Claustrophobic Stories

Knowledge is currency. Alchemy is knowledge. Most people don't know it exists. Those who do call it heresy. Those who practice it call it ascension. Man wakes in the lightless depths of Tauran City Prison with no records, no past-only a vocabulary that doesn't belong to him. In a facility built to process human bodies, ignorance is a death sentence. To survive, he bonds with a parasitic alchemical metal: a weapon that grows stronger with blood, memory, and use. But power always comes at a price he doesn't yet understand. Guided by a man who knows too much and a girl who should not have survived this long, he descends through a system where alchemy is graded, identities fracture, and nothing is free. You are not a prisoner. You are a specimen. And ascension has already begun.

Starflight awakes stuck inside the tunnel that they use to get across, and to save the Rainwings and Nightwings. He attempts to escape, as his mind begins to slowly fly away from him. (All characters from the book 'Wings of Fire' belong to Tui T. Sutherland. Characters that aren't from the book belong to me.)

When acoustic archaeologist Maren arrives at Holt Conservatory to restore a dead soprano's sealed recordings, she expects damaged wax and difficult methodology. She finds both - and something else: a voice that has been waiting, specifically, for her. As Vera Holt's resonance grows stronger with every session, Maren is pulled between her cold, brilliant mentor Dr. Nadia Sorn and the dead woman who knows exactly what hunger sounds like. The Parasitic Note is a gothic dark academia romance about restoration, possession, and the difference between being known and being consumed.

Some frequencies are meant to remain dead air. It is October 1998, and Arlo Banks is suffocating in a purgatory of yellowed plastic, stale marijuana smoke, and the claustrophobic sub-basements of Channel 8. As a night-shift archival assistant and a functional burnout, Arlo escapes his mundane reality by abusing heavy strains of marijuana and diving deep into early internet lore and urban legends. When his passive-aggressive manager writes him up for unauthorized napping, Arlo retaliates by raiding a condemned sub-basement and stealing a sealed box of VHS tapes. He hopes to unearth a profitable piece of lost media to boost his reputation on the message boards. Instead, he brings home a biological puppet. The tapes contain The Happy Hollows, a rumored "Holy Grail" of lost media. But the broadcast does not stay on the screen. The footage begins to mimic Arlo's reality on a delay-a delay that is rapidly shortening. Arlo initially relies on the "Stoner Defense," rationalizing the bizarre events as weed-induced paranoia, hallucinations, or an elaborate prank. But the physical world begins to rot. His environment mutates into a tactile nightmare of "Damp Plush". Glass softens into gelatin , blood thickens into strawberry preserves , and human flesh takes on the texture of distressed velvet. Hunted through infinitely stretching hallways by a towering mascot named Uncle Corduroy and a swarm of Clay-Kin, Arlo must navigate the collapsing boundary between reality and the broadcast. He has to sever the signal before the frequency overtakes him entirely, transforming his own anatomy into polyester stuffing and rusted wire.

Quinn Stories is ongoing fiction rooted in lived detail. Quinn, a former high-performing salesman and failed musician, tries to rebuild his life through the only doors that still open: old friendships, questionable opportunities, and the hope that music can rewrite the past. In "A Cross Country Voicemail, Winter 1996," a cross-country drive delivers him to a narrow house in Connecticut where welcome comes with rules, and intimacy comes with terms. The band reunion he's been promised begins to feel like something else: a negotiation, a performance, a trap that tightens through small, deniable acts. Quinn wants to trust. He wants to belong. But in a duplex with thin walls and thick boundaries, belonging has a price.

In the wake of a single, bloody night that stole her childhood, Gwen's world is reduced to two absolute truths: the enduring love for her younger sister, and a vow of vengeance etched in ash and memory. Haunted by the enigmatic shadow of a woman known as ash-the stranger who slipped a blade into her hand and vanished-Gwen must forge herself into a weapon. As she navigates a ravaged, secretive landscape where ordinary lives are meticulously secluded from hidden perils, her quest for answers becomes a journey into the heart of a profound darkness. This is a story of trauma forged into resilience, of myth born from survival, and the relentless pursuit of justice in a world where the line between protector and predator is as thin as the edge of a knife. A literary dark fantasy that explores the weight of memory, the legacy of violence, and the fierce, unbreakable bonds that define us.

"I am Claustrophobic Alex!", Rachel screamed. . . . . "And I am star-crossed", Alex smiled.

One moment Ryan is driving in daylight. The next, he's buried beneath it. Trapped in suffocating darkness with nothing but his dying phone light, panic sets in. But when another presence reaches him in the dark, Ryan makes a sudden decision he can't undo. This is still a work in progress and will likely be revised.

Four boys and four girls are on a trip to the theatre. Little do they know that they will never see the play. They're about to be plunged into a nightmare. Beneath the theatre lies a secret. And now she has been released... This complete novel was published in April 2010 by Corgi, an imprint of Random House Children's Publishing UK. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved. Hope you like monsters. :D Happy reading, best wishes and unspeakable horror - Sam

After seeing a picture of his lover kissing someone else, Laverne Spence traveled to make sure that his lover remains faithful to him. On the other hand, Keith was tired of being an amnesiac ghost and wanted to pass on peacefully. And when this two unlikely souls met, they agreed on helping each other get what they want. But as they grew closer, things started changing. Soon Laverne and Keith would find themselves falling in love with each other. But an event that would shake their lives was bound to happen. An event that would change Laverne's life and Keith's fate. With the help of the mysterious pendant that Keith owns, miracles will happen that would make the two of them grow closer. But those miracles are not enough to bring them finally together. When fate itself is against them being together, only one thing could change everything; the "Greatest Miracle of All". Love is not always sweet. And to get to it you have to walk a thorny and painful path. But after all the hardships, the greatest and most sublime thing awaits at the end. And only through the journey would you realize what true love is.

Buying a seemingly normal hunting cabin turns out to be the worst decision Jacob Bergmann could have made. Things go south after he discovers an old journal written by a woman who lived in the cabin 100 years ago. What horrors await Jacob as he moves into his new home? My website: williamroseberry.com/short-stories

A fantastical mystery involving a fortune teller and a detective. This is a learning opportunity for me, as it is my first work. All criticisms welcome!

It doesn't have a plot , and it can be viewed as a one-shot. Anyway Kihyun plus elevator has to make a good story, right? - Also anyone with a better title and summary I'm all ears.

Book #3 of series, 'The game of destiny'! Sonal Manholtra X Dev Sinha Coming soon.

(whole story is first/second draft) John can't stand seeing what's beyond his apartment door, even looking through the letterbox is daunting - and for good reason. That being said, noone else can actually see this good reason. This begs the question - is this good reason real?

bobby comforts a panicked Omar while they're locked in a closet.

There is no use to keep exhuming what is meant to come assunder. Nothing seems to last forever, except the memories and experiences brought by those who lay. Yet, a Dragoon Knight has the task and a desire to rebuild everything as it was once before, including the revenant who is tied to her by a lack of what was once his identity (Based on Katherine Frost's Persistence of Memory).