Nightmare Magazine

ADVERT: The Time Traveler's Passport, curated by John Joseph Adams, published by Amazon Original Stories. Six short stories. Infinite possibilities. Stories by John Scalzi, R.F. Kuang, Olivie Blake, Kaliane Bradley, P. Djèlí Clark, and Peng Shepherd. Illustration of A multicolored mobius strip with folds and angles to it, with the silhouette of a person walking on one side of it.

Advertisement

Fiction

The House on Cobb Street

by Lynda E. Rucker

Author spotlight

The house itself was razed, its lot now surrounded by a high fence bearing a sign that announces the construction presumably in progress behind it as the future offices of Drs. Laura Gonzales and Didi Mueller, D.D.S. The principal witnesses in this case did not respond to repeated enquiries, and in one case, obtained a restraining order against this author. And the young woman in question is said by all to have disappeared, if indeed she ever existed in the first place.

In June 2013 (Issue 9)

Fiction

Feminine Endings

by Neil Gaiman

Author spotlight

Let us begin this letter, this prelude to an encounter, formally, as a declaration, in the old-fashioned way: I love you. You do not know me (although you have seen me, smiled at me, placed coins in the palm of my hand). I know you (although not so well as I would like. I want to be there when your eyes flutter open in the morning, and you see me, and you smile. Surely this would be paradise enough?). So I do declare myself to you now, with pen set to paper. I declare it again: I love you.

In May 2013 (Issue 8)

Fiction

Doll Re Mi

by Tanith Lee

Author spotlight

Folscyvio saw the Thing in a small cramped shop off the Via Silvia. In fact, he almost passed it by. He had just come from the Laguna, climbed the forty mildewy, green-velveted steps to the Ponte Louro, and crossed over to the elevated arcades of the Nuova. Then he glanced down, and spotted Giavetti, who owed him money, creeping by below through the ancient alleys.

In May 2013 (Issue 8)

Fiction

Centipede Heartbeat

by Caspian Gray

Author spotlight

Each time Lisa rested her head against Joette’s breasts, she heard the centipedes. In between heartbeats there was the tiny sound of hundreds of chitinous footsteps against bone, of miniature mandibles tearing at organs. Joette refused to admit to it, or maybe she didn’t know.

In May 2013 (Issue 8)

Fiction

Gravitas

by Weston Ochse

Author spotlight

He stared bleary-eyed at the broken glass studding the land. This was his crop, seeded over the span of four weeks, irrigated from the residue of Napa Valley grapes, sun-kissed until it glistened like dew. It was the bounty of his desperation, and now was the time to harvest.

In Apr. 2013 (Issue 7)

Fiction

Bonfires

by Marc Laidlaw

Author spotlight

The shore was dark when we showed up, but it would soon be blazing, and that thought was all I needed to warm me while we built the bonfires. The waves slopped in and sucked out again like black tar, and I went along the waterline with the others, pulling broken boards and snags of swollen wood out of the bubbling froth and foam, hauling it across the sand and up to the gravel where the road edge ran.

In Apr. 2013 (Issue 7)

Fiction

No Breather in the World But Thee

by Jeff VanderMeer

Author spotlight

The cook didn’t like that the eyes of the dead fish shifted to stare at him as he cut their heads off. The cook’s assistant, who was also his lover, didn’t like that he woke to find just a sack of bloody bones on the bed beside him. “It’s starting again,” he gasped, just moments before a huge, black, birdlike creature carried him off, screaming.

In Mar. 2013 (Issue 6)

Fiction

The Sign in the Moonlight

by David Tallerman

Author spotlight

You will have heard, no doubt, of the Bergenssen expedition—if only from the manner of its loss. For a short while, that tragedy was deemed significant and remarkable enough to adorn the covers of every major newspaper in the civilised world.

In Mar. 2013 (Issue 6)

Fiction

Cry Room

by Ted Kosmatka

Author spotlight

The church looked normal from the outside. All steepled and angular in the way of good, rural Indiana churches of a certain age. Red brick and stained glass, St. Thomas Aquinas, surrounded on three sides by hot asphalt parking.

In Feb. 2013 (Issue 5)

Fiction

Sacred Cows

by Sarah Langan

Author spotlight

Clara Maloney peered down the long Brooklyn block. She and baby Sally had been waiting in the cold for twenty minutes, and still no sign of Pop. Figured. Even to pick out his wife’s casket, the old man was late.

In Feb. 2013 (Issue 5)

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!