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Auditory Anthology
Love by Aurea Fenn
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A casual date at a neon-lit arcade takes a turn when Olivia wants to try a fortune-telling android, and her skeptical boyfriend Danny can’t resist explaining exactly why it’s a scam. Aurea Fenn delivers a witty, bittersweet short about cynicism, missed connection, and what happens when a machine says the thing neither person is ready to admit.
We love bringing you stories from listeners just like Aurea — if you’ve got a tale of your own itching to be told (sci-fi, horror, supernatural, or anything in between), we’d love to hear it
If you have a story you’d like to contribute to the series, you can visit https://submissions.soundconceptmedia.com/
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Curator: Keith Conrad linktr.ee/keithrconrad
Narrator: Darren Marlar https://darrenmarlar.com/
Other shows hosted by Darren:
Weird Darkness: https://weirddarkness.com/
Paranormality Magazine: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/paranormalitymag
Micro Terrors: Scary Stories for Kids: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/microterrors
Retro Radio – Old Time Radio In The Dark: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/retroradio
Church of the Undead: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/churchoftheundead
More episodes
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The Invader by Alfred Coppel
19:32|A lone alien scientist slips down to Earth on a scouting mission, hoping to prove that this planet is the answer to his dying race’s prayers. Everything goes smoothly until his first steps out among the locals, when things start going very wrong in ways he can’t begin to understand. It’s a sharp little twist on the classic alien-invasion tale, best enjoyed without knowing where it lands.Alfred Coppel (1921–2004) was a fighter pilot in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II before becoming one of the most prolific pulp writers of the 1950s and 60s, working across science fiction, action thrillers, and suspense. He also wrote young adult space operas as Robert Cham Gilman, and “The Invader” first appeared in Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy in February 1953.
The Winner & Maiden Voyage - Chapter Eight: Hong Kong
15:54|On the maiden voyage of the MV Atlas, the world’s largest cruise ship, a ghost operative team attempts a silent extraction of a high-value defector carrying an impossible secret: an ancient, non-human artifact. Hidden amongst twenty-two thousand passengers and stalked by an elite foreign intelligence network, the team must execute a precise, high-stakes tradecraft operation in international waters — one wrong move could blow their cover and trigger a confrontation that could break the global order.Our companion short story, “The Winner,” follows an ordinary man named Dennis who improbably wins a full-ownership condo aboard Atlas through a contest — only to find small, impossible details waiting for him in his new home that make the win feel a lot less like luck. It’s a quieter, stranger corner of this world, and it raises questions about Atlas itself that the main story hasn’t answered yet.
Zeritsky's Law By Ann Griffith
19:11|When a Los Angeles housewife’s cat accidentally freezes solid in her deep-freeze and thaws out completely unharmed, it sparks a bizarre new industry: quick-freezing human beings, for a fee, until they’re ready to be defrosted. From fleeing criminals to lovesick husbands, Ann Griffith spins a wickedly satirical history of the business that grows up around it — and the law that finally shuts it all down.Ann Warren Griffith (1918–1983) was an American writer best known for her humorous essays in The New Yorker and The Atlantic, and for her collection Who Is Hiding in My Hide-a-Bed? She served as a pilot with the Women Airforce Service Pilots during World War II, and “Zeritsky’s Law,” first published in Galaxy Science Fiction in November 1951, remains one of her few forays into science fiction.
Hail Nedovra by Samantha E Pierce
10:30|Inspector Ivan Yegorov spends his days at a border checkpoint stamping papers APPROVED or DENIED with quiet, methodical pride — a devoted bureaucrat serving his nation. But as the day unfolds, Samantha E. Pierce peels back the horrifying human cost hiding underneath his routine, in a chilling story about complicity, dehumanization, and the banality of evil.We love bringing you stories from writers just like Samantha — if you’ve got a tale of your own itching to be told (sci-fi, horror, supernatural, or anything in between), we’d love to hear it.
Breaker’s Yard & Maiden Voyage - Chapter Seven: The Team
15:13|On the maiden voyage of the MV Atlas, the world’s largest cruise ship, a ghost operative team attempts a silent extraction of a high-value defector carrying an impossible secret: an ancient, non-human artifact. Hidden amongst twenty-two thousand passengers and stalked by an elite foreign intelligence network, the team must execute a precise, high-stakes tradecraft operation in international waters — one wrong move could blow their cover and trigger a confrontation that could break the global order.Our companion short story, “Breaker’s Yard,” follows Marcus Webb — soon to join Mercer’s team — during a routine compliance job aboard a decommissioned Navy ship being torn apart for scrap. What he encounters alone in her stripped, powerless corridors is impossible to explain, and impossible to shake. It’s another quiet thread of the unexplained, and our first real look at the man who’s about to become part of something much bigger.
Membership Drive by Murray F. Yaco
23:29|An alien named Keeter makes an unplanned emergency landing near the Jefferson Memorial and treats the entire assembled US government with breezy, condescending indifference — right up until he needs a favor. What follows is a wry first-contact comedy where Earth’s eager officials keep giving away more than they realize, chasing the promise of a “test” for interstellar federation membership that may not be quite what it seems.Murray F. Yaco was born in Queens, New York in 1927, served in the Army in Japan during World War II, and later worked as a war correspondent in Vietnam and Kuwait. He wrote only a handful of science fiction stories in the mid-20th century, with “Membership Drive” appearing in Amazing Stories in July 1960.
The Unobserved Observer by F. Davies-Mouncher
09:46|Late for school and dreading the stares of her classmates, Olivia gets an anxiety she never asked for when she suddenly realizes no one around her can see or hear her at all. What starts as a terrifying morning quickly turns into something else entirely, as Olivia begins to understand exactly what she can get away with when nobody’s watching. F. Davies-Mouncher delivers a sharp coming-of-age story about visibility, power, and the temptation of getting away with it.We love bringing you stories from listeners just like F. Davies-Mouncher — if you’ve got a tale of your own itching to be told (sci-fi, horror, supernatural, or anything in between), we’d love to hear it.
They Can’t Stop All of Us & Maiden Voyage - Chapter Six: The Ask
15:38|On the maiden voyage of the MV Atlas, the world’s largest cruise ship, a ghost operative team attempts a silent extraction of a high-value defector carrying an impossible secret: an ancient, non-human artifact. Hidden amongst twenty-two thousand passengers and stalked by an elite foreign intelligence network, the team must execute a precise, high-stakes tradecraft operation in international waters — one wrong move could blow their cover and trigger a confrontation that could break the global order.Our companion short story, “They Can’t Stop All of Us,” follows Bennett before all of this began — covering the infamous “Storm Area 51” gathering as a journalist, and catching something in the Nevada night sky that her camera can barely explain, let alone she can. It’s a quiet, personal glimpse at the woman who’s about to become central to Mercer’s plan, and one more thread in this world’s stranger undercurrent.