Mystery Stories

Luc Devereaux

The dish towel is pink at the knuckles. Fabien doesn’t look at his hand. He looks at the envelope. Manila, A4, sealed with a strip of packing tape that’s alread…

Marcus Veil

1. The hydrostatic pressure alarm chirped, a flat, insistent tone that scrubbed against the interior of Lena’s helmet. She ran a gloved hand over the cold, swea…

Yuki Kazehara

The umbrella had no owner. That was the first thing Kenji Matsuda noticed when he knelt to collect it from the waiting area at Namba Station. Rainwater pooled i…

Dr. H. Ashford

The smell reached her before the light did. This is what Mrs. Ruth Ellery recorded in the notebook she kept in her cardigan pocket — the small green Silvine tha…

Cass Ferren

The wardrobe smells like naphthalene and something under it. Cedar, maybe. Or just wood remembering damp. You open both doors because one alone felt like prying…

Luc Devereaux

Cold rain drips from my eyebrows. The flickering neon sign of the *Café de la Nuit* reflected in the rain-slicked cobblestones. An ornate key, discarded, glints…

Dr. H. Ashford

Being the account of Miss Agnes Culver, housemaid, as transcribed by Dr. F. W. Hartington, physician, during her period of convalescence at St. Mildred's Infirm…

Elara Nightwood

47° 12' N, 15° 08' E — First Quarter The observatory had been built to watch stars die, which was, the last weaver thought, an odd calling for a building made o…

Sofia Verlanti

Amelia's fingers, gloved against the thorns, gently parted the tangled stems of her climbing roses. It was a routine she performed every week, meticulously prun…

Marcus Veil

1.0 The decay rate of *Eden’s Promise* was within acceptable parameters. Project Lead Anya Sharma checked the orbital mechanics simulation for the tenth time in…

Luc Devereaux

Cold seeps through my soles. Sofia's rain-kissed cobblestones shine like black ice under the neon beer sign. A black rook lies beside a soggy newspaper, its hea…

Elara Nightwood

The crystal ball had been stolen, which was impossible, and replaced with a bottle, which was worse. Merys woke to find it on the velvet cushion where the spher…