In “Molly’s Divergent Blessings,” Barry Lewis introduces us to Molly, a fiercely capable woman trying to hold together the ranch she inherited from her father. Feverish, alone, and confronted with an unexpected visitor, Molly must decide whether to trust what she is seeing—or dismiss it as a fever dream.

Blending supernatural fiction, Western storytelling, mystery, and folklore, the story explores family, fate, loss, and the possibility that help can sometimes arrive from the most unexpected places.

Barry Lewis is the author of The Wyoming Adventure and What’s Dragon You Down. His poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in publications including HotPoet Equinox, Literature Today, Amethyst Review, Poetry Breakfast, The Writers’ Journal, Grist, and Harrow House Journal. He also has an upcoming short story in Bloomin Onion.

The Kaidankai Podcast features original short fiction exploring horror, fantasy, science fiction, and the strange.

New episodes every Wednesday.

Subscribe on Spreaker, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Read the stories at kaidankaistories.com

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Have a story you'd like us to read? Send submissions to [email protected].

What happens when a favorite teacher is pushed too far?

In “We Love You, Miss Raina,” Prachi Shah takes us into a classroom where a popular teacher's easygoing personality makes her a student favorite—until one student's challenge to her authority changes everything. Blending supernatural horror, dark humor, school horror, and unsettling transformation, this story turns an ordinary classroom into a place where the rules are very different from what the students expect.

Author bio: Prachi Shah is a horror writer whose work has appeared in Flash Phantoms, Delhi Poetry Slam, and the Tidbits 'Wishes' Anthology, among others. Her work was longlisted for the 2022 Commonwealth Short Story Prize, and she is currently working on a horror series for young adults and her Substack, terriblycreative. 

The Kaidankai Podcast features original short fiction exploring horror, fantasy, science fiction, and the strange.

New episodes every Wednesday.

Subscribe on Spreaker, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Read the stories at kaidankaistories.com

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Have a story you'd like us to read? Send submissions to [email protected].

What happens when an artist's imagination becomes more powerful than he expected?
A freelance comic-book artist has a talent for drawing horror creatures. When he receives an assignment to create a Wendigo for a horror anthology, he dives into the project—and into the folklore surrounding the creature. But the more he brings the Wendigo to life on the page, the more unsettling his own experience becomes.“

The Penciller’s Lament” is a supernatural horror story about artistic obsession, imagination, hunger, and the unsettling boundary between creating a monster and becoming part of its story.

George Larson is a retired special agent with the Diplomatic Security service, US Department of State. He's written eight novels (DICK AVERY ADVENTURE STORIES) and twenty-four horror stories. Many of his stories have appeared in print or been podcasted. He holds a BA degree in English.


Listen to the Unpleasantville story "Clazie Porter" by Jen Schneider here.
Listen to the Unpleasantville story "Charles Stonebridge" by Anne Hansell here.
Listen to the Unpleasantville story "Timothy Montgomery" by Robert Pettus here.

Sketch by Leonardo da Vinci

The Kaidankai Podcast features original short fiction exploring horror, fantasy, science fiction, and the strange.

New episodes every Wednesday.

Subscribe on Spreaker, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Read the stories at kaidankaistories.com

Follow the show:
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Bluesky

Have a story you'd like us to read? Send submissions to [email protected].

In Todd Sullivan’s “An Acquisition of Words,” a writer discovers that inspiration can come at a terrible price. What begins with ambition and the desire to create becomes a supernatural encounter involving creativity, temptation, and a bargain that has terrible consequences.

Blending supernatural horror, dark fantasy, and a classic bargain-with-the-devil premise, the story explores the darker side of artistic ambition and the consequences of wanting success badly enough to pay for it.

About the author: Todd Sullivan is a writer of speculative fiction whose work explores the darker and stranger corners of human experience.

Guest reader Melissa Miles

Listen to the Unpleasantville story "Noah Fiindley" by Travis Mushanski here.
Listen to the Unpleasantville story "Claire Fiindley" by Travis Mushanski here.
Listen to the Unpleasantville story "Marcus Findley" by Travis Mushanski here.

The Kaidankai Podcast features original short fiction exploring horror, fantasy, science fiction, and the strange.

New episodes every Wednesday.

Subscribe on Spreaker, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Read the stories at kaidankaistories.com

Follow the show:
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Bluesky

Have a story you'd like us to read? Send submissions to [email protected].

A lonely road. Thick morning fog. One horrifying collision.

Driving home after an overnight shift, Brett encounters something no driver ever wants to see—a teenager standing in the middle of an empty road. But what begins as a tragic accident soon leads him into one of South Jersey's most disturbing local legends.

Perfect for fans of ghost stories, haunted roads, urban legends, and atmospheric supernatural horror.

Diane Arrelle, the pen name of South Jersey writer Dina Leacock, has sold more than 400 short stories and has three published books including Just A Drop In The Cup, a collection of short-short stories and Seasons On The Dark Side, her collection of horror stories. She is the editor of the anthologies Crypt Gnats: Horror You’ve Been Itching to Read, WhoDunit, Trees and A Little Fantasy Everywhere.

Retired from being director of a municipal senior citizen center, she is now co-owner of Jersey Pines Ink LLC. She resides with her sane husband and her insane cat on the edge of the New Jersey Pine Barrens (home of the Jersey Devil).
https://jerseypines.ink

Guest reader MN Wiggins


Listen to the Unpleasantville story "Adolph Hitler" by Snigda Agrawal here.
Listen to the Unpleasantville story "Peter Heatherington" by James Roderick Burns here.
Listen to the Unpleasantville story "Jane Davidson" by Lou Normann here. 

The Kaidankai Podcast features original short fiction exploring horror, fantasy, science fiction, and the strange.

New episodes every Wednesday.

Subscribe on Spreaker, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Read the stories at kaidankaistories.com

Follow the show:
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Bluesky

Have a story you'd like us to read? Send submissions to [email protected].

Marcos Fizzotti’s “The Man on Top of the Hill” takes us to Texas in 1867, where cowboys on a cattle drive encounter a mysterious rider on a distant hill. As they pass the time with stories of outlaws, betrayal, and revenge, the boundary between legend and reality begins to feel dangerously thin.

Blending Western horror, ghost story, frontier folklore, and supernatural revenge, Fizzotti creates an atmospheric tale in which the wide-open landscape offers very little protection from the past.

Listen to Unpleasantville: Daisy Diamond by Linda Sparks (episode 6) here.

Listen to Unpleasantville: Jake Eastwood by Linda Sparks (episode 7) here.

Listen to Unpleasantville: Ed Bagwell by Leon Taylor (episode 8) here.

The Kaidankai Podcast features original short fiction exploring horror, fantasy, science fiction, and the strange.

New episodes every Wednesday.

Subscribe on Spreaker, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Read the stories at kaidankaistories.com

Follow the show:
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Bluesky

Have a story you'd like us to read? Send submissions to [email protected].

What happens when promises are made, but not kept; when commercial ambition collides with traditions that demand patience, respect, and remembrance?

In Gabriele Micozzi’s “Forty-Nine,” a newly acquired restaurant in Takayama, Japan, carries more than the memory of its former owner. As the days following a death pass, something begins to change inside the restaurant—and the traditions surrounding the dead may matter more than its new owner realizes.

Drawing on Japanese Buddhist beliefs surrounding death, mourning, ritual, and the forty-nine days after death, this atmospheric ghost story explores the importance of ritual to the living...and the dead.

About the author: Gabriele Micozzi is an Italian author based on the Adriatic coast. His short fiction has been accepted by parABnormal Magazine (Hiraeth Books, ed. H. David Blalock) and The Literary Hatchet (PearTree Press). His work is grounded in what he calls "systemic horror" — the quiet, clinical terror of institutions and rituals that function perfectly while the human beings inside them disappear. He has also published non-fiction and poetry in Italy. Website: www.gabrielemicozzi.it

Listen to Unpleasantville episode 3 here.

Listen to Unpleasantville episode 4 here.

Listen to Unpleasantville episode 5 here.

The Kaidankai Podcast features original short fiction exploring horror, fantasy, science fiction, and the strange.

New episodes every Wednesday.

Subscribe on Spreaker, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Read the stories at kaidankaistories.com

Follow the show:
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Bluesky

Have a story you'd like us to read? Send submissions to [email protected].

There are people who can spot the value in almost anything. A chipped piece of pottery, an old painting, a box of forgotten papers—one person's rubbish can be another person's treasure. And places like Glasgow's Barras Market are built on that possibility. You never quite know what you're going to find, or who owned it before you. Most of the time, the history attached to an old object is harmless. But every so often, you come across something that has been waiting a very long time to be found.

JS Apsley is the pen name of a horror and noir author from Glasgow, Scotland. He won the Ringwood Short Story Prize in 2024 and has gone on to publish over fifty short stories around the world. You can find his work at jsapsley.com and on Instagram at @jsapsley_author.

Listen to episode 1 of Unpleasantville.

Listen to episode 2 of Unpleasantville.

The Kaidankai Podcast features original short fiction exploring horror, fantasy, science fiction, and the strange.

New episodes every Wednesday.

Subscribe on Spreaker, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Read the stories at kaidankaistories.com

Follow the show:
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Bluesky

Have a story you'd like us to read? Send submissions to [email protected].

When Aveline's family moves into Greymist Manor overlooking a lonely coastline, local whispers of a curse seem easy enough to dismiss. But after discovering a mysterious necklace washed ashore, vivid dreams begin to blur into waking life. An unseen presence calls her by another woman's name, and every tide seems to pull her closer to a centuries-old promise.

Perfect for listeners who enjoy gothic horror, haunted houses, ghostly romance, cursed relics, and eerie coastal folklore.

Lara Shamas is a writer, Poet, and literature enthusiast based in Lebanon. Lara's work often explores the intersections of love, loss, and the supernatural.

The Kaidankai Podcast features original short fiction exploring horror, fantasy, science fiction, and the strange.

New episodes every Wednesday.

Subscribe on Spreaker, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Read the stories at kaidankaistories.com

Follow the show:
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Bluesky

Have a story you'd like us to read? Send submissions to [email protected].

There is said to be a gate somewhere in County Wicklow that whistles whenever the wind blows. It never stays in the same place for long, dogs sense it before people do, and there is one rule that is not always followed: Never open the gate.

In The Whistling Gate, Silke Phillips draws on the rich traditions of Irish folklore to weave an unsettling tale of curiosity, superstition, and the terrifying consequences of ignoring old warnings. Atmospheric and quietly chilling, this story captures the feeling that some legends survive because they are true.

Author Bio: Silke Phillips is a freelance writer, editor, and translator from Germany who has found a new home in Ireland. In her fiction, she likes to explore the uncanny. In her real life, she enjoys art and crafting, cooking and eating, reading and writing, and her big fluffy dog and husband.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/silke-phillips-1a3945208/
Website: https://www.text-und-lektorat-phillips.de/en

The Kaidankai Podcast features original short fiction exploring horror, fantasy, science fiction, and the strange.

New episodes every Wednesday.

Subscribe on Spreaker, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Read the stories at kaidankaistories.com

Follow the show:
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Bluesky

Have a story you'd like us to read? Send submissions to [email protected].