Ghost stories from Australia

The Carpet’s Memory

We moved to the cul-de-sac of Ashford Close when I was seven, just after my father’s transfer. The house was a two-story red brick with a porch that sagged like...

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The Hollow Ward

The night air was thick with the smell of damp earth and rust as our car crunched to a halt in the gravel lot of the old Blackwood Sanatorium. My...

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The Fifth Night’s Lamp

In the autumn of 2001, I lived in a cramped attic flat above a closed bakery, the scent of stale bread and dust clinging to every wall. My partner, Marcus,...

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The Coin Collector

In the autumn of 2019, the Voss family—Marta, her husband Erik, their two daughters, and their old tabby cat—moved into a renovated farmhouse on the outskirts of a sleepy Swedish...

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The Lantern Code

For three weeks after Aunt Helena’s funeral, the lighthouse on the headland stayed dark. That was the first wrong thing. The Coast Guard swore the mechanism was sound, and the...

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The Static Between Channels

My name is Maggie, and when I was twelve, I went through a phase where I was obsessed with those ghost hunter shows. I wanted to prove to my parents...

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The Humming of the Ironwood Tree

My name is Elsie, and I’m sixteen, living in a small town in the foothills of the Blue Mountains. We moved here when I was nine, to a house that...

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The Palingenesis of Ash

The old farmhouse on Larkspur Lane had a way of holding onto things. Not just dust and memories, but something more deliberate, something that pressed against the edges of perception....

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The Red Door Studio

I was twenty when I first saw the place, a stone’s throw from the old fish market in Port Blossom, a coastal town that smelled of brine and rust. The...

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The Mute Knob

It was the autumn I turned sixteen, and my family had just moved into a sprawling Victorian farmhouse on the outskirts of a sleepy New England town. The house had...

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The Lantern Keeper’s Debt

In the late autumn of 1992, I moved into my late grandmother’s farmhouse in the hills of West Virginia, hoping to find peace after a difficult divorce. The house was...

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The Hanging Lantern

When I was seven, my brother Eli was born. For months, our small farmhouse in the dusty Nebraska plains had been quiet, just Mom, Dad, and me. But after Eli...

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The Clockwork of Pine and Ash

Our new home greeted us with the smell of stale dust and a silence so heavy it felt like a hand on my shoulder. The day we arrived, the sky...

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The Kitchen Metronome

I’ve always been a creature of habit, especially in the mornings. My alarm is set for seven, but I rarely obey it. On that particular Tuesday, I rolled out of...

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The Cartographer’s Last Mark

I’ve never been one to share my experiences, but this one has gnawed at me for over a decade, and I need to know if anyone else has seen it....

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The Cinder Lake Listener

The first time I saw the bird, I was seven. It stood at the edge of the water, black as a hole in the world, its neck curved like a...

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The Chartreuse Room

In the autumn of 1982, my family moved into a modest brick house on Maple Street, across from the Whitfields. We were a young couple, new to the neighborhood, and...

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The Last Hymn of the Rusted Cross

In the autumn of 2007, the small town of Ashford Hollow was draped in a perpetual fog that clung to the streets like a wet shroud. My brother, Caleb, was...

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The Uninvited Deck

In the winter of 2009, I was living in a rented cottage on the edge of the Pennines, a place that seemed to swallow light. My job as a seasonal...

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The Silent Aviary of Thornfield Lane

The rental house at 27 Thornfield Lane had always felt like a holding cell for someone else’s unfinished life. When I stepped through the front door on a gray December...

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The Static Between Channels

I was sixteen, sprawled on the threadbare carpet of my uncle’s basement, the only light a flickering bulb and the blue glow of an ancient television. The house had been...

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The Unseen Guest

It was the summer before our final year of high school, and my best friend, Marcus, had come over to stay the night at my family’s newly rented farmhouse in...

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The Lantern Keeper

The old lighthouse on Penitent Point had been abandoned for decades, its lamp shattered and its spiral staircase choked with rust. I had gone there with my friend Milo, not...

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The Man in the Chair

I’ve always had a knack for sensing things that others can’t. It’s not something I talk about, but my family has their stories: me as a child, stopping mid-sentence to...

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