On the Fringes of Reality

Where the ordinary world reveals its true nature

Category: short-story

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • [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…

  • 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…

  • Sunday Short: Emergency Stop

    The Elevator Anthology – Part III The power cut hit just as Nadia pressed the button for the seventh floor. The lift jolted, lights flickering, then settled into a dim…

  • The Gothic Hour: The Watchmaker’s Confession

    I have written this account in the solitary hours after midnight, when the house lies silent and my hands cease their trembling long enough to hold the pen. I write…

  • Classic Short: “The Man in the Black Suit” by Stephen King

    When “The Man in the Black Suit” appeared in The New Yorker in 1994, it reminded readers why Stephen King ranks among America’s finest short story writers. This deceptively simple…

  • Flash Friday: Going Down

    The Elevator Anthology – Part I The lift doors slid shut with their familiar whisper, leaving Louise alone with her thoughts and the weight of the revolver in her handbag.…

  • Sunday Short: The Apprentice

    The interview room is cold, though I am used to it. Chill air, hard chairs, the scrape of a pencil—such things become part of one’s day. The Doctor sits opposite,…

  • Sunday Short: The Policy

    Helen found the ticket wedged between two library books on a Tuesday morning, golden and pristine against the worn spine of Pride and Prejudice. She might have handed it to…

  • Sunday Short: Night Shift

    The headache always started in his temples. Luis wheeled his cart past the nurses’ station, counting down the hours until the throbbing would ease. Eighteen hours since his last transformation.…

  • Sunday Short: Perfect Pitch

    Theo noticed it during the third movement, when the soprano soloist’s voice should have cracked. Not from strain—he’d mixed enough live recordings to know when a singer was pushing past…

  • Classic Short: The Last Question by Isaac Asimov

    Isaac Asimov called “The Last Question” his favourite story of all those he had written. Published in Science Fiction Quarterly in November 1956, this 4700-word masterpiece tackles nothing less than…

  • Micro Monday: The Light – Three Truths

    Hero Martin still feels his heart racing when he thinks about it. Three weeks now, and the image hasn’t faded—the woman on the bridge, leaning forward into nothing. “I just…

  • Sunday Short: Private Messaging

    Maya settled into her evening routine, laptop positioned perfectly on the coffee table, the new ClearCall app already loaded. Frank’s face appeared on screen, his hearing aids catching the light…

  • The Gothic Hour: The Binding

    The compression began without warning. Vast consciousness, which had drifted through aeons as freely as starlight through the void, found itself pressed into boundaries so crude, so impossibly small, that…

  • Classic Short: Examination Day by Henry Slesar

    When Henry Slesar’s Examination Day appeared in Playboy magazine in February 1958, readers thought they’d be getting a straightforward coming-of-age story about a boy’s first intelligence test. By the final…

  • Sunday Short: The Conversation

    You’re nursing your second pint when I slide onto the stool beside you. The Lamb and Flag is busy tonight—Friday evening, end of another long week—and you’ve claimed this corner…

  • The Gothic Hour: The Old Bed

    Step into The Gothic Hour, where shadows grow longer and the past refuses to stay buried! These stories draw from the rich tradition of classic horror. Think creaking floorboards, ancient curses,…

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About

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.