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Serial — 2 Chapters — Edinburgh — Creature Horror
Beneath
Inspired by The Rats Trilogy
“The vaults made noises. Everyone who worked down here knew that. But scratching was different.”
Something is moving beneath Edinburgh's Old Town. A sealed vault, a missing maintenance worker, a council engineer told one too many times he is imagining things.
Ghost Story — 1 Chapter — Yorkshire — Psychological
The Residue
Inspired by the David Ash Series
“There is a quality of occupied darkness distinct from empty darkness in a way no sceptic has satisfactorily explained.”
Three residents of a converted Victorian asylum each wake at half past two to find the same figure at the foot of their bed. A sceptic podcaster goes in without conclusions.
Posthumous Sequel — 2 Chapters — London & Scotland
The Covenant
Sequel to Ash (2012) — Herbert's final novel
“The ledger would reach into every institution he could name and several he probably couldn't.”
Eight months after Castle Comraich. David Ash, a journalist, and a ledger that names the powerful. The haunting didn't stay in the castle. It followed the men who left.
Mass Horror — 1 Chapter — West Yorkshire
The Drift
Inspired by The Fog (1975)
“He felt completely normal. He noted this later, because it seemed relevant.”
A Morrison's delivery driver on the M62 at 5am drives through something that has edges. He delivers his route. He drives home. Then he can't remember his name.
Ghost Story — 1 Chapter — Shropshire
The Keeping
Inspired by The Secret of Crickley Hall (2006)
“The boy says we can have his room,” said Lily. “What boy?”
A family buys a Shropshire house with good bones and a north-facing room nobody can quite explain. Their six-year-old knows something they don't. Something small and hard rolls across the floor at night.
Dark Thriller — 1 Chapter — London
The Lens
Inspired by Creed (1990)
“He had been a photographer for nine years. He trusted what the lens saw. The lens was not imaginative.”
A freelance photographer finds the same unresolvable figure in the background of eleven shots from a single event. Then he checks the last three months of archives.
Supernatural Thriller — 1 Chapter — The Hebrides
The Burden
Inspired by The Jonah (1981)
“She was not superstitious. She was not religious. She was an actuarial consultant. The numbers were unambiguous.”
Miriam Vane is a disaster vector. She moved to a Hebridean island of twenty-three people to keep everyone safe. Then the fishing boats stopped coming back.
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What We're Looking For
Any horror subgenre. Any UK setting preferred but not required. Original characters. Non-commercial. Up to 3,000 words for a full submission, 150 words for the competition.
First chapter only
Up to 3,000 words. Hook us in the first page.
British settings preferred
Herbert was rooted in Britain. We are too. But not required.
Any horror subgenre
Creature, ghost, psychological, apocalyptic, comic horror. Make it frightening.
Original characters
Be inspired by Herbert's style. Don't copy his stories.
Non-commercial
All stories published free. This is a fan community.
We respond to everything
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