Amanuensis (a Gothic fairy tale)

“ ‘From this night forth, shall I call this maid my sister?’ ” “That’s all the old fellow requires of me?” Landly asked Mr. Ashwhit. “I just march up to the gate, knock, and when he steps out I say those words?” Mr. Ashwhit confirmed that it was so. He continued reading from Landly’s father’s will: “ ‘Mr. […]

The Man Who Was Everyone (short story)

(fantasy short story) Lazarus Thirrup was a farmer of cabbages, and his cabbages were renowned throughout the districts north of Ib, where the farmlands are rich enough to grow cabbages the size of pumpkins. Each Samhain following the first frost, it was the custom of Lazarus Thirrup to take a barrow of cabbages to Ib, […]

The Oracle of the White Abyss (short story)

Threnilith could not remember the last word she had spoken. As she sat alone in the convent dungeon, she often wondered if she had used it well. She had not spoken of love for anyone she left behind in the long line of mist-covered hills that rose high above the coast, for Threnilith loved none […]

The King Ouroboros (short story)

The King Ouroboros Turan-Vor didn’t care overmuch for being cheated at dice, despite the fact that during the waning of the green moon Islith it needs must be that his luck wane along with that baleful sphere, the domain of those spirits who follow the cult of the amphibious, phosphorescent marsh wyrms so beloved of […]

The Man Who Talked to Himself

Torrence was so jealous of the woman he ignored, that he was quite beside himself…. The Man Who Talked to Himself William Brace scowled with irritation as the conversation in the tap room hushed before the door had quite closed behind the slouching figure now standing under the Tiffany glass lamp. The old man shivered […]

Dr. Faustus, or, How Is Your 401K Doing?

Doctor Faustus by Keith Azariah-Kribbs S.D.G. The candle guttered, and the cold draft brought with it the taste of sulfur, the stone that burns, the sound of claws grating on the dank crypt floor where Faustus had left the circle where he had made the marks and said the words and, the rite completed, he […]