Tag / horror

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.

by Warren Benedetto

“The Churchyard Grim” published in Dark Horses Magazine

My cryptid horror story The Churchyard Grim has been published in Dark Horses: The Magazine of Weird Fiction #28. Loosely based on the English legend of Black Shuck, it’s a story about a young girl who takes refuge in a church from the hellhound that is hunting her.

Content warning: kidnapping (implied), mild gore

We thought we would be safe in the church. We were wrong.

by Warren Benedetto

“They Say Crows Can Remember Faces” published by The Afterpast Review

My short horror story They Say Crows Can Remember Faces has been published by The Afterpast Review. When a bully kills one of Ava’s favorite crows, he quickly learns that some animals never forget a face.

Content warning: bullying, animal death, mild gore

The stone hit Ava in the back of the head. She stumbled and fell, spilling her schoolbooks out of her arms and onto the dirt road in front of her. Gravel dug into her palms as she threw out her hands to break her fall. Her knees skidded painfully across the ground.

“Have a nice trip!” a boy’s voice called out from behind her, to a chorus of laughter. “See you next fall!”