Horror – OtherWheres, OtherRealms

A Private Viewing

Welcome, sir, welcome. Thank you, especially, for coming to your slot on time. It does make things so much easier for us. Let me just scan your ticket… there we are. Welcome to your private viewing of Of Death and Hell; A Triptych, Artist Unknown, painted in oil on wood circa 1675. Now, to beginContinue reading “A Private Viewing”

Eight Hundred and Forty-Eight Monstrous Nights

Lawrence Harding (CW: violence, abuse) Fwaxial had been a monster under the bed – this bed – for as long as they could remember. If they were being pedantic about it, that was for eight hundred and forty-eight nights, or thereabouts. Long enough to get to know Anna, who slept above them. Long enough toContinue reading “Eight Hundred and Forty-Eight Monstrous Nights”

The Dig at Knealstowe

Lawrence Harding It wasn’t very big, for a guardian statue. It was hunched and gnarled; even if it had been standing at full height, it would barely have been as tall as a man. That aside, as a guardian, it had hardly done its job well. The cluster of ruins that had once been theContinue reading “The Dig at Knealstowe”

Three Scraps of Memory

Lawrence Harding Day 4 (I think??) I don’t know where I am. I haven’t for days. But I do know I’m the only one left. Not two hours ago, there were two of us. We’d managed to survive, through sheer luck. The others weren’t so lucky. Then something came from the shadows and took Jerome.Continue reading “Three Scraps of Memory”

The Journal That Ate Antiquity

Lawrence Harding Rutherford had found three more that day. Three more books from his library that were utterly ruined, utterly useless and, bafflingly, utterly undamaged. When he had picked them up from where they had been strewn across the floor he found that, upon opening them, only blank pages met his eyes. There was noContinue reading “The Journal That Ate Antiquity”

The Trials of Brother Abelard

Lawrence Harding (Originally published as James McIntosh) As touching the terrors of the night, They are as many as our sins. Thomas Nashe, The Terrors of the Night, 1594 Brother Abelard openly admitted that he was a sinner. But didn’t all monks say that? The difference was that Brother Abelard hadContinue reading “The Trials of Brother Abelard”

The Grand Master’s Shadow

Lawrence Harding When Maxamilian was finally initiated into the Brethren of the Nine Anathamae, he felt a weight lift from his shoulders. Whatever shadows had overhung him, whatever nagging doubts had wormed in his ear, gone – the moment the blood dripping from his palm spattered into the flames. He smiled. It was clear thatContinue reading “The Grand Master’s Shadow”