Sent to the dreary, isolated Oregon coast to stay with a grandmother they barely know, two city teenagers find themselves trapped in a war that is older than they are, and far more terrible.

Their family's history is the town's curse, and the only path to survival demands that they sail directly into the heart of the darkness. This is a story about the agonizing choice between running from your past, and the moment you decide to burn it all down.

Thomas Reid is a literary star, his bestselling novel The Factory Grave, a golden ticket out of his blue-collar past. But the life he built withing a remote mountain fortress, the perfect family, the critical acclaim....it all feels like a fraud. He is haunted by a suffocating "survivor's guilt", a feeling that drives him back to the Utah wilderness for a reunion with Rudy, the best friend he left behind.  

He went for penance. He went to prove he hadn't changed.

In the cold, gray light of the mountains, a single rifle CRACK shatters the silence. Thomas is faced with a choice: his new life, or the truth.

He chooses the new life.

He buries his secret under a blanket of pine needles, crafts the perfect lie for the sheriff , and walks away, a good actor in the role of a grieving friend. For two years, the lie holds. He is safe.  

But some graves don't stay closed. And in the remote, quiet dark of his fortress, Thomas is about to learn that the man he buried... isn't the one who is coming back for him.

What if you found a VHS tape... that showed you the future?

It's 1992, and Clint Mercer is a lonely man living a quiet, predictable life. His only solace is the local video rental store, a relic of a bygone analog era. But when the clerk hands him a mysterious, unlabeled cassette with one word on it ...REWIND! his world is shattered.

It's not a movie. It's a prophecy.

Clint watches, horrified, as the grainy, handheld footage shows him events that haven't happened yet, a future he can't even comprehend. The tape's cryptic message is clear: if he doesn't rewind it, it will all come true.

But the future doesn't want to be changed.

The moment Clint decides to act, he learns that something is guarding the timeline. Creatures of static and shadow begin to crawl from the dark corners of his apartment, whispering his name, their only goal to stop him from pressing that button.

This episode of Dust and Echoes is a gripping story about a man in a race against time, armed only with a failing VCR and a flashlight. It's a chilling blend of supernatural thriller, 90s nostalgia, and analog horror that asks: if you had the power to save the world, could you survive the things trying to stop you?

If you love stories about cursed objects, found footage, or "what if" time travel thrillers, this episode was made for you.

Jack's a long haul trucker that's not just hauling freight.

He's cursed with a psychic radar for evil...a 'Thump' in his skull that screams for blood, freezes the cab with spectral dread, or heralds true, ancient darkness.

Blackmailed by a demonic 'Dispatcher' holding his sister's life as leverage, Jack is now on a cross-country run with an impossible cargo: a sealed, freezing trailer that's a beacon for every monster on the map.

From roadside serial killers to rival psychics, Jack's about to discover he's not just making a delivery...he's hauling the key to the apocalypse.

Buckle up, because the haul has begun, and on this highway, there's no turning back.

Part 1 of a multiple part series: "THE BLACKTOP SAINT" book series. 

GET THE COMPLETE EBOOK FREE, 

Written, produced and performed by the author, James Cawley

What if the things you trust most...the deep silence of the woods, the familiar voice of a loved one, a desperate cry for help in the dark...were all just bait?

For this special Halloween episode, Dust and Echoes presents a triptych of terror. Three Original Tales of Terror from author James Cawley that explore the unsettling truth that we are never truly alone, and that something ancient is learning how to get closer.

These stories take you from a solo camping trip where the wilderness is watching back, to a locked door with a terrible choice on either side, to the bottom of an old, dry well where a voice is waiting for a hero.

These aren't just scary stories. They're glimpses into a world where our safe places are being mapped, our voices are being recorded, and our very compassion is being used as a lure.

Seeking total solitude in the vast, silent corners of the Utah desert, a traveler believes he's finally alone. But the darkness is listening...and waiting. 

When a relentless siege begins against the thin fabric of his small tent, he is forced to remember the ancient, whispered rules of the night:

Don't speak,

don't whistle,

and never, ever tell the darkness your name.

This is a terrifying psychological battle against a patient predator that specializes in mimicry, using the voices of the loved ones he's lost.

Our traveler will fight to survive the long, dark night, but sometimes, the greatest horror isn't what's trying to break down your sanctuary...it's the rules you forget, before you encounter it.

Under the searing Utah sun, where the San Juan River cuts through stone and silence, a quiet frontier life is set ablaze. When a brutal betrayal rips her world apart, Emma Hawthorne rises from the ashes...scarred, armored, and guided by something far older than the church bells that once tried to tame her.

Redemption is not your typical western. It’s a vengeance-soaked, faith-fractured, desert-burning odyssey. A cinematic audio drama where religious power turns violent, colonial myth collides with Indigenous truth, and one woman’s grief is forged into something unstoppable.

Redemption is an Original Dust and Echoes Story in Audiobook style Podcast form. 

Looking for the perfect SCARY SHORT STORY???  

After the funeral and the estate sale Thomas stays behind to spend one final night alone in his childhood home.  To say goodbye before it's sold. 

The rooms are now empty. But something still moves in the silence.

As he clings to fading memories, something within the house begins to respond.

A slow-burning tale of guilt, loss, and the dark things that wait in places we think are safe.

Written and performed by the Author, James Cawley. 

Some roads lead to what people would rather forget.

In the backroads of Indiana, the corn grows high enough to swallow the horizon. Mile after mile of silent rows, where sound dies and even daylight feels heavy. Farmers tell their children to stay clear of the fields after dark. Hunters avoid them altogether. And still, the missing persons reports grow.

This is the story of what Jenson and Susan McBride stumbled into one late summer evening when a wrong turn, a stranger, and a simple act of kindness led them into a darkness beyond imagination.

Part crime story, part rural legend, The Corn Witch is a descent into isolation, obsession, and the terror that grows wild when no one’s looking.

A Dust and Echoes original story, written and performed by James Cawley.

Three hundred years after the fall of the old world, the survivors live not in cities… but inside their skeletons.

High above the vine-choked ruins of what once was Manhattan, the Stone Tree Clan endures among the rooftops guided by firelight, memory, and the stories passed down since the first flames were lit. Stories that remind them of the sins that burned the world… and of the one law that has kept them alive:

Stay close to the flame.

But rules can’t hold forever.

The Down Dark is a haunting tale of survival, silence, and the weight of tradition in a world built on ashes. A cinematic story told in the rhythm of oral myth, kept alive through fearing the shadows of the past.

From Dust and Echoes, this is James Cawley’s The Down Dark