Tag Archive for: drabble

Yūrei Disgrace

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by Mike Rusetsky

Eddie broke away from the tour, slipping back inside the temple while the guide yammered on. His girlfriend was oblivious, nodding along to the boring-ass lecture.

Once inside, Eddie headed for the shrine-looking thing. He used a smouldering incense stick to light his cigarette.

“What do you seek?” a voice said, and Eddie froze.

A beautiful girl, tall and pale, stood in a white kimono.

“Maybe you!” he flirted. What his girlfriend didn’t know wouldn’t harm her.

The pale girl showed teeth. “I am Yūrei. Follow me.”

Eddie’s body fed the temple koi for two days before it was found.

 

Mike Rusetsky

Mike Rusetsky is a Ukrainian-American author of horror and speculative fiction. He started as a playwright, with his original one-act production Angel of Death earning critical praise. His recent story publications include anthologies by Outsider Publishing, Black Hare Press and the Spring 2025 volume of Tales from the Crosstimbers.

Website: mikerusetsky.com

 

Scared Shitless

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by Joanne Macias

I regretted that extra drink, but grateful toilets were nearby. Running in, I took the last stall.

Not realising I took a stall without paper, I became startled by a softly spoken voice on the other side of the door.

“Red paper or blue paper?”

“Any.”

“Red. Or. Blue?”

Getting frustrated, I opened the door, now facing a cloaked figure staring blanky. They blocked the door, holding paper in each hand, awaiting my choice.

“This is a trick…”

“Choose!”

“How? They are both the same colour.”

Aka Manto inspected the paper, now confused—unaware his intended target was actually colourblind.

 

Joanne Macias

Joanne Macias is a multi-disciplinary creative, featured in Living Stories, Best of Times, The Sour Collective, Two Wolves Digest, Short Stories Unlimited, Roi Fainéant plus many more. She loves finding interesting ways to challenge reader perception through unique scenarios. She embarks on her first residency in Ireland in 2025.

Instagram: @joanne_macias_writer

The Scream

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by Ken Whitson

A prick. A sting. And the voice flows from the syringe—a whisper, really. Soft. Encouraging. Helpful. Nestling between my ears, warm and comfy. But one became two, and two, ten…

Do this. No, that. Stop. Go, wait!

The chorus grows and grows until there’s no room left for my own thoughts.

Run. Hide. Fight. Kill!

The voices rage. They demand. They cajole. They threaten. What do they want? Why? How do I give it to them? What can I do?

Now. NOW. NOW!

I scream. I SCREAM! And at last, they’re quiet… Another prick. Another sting. Another voice. Another.

 

Ken Whitson

Ken Whitson is a retired civil servant who likes to write way more often than his email address suggests. When not consulting or otherwise unretiring, he enjoys crafting vivid, emotionally charged stories with unconventional themes. His work recently appeared in Bunker Squirrel, CafeLit, and Dragon Soul Press’s Doctor Fear Anthology.

Operation

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by Joshua Ginsberg

Dr Krishnamurti thought she had seen every form of body modification conceivable, until Mr Bradley was rushed into the ER. Why, she wondered, would anyone voluntarily do such a thing to themselves?

His nose had been removed, and in its place a working red lightbulb extended from his nasal cavity.

She probed his abdomen and discovered something else – metal bands under the skin, around each of his major organs.

Poking them with her forceps immediately set off both the red light in the patient’s face and a concentration-shattering buzzing noise.

Suffice it to say, the procedure did not go well.

 

Joshua Ginsberg

Joshua Ginsberg is the author of five non-fiction books on off-beat travel, local history and haunted locations, including Secret Tampa Bay: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful and Obscure (2020) and of Haunted Orlando (2024). His work has appeared on the Nosleep Podcast, and in anthologies and publications such as Apex Magazine, Crepuscular, Flash Phantoms, Black Hare Press, Trembling with Fear, The Chamber Magazine, and elsewhere. He lives in Tampa with his wife, Jen, and their Shih Tzu, Tinker Bell.

Metallic Moments

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by Broken Raven Table

The feeling of something warm. Wet. And it’s running down my leg.

I look down, red blooming from the pole protruding from my abdomen. The screams that should be shattering the silence are stuck in my throat. Trapped, in my metal coffin, staring at the truck that had braked—hard—in front of me, now flipped. Like me. Scaffolding littered across the road.

Blue flashes. The wail of a siren.

Help me!

The wheels of the EMT robot enter my narrowing vision.

Please help.

“Organ donor detected. Thank you for your sacrifice.”

My screams are still stuck in my throat.

 

Broken Raven Table

Broken Raven Table is a scientist by day, insomniac-writer-in-training by night based in Nottingham, UK.

Lollipops

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by Jeff Currier

For forty-two years at Crenshaw Elementary, Nurse Simmons bandaged scrapes, iced bumps, and wiped tiny tears. All the while she ignored the taunting titters her crossed eyes and gnarled ears evoked.

During her final week, she rewarded her patients with delicious homemade lollipops. Students began inventing ailments. Her line soon stretched down the hall.

“What are the dots?” Johnny asked while she checked his temperature.

“Something extra special for all you sweet angels,” Simmons replied.

Monday, after she’d retired far away, the first eggs hatched. Lodged deep in little throat linings, the screwworms started devouring the children from the inside.

 

Jeff Currier

Jeff writes little stories. Find more @jffcurrier on X or Jeff Currier Writes on Facebook.

 

Trauma Surgery

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by Antoinette McCormick

Dr Kazan removes nightmares for a living.

Today’s patient—a soldier—leaves smiling. War horrors excised from his mind. Clean. Whole.

Kazan locks his office door; injects the stabiliser. The soldier’s memories writhe beneath his skin like fire ants, burrowing and biting.

In his notebook, Kazan documents new symptoms: bleeding gums, hallucinations of sand-filled lungs.

At home, his wife notices nothing.

Later, in dreams, Kazan cradles a dying child in Baghdad. His hands remember a rifle’s weight, though he’s never held one.

He wakes, reaches for his scalpel.

Perhaps he could extract memories from himself, if he cut deep enough.

 

Antoinette McCormick

Antoinette McCormick is an award-winning author of supernatural and dystopian thrillers. Her work has appeared in Mad Scientist Journal, Halfway Down the Stairs, Vermont Literary Review, and on a limited-edition Alice in Chains poster.

Website: https://linktr.ee/antoinettemccormick

Eternal Autopsy

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by Stephen Bradfield II

This will be my forty-third dissection. All in the name of advancing medical science they say. Always a different start each time, this time they opted with the heart and lungs. Heart pumping on the table next to me, lungs rising and falling, separated completely from the rest.

A panel of doctors and faceless men taking notes and discussing what steps are to be taken next. It doesn’t matter what they do, always the same result. In the end, I slowly pull myself together, and once I’m done, they begin to prepare me for the next procedure.

Time for forty-four.

 

Stephen Bradfield II

 

Chemical Romance

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by M. Tensor

I’m the only one with pharmaceutical knowledge, so I’ll get caught eventually. But I just had to know for sure.

The substance consists of two components, each completely harmless on its own. Only when combined, the acid is created.

I put one constituent in Fred’s shower gel, the other into the body lotion I gave to Karen.

What can I say? The severe chemical burns on Fred’s cheeks, chest, and thighs are proof enough. His death was painful, and Karen certainly isn’t doing any better.

But the look at his crotch tells me they practised safe sex. How very thoughtful!

 

M. Tensor

Like the people in their stories, M. Tensor feels as if they are a figment of another person’s mind.

Dire Application

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by Evan Baughfman

A full moon massacre. Thirteen people mauled by an uncontrollable beast. Eleven victims dead. Two on life support in hospital.

The next morning, Lou stumbles into the emergency room. Third-degree burns all across his chest. Doesn’t tell the doctors they’re from point-blank flare gunfire—some unlucky woman’s feeble attempt at self-defence.

Lou’s fangs and claws did her in. Now, searing pain’s practically killing Lou.

Medical staff get him situated. Sedated. Apply topical antibiotic ointment to his wounds.

Silver sulfadiazine, to be precise.

The patient’s flesh melts further, as if doused with acid.

Nurses shriek.

Lou awakens, howling from liquefying lungs.

 

Evan Baughfman

Evan Baughfman is a middle school teacher and author. Much of his writing success has been as a playwright. A number of his scripts can be found at online resources, Drama Notebook and New Play Exchange. Evan also writes horror fiction and screenplays.