On the Fringes of Reality

Where the ordinary world reveals its true nature

Category: short-story

  • Sunday Short: Craze!

    Monday Morning Jason Shields blew his whistle and watched Year 10 charge across the pitch like they meant business. Finally. After fifteen years teaching PE, he’d grown tired of coaxing…

  • Update: short story, “Private Messaging” on Reedsy Prompts

    I have submitted a short story, Private Messaging to Reedsy Prompts contest #313. I would really love for you to read, ‘like’ and perhaps even comment on the story.

  • Classic Shorts: Marionettes, Inc. by Ray Bradbury

    When Ray Bradbury published Marionettes, Inc. in 1949, he crafted what might be the perfect science fiction horror story: a tale that uses futuristic technology to examine the timeless human…

  • The Custodian on Reedsy

    I’m thrilled to announce that my short story, The Custodian, is featured in the Reedsy Contest, and can be viewed, liked and commented on here. I’d be delighted if you’d…

  • Sunday Short: Lucid Witness

    Jo discovered her ability on a Tuesday night in March, dreaming of the Morton Park murder. She’d been reading about cold cases before bed, drawn to the twenty-three-year-old case of…

  • 8 Shorter Fiction Pieces That Pack a Novel’s Worth of Punch

    The best short fiction creates entire worlds in a few pages, leaving emotional scars that last for years. These eight pieces prove that word count means nothing when you get…

  • The Gothic Hour: The Mourning Portrait

    The Mourning Portrait delves into the dangerous territory where grief meets desperation and love refuses to accept the finality of death. In Victorian England, the emerging art of photography promised…

  • Classic Shorts: Lost Hearts by M.R. James

    Classic Shorts As well as entertaining us, great short stories actually teach us how fiction really works. In Classic Shorts we take a closer look at the stories that have stuck around,…

  • Sunday Short: The Dinner Party

    “Electrical fault,” Simon was explaining. “The investigation concluded it started in the kitchen. Very sad.” “When did you say this happened?” Catherine asked, trying to keep her voice steady. “Next…

  • The Gothic Hour: Museum Piece

    The coins had been arranged in neat rows when he’d made his first round at ten o’clock. Chronological order, earliest to latest, left to right. Standard museum practice. Now, at…

  • Classic Shorts: The Monkey’s Paw by W.W. Jacobs

    When W.W. Jacobs published The Monkey’s Paw in 1902, he created what might be the perfect horror story template: take an ordinary family, introduce one seemingly magical object, and watch…

  • Classic Shorts: The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

    As well as entertaining us, great short stories actually teach us how fiction really works. In Classic Shorts we take a closer look at the stories that have stuck around,…

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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.