Horrific Scribes

an online archive of the provocative, scary, and strange

L. Andrew Cooper, editor

Horrific Scribes is an expanding online archive of dark short fiction (and some poetry) by authors who share the Horrific Scribblings imprint’s dedication to the provocative, scary, and strange. It collects dark, transgressive fiction, mostly horror (all subgenres, bloodless to extreme, nothing off limits) and “horror-adjacent” work in areas such as dark fantasy, dark sci-fi, the surreal, and the experimental. Scroll down, use the menus above, or go to our linktree to start.

Works in the archive are intended for mature readers and often contain graphic violence, explicit sexuality, profanity, and other material that some readers may find triggering or offensive. By continuing, you acknowledge that you read at your own risk.

THE LATEST RELEASES FROM HORRIFIC SCRIBBLINGS…

Extremely Weird Splatter features nineteen stories that fuse splatterpunk and weird horror. Includes authors JG Faherty, Christine Morgan, Jason Nickey, Monica J. O’Rourke, Steve Rasnic Tem, and many more.

Miasma follows a couple in a strained marriage as they try to flee a rising… fog… from their basement upward through their house. It causes hallucinations. It turns them against their children. It turns them against each other. While their minds corrode, so does their flesh.

NEW EXHIBIT!

For frights this time of year, we usually think of ghosts and zombies, but this season a special fear is in the air: rampant paranoia. People are plotting, and they’re plotting against you. Horrific Scribes, Exhibit Six: They Already Have You demonstrates, in appropriately unconventional ways, that they’re everywhere, and more likely than not, they already have their eyes on your activities and their hands around your throat.

Best, "Ethically Sourced"
Degni, "Notes from the Dark Web"
Dutton, "Praise Be"
Fekete, "The Well"
Ferro, "The Loyal Readers"
Hirsch, "The Look on Your Face"
Ilett, "Pockets"
Kostelnik, "Inevitable"
Kumar, "The Interval Tenants"
MacCulloch, Plots of Meat in Meter: Five Conspiratorial Verses
Lene MacLeod, "If Their Eyes Offend Me"
Shawn Montgomery, "The Service"
Kirsty Syder, "Prepped"

Horrific Scribes does not have “issues” like a magazine. However, it does have “Exhibits,” selections of stories and poems collected because of commonalities (themes, subgenres, images, etc.) and united by an introduction and cover art. Selections appear in a sequence that highlights meaningful connections.

Reading an Exhibit is like reading an anthology. Past Exhibits remain available:

ARCHIVED FEATURES

After time in the feature spotlight (below), Scribes and their Scribbles (or Scribblings) remain in the archives according to the months when their works first appeared. Browse the archival depths! For a specific author, try the “Authors” link above. For specific types of stories, try “Categories,” above. For something else, try the “Search” option at the bottom of the screen.

FEATURED SCRIBES AND SCRIBBLES

(SCROLL DOWN FOR THE LATEST)

Andrew Jackson

Joined October 1, 2026

Andrew loves to write about space and scary monsters and firmly believes the two belong together!

No Escape: Three Dark Drabbles

“It shouldn’t have teeth!”

Read No Escape: Three Dark Drabbles (300 words)

Author Keywords: Horror, Sci-fi, Sci-fi horror, Flash fiction, Drabble, Body Horror

Author Trigger Warnings (if any): [silence]

Horrific Scribes Extremity Rating:

Chris Clemens

Joined October 6, 2026

Chris Clemens writes and teaches in Toronto, surrounded by raccoons.

Peculiar Plants: Two Drabbles

The flora watches, waiting for its turn…

Read Peculiar Plants: Two Drabbles (200 words)

Author Keywords: Christmas tree, ayahuasca, plants

Author Trigger Warnings (if any): [silence]

Horrific Scribes Extremity Rating:

Eli Ryder

Joined October 8, 2026

Eli Ryder (he/him) writes horror, reads all kinds of things, and uses the Oxford comma.

“Tomorrow Me“

Sometimes, hangovers hide more than just the previous night’s memories.

Read “Tomorrow Me” (~3500 words)

Author Keywords: Body horror, grief horror, weird fiction

Author Trigger Warnings (if any): Gore, mention of child harm/death, substance abuse

Horrific Scribes Extremity Rating:

Joseph B. Major

Joined October 14, 2026

Joseph B. Major writes very uncomfortable love stories.

“Chained Girl“

Just around the corner, a transformation is taking place.

Read “Chained Girl” (~2000 words)

Author Keywords: Christmas, presents, suburbia, cul-de-sac, bicycle, crime, captivity, transformation, transmogrification, angel, beauty, love, ascension, Nat King Cole, hot chocolate

Author Trigger Warnings (if any): This piece contains implied violence and grotesque/horrific imagery.

Horrific Scribes Extremity Rating:

Asher Cookson

Joined October 15, 2026

Asher Cookson (a horror writer from Nova Scotia) is afraid of everything and trying to make a career out of it.

“Moonstruck“

As the eclipse passes Nora is overtaken by a celestial illness.

Read “Moonstruck” (471 words)

Author Keywords: Horror, body horror, flash fiction, weird fiction

Author Trigger Warnings (if any): Emetophobia (Fear of Vomiting)

Horrific Scribes Extremity Rating:

Conor Walsh

Joined October 20, 2026

An avid consumer and creator of weird fiction and weirder games, Conor is probably out looking at bugs as you read this.

“A Cracked Hand-Mirror“

Everything’s falling to pieces, and soon even the pieces will be gone, spirited away by cruel, knowing hands.

Read “A Cracked Hand-Mirror” (~4800 words)

Author Keywords: hands, disassembly, dissection, sisters, family, body horror, negligence

Author Trigger Warnings (if any): Body horror, suicide (mentioned)

Horrific Scribes Extremity Rating:

Simon MacCulloch

Second Scribbling, October 22, 2026

Simon MacCulloch is the author of The Eyes of Azathoth (Jackanapes Press).

Plots of Meat in Meter: Five Conspiratorial Verses

Butchers tell stories, but never believe them.

Read Plots of Meat in Meter: Five Conspiratorial Verses (~600 words)

Author Keywords: Poetry, horror, conspiracy.

Author Trigger Warnings (if any): Gore, violence, babies.

Horrific Scribes Extremity Rating:

Jonathan Ferro

Joined October 22, 2026

A writer exploring the darker corners of technology, paranoia, and the uncanny.

“The Loyal Readers“

What if being a loyal reader means more than simply turning the pages?

Read “The Loyal Readers” (741 words)

Author Keywords: Horror, conspiracy, conspiracy theory, paranoia, technology, readers, books, surveillance, psychological horror, speculative fiction

Author Trigger Warnings (if any): [silence]

Horrific Scribes Extremity Rating:

Lene MacLeod

Fourth Scribbling, October 22, 2026

Creating nightmares from scattered pieces of reality.

“If Their Eyes Offend Me“

Come on, you know you want to buy it—well, they know you do.

Read “If Their Eyes Offend Me” (493 words)

Author Keywords: Flash fiction, psychological horror, dystopian

Author Trigger Warnings (if any): [silence]

Horrific Scribes Extremity Rating:

Zary Fekete

Third Scribbling, October 22, 2026

Have lived on three continents and love to write about it all.

“The Well“

“You are performing your assigned tasks efficiently.”

Read “The Well” (~1100 words)

Author Keywords: deep space, orbit, surprise ending, twist

Author Trigger Warnings (if any): discussion of trauma

Horrific Scribes Extremity Rating:

Morgan Kostelnik

Joined October 22, 2026

Morgan Kostelnik is a nerdy writer from Wisconsin who loves speculative, historical, and literary fiction.

“Inevitable“

It’s easy. Don’t get left behind.

Read “Inevitable” (100 words)

Author Keywords: Psychological, Quiet, Workplace, Drabble

Author Trigger Warnings (if any): [silence]

Horrific Scribes Extremity Rating:

Prince Kumar

Third Scribbling, October 22, 2026

He writes the kind of horror that stays with you.

“The Interval Tenants“

Somewhere between the years that were and the years that should have been, someone is keeping count.

Read “The Interval Tenants” (~1600 words)

Author Keywords: Horror, Supernatural, Dark Fiction, Atmospheric, Suspense, Psychological

Author Trigger Warnings (if any): None.

Horrific Scribes Extremity Rating:

Jim Best

Second Scribblings, October 22, 2026

A dad, a husband and a customer service rep, who also happens writes stories.

“Ethically Sourced“

You are what you eat.

Read “Ethically Sourced” (~5000 words)

Author Keywords: body horror, lab grown meat, climate change, biotech, capitalism, clone, scifi, food.

Author Trigger Warnings (if any): [silence]

Horrific Scribes Extremity Rating:

H.J. Dutton

Third Scribbling, October 22, 2026

I write about things that go bump.

“Praise Be“

“The Long Shadow of the Sodder Cult: A City’s Struggle to Digest Its Bloody Past”

Read “Praise Be” (953 words)

Author Keywords: Epistolary, Occult, Conspiracy

Author Trigger Warnings (if any): [silence]

Horrific Scribes Extremity Rating:

Fendy S. Tulodo

Fifth Scribbling, October 27, 2026

Writes stories, makes music, sells motorcycles for a living. Not in that order of importance.

“The Double Note“

The cup was across the room. Her arm never moved that far. She got it anyway.

Read “The Double Note” (~2300 words)

Author Keywords: pregnancy horror, body horror, maternal horror, medical horror, unexplained illness, slow burn horror, domestic horror

Author Trigger Warnings (if any): pregnancy and childbirth, medical content, body horror, death, cardiac illness

Horrific Scribes Extremity Rating:

James Edward O’Brien

Joined October 28, 2026

Tales twisted, two-fisted, speculative, and otherwise.

“The Reef Ship Geraldo“

A salvage crew investigates otherworldly signs of life upon an otherwise lifeless sea.

Read “The Reef Ship Geraldo” (701 words)

Author Keywords: dystopian, ecotastrophe, weird fiction

Author Trigger Warnings (if any): [silence]

Horrific Scribes Extremity Rating:

Ethel Thorne

Joined November 3, 2026

She writes in the dark and draws from the shadows.

“The Booth“

You will go in. Who you meet is up to me.

Read “The Booth” (~1400 words)

Author Keywords: psychological horror, supernatural horror, body horror, revenge, justice, spectacle, entity, antihero narrator, imprisonment, dark fiction

Author Trigger Warnings (if any): graphic body horror, torture, violence, imprisonment and restraint, references to domestic abuse and child abuse

Horrific Scribes Extremity Rating:

Stephen S. Power

Joined November 10, 2026

Stephen S. Power doesn’t look as weird as he is.

“Agape“

“As the youngest, I’d have the honor of her eyes.”

Read “Agape” (987 words)

Author Keywords: Love, Feast, Grandmother.

Author Trigger Warnings (if any): Cannibalism would be literal, but inaccurate. While the family is eating for sustenance, they are also at worship, the original communion.

Horrific Scribes Extremity Rating: