Update: Now it’s here! Read our latest Captivating story, titled “Casting the Runes,” by M.R. James
A classic horror story of demonic curses and diabolical deaths!
Or read our horror chat stories, including “The Willows.” by Algernon Blackwood. And look for the upcoming text and narration of the creepy horror story “Ligeia,” by Edgar Allan Poe. These are but two of the fine scary thrillers adapted to chat-story format by Captivated Chat!
Preview the following excerpt from “The Willows,” by Algernon Blackwood, a true master of the ghost story:
[conversation Viewer]
//Me: Good thing the wind has died down.
//Swede: Come and tell me what you make of it. Hold a hand to your ear. Now do you hear anything?
//Me: I hear only the water’s roaring and hissing.
//Swede: Wait. The willows for once are silent, so it should be a good chance to hear the other sound.
//Me: Yes, faintly I hear a peculiar sound—something like the humming of a distant gong. It is repeated at regular intervals, but it is certainly neither the sound of a bell nor the hooting of a distant steamer. I can liken it to nothing so much as to the sound of an immense gong, suspended far up in the sky.
//Swede: A fair description.
//Me: The wind blowing in those sand-funnels, or the bushes rubbing together after the storm perhaps.
//Swede: It comes off the whole swamp and from everywhere at once. It comes from the willow bushes somehow—But now the wind has dropped.
//Me: The willows can hardly make a noise by themselves, can they?
//Swede: It is because the wind has dropped that we now hear it. It was drowned before. It is the cry, I believe, of the—oops! …