#vss365 Lettie found the hole beneath the hawthorn where the rabbits ought to have burrowed. It was much too large for them, and someone had cut little steps into the earth. She fetched a candle. She had always wanted to #explore somewhere nobody else had been...

#vss365 At harvest, the villagers left one acre standing for the corn demons. Animals, and sometimes children, strayed into it and vanished. The elders said such losses were the price required to sustain the demons and spare the village. When famine came, they cut every stalk...

#vss365 For a hundred years, a Potioneer kept one brew simmering beneath his tower. On the final night, he took up a silver spoon. “One stir,” his master’s notes promised, “and the work may #commence.” He stirred. Something beneath grasped the spoon and stirred back. #Edvane #DarkFantasy

#vss365 The woods turned #autumnal as he crossed them, green leaves reddening above him while blackthorn burst from the earth and hooked his coat, his skin, and his hair. When the Cailleach stepped from between the trees, he begged to know why the change had come so soon...

#vss365 He was strangely #sanguine about the king’s illness. Each morning the fever worsened. A week later, the king died. As the bells began to toll, the physician slipped the empty poison vial back into his case. “Nothing to fear, Highness,” he said, and bowed to the new king #Edvane #DarkFantasy

#vss365 The people feared the old woman’s #esoteric rituals. Once a year, she buried thirteen black candles around the village and warned them never to dig them up. When she died, the priest ordered every candle burned... #Edvane #DarkFantasy

#vss365 The condemned witch was spared because of her #eloquence. The king freed every prisoner in the dungeons and opened the city gates. The prisoners armed themselves. His enemies marched in. “I only had to teach you mercy, Majesty. They already knew what to do with it.” #Edvane #DarkFantasy

#vss365 A girl left a bowl of milk outside each night for the terror in the woods, and they mocked her #naivete. Her father laughed hardest. A year later, every house but theirs stood empty. He asked why they had been spared. “It said you had to be last, Father.” #Edvane #DarkFantasy

Back in early August, when @bethcgreenberg.com hosted #vss365, I posted this, and Beth and I had a brief exchange about it on Bluesky. She declared, 'I would read that story!' and so I present 'An Old Family Recipe' here today. LINK IN COMMENTS #Edvane

Jonathan B. Edvane@edvane.bsky.social · last mo.

#vss365 The meal was #divine. The duke praised every course, then summoned the cook, keen to know what meat had been served. The cook smiled. “An old family recipe, Your Grace.” The duke found something hard beneath his tongue. His brother’s signet ring. #Edvane #DarkFantasy

#vss365 They found it beneath the old apothecary, a #melange of man, beast and devils, stitched together by twisted hands. It opened six different eyes. The priest called it an abomination. The mayor called it impossible. Then its mouths opened too. “Wrong, sirs. We are hungry.” #Edvane #DarkFantasy

*How to let an object tell its own story*. The object as narrator is rarely used well in fantasy. When it works, the thing remembers everything, stripping away the consolation of human perspective and leaving no escape from the moment. #Edvane #DarkFantasy LINK IN COMMENTS

#vss365 The witchfinder claimed #intuition told him which women served the Devil, without evidence. The midwife burned first. Then the widow. Then the miller’s daughter. At his fourth trial, the accused woman smiled. “Of course you can recognise us,” she said. “You created us.” #Edvane #DarkFantasy

#vss365 The fishermen laughed when Old Meg stepped onto the #moonglade and walked out across the sea. Drunk and daring, they rowed after her silver path. Their boat drifted back empty. Meg was waiting near the shore. “Fools,” she said. “The moon only shows you where to drown.” #Edvane #DarkFantasy

In The Children of Bradfield Wood, I wanted to reimagine the Green Children of Woolpit: not as monsters, nor as victims of a monstrous forest, but as children put there by the real monster. Their father. Some adult, somewhere, knew the truth. LINK IN COMMENT #Edvane #Folklore

#vss365 The monk found a #palimpsest beneath the monastery’s oldest Bible. He scraped away the holy text and read the words hidden underneath. They described his birth. His childhood. His taking of vows. Then his hand stopped. The next line read: He has found us #Edvane #DarkFantasy

#vss365 The thief was #adroit enough to lift rings from sleeping bishops. So when he saw the old librarian dozing beside a chained, jewel-bound book, he almost laughed. The librarian opened one eye. “Careful,” he murmured. The thief looked down. #Edvane #DarkFantasy

#vss365 The captain sent six men to #reconnoitre the sorcerer’s tower. He watched blue fire take the first, stone hands drag down the second, and something winged carry off the rest. His lieutenant swallowed. “You knew?” “Of course, now we know what spells he's used up. ” #Edvane #DarkFantasy

#vss365 Every evening, Enoch admired the fashionable #silhouette works above his fireplace. Tonight, though, his wife’s portrait had changed. It stood behind him, holding a knife. He laughed and reached for the bell. Behind him, the floorboard creaked. #Edvane #DarkFantasy

#vss365 The merchant watched the hag grind bone, dried blood and strips of human flesh into her steaming #elixir. “You swear this will extend my life?” “Oh, certainly,” she said, handing him the cup. “Every man I’ve made it from has been dead for centuries.” #Edvane #DarkFantasy

Happy to reveal that one of my witchy short stories will appear in Curses and Crystals, an R-Rated anthology from Dragon Soul Press at the end of November Print and eBook will be available. Subscribe to my newsletter for updates (link in bio) #Edvane #Witches

#vss365 The old #console table had stood in the hall for decades. Every owner complained that it was ugly, warped and far too heavy. When Thomas finally took an axe to its legs, the table screamed, became a huge black ox, trampled him to death and ran away. #Edvane #DarkFantasy

#vss365 Lariel was famously #empathetic. She felt every grief brought to her door. People left lighter. She grew quieter. When they found her hanging in the chapel, the whole village wept. Then, one by one, they began remembering what she had taken from them. #Edvane #DarkFantasy

#vss365 Aberysh the Healer poured hot #wax across the poor woman’s chest, chanting as she screamed. “Hold still. I’m drawing the sickness out.” Her cries ceased. She was dead. Then the wax dripping from the bed began crawling together. He had certainly drawn something out. #Edvane #DarkFantasy

I wrote the bulk of Night of the Broken Oath in 1989 at the age of 21. Editing it in my fifties was a way to finish, but also to work alongside younger me without tutting and wagging my finger at the effort. It has become my most-read short story this year. LINK IN COMMENT #Edvane #Tolkien

#vss365 The mob closed around Mina’s cottage. “Come down and face your fate, witch!” She climbed onto the roof, smiling, and rubbed nightshade along the handle of her broom. Then she rose into the dark. “I’ve seen every face below me. Sleep well, fools.” #Edvane #DarkFantasy

#vss365 The executioner always wore one black #glove, even when he was off duty. Children whispered that the hand beneath it was cursed. When he died, the priest removed the glove. There was no hand. Just five small fingers gripping his wrist from inside. #Edvane #DarkFantasy

#vss365 A surgeon kept every scrap of #tissue he cut from his patients, sealed in little jars beneath his floorboards. Once discovered, officials ordered them incinerated. The same day, every patient he had ever saved was gone. #Edvane #DarkFantasy

#vss365 Every night, an old woman left a #pillow beside her own for her husband, though he had been dead for twenty years. Her children thought it a harmless grief. After she died, they stripped the bed. Beneath the second pillow was a hollow in the mattress, warm and breathing. #Edvane #DarkFantasy

#vss365 The #poster nailed to the church door named a fugitive hiding in the forest and ordered every able man to join the hue and cry. By evening, the whole village was beating through the trees. They found no fugitive. The thing that had written the poster found them. #Edvane #DarkFantasy

#vss365 Sailors found an island where no chart showed land. Its cliffs were pale and soft beneath the knife. Fresh water seeped from them when squeezed, so the crew filled every barrel. Beneath the shredded #sponge, the Kraken stirred and rose to reclaim its pillow. #Edvane #DarkFantasy