Welcome to the Dark & Shadowy Places
a collection of short stories
Six years ago I was briefly into flash fiction writing challenges. And for some reason, looking back now, I'm not totally sure why they are as dark, depressing, twisted and disturbing as they are. I don’t think I was in a dark place or anything. I think perhaps that’s just the kind of fiction I’ve always written - dark fantasy with monsters and, it turns out in this collection, a whole bunch of post-apocalyptic and dystopian stories. Maybe some sort of social commentary, even back in 2015 when these were originally written, but they are apt for today’s pandemic world.
I went back and looked at my very old blog and it turns out that back then I was really into zombies. So that explains a lot of the stories too. I’d been reading a lot of zombie books at the time (The Reapers are the Angels, The Raising of Stony Mayhall, World War Z, Feed, and Parasite (though not a zombie series) and that’s not including the trilogy I read back in 2013 or so, Carrie Ryan’s Forest of Hands & Teeth. And let’s not forget Cherie Priest’s great steampunk zombie Boneshaker series.
Now, just a word of warning with these short stories. Most are all around 1000 words each (some longer, some shorter), but they don’t have satisfying, neatly tied up endings. So if that’s your thing, then look elsewhere. But if you like cliff hangers or endings that make you wonder what’s going to happen next and that gets your imagination going, these should be right up (or is it down?) your alley. Also if you’re a fan of monsters, ghouls and ghosts - like vampires, werewolves, the grim reaper, many of these you will (hopefully!) enjoy.
I've broken them down by genre: fantasy, paranormal, sci-fi, steampunk, dark fiction/horror, and post-apocalyptic/dystopian.
Click on the title to be taken to it, and come back to this page to read them all!
With that said, I invite you to journey with me into the dark and shadowy places.
FANTASY
How You See the World (a longer short story)
Little Gods (a longer short story)
PARANORMAL
If You Go Down To The Woods Today
All About Eve (part 1, other 4 parts linked at the bottom)
SCI FI
My Name Is Nothing, What’s Yours?
STEAMPUNK
The ArcHive ( a longer short story)
From The Ashes (a longer short story)
The Secrets of Fireflies (a longer short story)
MYSTERY
DARK FICTION/HORROR
POST APOCALYPTIC /DYSTOPIAN
The Spectre & Other Stories (Crossed Wires, The Valley of Death)
All That Remains (a longer short story)
Radio Silence (a 17 part series (novel))
And that's all, folks !
~~~~~~~
Check out an interesting research article about vampire folklore below
About the Creator
Caitlin McColl
Keep reading
More stories from Caitlin McColl and writers in Fiction and other communities.
Comments
There are no comments for this story
Be the first to respond and start the conversation.