On the Fringes of Reality

Where the ordinary world reveals its true nature

Category: Stories

  • 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…

  • Micro Monday: Blood Pressure

    Vinny checked the paperwork twice. O-negative, taken this morning, properly stored. He held the bag up to the fluorescent light, examining the colour. Rich. Healthy. The donor had excellent iron…

  • Sunday Short: Going Up

    The Elevator Anthology – Part II The lift doors opened with a cheerful chime, and Zara stepped inside, smoothing down her interview suit one last time. Ground floor. She pressed…

  • 5 Heinlein Stories That Predicted How Technology Would Change Us

    Robert A Heinlein imagined future gadgets, sure, but he grasped something more fundamental: technology changes who we are as much as what we do. Writing decades before smartphones and social…

  • Micro Monday: Reunion

    Thomas woke with a business card in his palm: “You know where to meet me.” He walked to their bench overlooking the empty beach. Grey waves rolled endlessly towards the…

  • 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.…

  • Micro Monday: Ghost Stories

    The Latchkey – Part II “Right, that’s it!” Zoe slammed the remote down as eight-year-old Harry threw another cushion at his sister. “Bedtime. Now.” “But we’re not tired!” Mia protested,…

  • 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,…

  • Flash Friday: The Seamstress

    There has ever seemed to me a solemn virtue in black cloth. Crepe, most especially, possesses a character distinct from any other fabric; it does not merely cover, it absorbs,…

  • Micro Monday – Introducing: The Latchkey

    The Latchkey – Part I You ever notice how your front door sometimes… moves on its own? Like you’re certain you shut it tight, but when you pass by again…

  • 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…

  • Flash Friday: Exposure

    Neil scrolled through his camera roll, half-listening to Hamilton drone on about quarterly targets. He needed the photo of the mockup—bloody ironic—from yesterday’s client meeting. Where was it? Holiday snaps…

  • Micro Monday: The Optimist

    Eve smiled at her wrist display. Thirty-seven days of perfect sleep scores, stress levels in the green zone, and she’d hit her target weight. The tracker buzzed: Excellent progress! Your…

  • 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.…

  • Flash Friday: Don’t Make Me Cross

    Eight-year-old Oliver pressed his face against the car window as his mother pulled up to the zebra crossing outside Wychwood Primary. The familiar figure stood waiting with her red lollipop…

  • Micro Monday: Lab Rats

    Lab Rats represents a delightful (for me, anyway) departure from the typical On the Fringes of Reality stuff. While my usual contemporary horror and gothic-inspired horror tales explore familiar human…

  • 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…

  • 5 Poe Stories That Defined Gothic Horror

    Edgar Allan Poe did more than tell frightening tales. He created a way of entering horror from the inside, turning the mind itself into a haunted house. These five stories…

  • Flash Friday: The Apartment

    The bedroom door was closer to the corner than it should have been. Every morning, muscle memory gave Fiona eight steps from wardrobe to door. Tonight, her foot landed on…

  • 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…

  • Timeline

    A series of social media posts trace a family’s digital journey from innocent beginnings to devastating end.

  • 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…

  • Observer

    Commander Walsh checked his tether and gazed down at Earth’s curve. The blue marble rotated peacefully beneath him, cloud formations swirling over familiar continents. Then he saw it. A brilliant…

  • Flash Friday: Shared Occupancy

    The flat was too good to be true. Two bedrooms in Bloomsbury for eight hundred a month, available immediately. Nell had called within minutes of seeing the advert, expecting it…

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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.