Occult Horror

Laura Ebert

Note: This whole story took place in a small, remote village in Eastern Germany. Chapter 1 - Insanity "Laura Ebert is a wench." "Laura Ebert is a slut." "Laura Ebert is a whore." Those were just a few things that were said about her. To me, the name Laura Ebert ...

I Built a Shrine for the Good Spirits of the Land

There are things out there, much older and many times smarter than man. Ah, the farm life. It’s hard, but satisfactory. There’s nothing like working your own land and see it bear fruit. I’ve been a farmer all my life. I grew up on the family farm and ever since ...

Silverback, the Wolf King

Do you remember how you saw the world as a child? Wasn't it a magical place with mysteries and secrets hidden everywhere? What about imaginary friends? I think we all had them at one point. They might have been the siblings we never had, magical creatures, or characters on TV ...

Skater Girl

"So, what's your deal?" Such simple words, yet they changed the summer break of 1992 forever. They say you always remember your first love. I'm not sure how true it is for others, but I do. For all the wrong reasons. I was a lonely kid. After my parents' death, ...

I Catfish a Different Girl Each Night

"You fucking creep!" she screamed. I just sat there, staring at the glass of water in front of me. I was used to this type of thing by now. Things always ended up like this anyway. "Ugh, you know how freaking long it will take me to get back home?" ...

The Disappearance of Little Marcus

Old lady in her early sixties searching for her missing son. That's what the subject of the email said that arrived in my inbox a couple weeks ago. It was a job offer sent by the nurse of the said old lady. Her contact data was included. I'd been working ...

Dusty

They were stern and strict old people. I believe love was a word that didn't exist in their vocabulary. It was always do this, behave, do that, don't swear and so on. I dared to not obey their rules? Better be prepared to be screamed at and punished. It wasn't ...

Grandma’s Penpal

Grandma died a week ago. I was devastated. I knew about the cancer, and I knew there was no hope at her age. Still, I refused to believe it. She was the nicest person I’d ever known, and after mom had died, she’d taken care of me. It was only ...

The Room of Change

It's said that once we're adults, we don't remember much of our life before the age of ten. The scientific term for this is childhood amnesia. Some people talk about not remembering certain events in their childhood. They might look at old photo albums of their early years, and get ...

Old Rain Man

“Creepy man! Creepy man! Old Rain Man! Old Rain Man!” my childish voice echoed through the humid air. The target of my anxious shouts was Old Rain Man. He was a sort of village curiosity, the local boogeyman. The origin of his name was as simple as it gets: the ...

Grandpa’s Study

Two days ago my grandpa died and for the first time in over a decade I entered his study. It was old age the doctors said. He was seventy-two years old when his heart simply stopped working. Grandpa was a really nice man. As long as I can think back ...

The Changeling

There are sometimes tales that you can’t believe really happened. It was on a mild Saturday afternoon that I heard one such tale. My dad had tasked me to mow the lawn and to clean up the old shack next to our house. It had taken me most of the ...

The Long Ride – Final Part

Hey there, everyone, sorry for the lack of updates. After what happened on day six, I just needed a few days to get myself together and to get some well-needed rest. Things got out of hand, more so than any other day before, and I’m more than lucky to even ...

The Long Ride – Part 5

Hey there, everyone. I officially made it through day five of the Long Ride. Quite a few things happened today, but while some of them were strange and terrifying, I also had a rather interesting conversation with a fellow passenger. Still trying to figure out what to make of it, ...

The Long Ride – Part 4

Hello there, everyone. Day four is officially over, and it was a strange one to say the last. It was, however, similarly terrifying as the prior day, for… various reasons. As I said, I hadn’t slept and even after I’d typed out the day’s events; I wasn’t able to. Before ...

The Long Ride – Part 3

After last night’s encounter with the group of thugs, I was quite shaken. I didn’t know, however, what day three would hold in store for me… I still kept to my people watching, and I still made up stories about my few lonely companions during the quieter hours, but not ...

The Long Ride – Part 2

Well, the second day of my little journey is over, the one I came to call the Long Ride, and boy, do I have to tell you a few things. Things took a turn for the worse, but more on that later. After sitting in a tram for over twenty-four ...

The Long Ride – Part 1

I came up with the idea for the Long Ride a few days ago. My friends and I had met up on Friday evening to hang out, share some stories, and, of course, to have a few beers. Before long, I ended up completely plastered. As I sat there, trying ...

Hall 37

I bet you’re laughing right now. You probably think I’m just some idiot with a terrible sense of direction. To be honest, you’re right about the latter, but I assure you, what I experienced is no laughing matter. The day I got lost, I was working. Theoretically. My colleague Frank ...

Suitcase Land

What do you do with a room full of old, musty suitcases? That was the first question that came to my mind after I’d had a look through my late uncle’s estate. He’d recently passed away, and as his only living relative, his home fell to me by default. To ...

The Mysterious Key

I always loved the flea market in my city. It wasn’t so much that I needed anything; it was just nice to go there with friends. We’d have a look around at all the things available, have some beers and enjoy the weather. The best time to go was during ...

Old Thomas’ Hatchery

Beggars can’t be choosers, the old saying goes. I’d been unemployed for weeks, when I learned that old Thomas Maier was looking for help around his chicken farm. To be honest, I was weary. I never imagined myself working at a chicken farm, and I wasn’t looking forward to it ...

Sci-Fi Horror

I Was Offered 100.000 Euros to Beta-Test a New Piece of Virtual Reality Technology – Final Part

As I sat up in the grass, I realized that it had all been fake. The entire second reality, the insane Kitagawa and even the supposed brain damage I was suffering from. It had all been another part of their simulation. I grew angry before rage overtook me. “The fuck ...

I Was Offered 100.000 Euros to Beta-Test a New Piece of Virtual Reality Technology – Part 2

“What the hell are you talking about?” “You arrived here at our Munich facility this morning to test our new immersion rig.” With that, Dr. Kitagawa pointed at a different contraption. One I’d never seen before. It looked almost like a giant wheel a person could be strapped to. A ...

I Was Offered 100.000 Euros to Beta-Test a New Piece of Virtual Reality Technology – Part 1

“Hitting rock bottom doesn’t mean you have to stay there.” - Michelle Parsons That was the reason I found myself in front of a small, mundane office building in the outskirts of Berlin. It should be the greatest mistake of my life, even more so than all the shit I’d ...

The Wonderful Works of Nikolay the Wonderful

“The Wonderful Works of Nikolay the Wonderful,” he read out loud as he stared at the book I’d handed him. His eyes returned from the book to me, and a questioning look formed on his face. I couldn’t help but giggle. Nikolay was the smartest man I knew, a bona ...

I Wish I’d Never Met the Man Named Ivan Nikolayev

The passing of time is a strange thing. "Uncle Mike's died," mom told me over the phone. I was devastated, but not shocked. My great uncle Mike had been an old man, very old indeed. He was in his mid-nineties when he died. I'd only ever met him when I ...

The Barn

The barn was the biggest building on the farm my friend Martin and his family lived at. Martin and I go back a long while. We became friends during middle school when he lived in a boarding home and attended my school for a year. The two of us bonded ...

Robert’s Repairs

If you'd seen Robert's Repairs, you'd most likely think of it as a simple, small-town repair shop—the owner, Robert, just another typical grease monkey. In reality, there was much more to the shop and its owner. The most interesting fact about Robert was that he could fix anything. I don't ...

Marty the Lizard Boy

Marty was obsessed with lizards. No, not dinosaurs, not dragons, just those tiny, four-legged, slithering things. I don’t know when or why it started. One day, out of nowhere, lizards were all he talked about. Marty was an odd kid, one who didn’t seem to fit in, and who was ...

The Legend of Long Legged Larry

It was my cousin Bill who first told me about the Legend of Long Legged Larry. Bill and I used to be best friends, and I always spent the long, hot weeks of summer in his small town in the middle of nowhere. In 2002, however, things changed. I guess ...

The Wailing of Willow Way

Terrance Brown had always been in love with ghost stories. He would scour our town in search of any and all rumors regarding the supernatural. Yet, our town was small, tiny even, and its few inhabitants shared nothing resembling even the most normal rumors or urban legends. Ghost stories or ...

Severin’s Hill

When we’re kids, we all believe to be invincible, immortal even. My friends and I were no different. We all thought we were at the center of the universe. We had high aspirations, wanting to be scientists, doctors or astronauts. I was the only one to ever get close to ...

The Greenhouse

As a kid, there was no time I looked more forward to than summer. It meant no school, of course, but it also meant going back to my home village. I grew up there, but once I got into second grade, my parents moved to the city. I didn't hate ...

What Lies Beyond the Cornfields

They call childhood the happiest time of your life. This was true for me too, at least until a specific day. After that nightmares, guilt and therapy replaced my happiness. I grew up in a small rural community. It used to be one of the many small farming communities of ...

Mushroom Hunting

Memory. It’s such a strange thing. We never truly forget, it’s only the connections that erode and eventually vanish. Yet, if we’re able to restore the connections, then we also get back the memory, we thought lost. The process can be triggered by returning to places of significance. We might ...

Hallway

I always hated hallways, but after today, I never want to enter any of them ever again. What happened tonight scared me beyond anything and twisted some of my sweetest childhood memories into a nightmare. When I was little, I lived in an old farmhouse with the rest of my ...

Alexander the Magnificent’s Magnificent Puppet Show

Over two decades ago, when I was ten years old, I saw Alexander the Magnificent’s Magnificent Puppet Show. What happened back then still haunts me to this day. It was summer break, and I was as typical as a ten-year-old boy could’ve been. Ever since I was in second grade, ...

The Gorgon

Have you ever seen someone so disgusting and ugly it makes you gasp for air? I did. As a kid there was an old woman, living in the next town over that had the more than fitting name ‘The Gorgon’. I first heard about her from friends living in the ...

Internet Horror

A TikTok Livestream Made Me Question Reality

Yes, I know, who in their right mind uses TikTok? I was always starkly opposed to Social Media, especially TikTok. That cesspit of stupidity and regurgitated jokes should’ve never become a thing, and not one as huge as it is today. I wish I’d never downloaded the damn thing. I ...

She’s the Reason I Can’t Watch Porn Anymore

It all started a few days ago. What can I say? When you live in a city under lockdown, life can be lonely. I’m sitting here alone, all by myself. Books, Netflix, and YouTube can only grab your attention for so long. With no chance of real social interaction, I’ve ...

I Took Part in an Online Scavenger Hunt. I Wish I Hadn’t

Some of you might be puzzled a bit about the title. An online scavenger hunt is a series of riddles or puzzles on the internet. Throughout the years there have been quite a few them. The most famous example, without a doubt, are the puzzles created by Cicada 3301. As ...

Be Careful What You Do on the Internet

Ever since live webcam feeds became popular, I've been a fan of them. It's strangely relaxing to watch them. I'm not talking about streamers on Twitch or other pages like that. I'm talking about live feeds of public places. By now there are millions of them out there. You can ...

World of the Macabre

I first heard about 'The World of the Macabre' about a week ago. It was in a post by one of my favorite horror writers, Melody Madness. She's a rather niche writer. I found her work half a year ago and loved it ever since. You could say I'm a ...

I’m an IRL Streamer and Tonight Something Inexplicable Happened

I'm sure you all know about IRL streamers. There are so many stories about them on the internet right now. You'd have to live under a rock to not know about them. For the past month, I've been doing these types of streams myself. I don't have too many crazy ...

GenSearch

I first stumbled upon GenSearch in an IRC chat room. While most people think IRC is dead and a remnant of the past, it's still very much alive. The user base has shrunk quite a bit though. Most people moved on to more modern platforms. I'm one of those people ...

I Found Something Very Strange on Instagram

I really love Instagram. It's probably the app I spent most of my time on. I don't have a big following or anything, but I love to share pictures. Guess, it's pretty normal for a teenage girl like me. In my time on Instagram, I saw my share of weird ...

Family Pictures

The wound caused by my parent's death never really healed. I often had days when the pain was too much, and the longing to see them again was too strong. I recently suffered through one of those days. It had been more than two years since my parents had died, ...

Toby

A couple of weeks ago I stumbled upon a strange post on 4chan’s x/ board. The OP of the thread said that he found some strange comments under random articles online. No one had reacted to the thread yet, so I decided to check it out. For as long as ...

Realistic Horror

The Legend of Granny Donovan

"That's just terrible," Sue said. "Yeah, no shit," I replied. "No one could believe something like that could happen in our small town." "Are you telling her that stupid story about Granny Donovan? You know it's all bullshit, right?" Andrew said as he came back with another round of beers ...

How to Crack a Vending Machine

Chance encounters are common, even in the middle of the night, or especially in the middle of the night. The man who taught me and my friend Sebastian how to crack vending machines, though, was anything but common. The two of us had gone out like usual, on a whim ...

Premonitions

Premonitions. They always happen at the strangest time, and always out of nowhere. One second, everything’s all right, the next I witness something horrible. My friend Paul and I were sitting on his living room couch, having a few beers. Suddenly, his drunk face was replaced by an empty, blood ...

The Yummy Food

Working at a retirement home is a tough job. The hours are long, overtime is a constant, and the pay is low. And yet, I never hated the job. No, I always enjoyed helping people and did my best to guide them through the last years of their life. All ...

Night Cleaning

If you’d ask me ten years ago where I’d see myself now, it definitely wouldn’t be working at a cleaning company. No, I’d tell you I’d run my own successful business. I had high aspirations when I was younger, and I even dropped out of school to choose some vague, ...

The Rules – Instructions on How to Succeed at Cat Sitting

My friend Josh was my polar opposite. He was a young successful entrepreneur and, frankly said, filthy rich. I on the other hand was a perpetual failure, who lived in a small one-room apartment, always looking to make it to the end of the month. While Josh owned a flourishing ...

Renovations

I guess everyone has heard about a Craigslist horror story, but no one expects to end up in one. I’d been thinking about leaving the city life behind for a while now. I guess I couldn’t stand the bustle of the city anymore and longed for a more remote life ...

Business Deals

We always think we know who our friends are. Hell, I’d known my best friend Martin for the better part of two decades. After what I saw today, however, I realized that I never knew who he really was, and what he’s capable of. I began working for his company ...

The Prisrak Case

This is a story my grandpa told me. When he was younger, he worked with the Soviet police, the Militsiya. He told me many stories about that time. Most of them didn't have a happy ending. Grandpa admitted he'd done his share of bad things, but he often tried to ...

Michael

I first met Michael during a supplementary lecture at university. I only attended it for a few easy credits. Michael, I would learn, was in the same boat as me. Over the first two months, we bonded and eventually went on a date together. He wasn't exactly my type, to ...

Disturbing Horror

Itch

Did you ever feel an itch so bad, you scratched yourself bloody to make it go away? If not, consider yourself lucky. Consider yourself damned lucky! I don’t know when or where I exactly got it from, but I’m sure it was during this shitshow of a vacation in Thailand ...

Real Art Always Has a Price

"God, Mathew, you don't get it, do you? That's not what real art is about." Those had been the words Abigail threw at me during our very first fight. Sitting here now, writing this, I still wonder what real art is truly about. The same uncertainty had been the very ...

Spider Bite

I'm a little lost and not sure what's going on here anymore. Things got a bit out of hand. I'm tired, anxious, but I just want to finish writing this all down. This whole mess started only a few days ago, with a damned spider, as always. You see, I ...

The Morning After

Mornings after are the worst. I decided to start this one off with a cool beer from the fridge. It really helps to calm down, keep the hangover at bay and it gets me going in the morning. Take from this whatever you want. I made my way through the ...

The First Few Times Always Hurt…

"The first few times always hurt," mama said, "it's terrible, I know, but you have to endure. It will get easier." That's what she said once it was over. I'd turned eighteen in August. There was no big celebration, no party, no friends and no presents. Instead, mama told me, ...

Special Diet

The miracle of birth never ceases to amaze me. I guess that's why I ended up becoming a midwife. There aren't many independent midwives anymore, and a decade ago, I'd have called it a dying profession. It's only because of the popularity of alternate lifestyles, and new age believes that ...

Do You Know That Sleep Paralysis Can Last for up to an Hour?

Most people know about sleep paralysis. Only a Few know that it can last for up to an hour. Not being able to move for a few minutes is scary. Not being able to move for an hour is the most terrifying thing in the world. I read online that ...

Feral Lust

These days there’s an almost endless supply of two things: information and porn. It’s all thanks to new technology and the emergence of the internet. There are thousands of porn sites and millions of pornographic videos out there, and each day the number is growing. While most people consume porn ...

Fetish Webcam

I have always been a bit of a weirdo, even as a kid. It was the macabre and the disturbing that fascinated me. I grew up reading about serial killers and watching violent movies. When I hit puberty, I found an entirely new set of interests. Sure, I was as ...

Woman in White

How do you react to someone calling out to you in the middle of the night? What if it happens in a dark, deserted street? With a mixture of worry and apprehension? That’s how I reacted. I jerked around and almost dropped the cigarette I’d lit.In my mind, I imagined ...

I Work at an Autobahn Service Area. Something Scares Me.

There’s something special about places frequented by vast amounts of people. I work at one such place, an Autobahn service area. It’s not exactly a nice job, but it isn’t so different from retail. We double as a gas station and a restaurant. So I mostly sit behind the counter, ...

A Few Days Ago, a Little Boy Appeared in Our Town

One morning, about a week ago, I noticed a commotion outside. A group of my neighbors had gathered which. They were talking to one another and pointing at something down the road. I was more than surprised. Nothing ever happened in a small town like ours. When I went outside ...

Hide-And-Seek

During Our Annual Village Fair, Our Entire Community Gets Together for a Game of By everyone, I mean everyone: from the youngest members, toddlers and babies still held by their mothers, to the oldest, those needing walkers and wheelchairs. These games have been held for as long as I can ...

The Cow King

When people think of their first pet, they talk about dogs or cats. For me, however, it was a cow. Now, Lina wasn’t my cow, of course. She was one of many my grandpa owned. Years ago, when I was a young boy, I spent the long weeks of summer ...

Paper Magic

Our annual village fair was always a magical place for me, but one year, I should witness some real magic. The fair wasn’t as big as others, but to a kid like me, it didn’t matter. A variety of stalls lined the road through our village. One of the local ...

When I Was a Boy I Found an Abandoned Tree House

Marlene was my very first friend, as well as my first love. When I grew up, I had no real friends. I guess I was a bit too odd. I was always dreaming, had my head in the clouds, and was living in a world of my own. During summer ...

Uncle Robert’s Basement

Nobody ever expects to find themselves in a ghost story. Yet, I always had a lingering feeling I’d one day find myself in one. The reason was simple, basements. I hate them, always have. I don’t know where this apprehension came from, but they’ve always made me anxious. It didn’t ...

Ms. Granger’s Collection

I hated Ms. Granger’s collection from the moment I laid eyes on it. The old lady was the latest in my long line of patients. I’m a caregiver, the live-in type. I’d been working in the field for a decade when I got to know Ms. Granger. She was a ...

Family in Black and White

I loved old black-and-white photographs from the day my mother showed me the old photo albums of my grandparents. These tiny images were like windows to a different time, a different world even. With fascination I marveled at the huge old farmhouse my family used to live in a century ...

Lovecraftian Horror

Kitty Land

Kittens were always a reoccurring motif in my dreams. I guess, I just liked those four legged, furry little demons that much. At times, it was former pets who came to visit me and allowed me to reminisce and sojourn in times long past. At others, it was nothing but ...

My Brother Invited Me to a Meditation Retreat

Andrew had always been a free spirit. He was the type who worked here and there to scrape by, but had no real aspirations to do, well, anything. When he told me he’d joined a meditation retreat outside of town, it was only fitting for him, and seemed to be ...

The Curse of Unrivaled Talent

Oh, to be born with talent; it can be a blessing, but it can also be a curse. There is, of course, the weight of expectations resting upon your feeble shoulders, the constant need for perfection. Yet there are other reasons, reasons I want to share with you, my dear ...

Oneiria

I met her during my first time at a club. It was quite the strange experience. I’d never been out dancing before, had never even gotten drunk and didn’t know the first thing about drugs. You see, I grew up in an extremely religious household; church every Sunday, praying before ...

The Cats in My Town Are Multiplying

I don’t remember when it started. I first noticed it a few weeks ago when I went to the grocery store. There were so many cats around. Seeing cats isn’t uncommon in a rural town such as mine. Many people owned cats, and there are quite a few strays around ...

Nocturnalia

“Don’t do drugs, kid, unless you want to have some fun.” That’s the first thing my wife Janet ever said me, giving me a wink. She promptly swallowed a little pill, and without another word, held one out for me. I made a dismissive gesture and off she went, back ...

There’s No Fucking Ghosts in That House!

“There’s no fucking ghosts in that house!” my boss, John, yelled. The victim of this newest tirade of his was Ed, my co-worker. I liked Ed. He was a good guy, if a little slow in the head. We’d all heard the noises, of course, Ed, me and even John ...

The Experience of a Lifetime

It was supposed to be our last big trip before our graduation. So I and my two best friends Nick and Chris set out to have our very own little spring break, albeit in Germany. Soon enough we’d be jailed away in an office at a typical nine to five, ...

The Visitor

Certain people don't fit into a nursing home. After working there for a few years, I could tell almost in an instant that Dr. Reimer was one of them. He was an academic who'd lived by himself all his life. He'd never been married and had led a quiet, solitary ...

My Friend Discovered Something Reality-Defying in His House

Until a few weeks ago I’ve been blissfully unaware of, well, almost everything. I went to work every day, loved movies and games and hang out with people, mostly my friend Greg. Speaking of the devil, it’s because of him that all this changed. It was a couple of weeks ...

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