dark fiction
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Ralph Travers, a curate in Exeter, struggles with his conscience after inadvertently making the Devil, Bucky, known to children through a rhyme. As children start disappearing, he faces the consequences of his actions.
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About a 14-minute read or 22-minute listen. In Streindarke, Ballion, known as Civic Quiet, navigates the intricate balance of power and duty while investigating the disappearance of Lord Suze Ben-Sashe.
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About a 40-minute read or 1hr 3-minute listen. In Hagley Stile, magpies are never merely birds. One by one, the old rhyme becomes a reckoning as sorrow, joy, birth, theft, silver, gold and secrets gather beneath black-and-white wings.
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About a 24-minute read or a 36-minute listen. At White Head Lighthouse, Thomas Darling keeps the lamp burning through a violent storm. Then a half-drowned stowaway brings a warning about his former berth, SS Strumble, an empty ship, recorded lost, and now carrying ticking machinery that can calculate the future, and perhaps alter the coming…
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1,518 words · About an 8-minute read. In 1899 the photograph, ‘Horse Training’ was shot by French photographer, Felix Thollier. Said to depict free lunging, no other context was ever given and neither horse nor trainer were ever named. Until today.
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1,440 words · About a 7-minute read. In Streindarke, love is refined rather than suppressed, as Registrar Albrecht Baus discovers through his daily duties. While he certifies bonds, he grapples with the implications of his work and the weight of unrecognised love.