On the Fringes of Reality

Where the ordinary world reveals its true nature

Category: gothic horror

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • The Gothic Hour: The Invitation

    “Pray, forgive the lateness of the hour.” The voice carried the refinement of centuries past. “I find myself quite lost in this tempest.” She clutched her shawl. His pallor, shadows…

  • 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…

  • 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,…

  • Classic Shorts: The Oval Portrait by Edgar Allan Poe

    When Edgar Allan Poe published The Oval Portrait in 1842, he created one of literature’s most chilling meditations on art, obsession and the price of creation. In fewer than 1,500…

  • The Gothic Hour: The Letter

    You find it amongst your father’s papers, tucked between his will and insurance documents. Your name catches your eye immediately—typed neatly at the top of what appears to be a…

  • The Gothic Hour: The Séance

    The parlour clock had struck nine when young William Fairfax crept through the heavy oak doors, drawn by the promise of forbidden territory. The grand parlour was strictly out of…

  • 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,…

  • 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…

  • Family Photo

    By three o’clock, I’d filled seven boxes with Grandmother’s china and was questioning why anyone would ever need forty-seven serving plates! The rest of the family wouldn’t be arriving until…

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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.