Urbangothic Stories

WATTYS 2021 WINNER - PARANORMAL Olivia Porter is well acquainted with death- or so she thought. With the passing of her only friend, she's given more than she bargained for when the estranged and mysterious Lee Noble enters her life. Lee brings with him more than his bad attitude and mysterious past. He's Olivia's gateway to a dark and terrifying underworld she never knew existed. The Edifice; a dimension parallel to their own, separated for a very good reason. It's a world of magic, where warlocks, fiends and monsters walk the streets in strained coexistence. Stranded in a foreign land at the mercy of its citizens, Olivia has no choice but to accept the help of Otis- a deity masquerading as a fickle young man. With seven days to escape the consequences of the deity's contract, Olivia's humanity is on a perilous countdown. Otis promises her the world if she can hold out- while Lee will sacrifice anything to see her gone. Because Otis's gift to her is worth dying for... and all of the Edifice knows it. - cover by @newsies- ~90,000 Words Mature and Horror Themes CONTENT WARNINGS for death, family trauma, adult language, kidnap, coercion, drug and alcohol abuse, suicidal ideation, mental illness, graphic violence and references to racism and homophobia..

Boy meets magic. Boy meets death.

Escaping the institutions that have abused them all their life, Louise and Eliza find themselves alone in a city where strange, semi-human beings roam the streets after dark.

The Book never forgets. And now, it remembers her. Maren Fields never asked to be part of a story already in motion. But when a red leather notebook appears on her windowsill-etched with her name and pulsing with a strange warmth-her reality begins to shift. The lines between memory and fiction blur, and soon she's writing things she doesn't remember thinking. Seeing people who shouldn't exist. Hearing voices from ink that moves on its own. Across Eastbridge High, the echoes of a forgotten magic stir again. Ava and Lila's story may have ended, but the Book never closed. It waited-for the next girl to hold the pen. And it chose Maren. With the help of Callie, another haunted voice in the margins, Maren must uncover the truth about the Book's origins, the stories it rewrites, and the invisible ink that binds them all. Because this time, the Book isn't just remembering. It's rewriting.

Asa is an unwilling sensitive with a fear of mirrors and anything reflective. Amy is an unwitting empath. Together they are responsible for murder. THE SHIPPY SIBLINGS are rarely alone, despite living as secluded orphans on the remains of their family's generational farm. Tucked between the scrub-spattered brown hills of Salinas Valley, the decayed farmhouse is home to more than just the Shippy's family secrets. Ghosts vie for a foothold in this world, focusing most of their attention on poor Asa, whose lifelong Shadowman attachment has made it impossible for him to live normally. Amy, on the other hand, doesn't seem as heartily affected. Her constant struggle to erase the memory of their abusive, dead mother preoccupies most of her personality. But when a serial killer appears to be targeting them specifically, the siblings are forced to confront a haunting so personal, so vengeful, that it can only be family. Warning: occasional language/thematic elements

Clara has always played for the silence between the notes. As a cellist, she spent her years seeking a resonance that didn't belong to the crowded concert halls or the mechanical grind of a professional career. When she met Maya, a woman who didn't just listen to the world but curated it, Clara thought she had finally found the perfect harmony. But the sanctuary Maya built-a quiet, insulated fortress where the radiators never hiss and the world outside is a distant, blurred static-has become a cage. The "under-song" Clara once loved has turned into a suffocating perfection. "The Second Sound" is the story of a woman waking up to the realization that her life has been drafted by someone else's hand. The novel follows Clara's tense, atmospheric escape from the masterpiece that was meant to keep her safe forever. From the moment she breaks the "third click" of a door that was never meant to open from the inside, to her re-emergence into the beautiful, messy chaos of the city, Clara must learn how to reclaim her own rhythm. It is a journey of rediscovering the noise, the struggle, and the revolutionary power of a life that is uncurated, unpolished, and entirely her own.

❝ Tell me, did it hurt? When your eyes rolled to the back of your head and the skin under you fingernails bled for eternity? ❞ © funeurals, 2023

Nikolai Verne believes that aliens walk among us, after accidentally witnessing highly-classified phenomena at the private space agency he used to work at. Luciana Lobos believes that demons and ghosts are real, after an eerie childhood encounter with a spirit. The two find themselves at odds with each other, when they are forced to work together to discover the truth within an endless list of paranormal conspiracies... And the horrifying realization that they themselves might be something more than human. Dandadan meets The X Files and Buzzfeed Unsolved in this thrilling, dark, urban fantasy, set in an alternate version of Earth where humanity starts to slowly unravel the mystery of its origins. It features an urban gothic setting, where the Veil that conceals worlds beyond our known reality starts thinning, and the horrors that plague humanity's nightmares roam every alleyway. It is up to those who can embrace the unknown to break free from the System that keeps life on Earth subjugated and find out the truth... Before it's too late. Readers can expect: - Dual Protagonists (Two POVs) - Character-driven development - Very Slow burn romance, no harem - Creative twists of popular myths, urban legends and horror stories - Paranormal Mystery & Science Fiction Elements - Psychological Horror & Eldritch Beings Galore - Slice of Life, but the vibes are slightly unsettling - Absurdist humor A haunted doll, a possessed man and an Esper walk into a bar, what happens next should not be televised. Please be aware this story will contain potentially triggering content in the future, such as body horror, graphic depictions of violence, traumatic situations and more. This fiction is meant to be consumed by adults.

The adventures of the boy destined to die and the boy fated to kill him ©achillics