Horror stories from the Archive
The Unseen Index is an original horror universe written in English. It is set in Murrow, a rain-soaked harbour city that parted ways with our world at 03:33 on 2 November 1987. Beneath the old Municipal Hall, a records facility called the Archive still types up every death the city failed to file, and deals each one out as a Writ. The stories are case files, witness statements, reports and legends from that city. All of it is fiction.
Tonight's case file
The Man Who Paints Already — A decorator is issued his colours at the depot in the morning and finds one house in the lane already wearing them, wet.
Latest horror stories
- The Man Who Paints Already (Witness account, 3 min) — A decorator is issued his colours at the depot in the morning and finds one house in the lane already wearing them, wet.
- Wake-Up Call (legends, 4 min) — A night manager keeps deleting a wake-up call for a room that does not exist, and someone keeps answering it.
- Water Quality Report (legends, 4 min) — A water company's annual report is followed by a laboratory addendum: the water carries the DNA of the person who draws it.
- Volunteer Training Script (legends, 4 min) — A helpline volunteer's call log records a call he has not yet answered, and the voice that says he can go home.
- Waitlist (legends, 3 min) — A restaurant's waitlist texts show a couple released from the list and seated anyway, facing the door.
- Weight Ticket (legends, 5 min) — A scrap yard's weighbridge records the weight of a car door that is lighter than its owner's loss.
- Tuning the Upright (legends, 4 min) — A piano tuner finds a note in the walls of a house that the piano itself cannot play.
Entities on file
- The Itemised Receipt — Thank you for your custom
- The Hands of Mara Dix — Mended, but not as it was
- The Marchwarden — It was always on this side
The Land Registry
The Atlas is surveyed into lots. Ground that holds a story is withheld by the Registry and never sold. Open the Registry