Nightmare Magazine

ADVERTISEMENT: Text reads Robert W. Chambers: The King in Yellow; illustrated deluxe edition, October 2025.

Advertisement

Fiction

Fiction

Dick Pig

by Ian Muneshwar

Author spotlight

Ass o’clock in the morning and it’s black out. Black black, the kind of black you only get in these miserable, middle-of-nowhere places. No, “middle-of-nowhere” is too generous; this is past that, right at the line where nowhere becomes miles of uncharted forest thick with months of snow and screaming with wolves and whatever other ungodly feral things make noise when everything decent in the world is asleep.

In Jan. 2022 (Issue 112)

Fiction

To Rectify in Silver

by Steve Toase

Author spotlight

At least twice a day it occurs to Marissa that the photos she uses to find Neolithic long barrows and Roman forts were taken to better plot destruction. Every image passing through her hands is labeled at the top in a language she cannot speak. A freezing of the land to ease the locating of bombs and the advancing of invasions.

In Dec. 2021 (Issue 111)

Fiction

The Mothers

by Laur A. Freymiller

“The Mothers” came mostly from “hidden mother photography” that was popular in the Victorian era—these are essentially photos of children with their mothers “hidden” in the background. The result is utterly unsettling. I’ve been interested in the blurring of binaries for a while, and the binary of mother/not mother felt ripe for exploration.

In Dec. 2021 (Issue 111)

Fiction

The Plague Puller

by Manish Melwani

Author spotlight

Stopping by the canal to piss, and only a third of his way back to the House of Death, Ah Keng found his friend Leung, dead of the cholera. He recognized his oldest friend immediately, even in the darkness; even in this state. Leung’s sickness-shriveled body lay a few feet from brackish water, pallid face upturned towards the moon. Leung. It was really Leung.

In Dec. 2021 (Issue 111)

Fiction

Murder Tongue

by Jayaprakash Satyamurthy

The question “what’s your mother tongue” is forever being asked in India. In a country divided into linguistic territories, it’s a deeply significant question. The answer places you, signals your fundamental origins, wherever in India you now live. I started thinking about how much we take for granted being multilingual, yet tied to that basic mother tongue identity. 

In Nov. 2021 (Issue 110)

Fiction

Inkmorphia

by Julianna Baggott

Author spotlight

For my eighteenth birthday, I get a tattoo. A small red heart on my shoulder, Loot inked across it in black cursive. Loot was my brother’s nickname. He was twelve years old when he disappeared. I was seven. The next morning, I peel off the bandage to take a look. A vine with thorns where there was no vine with thorns. It wraps around the heart, above and below Loot’s name.

In Nov. 2021 (Issue 110)

Fiction

Glimpses in Amber

by Adam-Troy Castro

Author spotlight

My visitor gazes at our family bookshelves. I perceive right away that this is less the helpless bibliophile’s habit of scanning the titles of any shelf encountered in the wild, than an exercise in measuring me, of finding the best means of approach. We are in the family living room, a welcoming space with, among other things, three double bookcases. It is not an extraordinary book collection to find in the home of people who read.

In Nov. 2021 (Issue 110)

Fiction

I Summon You

by Dale Bailey

I’ve never written a short story this short before. I wrote this one for a Halloween event at a great independent bookstore in Asheville (shout out to Malaprops!). There were four or five readers scheduled, and we were each asked to read a very short Halloweenish piece. I set mine in the late Victorian era because I’ve been spending a lot of time there working on a historical novel (still in process) and the period is right now much in my mind. Plus, I’m fascinated by the spiritualist movement.

In Oct. 2021 (Issue 109)

Fiction

Flight 389

by Jon Padgett

Author spotlight

This time I will definitely die, Jeffords thinks. He feels that this conscious thought affords him a certain immunity from such a fate, though logically he knows that’s nonsense. As always, he chooses a window seat, not the aisle or—worst of all—the middle seat. The window seat is essential for a simple reason: Jeffords must remain in control of the window shade being up or down throughout the flight. At certain times it must be closed. At certain times he must open it, even though he dreads doing so, for, when he does, he finds himself trapped in one of three familiar nightmares.

In Oct. 2021 (Issue 109)

Fiction

Caw

by WC Dunlap

Author spotlight

He looks at me, and I am his. A steady rhythm of flickering light cast from above, pursuing me like a shadow. I scurry through tunnels, crawl through gutters and across fields, and always he is there. Relentless, wearing me down, toying with me. I escape it, breathless and relieved. But when I look down into the puddle of water at my feet, he is me. Black eyes slowly displace my brown, like thick tar pouring slowly into my pupils. Soft red lips stretch into a hard, pointed beak. Oily black feathers spread across brown, hairless skin.

In Oct. 2021 (Issue 109)

Discord header
ADVERTISEMENT: Robot Wizard Zombie Crit! Newsletter (for Lightspeed, Nightmare, and John Joseph Adams' Anthologies)
Keep up with Nightmare, Lightspeed, and John Joseph Adams' anthologies—as well as SF/F news and reviews, discussion of RPGs, and other fun stuff.

Delivered to your inbox once a week. Subscribers also get a free ebook anthology for signing up.
Join the Nightmare Discord server to chat and share opinions with fellow Nightmare readers.

Discord is basically like a cross between a instant messenger and an old-school web forum.

Join to chat about horror (and SF/F) short stories, books, movies, tv, games, and more!