Category / Stories

by Warren Benedetto

“The Salt Circle” published in Moonday Mag

My weird fiction story The Salt Circle has been published in the latest issue of Moonday Mag. It’s a like a werewolf story, but with slugs. Yeah.

“I just don’t want you to get hurt,” Linda said, wiping at her nose with a soggy, crumpled tissue. “I’m worried about you.”

I extended my eye stalks toward her, giving her what I hoped was a look of indignation. I couldn’t believe she was trying to spin it like it was my fault. “If you didn’t want me to get hurt, maybe you shouldn’t have been so quick to deploy the chemical weapons.”

She waved her tissue with a dismissive gesture. “It’s just a little salt.”

by Warren Benedetto

“No Bones, Just Skin” published in Children of the Dead: Lost Lullabies

My cryptid horror story No Bones, Just Skin has been published in the Children of the Dead: Lost Lullabies anthology by Wicked Shadow Press. It’s about a brother and sister who have a terrifying encounter with an abúhukü, a rainforest demon known for dissolving the bones of its prey and leaving the empty skin behind.

Content warning: mild gore

“What happened to him?” Manuel asked. The filthy soccer ball he had been dribbling along the jungle floor rolled to a stop in a mud puddle on the side of the trail, suddenly forgotten.

Manuel’s older sister, Liliana, stood next to him, looking up at the body hanging high in the tree overhead. The carcass was little more than a shriveled husk of a man, a wrinkled bag of skin draped boneless and formless across the jungle’s dense lattice of vines and branches. It was almost as if the man had been turned into a garment, as if someone had slit him down the back, extracted his skeleton, then tossed him carelessly into the tree like an old bathrobe.

by Warren Benedetto

Listen to “A Sinking Feeling” on the Lunatics Radio Hour podcast

The audio production of my underwater horror story A Sinking Feeling is now available to listen to for free on the Ocean Horror Stories: Part 1 episode of the Lunatics Radio Hour. It’s the story of two survivors trapped in an air pocket in a sunken ship at the bottom of the ocean. And they’re not alone.

Content warning: child neglect

My story starts around the 23:00 mark.

by Warren Benedetto

“Something’s Wrong With Mom” published in Lockdown Horror #8

My horror story Something’s Wrong With Mom has been published in Lockdown Horror #8 by Black Hare Press. It’s the story of two brothers who wake up in the middle of the night to discover that their mother is on the ceiling. Again.

I actually submitted this story way back in May 2020—it’s one of my very first acceptances. The Lockdown Horror series was put on hold for a long time, but it finally found it’s way to print. I’m glad it did … the cover art is awesome.

Content warning: suicide (implied)
by Warren Benedetto

“Uncle Pumpkin’s Tongue” published in 7th Circle Pyrite

My Halloween horror story, Uncle Pumpkin’s Tongue, has been published in Issue 5 of 7th Circle Pyrite. It’s about a Halloween carnival ride with a sinister secret.

I wish I had warned someone about Uncle Pumpkin. Maybe I could have stopped him. Maybe I could have saved those poor kids. But until recently, I had no memory of the man at all. It was only after the bodies of the missing children were found—one boy still clutching a deflated pumpkin balloon in his shriveled, blackened hand—that I remembered what happened that night. And I realized that one of those kids could have been me.

by Warren Benedetto

“Blame” published in the Shadowed Realms anthology

My techno-horror story Blame has been published in the Shadowed Realms anthology by Horror Tree, featuring the best publications in indie horror in 2022.

Blame is about an audio engineer at a software company investigating strange sounds heard during customer voice chats. It’s a “found footage” story told through emails, Slack conversations, Reddit threads, phone transcripts, and more unusual artifacts like git commits, JIRA tickets, door entry logs … even a Walmart receipt.

Content warning: misogyny, sexual assault (mentioned), suicide (mentioned)
by Warren Benedetto

Listen to “A Piece of the Sky” on The Lost Poetry Club podcast

The audio production of my dark sci-fi story A Piece of the Sky has been released as part of The Lost Poetry Club podcast’s inaugural episode, The Chronicle. Almost all of my stories have been produced as audio versions, and I can confidently say that this is one of the best. It’s not just a narrator reading the story—it’s an actor performing the story as a monologue, and it is extraordinary.

The story is told through the testimony of the surviving member of a two-person asteroid mining crew that picked up an unfortunate souvenir during their expedition.

Content warning: gore

My story starts right around the 38:00 mark.

by Warren Benedetto

“Many Deaths Before Dying” published in the Horror Over the Handlebars anthology

My nostalgia-tinged horror story Many Deaths Before Dying has been published in Horror Over the Handlebars, an anthology of horror stories set in Connecticut in the 1980s and 90s. When a giant, silvery puddle appears in the field where they play, four boys encounter an inexplicable horror that will change them forever.

The empty lot next to Eddie’s house was the football field where Joe Montana threw the game-winning touchdown to Jerry Rice. It was the baseball diamond where Mark McGwire beat Jose Canseco in the most epic Wiffle ball home run derby in MLB history. It was where Rambo took down the Predator with a Nerf gun, and where RoboCop blew the Terminator’s head off with a Super Soaker. It was my favorite place to hang out with my three best friends.

And it was the last place I saw them alive.