Horror stories

Original short horror fiction from The Unseen Index universe: case files, witness statements, reports and urban legends. Every story is free to read.

• 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.
• Watch Newsletter (legends, 4 min) — A neighbourhood watch newsletter follows a stranger who is whoever each resident has lost.
• Viewing Feedback (legends, 4 min) — Estate-agent feedback forms record buyers who never booked a viewing and all offer exactly the same price.
• Visitors' Book (legends, 4 min) — A house museum's visitors' book is signed each day by the same hand, above a line that no one drew.
• Waypoint 19 (legends, 6 min) — A hiker's trail app sends him to a hut that is not on any map, and the route continues through the back wall.
• The Weather Hut (legends, 4 min) — An Arctic weather observer watches a second hut approach across the ice, and a second observer at its window.
• Variable Star (legends, 4 min) — An astronomical society's newsletter reports a variable star blinking out the names of every member since 1921.
• Untranslatable (legends, 3 min) — A subtitle translator is asked to render a word that appears in the audio where there is no script.
• Visiting Hours (legends, 4 min) — A hospice visitor log shows one daughter signing in to sit with strangers, and never signing out.
• Walk Log (legends, 4 min) — A dog walker is given an altered route by an owner who has not sent it, and the lead goes taut at a grating.
• The Subtitler (legends, 4 min) — A live-caption operator sees captions appear on her screen that she did not speak.
• Underwriter's Notes (legends, 4 min) — A mortgage underwriter finds a street paying a monthly tithe to one house, and his own name on its electoral roll.
• Turbine 7 (legends, 4 min) — A wind farm technician finds a hand crank bolted to a turbine that is exporting power with no wind.
• Vendor Shortlist (legends, 4 min) — A wedding planner's vendor list gains a cake taster nobody hired, who sits at the head table.
• Vows (Draft 7) (legends, 5 min) — A couple edits their wedding vows in a shared document, and an unnamed editor adds a promise of its own.
• The Sleepwalker's Husband (legends, 4 min) — A husband follows his sleepwalking wife to the edge of a wood, where a figure holds out its hand to him instead.
• Train Register (legends, 4 min) — A signalman's register records a passenger train that passes without being accepted, and comes earlier each night.
• Trail Camera Log, Unit 14 (legends, 4 min) — A trail camera in a forest clearing records a figure at an empty cabin, and then records the ranger who retrieves it.
• Unclaimed Baggage (legends, 4 min) — An airline's lost-baggage file follows a case, a wooden box, and a tooth that the sea returns.
• Verbatim (legends, 5 min) — A court stenographer notices a second text written under every answer a witness gives.
• The Locksmith's Second Visit (legends, 4 min) — A night locksmith opens a flat for a woman in a coat, returns to find the same call again, and then finds his own door standing open.
• The Repaired Page (legends, 5 min) — A conservator mending a parish Bible finds a guard leaf, and then finds the book rewritten.
• Tide Table Errata (legends, 3 min) — A harbour tide table acquires a third high water at 23:58, and boats that nobody moored.
• Transcribed Voicemail (legends, 4 min) — Voicemails arrive from a number that belongs to the recipient's own phone, in a voice that has been practising hers.
• Vacancy (legends, 5 min) — A new tenant is told the upstairs flat is empty, and the lease is amended to include its occupant.
• The Last Entry for Today (legends, 4 min) — A night supervisor's handover note explains the room, the rules, the twelfth console, and why it has been warm since the new supervisor was born.
• The Fence Agreement (legends, 4 min) — A boundary fence agreement is signed by an owner who does not exist, and the fence moves toward the house.
• The Understorey (legends, 3 min) — A forest survey tags a new tree for every surveyor who joins the crew.
• Test Run 14 (legends, 4 min) — A crash-test dummy turns its head after impact and speaks the name of the technician who gave it a name.
• Understudy (legends, 5 min) — An understudy learns the lead's lines before she is given them, and the lighthouse set has a figure who knows hers.
• The Ferry Is Always Late (legends, 4 min) — A passenger's log shows a ferry that always arrives late, at the island he never left.
• Tapping (legends, 4 min) — A colliery's rescue log and a surveyor's note record tapping through a seal, and a code the miners kept.
• The Lodger (legends, 4 min) — A family-history researcher finds a lodger aged thirty in every census since 1841.
• Tenant Rating (legends, 3 min) — Tenant reviews of a rented flat describe a second toothbrush, a second bedroom, and a landlord who always knows the answer.
• Thread: Is it still open? (legends, 6 min) — A forum thread about a diner missing from every modern map shows each poster arriving at the counter one by one.
• The Echo (legends, 3 min) — A tourist calls into a well and is answered, in his own voice, by the person he asks for.
• Take 14 (legends, 4 min) — A radio play's recording notes show a voice that was not in the cast, and a final take that is not the actors'.
• Thaw (legends, 3 min) — A glaciology team's borehole stops at a person lying in clear ice, wearing the current season's parka.
• Still Missing (legends, 4 min) — A community board's lost-cat posts are edited by the owner, who is standing in the window of the picture.
• The Sky Has One Less Star (legends, 4 min) — An observatory loses the stars it loves, and each restored star arrives with a count of one.
• The Anechoic Chamber (legends, 4 min) — A technician sits in an anechoic chamber and hears a voice at his left shoulder that is learning his name.
• Station KLD, Seismic Log (legends, 4 min) — A seismologist records a footstep wave that follows his instrument to a new site five kilometres away.
• Space 12 (legends, 4 min) — A rented garage space is always occupied overnight by another car, and the advertisement says it has always been used.
• Splice Log, Reel Six (legends, 4 min) — A cinema projectionist's splice log notes a frame of a woman who is not in the film, and who is walking out of it.
• The Forecast for Tuesday (legends, 6 min) — A coastal forecaster discovers that every Tuesday in the seven-day outlook is exactly the same day.
• Temporary Lights (legends, 4 min) — A traffic-light operator at roadworks sees a car wait since 1961 for a green that has just come on.
• Starting Sheet (legends, 3 min) — A yacht club's race sheets count boats on the water that are not in the fleet and are all pointing the same way.
• Snagging List (legends, 4 min) — A new-build snagging report finds floors that slope towards the same wall, one storey above another.
• Span Seven (legends, 4 min) — A bridge inspection finds a seventh span on a six-span viaduct, and a traffic count that never lets vehicles leave.
• The Count in the Stairwell (legends, 11 min) — A new tenant is warned not to count the landings on Stair B, and the building learns where its residents are by the numbers they say.
• Tasting Menu (legends, 3 min) — A restaurant critic's review and a kitchen note reveal what each course takes from the guest.
• Snow Pit (legends, 4 min) — An avalanche forecaster digs through the snowpack and finds a line of footprints that is still walking.
• Series AB (legends, 3 min) — Counterfeit twenty-pound notes appear in a district with consecutive serial numbers, printed on bone.
• Ride Rating (legends, 3 min) — A rideshare passenger files a complaint about a driver whose trip never moves, and then receives the car as a gift.
• Sync Failed (legends, 6 min) — A shared family photo album begins to receive pictures from a kitchen that no one in the family has ever lived in.
• Shift Notes, Mortuary (legends, 4 min) — A mortuary technician's night sheet lists rules, and the twelfth cabinet.
• Setter's Notes (legends, 4 min) — A crossword setter's clues start to come true, and the last puzzle contains a name and an address.
• Salvage Invoice (legends, 4 min) — Three salvaged doors open onto the same clerks' corridor, and a fourth arrives with a file in the buyer's name.
• Responses to Guest Reviews (legends, 4 min) — Management replies to hotel reviews deny a fourth-floor room that guests keep checking into.
• Survey Flight 9 (legends, 5 min) — A surveying drone films a human shape standing in a closed reservoir, and then the survey comes back perfect.
• Seven Guests (legends, 4 min) — A wedding photographer counts one more guest in every frame than there is in the room.
• Services, Junction 14B (legends, 4 min) — Reviews of a motorway services that is not on the map describe a café where nobody has ever left.
• Safety Data Sheet (legends, 3 min) — A chemical safety data sheet is revised four times as its additive teaches workers to understand a note.
• Repair Ticket 2208-R (legends, 4 min) — A phone-repair ticket shows photographs that the phone takes of its owner when he is asleep.
• Subtitle Track 3 (legends, 4 min) — A subtitler opens a hidden caption track and finds notes written by the audience, including a note about her.
• Services, 4 a.m. (legends, 4 min) — A lorry driver stops at a motorway service station at four in the morning and is asked, again and again, if there is anything else.
• Sermon Draft (legends, 3 min) — A vicar's sermon draft acquires a margin in a second pencil, and a congregation that fills the church.
• Route 9, Incident Notes (legends, 4 min) — A night bus driver's incident notes count passengers who all share his face at different ages.
• Release Notes 4.2.0 (legends, 4 min) — Release notes for a smart-home hub warn of presence learning, and the forum fills with households of guests.
• Stock Check (legends, 5 min) — A night stocktaker keeps counting a jar of honey that her store has never sold.
• Seat 14C (legends, 4 min) — A purser's report on seat 14C describes a passenger who orders a meal for a wife who is not on the manifest.
• Sea Area Hollow (legends, 3 min) — A shipping forecast begins to include a sea area that is not on any chart.
• Reviewer 2, Manuscript 4417 (legends, 4 min) — A peer reviewer's report on a cellar study turns out to be written by the person sitting in the observer's chair.
• Product Recall Notice 26-0917 (legends, 4 min) — A bakery recalls sourdough after teeth, and later hands, appear in the crumb.
• Statements (legends, 5 min) — Witness statements about a fatal crash describe a passenger no one can find, and an officer who keeps humming a hymn.
• Rules for Residents, Flat 6 (legends, 4 min) — A residents' handbook and three handwritten notes explain what to do if someone knocks at the wrong hour.
• Sampler (legends, 4 min) — A sampler's cataloguer photographs a stitched house that grows by a stitch a day, and a figure that moves.
• Quiet Hours (legends, 3 min) — A tenant's noise diary shows an upstairs flat that only copies her, and only before ten.
• Preservation Order (legends, 4 min) — A tree preservation order protects an ash that has grown through a bedroom, and speaks in a dead husband's voice.
• Sold Out (legends, 4 min) — A group chat from a gig shows seven friends being counted into an audience that does not seem to exist.
• Route 40, Last Run (legends, 4 min) — A late-night bus driver follows an announcement to stops that are not on the route, and takes on passengers who are not on the timetable.
• Room 9, Halls (legends, 4 min) — A student maintenance portal tracks a resident who is moved to a room that has not yet been let.
• Pre-Need Order Form (legends, 4 min) — A man pre-pays his own funeral, and the coffin is made up for a guest in his empty hall.
• Polling Station Log (legends, 3 min) — A polling station's log reports a ward that votes for a candidate from a street demolished in 1961.
• Sleep Report (legends, 5 min) — A sleep-tracking app starts to report a second sleeper in a bedroom that holds only one.
• Replies in Thread (legends, 3 min) — A metal-detecting forum thread follows a signal that moves when it is dug, and reaches the poster's own home.
• Range Log (legends, 4 min) — A range safety officer finds arrows arriving in the gold from behind the butts, where no archer can stand.
• Plot 12 (legends, 3 min) — An allotment society's minutes record a vacant plot that is cultivated every night by the same unseen tenants.
• Plot 214, Section D (legends, 4 min) — A cemetery plot is bought for a sister who was never buried, and then reassigned to the holder.
• Skin Scan (legends, 5 min) — A skin-health app flags three unrecognised marks that turn out to be a message the sleeper writes on herself.
• Quiet Coach (legends, 4 min) — A commuter in the quiet coach learns whose seat has always been twelve.
• Rain Gauge (legends, 3 min) — A farmer's rain gauge fills on dry days with something that sets like jelly.
• Placement Test, Level 1 (legends, 4 min) — A language placement test is taken by a candidate who has lived in every example sentence.
• Plant Tags (legends, 4 min) — Garden-centre labels name plants for the dead members of one family, and a rose for the living one.
• Sea Cave Tour (legends, 5 min) — A sea-cave boat tour offers a perfect glow in the dark, and keeps a record of everyone who stays still enough to be seen.