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The Blob King
by William Pauley III
The great horrors of the Eighth Block Tower end under the crushing weight of The Blob King.
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NOTE: Every book, story and poem listed below can be read digitally AND contains an optional audio narration option, performed by either the actor Connor Brannigan or the author himself. Thank you for supporting DOOM FICTION!
Meet Bill Krang, a man cursed–or gifted–with the ability to hear the language of insects, a relentless twelve-word message that has haunted him since childhood: "Ashok burn right hand of men. To Neptune, rebirth in blue fire."
For years, Krang believed he was alone in this maddening symphony, until the day he came face-to-face with a brick wall, graffited with the same curious message, revealing he isn't the only one hearing the hum.
His desperate search for answers leads him down a rabbit hole of dark experiments, forcing him to consider the terrifying possibility that his affliction is far more significant–and contagious—than he ever imagined.
Meanwhile, across the city, Della Comb, known to others as only "Bee," operates in the shadows, manufacturing a lethal drug from insect cadavers, preying on the despair of others. Her path violently intersects with Krang's when she enters his squalid apartment in search of her unusual inventory. As the lines between hunter and hunted blur, Della finds herself entangled in Krang's desperate quest, forced to confront not only the horrifying truth of his condition, but also the consequences of her own morally ambiguous existence.
Is the constant hum a sign of something otherworldly, a biological anomaly with catastrophic potential, or a harbinger of humanity's self-inflicted collapse?
As these disparate lives converge, Pauley masterfully weaves a tapestry of dread, paranoia, and existential horror, forcing readers to question the nature of reality, sanity, and what it truly means to be human.
Prepare to be gripped by a narrative that will crawl under your skin and stay with you long after the final, chilling note of the constant hum fades away.
A collection of books chronicling the lives of residents living inside the dreaded Eighth Block Tower, a sentient apartment building that plays a surprisingly unique role in every story. NOTE: You do not have to read these stories in any particular order.
Welcome to the Eighth Block Tower, where radiation lingers in the walls and the residents are anything but ordinary!
These three interconnected tales explore a place where perception is warped, trust is fragile, and survival is a daily struggle. As the residents of Eighth Block Tower confront the horrifying truths within their decaying home, they too must fight to keep their sanity!
Will they uncover the secrets of the tower before it consumes them entirely, or are they all just puppets in a much larger, more terrifying game?
HYPNAGOGIA: Meet the narrator and his companion Buzz, long-time denizens of "The Cliff," a particularly notorious section of the tower rumored to be riddled with radiation. Buzz, whose mutated form is a constant reminder of their strange existence, is convinced the radiation in the walls is driving everyone mad. Their lives revolve around peculiar daily rituals, one of which takes a terrifying turn, leaving the narrator haunted by the possibility that they've inadvertently murdered the one and true God.
THE INVALIDS: A series of brutal murders rip through the tower, just as Norm and Samantha discover microphones have been hidden in each of their apartments. During their investigation, they stumble upon a sinister conspiracy that might be connected to the killings—a basement containing ancient recording equipment and tapes labeled with the names of female residents, suggesting the killer has a disturbing voyeuristic obsession. Survival becomes a desperate fight as the line between reality and hallucination blurs within the tower's toxic walls.
UNDER GREEN BRAIN: Crater, a kitchen worker desperate to escape the tower's influence, grapples with his own sanity amidst the building's pervasive strangeness. His reality takes a bizarre turn when he discovers a giant, pulsating green brain hidden within a liminal space at the top of the building—the apparent source of the radiation and possibly his own madness.Enter The Tower, if you dare! Sanity is a myth! Sickness is life!
book two: WHITE FUZZ
Norm awakens to the cryptic words "white fuzz" scrawled in his notebook, a chilling mystery he can't recall writing or even thinking. This unsettling discovery is quickly followed by a perplexing text from a stranger named Lynda, pulling him into a late-night encounter that will shatter his perception of reality.
What begins as an impulsive rendezvous quickly spirals into a nightmarish and surreal experience. From unsettling discoveries within Lynda's apartment to her increasingly erratic behavior, and the strange occurrences within the building itself—Norm finds himself caught in a whirlwind of confusion, dark revelations, and inexplicable phenomena.
Can he unravel the mystery behind "white fuzz" and understand the truth about Lynda before the night consumes them both?
Prepare for a descent into the darkly comic and utterly bizarre, where the unexpected is the only certainty, and the consequences of a random invitation are far more profound than anyone could imagine!
book three: THE ASTRONAUT DREAM BOOK3
In the claustrophobic depths of the Eighth Block Tower, a prisoner known only as 'the Lieutenant' endures maddening confinement, punctuated by a mysterious, rhythmic drumming. His only link to survival, a frail caretaker, has vanished, leaving him to the gnawing grip of hunger and the fear of an unknown presence lurking in the shadows.
Hope arrives in the innocent form of a little boy, but their game of "Red Tomato" quickly twists into a nightmare of primal hunger and a shocking act of desperation that unleashes a deadly consequence.
Afterwards, the man is hoplessly plagued with unsettling visions of astronauts, all trapped in their own unique vicious cycles, each one more horrific than the last.
Dive into "The Astronaut Dream Book" for a mind-bending journey where the boundaries of reality dissolve, and the darkest corners of fear and obsession are illuminated by the cold light of the cosmos and the unsettling glow of the Eighth Block Tower.
book four: FIGHT TUB
The story of a man who became his bathroom.
book five: THE BALLAD OF OLD JOE BOOTH
Some monsters are impossible to see.
Old Joe Booth is a tricky shape-shifting devil, a vapor witch, and an endlessly mutating disease that embodies the truest horrors of the mind. This terrifying entity can alter thoughts, break down defenses, and reduce those it touches to madness.
The Ballad of Old Joe Booth tells its entire chilling history.
Witness the hellion’s monstrous journey through various forms: from its blood-curdling birth as a demon deep-sea angler fish to its transformation into a howling terror that brings a new kind of darkness, always seeking to feed its incessantly hungry maw.
Then comes the harrowing story of five soldiers who, after eleven years of hunting it, finally confront the beast. They make a desperate deal with the naked, hideous creature—a grim exchange you will never forget!
As you’ll soon learn, we are all plagued by this horrid beast, but do not fret! There is life after Old Joe Booth, and it is glorious. But first, you must survive the journey.
book six: HOLUS BOLUS4
OUR PROTAGONIST is pretty sure he's just committed a murder. The body is newly dead, he's the only one around, and a quick look at the evidence suggests he's guilty as sin.
Also, he's totally insane.
A rare brain condition causes his memories to reset every day, and because of this, he often wakes up in strange places with no memory of how he got there. He can't even remember his own name. When he's not racking his brain over his shoddy memory, he's arguing incessantly with a disembodied voice that doesn't seem to belong to him, one he can only hear inside his head.
He may not know much about the troubling situation he just woke up to, but he knows, without a doubt, that he's completely f*cked.
While the odds are certainly stacked against him, there may be hope for our protagonist yet, for clutched in the corpse's cold, clammy hands is a handwritten tome that suggests not only his innocence, but also reveals some bizarre and dangerous secrets, leading him to believe his own apartment building may be to blame... or is, at the very least, an accomplice.
That sounded better inside his head.
Luckily he's not the only one trying to solve the case. The book also leads him to a group of outcasts who are in the midst of their own investigation. The only problem? They all suspect one another!
One thing's for certain, someone inside the tower is a cold-blooded killer. Can our protagonist solve the murder before he falls asleep and his memories reset? Or worse, before the killer strikes again?
Find out in HOLUS BOLUS. You'll be pushed to the very edge of sanity!
book seven: TWELVE RESIDENTS DREAMING5
Plunged into depths where reality bends and death offers chilling invitations, one man fights to control his fate…
Anacoy Marlin’s journey begins adrift on a meager raft, his only companion a strangely preserved corpse whose body is a canvas for ancient, sprawling tattoos—a text holding dark knowledge. Drawn by a mysterious blue flame beacon, he navigates a storm-tossed sea, guided by secrets etched on dead flesh.
His path leads to the impossible Eighth Block Tower, a colossal structure defying the waves. Submerged and cavernous like a forgotten church, he discovers the tower is hiding twelve skulls in an underwater graveyard, and each attack his mind with disturbing visions when touched.
He soon realizes these deranged scenes are more than just random visions, they are the memories of twelve long-since-dead residents, and each of their stories are present in this single volume.
Twelve Residents Dreaming is the shocking conclusion to The Bedlam Bible, and very much reads as a grand finale to these impossibly psychedelic tales. If you so dare to read from these madness-soaked pages, know that your mind will become a battleground and the cost of failure will be your very existence.
THE BEDLAM BIBLE: NEW TESTAMENT
BOOK ONE: Staticmouth/Bloodbuzz
coming soon!
Automated Daydreaming7 (The seemingly immortal Bricker Cablejuice becomes the latest guinea pig of a mad man’s depraved experiments. After a series of cruel and unusual medical procedures that would have killed any other man, Bricker is transformed into a human television—able to switch back and forth between five different modes of existence, each one more insane than the last.)
Goddamn Electric Nights (When electricity hangs in the air so thick the moon and stars fizzle and drown in a sea of light, the people living within it, breathing it in, can never be “normal.” From disfigured mutants accidentally murdering god to a man falling madly in love with a blood-thirsty VCR, we promise you’ve never read anything as bizarre as this! In these six tales, Pauley explores the lives of those living in the darkest corners of the world, those living electric!)
VVLNA8 [co-written with Joseph Bouthiette, Jr.] (An epic poem recounting the ancient legend of the penumbra—five cyclopean siblings wandering a sunless earth in search for God. Creepy mythos! Thought provoking! Glow bugs!)
Golem (Naked Brunch)9 (A bad batch of newborns are terrorizing the self-proclaimed "utopian" city of Stains. They cause enough of a fuss to catch the attention of the dreaded President Meat Bag, who traces the unruly behavior back to an incident involving a bucket of fried chicken. Now that he's found the culprit, HEADS ARE GONNA ROLL! To punish the newborns, Meat Bag puts them all on Shit Duty, a program meant to reform troubled citizens via a series of humiliating tasks. It's here where our beloved protagonist first falls in love. However, much to his mother's chagrin, the girl he's become smitten with is a good for nothing "outsider" who's been banished from the city. She thinks this outsider is a terrible influence on her young, impressionable son and begs him to keep her at a distance. But if he's learned anything in his short time on earth, it's that all the things he's been told is good and important...kinda sucks. Will our newborn give in to his mother's wishes and take his father's recently vacated position in the town's creamed corn factory? Or will he take love by the hand and start a revolution? You already fucking know.)
o o o o o (Sometimes it’s not the house that’s haunted.)
The Brothers Crunk (A perfect example of bizarro fiction...every line is littered with wild and imaginative ideas." – Fangoria Magazine // Mad Max meets Super Mario Bros! A fun, alternate reality where old Nintendo accessories are used as real weapons. Cheat codes! Boss battles! Power gloves! Puts the ‘lit’ in literature! Brothers Divey and Reynold Crunk are two traveling breakfast burrito salesmen trying to make a living in the post-apocalyptic world of Planet Japan. After discovering a mutilated robot corpse in the middle of the desert, Divey mysteriously transforms into something abominable, setting a bizarre series of events into motion. Reynold follows his brother into the dark underworld of Tokyo, where there are no rules and old video game accessories are used as real weapons. // *Please consult a doctor if you experience any of the following symptoms while reading: convulsions, eye or muscle twitching, altered vision, involuntary movements, disorientation, or loss of awareness.)
🆕️ The Doom Magnetic Trilogy (A deadly assassin with a cue-ball eye invades a small town with an army of two-foot eyeless minions, thirsting for blood. This man has two things on his mind: Where is his purple television? And who is the dead man that stole it from him? A bizarro space western of epic proportions! The weirdest book you’ll ever read!)
DeVito & the Dead Stuff [the lost novella] (In Hell, Danny DeVito is forced to act out old episodes of TAXI for all eternity. However, a bizarre new health drink may be his ticket out…)
Escape the Tower! [a work in progress] (Bedlam Bible fans! Explore the Eighth Block Tower! Choose your fate! Can you die? Yes, and you probably will. Can you run away and hide? You can damn well try. Can you succumb to the lull of the tower and become one of its forever residents? Yes, absolutely. In fact, it’s almost certain. Almost. The possibilities are nearly infinite! NOTE: Because this is a work in progress, new choices, paths, and possibilities are being added on a rolling basis. Thank you for your patience as I actively write this mammoth, labyrinthian novel!)
ALL STORIES (in alphabetical order):
$5 Electric Suzie (Imagine finding the love of your life in a garbage heap... for just five dollars? That's where our narrator discovers "Electric Suzie," a VCR whose beauty is so overwhelming it feels like divine intervention. But their immediate, profound connection quickly turns terrifying. Suzie has a chilling need—she craves blood. Driven by devotion to his "electric angel", the narrator must feed her, starting with his own parents and escalating to anyone he can bring home, their bodies consumed through her tape deck mouth. This is the story of a fifty-year relationship, founded on intense love, insatiable hunger, and horrific sacrifice, culminating as the narrator's aging body performs a final, ultimate act of love for his beloved Suzie.)
612 Fingers (A man is arrested after he's found stalking the streets with a briefcase full of severed fingers.)
Apokalypsis (An astronaut feverishly writes a letter of warning before dying under unfortunate, and unusual, circumstances.)
Automated Daydreaming (The seemingly immortal Bricker Cablejuice becomes the latest guinea pig of a mad man’s depraved experiments. After a series of cruel and unusual medical procedures that would have killed any other man, Bricker is transformed into a human television—able to switch back and forth between five different modes of existence, each one more insane than the last.)
Autumn (Five soldiers go on the hunt for a mysterious shapeshifter who’s been haunting the country’s shoreline.)
Bad Blood (After losing her brother to a vicious disease, a nurse is inspired to volunteer for a program that provides free healthcare to lower class individuals. The job is often thankless, and sometimes dangerous, but in the end, she’s still happy she’s able to help people in need. That is until she meets Ellie. Ellie’s unlike any of her other patients. She’s unpredictable and downright cruel, and even worse, she seems to think all of her many debilitating psychological issues are due to the ‘bad blood’ running through her veins. She considers the problem to be only temporary, however. Sure, she may not have ‘good blood’… but she knows exactly where she can get it.)
Black Friday10 (A young woman returns home for the holidays, only to discover her parents went a little crazy with this year’s Christmas presents.)
Blink11 (VILE! ABSURD! OFFENSIVE! DO NOT READ! AVOID AT ALL COSTS!)
🆕️ The Blob King12 (The great horrors of the Eighth Block Tower end under the crushing weight of The Blob King.)
Bloody Holly13 (Known for her eerie premonitions, Holly Enliss has less than three minutes to prepare for the danger she fears is waiting outside her bedroom door.)
Boom Click Click (Three men struggle to make a living in a post-apocalyptic world where there are no rules and old video game accessories are used as real weapons.)
The Brothers Crunk (A perfect example of bizarro fiction...every line is littered with wild and imaginative ideas." – Fangoria Magazine // Mad Max meets Super Mario Bros! A fun, alternate reality where old Nintendo accessories are used as real weapons. Cheat codes! Boss battles! Power gloves! Puts the ‘lit’ in literature! Brothers Divey and Reynold Crunk are two traveling breakfast burrito salesmen trying to make a living in the post-apocalyptic world of Planet Japan. After discovering a mutilated robot corpse in the middle of the desert, Divey mysteriously transforms into something abominable, setting a bizarre series of events into motion. Reynold follows his brother into the dark underworld of Tokyo, where there are no rules and old video game accessories are used as real weapons. // *Please consult a doctor if you experience any of the following symptoms while reading: convulsions, eye or muscle twitching, altered vision, involuntary movements, disorientation, or loss of awareness.)
The Burden of Lunar Ticking (A man recalls a story his grandfather once told him, one about a ticking moon and the only man on earth who could silence it.)
Children of the Constant Hum14 (The residents of Eighth Block Tower discover a colony of insect people are living inside the walls.)
The Church of Death & Nothingness (An astronaut awakens on the steps of The Church of Death & Nothingness where he finds a set of skulls who are all anxious to tell their (his?) stories.)
Creatures (The day the insects inherited the earth.)
Creep of the City (When he’s not wandering, he’s collecting and gluing and sewing, attempting to make ugly, unwanted things… beautiful.)
Cyber Solaris (A nervous man, trapped inside a cage, offers his most prized possession in exchange for a pack of smokes, a light, and a little something more.)
Demolition Ya Ya15 (Finn McKenna is melting and isn't sure why. In his search for answers, he becomes entangled in a dangerous game where everyone he encounters is actively trying to kill him.)
DeVito & the Dead Stuff [the lost novella] (In Hell, Danny DeVito is forced to act out old episodes of TAXI for all eternity. However, a bizarre new health drink may be his ticket out…)
🆕️ The Doom Magnetic Trilogy (A deadly assassin with a cue-ball eye invades a small town with an army of two-foot eyeless minions, thirsting for blood. This man has two things on his mind: Where is his purple television? And who is the dead man that stole it from him? A bizarro space western of epic proportions! The weirdest book you’ll ever read!)
The Eden Room16 (At the end of your life, you must walk a path you unknowingly created while you were living. This path contains both obstacles and useful items, things manifested through acts of kindness or selfishness. For Waylon Peter Hurst, this path is ripe with danger—though he believes the placement of these traps to be completely unjust. He’s led a life of mostly sadness and despair due to the harsh conditions of his reality, none of his own doing. He pleads his case to his dispatcher, the guide assigned to help him maneuver through these soul-grinding obstacles, and though he seems to agree with Waylon, he doesn’t have much control over what happens next. Along his journey, there are many surprises, including a brief reunion with a long lost loved one, a soul that’s been dispatched to the utopian Eden Room. Knowing Waylon’s spirit is destined for a much darker place, his dispatcher becomes determined to, at the very least, show him mercy.)
The Edge That Would Not Speak (Push your tongue along my skin, taste the death that’s creeping in. At the edge, we sing! We sing the body electric!)
Escape the Tower! [a work in progress] (Bedlam Bible fans! Explore the Eighth Block Tower! Choose your fate! Can you die? Yes, and you probably will. Can you run away and hide? You can damn well try. Can you succumb to the lull of the tower and become one of its forever residents? Yes, absolutely. In fact, it’s almost certain. Almost. The possibilities are nearly infinite! NOTE: Because this is a work in progress, new choices, paths, and possibilities are being added on a rolling basis. Thank you for your patience as I actively write this mammoth, labyrinthian novel!)
Fight Tub (The story of a man who became his bathroom.)
The First Life of Anacoy Marlin (A shipwrecked man comes upon an apartment building located in the middle of the ocean. Inside, he finds the skulls of twelve residents, each one eager to tell their story.)
🆕️ GOBLA17 (Ignoring her mother's warnings about the bizarre Eighth Block Tower, Sylvia's attempt to resolve a backed-up shower drain leads to a horrifying discovery.)
Golem (Naked Brunch) (A bad batch of newborns are terrorizing the self-proclaimed "utopian" city of Stains. They cause enough of a fuss to catch the attention of the dreaded President Meat Bag, who traces the unruly behavior back to an incident involving a bucket of fried chicken. Now that he's found the culprit, HEADS ARE GONNA ROLL! To punish the newborns, Meat Bag puts them all on Shit Duty, a program meant to reform troubled citizens via a series of humiliating tasks. It's here where our beloved protagonist first falls in love. However, much to his mother's chagrin, the girl he's become smitten with is a good for nothing "outsider" who's been banished from the city. She thinks this outsider is a terrible influence on her young, impressionable son and begs him to keep her at a distance. But if he's learned anything in his short time on earth, it's that all the things he's been told is good and important...kinda sucks. Will our newborn give in to his mother's wishes and take his father's recently vacated position in the town's creamed corn factory? Or will he take love by the hand and start a revolution? You already fucking know.)
HEARERS OF THE CONSTANT HUM (Meet Bill Krang, a man cursed–or gifted–with the ability to hear the language of insects, a relentless twelve-word message that has haunted him since childhood: "Ashok burn right hand of men. To Neptune, rebirth in blue fire." For years, Krang believed he was alone in this maddening symphony, until the day he came face-to-face with a brick wall, graffited with the same curious message, revealing he isn't the only one hearing the hum. His desperate search for answers leads him down a rabbit hole of dark experiments, forcing him to consider the terrifying possibility that his affliction is far more significant–and contagious—than he ever imagined. Meanwhile, across the city, Della Comb, known to others as only "Bee," operates in the shadows, manufacturing a lethal drug from insect cadavers, preying on the despair of others. Her path violently intersects with Krang's when she enters his squalid apartment in search of her unusual inventory. As the lines between hunter and hunted blur, Della finds herself entangled in Krang's desperate quest, forced to confront not only the horrifying truth of his condition, but also the consequences of her own morally ambiguous existence. Is the constant hum a sign of something otherworldly, a biological anomaly with catastrophic potential, or a harbinger of humanity's self-inflicted collapse? As these disparate lives converge, Pauley masterfully weaves a tapestry of dread, paranoia, and existential horror, forcing readers to question the nature of reality, sanity, and what it truly means to be human. Prepare to be gripped by a narrative that will crawl under your skin and stay with you long after the final, chilling note of the constant hum fades away.)
Heirs of the Abyss (A newlywed couple discovers their apartment is sentient and responds to their every command. Life is perfect—that is, until the apartment begins making decisions all on its own. Soon, they find themselves trapped in a psychedelic dreamscape, hopelessly entangled within the physical manifestation of its every want and desire.)
Holus Bolus (OUR PROTAGONIST is pretty sure he's just committed a murder. The body is newly dead, he's the only one around, and a quick look at the evidence suggests he's guilty as sin. Also, he's totally insane. A rare brain condition causes his memories to reset every day, and because of this, he often wakes up in strange places with no memory of how he got there. He can't even remember his own name. When he's not racking his brain over his shoddy memory, he's arguing incessantly with a disembodied voice that doesn't seem to belong to him, one he can only hear inside his head. He may not know much about the troubling situation he just woke up to, but he knows, without a doubt, that he's completely f*cked. While the odds are certainly stacked against him, there may be hope for our protagonist yet, for clutched in the corpse's cold, clammy hands is a handwritten tome that suggests not only his innocence, but also reveals some bizarre and dangerous secrets, leading him to believe his own apartment building may be to blame... or is, at the very least, an accomplice. That sounded better inside his head. Luckily he's not the only one trying to solve the case! The book also leads him to a group of outcasts who are in the midst of their own investigation. The only problem? They all suspect one another! One thing's for certain, someone inside the tower is a cold-blooded killer. Can our protagonist solve the murder before he falls asleep and his memories reset? Or worse, before the killer strikes again? Find out in HOLUS BOLUS. You'll be pushed to the very edge of sanity!)
How to Destroy the World (A step-by-step guide for evil geniuses.)
Human Colander (coming soon)
Hypnagogia18 (Two bumbling idiots accidentally kill God after a simple vacuuming gig goes horribly wrong.)
If You Don’t Sleep, You Don’t Dream. (An elderly man falls prey to a sadistic madman who surgically-enhances his victims, turning them into mechanized, blood-thirsty angels.)
The Invalids (After discovering a hidden microphone in each of their apartments, Norm and Samantha trace back the wires until they become hopelessly tangled inside a web of brutal violence and inescapable madness.)
The Jelly Pumps (A woman sits on a darkened shoreline and injects electric jellyfish blood into her veins. Another walks straight into the ocean.)
Killing Teddy (A slumlord discovers two of his tenants are competing in a dangerous reality game show that’s been taking a toll on his building. After repeatedly ignoring his requests, he busts into their apartment and is shocked to see the tenant has fully transitioned into a man-sized carpenter ant. Hoping to not be evicted from their home, they explain to their landlord just how the game works—one of them has been challenged to live a full life cycle of every creature on earth, and to speed things up, the other must come up with creative ways in which to kill him. After discovering how much they stand to win, he joins in on the fun!)
The Legend of Eye19 (She wouldn't have believed it, had she been her.)
Life is Beautiful (In Spite of Everything) (Every one of us are fighting a battle unknown to the rest of the world. Be kind, damn it.)
The Lighthouse Man20 (How one man turned his greatest weakness into a goddamn superpower.)
Liquid People21 (The day 1,718 holes opened up on the streets of Southside Chigago)
The Lump (A quadriplegic discovers he can move his body during thunderstorms.)
A Man of Many Hearts (In this glum world, you'd be hard-pressed to find a man with half a heart—yet there he was, a man with thirty or more…)
The Man with the Cue-Ball Eye (Chorizo, Nevada is the filthiest town on the planet—the perfect place for a man chockful of secrets to hide. However, one fateful day, his past catches up with him…)
The Mermaid’s Gallows22 (Genocide. Jellyfish smack. Unrequited love. This is the tale of thirteen mermaid sisters, the last of their kind.)
A Mist of Light (By rewiring his brain via the ingestion of psychotropic chemicals, a man is finally able to strip away all facets of individuality in order to become what everyone’s always pressured him to be—exactly like them.)
The Moon Fields (There are certain places the living never should go.)
The Mother (Draped in a long, flowing gown that whispered as she walked, the mother tirelessly scanned the scorched wasteland, searching for a place to bury her young.)
Mr. Malin & the Night (When given a chance to avenge his death, Vincent Malin finds the night relentless and unforgiving.)
My Lunar Suicide (The story of a young woman, determined to die by the moon.)
Negative Waves23 (An astronaut crash-lands an alien planet, alone. When he awakens, he discovers the planet is home to only two other things — the corpse of another astronaut and the negggaaattiiivvvvee waaaaaavvvvvvvveeeesssss…)
Nosebleed/Cablejuice24 (After jumping from a plane and surviving with only a nosebleed, Bricker Cablejuice initiates a series of bizarre tests to prove he is truly immortal.)
Nostalgia, Pt. 1 (There is a prison, of sorts, hidden deep within the belly of the Eighth Block Tower. In this prison, only one captive resides: the Lieutenant… and he’s hungry.)
Nostalgia, Pt. 225 (A mother confronts the so-called “dog man” who bit her young child, only to be thrown into a hellish nightmare of oceanic and cosmic horror.)
o o o o o (Sometimes it’s not the house that’s haunted.)
Pick (The story of a boy who unraveled.)
The Plant People (Death was the only thing that made her feel alive.)
Prelude to a Dream27 (An inter-dimensional traveler revives the once deep-sixed heart of the Eighth Block Tower.)
Psychotoxic Sid (coming soon)
The Second Life of Anacoy Marlin (Through the stories of others, a man learns what he must do to find inner peace.)
The Sinking Sanctuary (A man feverishly tattoos the words of a religious book onto his flesh, attempting to preserve the scared text from the punishing rain hammering against his windowpane. As the flood water rises, his pen moves faster—leaving no time to eat, sleep, or even rest. In a few days time, the collected rainwater seeps into his apartment, eventually swallowing up both his furniture and his sanity. To add to his struggle, the horrors embedded inside the text are starting to leap from the page, manifesting in physical form before him, hoping to pry the book from his busy fingers. Soon after the first ghoul appears, he discovers these curious creatures wish to destroy more than just the book…)
Sins of the Father (One mermaid’s attempt at breaking an age-old cycle.)
A Six-Part Death28 (Perspective. Oftentimes, it’s just as important as the information itself. It is the lens through which we view the world. Though every eye sees the same, every living brain filters and interprets that information differently. What one individual may deem wholesome and good, another may deem inherently bad. There is no stark white line dividing all that is good and evil. Even murder, a subject most anyone would consider an evil, heinous deed, can sometimes be interpreted as just and good—and in some rare cases, even heroic. In Anthony Fetterman’s unique perspective, murder was always considered to be the most evil of all sins. However, one peculiar morning, he opened his eyes to a new perspective, one that could only ever be seen by a man standing in the shadows of The Substack Zone.)
Slime Night (Sebby & Nick were once inseparable, the kind of friends who couldn't do anything without the other. However, once they started high school, they had other things on their minds—girls. And wouldn't you know it, they both fell in love with the same one. Not that she even knew either of them existed... The tension finally comes to a head in a bowling alley arcade, when Nick challenges Seb to a pinball duel–winner takes all! Over-the-top, outrageous, and at times flat out disgusting–Slime Night takes you back to a time when hormones trumped rational thinking, and it’s perhaps the weirdest coming of age story you’ll ever have the (dis)pleasure of reading.)
The Spiders of Honeyville (A yellow cloud of poison pollutes the air in Honeyville. The entire town becomes infected, instantly turning into mindless drones. The government seals off the city, treating the diseased the only way they know how—by harvesting giant freak spiders, hoping they’ll suck the poison right out of their brains! Unfortunately for the townsfolk, things don’t work out as planned…)
Spin Doctors Mixtape (Edgar J. Head can't win. After a series of unfortunate events lead to his girlfriend's cat getting eaten, Eddie finds himself heartbroken and alone. He ventures out into the wild night, meeting some of the strangest people he's ever come across. Eventually he has the epiphany that anything that makes him happy in this dreary life is well worth fighting for... and that the Spin Doctors are the perfect band to convey this message. He quickly gets to work on what very well may be the most important creative project of his life: the Spin Doctors Mixtape. Pauley takes us back to the heart of the 90s in this strange love letter from a weirdo. A lot of fun, a lot of heart, a lot of Batman.)
Spring (A haunting retelling of the birth of the world… & how horrors came to writhe within it.)
Strange Weather29 (The new weatherman is suspiciously good at his job.)
Summer (On the eighth day, God got drunk, and in a moment of inspired rage He regrettably created Old Joe Booth.)
Then the Sky Ticked… (The sky was ticking, specifically a single cloud, but no one knew why. That is, until…)
Tooth Trade (Everyone has that ONE relative in their family tree. Okay, okay… maybe not one QUITE this odd.)
Transfiguration B.C.30 (coming soon)
Trapdoor (When her best friend goes missing, a young woman sets out on her own, determined to find her. Every piece of evidence she uncovers leads back to a mysterious man with white eyes who’s stalking the hallways of the Eighth Block Tower. Even in pictures, his beautiful eyes leave her helplessly lost in a trance. She knows if she’s ever going to see her friend again, she’ll have to find a way to avoid his hypnotic stare. Unfortunately, by the time she finally comes face-to-face with him, she discovers he has many other secrets…)
Under Green Brain (Armed with only a Walkman and a stockpile of self-help tapes, Crater attempts to free his troubled mind by attacking his madness head-on. However, it soon becomes clear that in order to truly be free he must first destroy his apartment building.)
VVLNA [co-written with Joseph Bouthiette, Jr.] (An epic poem recounting the ancient legend of the penumbra—five cyclopean siblings wandering a sunless earth in search for God. Creepy mythos! Thought provoking! Glow bugs!)
White Fuzz (Norm awakens to the cryptic words "white fuzz" scrawled in his notebook, a chilling mystery he can't recall writing or even thinking. This unsettling discovery is quickly followed by a perplexing text from a stranger named Lynda, pulling him into a late-night encounter that will shatter his perception of reality. What begins as an impulsive rendezvous quickly spirals into a nightmarish and surreal experience. From unsettling discoveries within Lynda's apartment to her increasingly erratic behavior, and the strange occurrences within the building itself—Norm finds himself caught in a whirlwind of confusion, dark revelations, and inexplicable phenomena. Can he unravel the mystery behind "white fuzz" and understand the truth about Lynda before the night consumes them both? Prepare for a descent into the darkly comic and utterly bizarre, where the unexpected is the only certainty, and the consequences of a random invitation are far more profound than anyone could imagine!)
Winter (In the end, the remaining Old Joe Booths broke through the thick sheet of ice that had been molded by the licking waves of the bell black ocean—slowing, but still shifting along the outer edges of the tower. And the hideous things, five in total, met under black stars and black skies—staggering, drifting, wondering of the frozen earth that surrounded them.)
POEMS:
Angelhorns & Deviltrombones
I Leave
The Sad Guests
Monster
S.I.N.S.
God Help Me
The Answer?
The End
55 DREAMS I NEVER HAD:
I Laugh Because We Are All Nothing And You Think You’re Something
The Hearers of the Constant Hum
Total Fucking Sadness
Modern Guilt
Great Fog
The Cracked Nobody
Cold Vision
A Mental Abyss
Shards of Spirit
A Window
Women
Robots in Heaven
She’s Gone Now
Shake It!
ADDITIONAL BONUS CONTENT:
Satanic Synastry (a conversation with Nico Harlakenden & Sean Thomas McDonnell)
"THE GREATEST AND BEST LIVE VIDEO EVER MADE EVER!" — Sandolore Sykes
The Complete Newsletter Archives (issues 1-50)
The State of Our Doom Address: April 2025
The Midnight Vault / The Substack Zone live chat w/ Andy Futuro & Sean Thomas McDonnell
Future Ducks (a silly book I made for my son)
Cemetery Date (a story I wrote when I was 8 years old)
“A Brief Moment of Total Insanity” (an interview)
“Driving With My Son” (some thoughts on music)
“Shootin’ the Shit With Joe R. Lansdale” (an interview)
Residents (A Short Collection of Terrible Drawings) [ 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12 / 13 / 14 / 15 / 16 / 17 / 18 ]
Ray Bradbury’s THE OCTOBER COUNTRY deconstructed: The Skeleton // The Jar // The Lake // The Crowd // The Man Upstairs
VIP CONTENT:
Notebook Deep Dive #1 (a video in which I go through one of my old notebooks, cover-to-cover, and talk about how every idea either evolved into a finished story, an unfinished story, or was never used. An embarrassingly candid peek into my creative process.)
Notebook Deep Dive #2 (a video in which I go through one of my old notebooks, cover-to-cover, and talk about how every idea either evolved into a finished story, an unfinished story, or was never used. An embarrassingly candid peek into my creative process.)
Notebook Deep Dive #3 (a video in which I go through one of my old notebooks, cover-to-cover, and talk about how every idea either evolved into a finished story, an unfinished story, or was never used. An embarrassingly candid peek into my creative process.)
Notebook Deep Dive #4 (a video in which I go through one of my old notebooks, cover-to-cover, and talk about how every idea either evolved into a finished story, an unfinished story, or was never used. An embarrassingly candid peek into my creative process.)
“Cemetery Date” Live Reading (a live reading of a story I wrote when I was 8 years old)
Plotting “A Night in Eighth Block Tower” [PART ONE // PART TWO // PART THREE]
DOOM U (More than just a standard ‘learn how to write’ program, DOOM U is a series of imagination exercises meant to challenge your current writing processes. Amateur writers stand to gain the most from these lessons, however, even seasoned writers will find themselves thinking in ways they never have before. This is what sets DOOM U apart from all other writing courses.)
HEARERS OF THE CONSTANT HUM extras: The Secret History Pt. 1 // The Secret History Pt. 2 // The Secret History Pt. 3 // Television Pilot Script // WPIII Live Reading // Original Book Trailer
THE TOWER extras: The History of The Tower -or- The Origin of The Bedlam Bible
THE ASTRONAUT DREAM BOOK extras: False Starts: Nostalgia, Pt. 2 // Negative Waves 8-Bit Mini Comic
HOLUS BOLUS extras: False Starts
TWELVE RESIDENTS DREAMING extras: “We Can’t Stop Here—This is Bradbury Country!” -or- How Ray Bradbury Influenced the Structure of Twelve Residents Dreaming
CREATURES extras: Making a Scene, Pt. 1 // Making a Scene, Pt. 2 // Making a Scene, Pt. 3 // Making a Scene, Pt. 4 // Making a Scene, Pt. 5
VVLNA extras: The Secret History
GOLEM (NAKED BRUNCH) extras: A Conversation With Zachary T. Owen
BLACK FRIDAY extras: A One-Act Play
BLINK extras: Writing Sessions #1 // Writing Sessions #2 // Writing Sessions #3 // Writing Sessions #4 // Writing Sessions #5
THE BLOB KING extras: Supplements
BLOODY HOLLY extras: Eighth Block Shockers! (fully illustrated zine edition) // Supplements
CHILDREN OF THE CONSTANT HUM extras: Eighth Block Shockers! (fully illustrated zine edition) // Original Story Outline // Writing Session #1 // Writing Session #2 // Writing Session #3 // Writing Session #4 // Writing Session #5 // Writing Session #6 // Writing Session #7
DEMOLITION YA YA extras: Commentary Track
THE EDEN ROOM extras: Deconstructing The Eden Room
GOBLA extras: Supplements, Live Writing Session
HYPNAGOGIA extras: A Live Reading
THE LEGEND OF EYE extras: Mini Comic
THE LIGHTHOUSE MAN extras: Original Hand-Drawn Chapbook
LIQUID PEOPLE extras: Supplements
THE MERMAID’S GALLOWS extras: Commentary track
NEGATIVE WAVES extras: An 8-Bit Mini Comic
NOSEBLEED/CABLEJUICE extras: Commentary Track
NOSTALGIA, PT. 2 extras: False Starts
PRELUDE TO A DREAM extras: Supplements
A SIX-PART DEATH extras: Supplements // Two Robots Podcast Episode // The Midnight Vault Companion
STRANGE WEATHER extras: Supplements // Eighth Block Shockers! (fully illustrated zine edition)
TRANSFIGURATION B.C. extras: Writing Session #1 // Writing Session #2 / Writing Session #3 // Writing Session #4
It blows my mind that over the years I have read these. Amazing work, Instigator. 👑
Gobla feels like a Junji Ito story.