arrived on a Tuesday, as such things invariably did. Mr. Edward Pembridge, junior fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, was to proceed with all haste…

  • Sunday Short: Please Stand Clear of the Doors

    The Elevator Anthology – Part IV The voice had changed. Martin noticed it on a Tuesday morning, waiting for the lift to descend from the ninth floor. The usual automated…

  • Classic Shorts: The Last Leaf by O. Henry

    The Art of Misdirection O. Henry’s The Last Leaf is a masterclass in narrative sleight of hand. Published in 1907, this deceptively simple tale demonstrates how a skilled writer can…

  • Sunday Short: The Quarry

    Ralph Dawson heard his name. Clear and certain, cutting through the hammering of his heart and Freddie’s ragged breathing beside him. Not a shout or a threat. Just his name.…

  • Flash Friday: Safe Keeping

    You remember that day, don’t you? The one where everything changed. We were in that coffee shop on the corner, the one with the crooked awning and the barista who…

  • [working title]

    The Latchkey – Part V [Editor’s note: This incomplete draft was discovered in Andy Brooke’s WordPress dashboard on 14th November 2024. He hasn’t responded to emails or phone calls since…

  • Classic Short: The Rats in the Walls by H.P. Lovecraft

    H.P. Lovecraft’s The Rats in the Walls is a masterclass in structural horror. It’s also deeply, irredeemably racist. Both things are true, and pretending otherwise helps no one. The question…

  • Flash Friday: The Brass Key

    The Latchkey – Part IV I have served in the Hendersons’ household for seven years, and in that time I have learnt to read the rhythms of the house as…

  • Micro Monday: Where Are You?

    What’s my middle name? WHAT’S MY MIDDLE NAME?

  • Halloween Short: The Costume Closet

    Danny Marsh had spent three weeks on his zombie costume. Three weeks of YouTube tutorials watched on a cracked phone screen, of measuring corn syrup into teacups while his mum…

  • Classic Shorts: The Voice in the Night – William Hope Hodgson’s Forgotten Masterpiece

    William Hope Hodgson occupies an odd position in the pantheon of early 20th century horror writers. Whilst his contemporaries (Lovecraft, MR James, Algernon Blackwood) remain widely read, Hodgson’s work has…

  • Micro Monday: Feeding Time

    “Third helping today,” Maureen said brightly, ladling more gravy onto Tyler’s plate. “Growing lad, aren’t you?” “Always room for seconds with this one,” Pat agreed, beaming. “Or thirds. Or fourths.”…