Echoes from Beyond: Tales of the Surreal and Macabre

By TOM LEVY

Dive into the haunting world of "Echoes from Beyond: Tales of the Surreal and Macabre," a compelling collection of short stories that transport readers to the fringes of reality. Set against the backdrop of eerie locales, each tale in this anthology is a meticulous weave of suspense, fear, and the uncanny.

In this book, readers will traver

• Language: English
• Publisher: 01 WEB CANADA
• Release date: Nov 17, 2023
• ISBN: 9782898640292

Book preview

Desert Mirage: The Window's Curse

In the heart of the desert, where the sun bleeds red into the sand, a window appeared as if etched into the air itself. It stood alone, an impossible square of darkness against the relentless brightness of the dunes.

Kara, a hardened survivalist, spotted the anomaly during a treacherous solo crossing. The desert had always been a place of stark reality, but this... this was a ghost story come to life. Through the window's glass, a garden beckoned—lush, green, and utterly foreign to the desert's deathly hue.

As dusk approached and the desert's chill set in, Kara approached the window, the first twinges of dread curling in her gut. It was a portal, she was sure of it, but to where—or when—she couldn't say. The garden seemed to pulsate with a life of its own, yet a sinister undertone lay beneath its beauty. She thought she saw shadows flitting between the trees, shapes that were human, yet not quite.

Kara, now wary of the window's malevolent whispers, kept her vigil. As the sun crowned the next day, her eyes beheld a startling vision. Through the window's pane, a figure emerged in the garden—a prince of such allure that the sun itself seemed to pale. His hand outstretched toward the glass, beckoning.

Despite the dread that clawed at her instincts, Kara's loneliness in the vast desert wasteland drew her to the window. She remembered the old tales, the ones that spoke of speed as the key to breaking through dimensions. With a sprint fueled by a mix of desire and desperation, she raced towards the window.

As she reached breakneck speed, the prince's smile widened unnaturally, and the garden behind him bloomed with an eerie intensity. Just as she thought she'd crash into the glass, she found herself tumbling through into the other side.

The moment her feet touched the garden's ground, the illusion shattered. The prince's handsome features melted away, revealing a demon of grotesque form, its eyes alight with malicious glee. The lush foliage decayed before her eyes, twisting into a hellscape of gnarled branches and ashen skies. The air turned sulfurous, choking her cries for help.

Kara was in a realm of nightmares now, where every shadow slithered with the unseen and the air was thick with the screams of tormented souls. The garden had become a charnel ground, a domain of horrors untold, ruled by the demon prince who now advanced towards her with a hunter's gait.

The window through which she had entered stood closed, its once-clear glass now fogged by the miasma of the hell-garden. Kara realized the window was not just a doorway, but a trap, a spider's web designed to lure and ensnare.

With the demon's cackle ringing in her ears, she understood the true nature of this twisted paradise. It was a feeding ground, and she was the prey. The demon, a collector of souls, had sought her out, and now she was trapped in his infernal garden.

The desert, once a place of desolate beauty, had become a hunting ground, and the window stood as its snare. Kara, now a grotesque parody of her former self, prowled the hellish garden, her humanity stripped away, leaving only a hunger for the souls of others.

Where she had once been the seeker, she was now the bait. Her form, as viewed from the desert, retained its beauty—a mirage of allure in a land where mirages were common, but none so deadly. Through the window, she appeared not as the monstrous creature she had become, but as a vision of loveliness, an oasis of desire in the parched wasteland.

The demon's assault had left her transformed, her essence merged with the darkness of the realm. She was part of the garden's macabre flora now, a sentinel of seduction. As her eyes, cold and dead, fixed upon the window, she saw a traveler navigating the desert's treacherous expanse.

This new victim, drawn by the inexplicable sight of the window and the woman before it, approached with a mix of caution and curiosity. To him, Kara was an enigma, a survivor perhaps, or a mirage made flesh. He could not see the desert through the window; all he saw was the garden, vibrant and inviting, with Kara, its seemingly benign guardian.

Kara beckoned, her movements eerily graceful. With each gesture, she mimicked the allure that had once ensnared her, but her eyes betrayed no spark of life; they were the dull eyes of the undead, of a being consumed and repurposed for the demon's vile intentions.

As the traveler neared, so too did the moment of his peril. Kara's lips moved, whispering promises of sanctuary and solace within the garden. The window stood open, an invitation to step into a nightmare.

Should the traveler succumb to her call, he would find himself in the clutches of the garden's true nature—a world of horror where the beauty of the desert's mirage was peeled back to reveal the abyss. Kara, a pawn of the demon's will, would claim another soul for the garden's insatiable appetite.

And so the cycle of the window continued, a loop of entrapment and transformation, as the garden awaited its next victim, and Kara, a lost soul turned demon, played her part in the haunting waltz of the damned.

Reflections of Deceit: The Mirror

In a cobblestoned alley that twisted like an old vine in the heart of the city, there was a shop that didn't have a sign. It was the kind of place that one stumbled upon when the fog lay heavy on the streets, and the world seemed to whisper secrets.

The shop was known to a select few as 'Mirrors & Mysteries,' and it was said that the items within were as enigmatic as the shop itself. On a whim of curiosity tinged with a desire for the extraordinary, a woman named Eliza entered the shop one gloomy afternoon.

The interior was an Aladdin's cave of antiquities, each mirror was a gateway to an untold story, reflecting the light in hues that didn't belong to the spectrum of the mundane world. It was a place out of time, where the ticking of the clock was a distant memory.

Her eyes were drawn to a standing mirror framed in dark mahogany, its surface seemed to ripple like the calm surface of a midnight lake. The shopkeeper, a man whose age was as indeterminable as the origins of his wares, told her that it was called 'The Mirror of Veritas.' It was rumored to reveal not just the reflection but the true essence of whoever looked into it.

Despite the chill that danced up her spine, Eliza was enchanted. The price was steep, yet she felt compelled to possess it. With the heavy mirror wrapped in cloths of velvet and gold, she left the shop, the bell above the door chiming with a sound that seemed to sigh her name.

Back in her apartment, with the mirror unveiled and standing in her room, Eliza gazed into it. At first, she saw only her own reflection, pale and wide-eyed from the strangeness of the day. But as she continued to look, the glass began to swirl with mists of silver and jade, and her reflection started to change.

Eliza gazed into the mirror, the cool light within casting an ethereal glow across her room. The mist within the glass cleared, and she found herself looking not at her own reflection,