Macabre Magazine

The screams are coming from the bathroom downstairs. In half a heartbeat I’m up, I’m down the hallway, I’m shouting my daughter’s name and feeling it echo against the reverberations of their shrieks and my pounding heart. I ignore the pain in my ankle as it twists, my socks slipping on the stairs, my mind…

The trickster came out of The Cinders that winter, wearing the form of a cougar that had wandered into her territory. She had not ventured this far from her mountain in a very long time, having spent the last several centuries as a colony of fairy shrimp living in the sand at the bottom of…

We bury our past, building each era on the remains of the last, each generation drawing succour from the bones of those who came before. Our ancestors give up their places in the world to make space for us, and we in turn allow them to rest—in the depths of the earth, in ashy fragments…

He died the way he lived: like a fool. That was my first thought when I received the phone call announcing the news.  Soon enough, I was showered with words of empathy, as befitted my newly acquired status as a widow. I didn’t even need to pretend to earn their compassion. In that circle of…

Grandmother’s house lies silent as it awaits the arrival of Little Red Riding Hood. It is a squat redwood cottage with a grey stone chimney that spits smoke into the clear blue sky. Grandmother had lit a fire and put the kettle on to welcome Red Riding Hood, as she always does.  But Grandmother is…

Hartmut has been following his target for a while before the maiden becomes aware of his presence. She knows something is lurking out there. She’s accustomed to this part of the forest and would usually be comfortable in her surroundings, but now she slows her pace, anxiously glancing about. She is an easy and vulnerable…