The Sinister Showcase

Collaborative Indie Publishers and Editors

[The Sinister Showcase @sinisterstories]

The ritual was meant to sift between the believers and the #heretics but when the unholy fire consumed all there it was immediately evident that the Old Gods didn’t make such distinctions. All were worthy of sacrifice in their eyes. #vss365 #horror #amwriting #thesinistershowcase

[The Sinister Showcase @sinisterstories]

“They’re all #morons,” is what the aliens said when they discovered that we wouldn’t cooperate together to fight them. Turns out. They were right. #vss365 #horror #thesinistershowcase

[The Sinister Showcase @sinisterstories]

Back to basics with #horror and #scary #prompts everyday! Stay tuned for books, stories and short #vss2020 ! Use hashtag #thesinistershowcase to send users our way! We will follow back! #amwriting #HorrorFamily #vss365

[The Sinister Showcase @sinisterstories]

In 1972, at a Chicago hospital a child was found bloodied and confused. Wound tight around it’s tongue were #shoelaces. Before the doctors could cut them off the child died. Every year after a set of bloodied laces turned up at the hospital. Every year we hold our breath. #vss365

[The Sinister Showcase @sinisterstories]

I left the campfire, the #guitar playing a melody. In the darkness I saw things dancing to its tune. I crept closer, creatures of leaves and green moss swayed and convulsed. They carried another, white as a ghost to the foot of a tree and buried it. The tree moved. I ran. #vss365

[The Sinister Showcase @sinisterstories]

#vss365

I found a tv with #damage. So I fixed it. The channels were bizarre. I saw myself fighting cancer, my ex losing her baby, my parents dying in a car crash. Fearful, I took it to the dump and smashed it up. The next day my doctor called. They found something in my blood.

[K. S. Niels @NielsKeira]

An 11-min nap.

That's all it took for them to completely #damage our floors.

Groggy, I stumbled out to find the kids scooting around on toy cars and drawing on the floor with oil pastels.

It can't be cleaned, so we're calling it post-teething impressionism.

#vss365 #truestory

[C.S. Voll @Steph_Lepht]

Hollow eyes underlined by a brittle smile — the result of years of #damage. My Jungian shadow’s presence repudiated a lifetime contract. Taloned fingers glinted in slivers of moonlight by the small bedroom window. Melancholia draped across my soul.

#vss365

[pixie dust ✨ @pixied0_0]

Love
an #oddity
a glory of hearts
poets rhyme it with their peculiar charm
No one knows its pure color
Often it makes you float far above the moon
A non-healing wound, a scar
a medicine of pain, tears of joy
a sweet melody
for others

#vss365

[ADHorror @ad_horror]

"I'll charge at the Orcs."

"Are you sure, dad? There's 4 of them and you're only level 2."

"No orc spills my flagon. A 20! I hit."

"Roll for #damage, dad."

"Ok, I'm using a battle-axe so 1d8?"

"Yep."

"Speaking of battle-axes, your mum said tidy your room."
#vss365

[Charlotte O’Farrell @ChaOFarrell]

“What’s the #damage?” I asked the taxi driver, smiling. He didn’t reply.

“Umm... how much do I owe you?”

Again, silence.

Then I noticed this wasn’t my hotel. I’d slept most of the way, tired from my flight.

I tried the doors. Locked. The taxi driver grinned.

#vss365

[B.E. Twain @BE_Twain]

#vss365

Billy's store
had some oddities.

It was far bigger
than it need be.
Even at 450 souls in '65,
Godfrey could hardly justify
a 3500 square foot area.

So he built a feral cat refuge;
had a war canoe mounted,
center ailse;
and grew hothouse peppers.

To name, a few.

[DeRicki Johnson @derickijohnson]

All about me
Is disaster—
Really,
I should run

But there
Is no escaping
The #damage
U have done

At the start
U entertained me
Thought
We were having fun

But death’s
In lack of knowledge
As I dance
To ur dull drum

I turn
A broken TV dial
This situation’s
Dumb
#vss365

[The Sinister Showcase @sinisterstories]

@rplenney Walking new cut grass

[JT @JohnTannhauser]

#vss365

I expected a bathroom. Instead what I beheld was... not so much an #oddity as a strange jumble of lines joining at angles which *almost* made sense. An alien geometry, threatening my very sanity.

I'd momentarily forgotten that the tiler hadn't yet finished redecorating.

[ADHorror @ad_horror]

Dad made it a point to watch, not listen to, the daily virus updates.

It was inconvenient but he couldn't bring himself to sully his #radio. It was a tool of pleasure not misery. He wanted to keep it for the gentle banter of Test Match Special, or singing along to soul.
#vss365

[JT @JohnTannhauser]

#vss365

My grandfather owned what would have once been considered a cutting-edge integrated music system. It featured a turntable, short- and long-wave #radio tuners and built-in speakers.

After he had passed, I found an old bottle of Bols tucked behind his LPs.

Proost, Opa.

[Charlotte O’Farrell @ChaOFarrell]

I first noticed the #oddity on a man’s face when out for my walk.

It was as if his face had been smudged, features unclear. I tried not to stare.

It spread. People on the news had it.

Now when I’m out, people point and stare at my “deformed” unsmudged face.

#vss365

[The Sinister Showcase @sinisterstories]

@shortstorysmith Thanks. For some reason I was thinking about a dark fantasy of The Borrowers. I have no idea. 😂

[The Sinister Showcase @sinisterstories]

I deal with the #oddity of your world. You need a dragon removed from your knitting, or stop a golem killing your gnomes, I’m you Odder. I’m the last of my line. The rest vanished the day the hole appeared, my father too. I wish he was here, I need help with a ravendesk. #vss365