Southerngothic Stories

You won't find pink ponies, fairy tales, or picture-perfect smiles here. Only the world as it is: cold, cynical, sometimes calculating, and often unfair. This is the story of a fourteen-year-old girl named Emmy-and one week of her life. A week filled with the suffocating heat of the American South, the relentless chorus of cicadas, and a love that can suffocate. Beneath the scorching asphalt, across mole-riddled lawns, through the silhouettes of small-town America, Christian hymns, and hospital corridors, another world slowly begins to reveal itself-calling Emmy toward an unknown future. Whether she survives. Whether she remains herself. Whether she can hold on to what we call a soul. Written and illustrated by Tokish J. Médeau.

My cracked K-Mart wristwatch read 1:18 am. Eleven-year-old Andy McKee had learned to survive his mama's neglect. Stay small, stay quiet, stay awake... and "Do not let Mrs. Kennedy catch you on them stairs, you hear me?" But when a vicious attack leaves him broken and alone, the world swoops in to save him. Sent him off to the damn Grimm Road to live with the Cooper's. A family with more than enough trouble of their own. To a road where only the dead and dying belong. Then Auntie Ree offers him the world. Everything a boy could want: A mother's love. Safety. Belonging. No longer the no-account bastard from the wrong end of town. And all he has to do? Sign his name in her book. In this Southern Gothic tale, Andy must navigate the bargains of a small town trapped in the clutches of one sharp ol' coffee shop owner, and discover that some prices are paid by the people you love.

After a devastating defeat, humanity was forced to give up their land and relocate to two isolated continents that were labeled as impossible to live on. After hundreds of years while the rest of the world focuses on agricultural and living conditions. Humanity had focused on its weapons and military. As years of isolation were broken and tensions rise, the fate of the world is left uncertain.

In 1850s New Orleans, the city is sweating, singing, lying, praying, and burning beneath the surface. Lucien believes the world is made of things that hold: brick, timber, iron, glass, weight. Maeve believes the world steals first, so you'd better move faster. Ruth believes every lie can be trapped in ink. Isaac knows material tells the truth, even when men refuse to. Anaïs listens to the living world beneath the noise. Then a puddle near the cathedral shows them six different mornings. Their search leads to a hidden stone pylon beneath the city: an Anchor that reveals the possible outcomes held inside material things. A nail can bend, rust, vanish, or drive true. A beam can kill, or fall in the one direction that saves a life. A lamp can light the road, ignite the street, or go dark before disaster chooses for everyone. But this is not magic. It is not wishing. It is witness. When a wealthy developer tries to bury rotten construction, false inspections, and the mysterious Anchor itself, five young people must learn how to see the same truth together before New Orleans chooses its worst possible outcome. The Lamp That Agreed is a historical fantasy mystery set inside The Reunion Series, a larger universe of Anchors, the Veil, hidden records, parallel outcomes, and the dangerous act of choosing truth in a world built to conceal it. For readers who enjoy gaslamp fantasy, American Gothic, supernatural mystery, found-archive fiction, coming-of-age adventure, and stories with the eerie wonder of His Dark Materials, the young ensemble danger of Stranger Things, the historical tension of The Alienist, and the strange hidden-world mythology of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. More stories, lore, artwork, and archives at reunionseries.com.

You are the sweet, innocent preacher's daughter, raised on hymns, Sunday dresses, and the strict word of God. He's the town's most notorious criminal, wanted by the police and feared by the town. What happens when he becomes obsessed with you, and you can't help but fall for him? Warnings: mentions of heavy violence, alcohol, smoking, crime, slight noncon, religious themes, suggestive themes, abuse, guns, knives, kissing, angst, dark themes. © 𝐑𝐀𝐅𝐄𝐒𝐃𝐀𝐘𝐃𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐌 est. 2026

Albany, Georgia. Summer, 1991. Basketball courts packed. Bikes flying down neighborhood streets. Old folks watching from porches. Kids trying to survive another hot Georgia summer. Zion Brooks, Jeremiah King, Savannah Whitfield, Dre Coleman, Kairo Campbell, and the others have no idea their lives are connected by something older than Albany itself. Something hidden. Something forgotten. For generations, a secret organization known as the Thirteenth Division has worked from the shadows, making sure certain families never come together. Deep beyond the Flint River, the hidden people known as the Thronateeska protect an ancient secret older than recorded history. And somewhere between them all stands a forgotten child. Malachi. A boy who doesn't know who he is. A boy raised by love instead of blood. A boy whose existence should be impossible. As friendships form, rivalries grow, and the city lives its everyday life, forces older than memory slowly begin to move. Because for the first time in history... All Thirteen are alive. The city doesn't know it. The kids don't know it. But somebody is watching. And history is about to wake up. THE TWELVE: ORIGINS A coming-of-age saga about family, friendship, legacy, loyalty, and the secrets hidden beneath Albany, Georgia.

In the shadowed live oaks of 1960s Mississippi, a boy steps deeper into the world he thought he knew... and discovers it's haunted by more than just boyhood mischief.My Particular World follows Blondie-a curious, trouble-magnet kid with a sharp tongue and an even sharper imagination-as he navigates the wild, sun-baked Delta. Between firecracker wars, overgrown gardens thick with secrets, family ghosts that refuse to stay buried, and the rich, muddy earth that holds both truth and trouble, he learns that growing up means facing the things you can't outrun.Equal parts nostalgic coming-of-age, Southern Gothic chills, and wry humor, this story is a love letter to messy boyhood, stubborn kin, and the particular magic (and madness) of a world that's all your own. If you love the atmospheric charm of small-town tales, subtle supernatural undertones, and voices that feel like sitting on a porch swapping stories under Spanish moss and moonlight... welcome to My Particular World. Reader beware: once you cross that old wrought-iron gate, you might not want to leave.

"You weren't worried that I might kill you?" Esther asked. "I hoped you wouldn't." AnnMarie said. "And if you did, then... oh well." -‐------------------------------‐------------------------- Esther LaGrange never stays in one place too long. She never stays with one person too long. Solitude and long stretches of dark road are her curse. Yet she somehow manages to meet a girl seemingly more isolated than her. A vulnerable girl, who lives alone without anyone who might miss her. A girl who may actually be cursed.

Somewhere between "The Sound & The Fury" and "Dark Shadows," lies the small town of West Fork, Alabama. Before that night in the fall of '89, the scariest things about living in West Fork was the varsity football team not making the playoffs or peaking before eighteen. Kurt Rodgers, quarterback for the team that was one play away from winning a state championship, had determined two years earlier that wouldn't happen to him. He would get out and never look back. Now, after two years of college, Kurt finds himself back home, disappointed and disillusioned. On the very night he returns, a series of bizarre murders begin. With each sundown, the body count rises. The police are stumped; the only thing the victims have in common: their bodies drained of every drop of blood. Taking a job with the local newspaper, Kurt delves into the mysterious killings. He has no way of knowing his search for the truth will lead him somewhere he isn't prepared to go. His sister Teri has fallen under the spell of a handsome stranger in town, the dashing and debonair Nick LeRoux. Kurt, however, begins to suspect the romantic and gentlemanly behavior are a sinister façade, masking a dark and malevolent secret. While she sees only Southern charm and rakish good looks, he sees the Devil with a drawl. As he fights to stop the growing evil that threatens his town, he struggles with his own demons, helpless to stop the hypnotic spell that has been placed on his sister. By the time he discovers the terrifying truth, it may already be too late. Inspired by classic Eighties vamp flicks like "Fright Night," "Near Dark," and "The Lost Boys," ... when vampires were badass, dressed like rock stars and had swagger, journey once more to a nostalgic time, the early escapades of adulthood and the bittersweet memories of first love, all set against a backdrop of down-home Southern horror.

𝐅𝐈𝐑𝐒𝐓 𝐘𝐄𝐀𝐑: eloise anne robertson and colin creevey had always been inseparable, ever since their first fateful meeting. but now it seems like all colin wants to do is follow the famous, always cold and indifferent harry potter around. and so eloise anne bitterly lashes out at him: after years and years of friendship, colin threw it all away for the pitiful scraps of attention of an ignorant, uncaring boy he hardly knew. maybe it's her fault partly, but just when she needed him the most, when she went through the hardest, most heartbreaking loss of her life, like everyone else, he wasn't there to catch her fall just like she'd done so many times for him. instead, he was always poised and waiting eagerly to catch the boy who already had so many people to intercept him if he fell, colin would never matter to him. not like he used to matter to her. not like he still did. 𝐒𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐇 𝐘𝐄𝐀𝐑: voldemort's return is dominating the entire ruined world, reaping a devastating apocalypse that none can withstand, except for a few survivors. out of the chaos of what's left, bloodthirsty nightmare creatures emerge from the shells and skeletons of the animals before, ravenous for the taste of human flesh, magic, and souls. eloise anne is left to navigate the terrain of monsters, bloodshed, and ashes alone, save for the neighbours she's known for years...and colin. will she forgive what never was all those years before? this is a story about falling in love with colin creevey. this story includes southern gothic and apocalypse themes.

A mother blinded by faith believes that her and her son were renounced by God after the death of her husband. She relocates to a strictly religious town in Ohio hoping to be accepted by God again, but what they find in the town is far from God's grace. A family consumed by grief, a mother desperate to be loved by God and a son lost between religious guilt and accepting himself. This is a tale of horror, romance and a tale of tragedy that evolves into something sinister. "The devil knows very well that he cannot lead a soul to Hell unless he first makes it forget the fear of sin." - St John Vianney.

When 27-year-old Evelyn Harper inherits an abandoned farmhouse in rural Alabama from a grandmother she barely knew, she plans to sell it immediately. The property-known locally as The Blue Jay House-has stood empty for nearly forty years. The townspeople avoid it. Children are warned not to go near it. And every morning, dozens of blue jays gather around the house as if guarding something. While preparing the property for sale, Evelyn discovers a loose floorboard beneath an upstairs bedroom. Hidden underneath is a collection of journals spanning nearly a century, written by members of her family. Each journal tells the story of a disappearance. Each disappearance is connected to the house. And each writer insists that the blue jays are watching. The deeper Evelyn digs into her family's history, the more she realizes the disappearances may not be tragedies at all-they may have been sacrifices made to keep something buried beneath the land. Something that is beginning to wake up.

Tha past will al-ways come a-callin', no man can es-cape that. South-stuck winds ain't change, and longleafs don't sway in the face of some-horror, they seen it all-all 'cause they ain't new to this land. The men that lay 'ere and what beendone c-ain't be chang'd, can't be chang-ed by no one. And so they remain, swelter'd air chokin' ya fast'er en tha fate which 'as risen high a-bove ev'en the high-steeple an promis'd the next fall, so be careful wher-ya tread, old tales don't have no roots 'fer nothin', no, they got roots that send shoots back-up 'cause they ain't ne'ver die, no, they send soft-leaves back up an you best hope you ain't come cross it. All a mans' got-es his wit an past, beyond that faith, an neither ev'r seem too much 'gainst the truth that stays standin' still be-hind 'em.

A girl runs away to the swamp with her husband only to be stranded there and alone

Collection I of Whispers from The Salt Table "There was an old saying in my great-grandmother's house: Don't leave the window open when someone is close to leaving." James never believed in old family sayings. He spent a lifetime running from love, pushing away the people who cared for him most, and convincing himself he needed no one. Now, at the end of his life, he lies alone in a quiet nursing home room with blue walls, a television that never says anything worth hearing, and one window that refuses to stay closed. Every morning, the nurses close it. Every night, it opens again. At first, the breeze is warm. Then it begins to whisper. As forgotten memories return and old regrets rise to the surface, James must face the one journey he spent his entire life avoiding-the road back home. Inspired by family traditions, faith, memory, and Southern folklore, James and the Open Window is the first collection in Whispers from The Salt Table-stories where love, loss, and mystery quietly share the same room. Because some stories aren't meant to frighten us. They're meant to remind us.

Sneak with me through the gravestones, or dance with me beneath the stars. Whisper darkest secrets, or let your laugh start fires. Dream with me the dream of a thousand beautiful nightmares. Turn the page.

Four children disappear in the Florida Everglades. Only three make it home safe, a year after their original disappearance. But Chris, Will, and Jo are not at all the same people as when they left. Bound by a strange psychic connection, they attempt to go on with their lives despite the horrors they encountered while lost in the bayou. The fourth missing child, Peter, resurfaces some thirty years after going missing. And he has a striking proposition: they return to the swamp to confront the demons one last time. Trigger Warnings: family issues, kidnapping, trauma, blood, gore, peril

Seventeen year old Wilder Ansley is being followed. By who? He hasn't got a clue. By people and creatures no one else can see. That's a good enough place to start. To make matters worse, he's also able to do things that make no sense at all - like unintentionally setting fire to his foster brother's bed. Without the help of a lighter or matches. Wilder prides himself that recently, aside from a few unfortunate incidents, he's been able to keep whatever happens when he loses his cool mostly under control. That is until a freak lightning storm alerts the mysterious New Orleans Council to his whereabouts. And his burgeoning abilities. Within hours, Wilder is thrown headfirst into a whole new world, hidden behind a Shroud, and it feels more like home than he cares to admit. Despite his initial hesitations, Wilder finds friendship, and maybe something more, among these new strangers. But it turns out uncovering his place in the Eadar might be harder than he thought. Wilder must force himself to face the truth about who everyone else believes him to be-all while a decades long war escalates within and beyond the Shroud, threatening not only the Eadar and his new found friends, but the human world he's left behind. Red Summer, now available for pre-order on Amazon and Barnes and Noble, is the first installment of the Stone and Scale quartet. I will be posting 1-2 scenes a week - always on Fridays, sometimes on Tuesdays, until launch (February 18, 2026). All scenes will have text to speech available! It'll end up being roughly half the book but not the entire novel. I'll be hosting a GoodReads Giveaway for the entire book in September though, and I'd LOVE for my readers here to get first dibs!

A night, waiting for a rendezvous. Joan Watson reflects on the previous three weeks and the strange circumstances that have brought her to this alien city. - This is a work of fanfiction, no copyright infringement is intended.