Dark Visions
Published on 2023-10-23
Issue Details
Each Halloween, DreamForge presents "Dark Visions," Tales for Halloween. We add one new strange tale, this year featuring William Mangieri's "The View From My Cage is Breathtaking" and provide links to haunting tales from previous DreamForge issues. We've got vampires, werewolves, zombies, ghosts, and visits to twilight realities. Each tale links to its original publication in DreamForge online and all are free online. Enjoy!
Featured Stories
Paranormal
The View from My Cage Is Breathtaking, by William Mangieri
In a chilling Halloween tale, Devon Hand finds himself imprisoned and hanging from a gibbet, branded as a witch, and left to die under the watchful gaze of an impatient raven. As he battles thirst, pa...
Science Fiction, Adventure
Kutulu in the Desert, by Angelique Fawns
Combine the inspiration of beautiful blown glass art of Dale Chihuly, with the love of love of horror, and a writing contest and you come up with a scary, strange adventure tale set in the desert. Enj...
Fantasy, Humorous
Demonology Book Club by George Lockett
What do you desire? Money? Fame? Power? Pleasure that mortal hands cannot provide? Or will a quiet presence, a good book, and a lovely chat do just as well?
Science Fiction, SteamPunk
The Clockwork Heart, by Kat Heckenbach
Other than the materials from which it was made, every detail mimicked a human heart. The shape, the size, even wires running like vessels along the surface. It served no true function for Oscar, mere...
Fantasy
A Stillness of Trumpets
Some people swore the house was haunted, that the Madonna had appeared there on the day the angels drew forth their fiery swords and the devils hit back, hard
Fantasy
The Lost Soul
Flash fiction about a storm, a wind-blown soul, and a hardscrabble man with a burlap sack.
Science Fiction
Snows of Darkness
He had thought about it many ways since the disaster began. Perhaps the last of the patricians had felt this way at the sacking of Rome. He was watching the fall of a civilization, a great change fr...
Fantasy
The Perfumer in Purgatory
Is Purgatory a place of purification or one of temporary punishment where souls in need of improvement are made ready for Heaven? Or is it one last chance for the worst of us to show some remorse? Eit...
Fantasy, Alternate History
Never the Twain
Even at times when history is the most broken, and the predators among us seek new advantage, there is reason and self-sacrifice enough to give hope.
Fantasy, Paranormal, Magical Realism
Counterclockwise
Yet another DreamForge enthusiast with a penchant for dark tales, Jamie brings us a story in classic “Twilight Zone” style with an opportunity for redemption in a backward ticking clock.
Fantasy, Urban Fantasy
Dreamforger
Once a master craftsman of nightmares, Nordri labors under a curse of empathy. The curse has tangled around his soul and linked him to those suffering from the dreamforger's art.
Urban Fantasy, Romantic, Magical Realism
The Ghost of a Smile
If there are spirit guides for the living, let them be as John J Miller envisions them, given form by the written word and empowered by a belief that grows out of love.
Humorous
Ghosts of the Ogygopsis
A bit of flash fun about the emergence of fossilized spirits.
Apocalyptic, Adventure
The Sever'd Link
Vampire Hunters enter a cursed village in search of a creature of the night. But the curse is of mortal origins and an unexpected ally awaits.
Fantasy, Humorous
Disarming the Dead
When a powerful mage falls ill, and his top aides are busy, a junior apprentice and the scullery boy team up to deal with a challenging commission.
Urban Fantasy, Fantasy
I Am Not As Young As I Was
Jean Martin takes us through the streets of our native Pittsburgh in this tale that pits a Russian immigrant against a vampire. While the beast of darkness and blood preys on the weak, our protagonist...
Apocalyptic, Romantic
Z-Spot
Z-Spot is a fun tale of love and decay after the Zombie Apocalypse that shows us that when the world ends, we just need to get on with it!