Kaidankai: Ghost, Supernatural, and Dark Short Fiction

This magical happy powder comes with a price that will be paid—no matter what. Whitney R. Holp is a student of surrealism. He seeks gnosis through dreams, intoxication and objective chance. This story is from his unpublished book Audra’s Pennies. You can read "Faerie Dust" at https://www.kaidankaistories.com . Click here to learn about the 2023 Kaidankai contest for writers. Website: kaidankaistor...

Another example of inanimate objects wreaking havoc on the lives of humans. Lynette G. Esposito MA Rutgers, is a poet who writes short stories. She has been published in North of Oxford, Twin Decades, Poetry Quarterly, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Deep Overstock, That Literary Review, and others. She was married to Attilio Esposito and lives in Southern New Jersey. She was inspired for this story by...

A ghost calls for help from her grave. Can the Cemetery Squad discover what pains her, and more importantly, will they be able to help? Linda Sparks is a poet and writer who has been published in various anthologies as well as online publications and podcasts. She has 21 published books. She also served as Editor for Valkyrie Magazine. She prefers writing horror including what she terms as horror...

When an evil book rests in the hands of an evil man, the result is gruesome, cruel, and diabolical. Michael Rhys is a Tokyo-based voice actor and writer of short tales. Originally from Esssex, in the UK, he is a 33-year resident of Japan. He lives in the deeply historical Jindaiji motomachi region area of Chofu, a few minutes from the ancient Jindaiji temple and under the shadow of the ghost of Ji...

A young woman prays regularly to her favorite saint. Will that saint help her in her time of need? Melissa Miles is a regular contributor to the Kaidankai. She is an American living in New Zealand who has been an actress, teacher, and filmmaker. You can read "Death Wrestle" at https://www.kaidankaistories.com . Click here to learn about the 2023 Kaidankai contest for writers. Website: kaidankaisto...

Originally aired December 15, 2021 A new take on a Japanese classic. Kamei's Paper Lanterns is a re-telling of the Peony Lantern, but from the ghost's point of view. If a love story can make you say ewww, this haunted tale will. Toshiya Kamei is a fiction writer who writes in both English and Spanish. His short fiction has appeared in magazines such as Korad and SmokeLong en Español, as well as th...

You know how sometimes you enter a restaurant or someone’s house and smell food that immediately makes you ravenous? Or, when you are out for a walk and catch a whiff of something being cooked that makes you stop and get something to eat. Or, sometimes, you are so hungry that you feel you would eat anything, do anything to get something in your belly? Well, what you experienced is nothing compared...

Be advised: themes of suicide are included in this episode. The moon is gone. People live underground. And some people are suffering from an incurable disease that…well, listen to the story to find out. The disease has reached its terminal point for one man. Now he has a life or death choice to make. Aleks Ivanov is a Bulgarian undergrad majoring in Computer Science. Aleks is a fan of fiction stor...

While studying for exams, a young man’s alarm clock goes berserk at the same time every night. Who set the alarm and why can’t he stop it? Ed Dearnley lives in Sussex, UK, where he works in climate change mitigation for a local authority. He is the author of the non-fiction book London to Brighton Derailed. In 2022, his flash-fiction Homework was published by Bag of Bones Press in their collection...

What gives cotton candy its vibrancy? Travel with this carnival vendor on Halloween to find the creepy answer. Donald Guadagni is an international educator, author, and writer currently teaching and conducting research in Beijing China. His publication work includes fiction, non-fiction, poetry, prose, academic, photography and his artwork. Former iterations, military, law enforcement, prisons, en...

A pregnant woman worries about falling and losing her baby, about her husband’s weird behaviour, and about her pregnancy in general. Turns out, there may be something else she should be worrying about. Thomas Kent West is an American speculative fiction writer. He is the winner of Rue Morgue’s ‘Artifacts of Horror’ Contest and the Black Hole Entertainment Short Fiction Prize, and his work has been...

In Purple Hair, Tim Law explores the dull throb of modern life and the inner turmoil that haunts us and can make life miserable. Timothy Law is a writer of fantasy, horror, detective and general fiction from a little town in Southern Australia called Murray Bridge. Currently working at the Murray Bridge Library in the role of Library Manager he has dreamed since high school of becoming a fulltime...

What happens when a care dog doesn't care for something important to you? What accounts for the change and is there any way to bring your sweet dog back? Ed Ahern resumed writing after forty odd years in foreign intelligence and international sales. He’s had four hundred fifty stories and poems published so far, and six books. Ed works the other side of writing at Bewildering Stories, where he man...

From the Kaidankai archives: One man is obsessed by death and suicide, so it is not surprising that he would seek out Aokigahara, Japan's famous suicide forest. When he encounters an old woman in the forest, will he change his mind? First published in Yamamba: In Search of the Japanese Mountain Witch by Stone Bridge Press. David Sands Holloway was a scholar of contemporary Japanese literature, cul...

Richard Ankers takes the long, slow, moody and eerie approach. Relaxing on his porch one late summer afternoon, a man sees death and reminisces about life. This story of contrasts is thoughtful and memorable. Richard M. Ankers is the English author of The Eternals Series and Britannia Unleashed. Richard has featured in Expanded Field Journal, Love Letters To Poe, Spillwords, and feels privileged t...

The re-telling of a famous Japanese folktale about a couple who help an injured bird and get their just desserts. Linda Gould is the editor of White Enso, the online journal featuring creative work inspired by Japan, and the host of hyakumonogatari kaidankai. She lives in Japan and is an on-again, off-again writer of short stories. Click here to learn about the 2023 Kaidankai contest for writers....

First appeared in Canadian Dreadful by Dark Dragon Publishing The movie the 6th sense made the phrase “I see ghosts” so famous. Well, today’s character also sees ghosts, but she is a little confused by the presence of one in particular and has to figure out why it appears when it does. Jen Frankel loves to tell tall tales full of twists and magic, and a splash of horror. She is the author of the B...

A young woman longs to retain her youth and beauty with the help of a witch. She gets her wish, and more than she bargained for. Joshua St. Claire is a certified public accountant who works as a financial controller for a small company in Pennsylvania, USA. He is married and the father of three growing boys. His poetry is published by or forthcoming from Star*Line , Scifaikuest, The Flying Saucer...

A samurai visits family to attend a wedding. The atmosphere is anything but celebratory, though, and a night visitor tests the moral code he lives by. Dibyasree Nandy, 29 years old, is a resident of India. After completing M.Sc and M.Tech, she began writing during the lock-down period of the Covid-19 pandemic. She has written four books, 'The Labyrinth of Silent Voices-Epistles of the Mahabharata'...

A serial killer's love for his mother drives him to make unusual art in her honor. Jill Trade is a married mother of three boys. She is a trained meat cutter, cosmetologist, and she formerly worked in finance. She enjoys passing time at the playgrounds writing poetry and short stories while her boys run out their energy. Her short stories have been published in Kaidankai: Ghost and Supernatural St...

On the day of the week meant for relaxing, enjoy a brief story about the supernatural. "The Beautiful Death of Abilene Bethel" by P. T. Corwin was originally presented on March 23, 2022 on the Kaidankai podcast. A woman decides she will save her family the anguish of watching her waste away. How do you plan a beautiful death and how much control do you actually have? P. T. Corwin uses his training...

A friendly girl's lunch turns ugly when dark secrets are revealed. Linda Sparks is a poet and writer who has been published in various anthologies as well as online publications and podcasts. She has 21 published books. She also served as Editor for Valkyrie Magazine. She prefers writing horror including what she terms as horror poetry which is included in a few of her books. She also writes scien...

Steve Carr passed away in 2022. He has been missed every day since. Today's story is a classic. In "Catacombs of the Doomed," a kidnapped man wakes up in a dungeon. He wonders what act of his brought him to this situation, and what will become of him. But some fates are too horrible to contemplate. Steve Carr, from Richmond, Virginia, has had over 540 short stories published internationally in pri...

A sad, lonely man finds help from the beyond. Resistant at first, he eventually confides to his friendly helper, whose raison d'etre appears to be to help him. Maggie Nerz Iribarne is 53, living her writing dream in a yellow house in Syracuse, New York. She writes about teenagers, witches, the very old, bats, cats, priests/nuns, cleaning ladies, runaways, struggling teachers, and neighborhood ghos...

This week's animal theme continues with a story where dreams and reality cross, where fears and worries should be heeded, and where ignoring the warnings can lead to dire consequences. Made in '93, Tejaswinee is a lawyer with a Master's degree in Business Law from the Department of Law, University of Calcutta. She resides in the city of Chandannagar in West Bengal, India. Tejaswinee often finds ca...