Magical Realism

The Siren’s Bell: The Real Story Behind Ariel
In 1803, a whaling ship named The Melusine vanished near the coast of Iceland. When it reappeared months later, its deck was covered in coral, and only one man remained alive.
By GoldenSpeech4 months ago in Chapters
Mountains of Flame: The Dragon-Girl’s Gift
I remember the first time I felt the heat under my skin, though I did not understand it then. It was subtle, like a pulse in my veins that would not be ignored, a rhythm foreign to my own heartbeat. I was sixteen, though I could not yet know that I carried something ancient and terrible within me, something that had slept for centuries, waiting. The mountains had always been my refuge, a jagged fortress that the wind scoured clean of noise, of people, of prying eyes. It was here that I learned to be alone, and it was here that he found me.
By Panagiota4 months ago in Chapters
The Genie
Before there were lamps, before there were masters, there was Azariel, the voice of creation. He was one of the first jinn — beings made of smokeless fire — tasked to sing the names of all things into existence.
By GoldenSpeech4 months ago in Chapters
The Princess of Crows: The Lost Diary of Snow White
When researchers restored a Bavarian convent in 1901, they found a sealed wooden chest inscribed with a mirror symbol. Inside: blackened feathers, seven glass vials, and a diary written in archaic German.
By GoldenSpeech4 months ago in Chapters
The Mirror’s Keeper
The Grimm brothers’ “Schneewittchen” was inspired by a true 16th-century Bavarian countess: Maria Sophia von Erthal. But the story told to children omits the most disturbing part.
By GoldenSpeech4 months ago in Chapters
Quasimodo
During the 1830s restoration of Notre-Dame, architect Viollet-le-Duc documented something unusual — a sealed crypt beneath the bell tower, containing the skeletal remains of a man with a twisted spine and a hammer in his right hand.
By GoldenSpeech4 months ago in Chapters
The Real Story Behind Sleeping Beauty
The Disney tale shows a peaceful princess kissed awake by true love. The original Italian version, “Sun, Moon, and Talia,” written by Giambattista Basile in the 1600s, is terrifying.
By GoldenSpeech4 months ago in Chapters
The Man Who Spoke to a Cabbage
They say madness begins in silence. But in my case, it began in the garden. I wasn’t always the man who spoke to vegetables. Once, I was an ordinary shopkeeper with a small life — shelves of canned beans, customers who came and went, and an old radio that hummed away my loneliness. Then came the fire. It swallowed the store, the street, and the pieces of my life that had any shape. After that, words felt useless. I stopped talking to people.
By Malaika Piolet4 months ago in Chapters
The Nightmare And The Children. Content Warning.
When the children went to sleep, the Nightmare began to play his keyboard. Their bodies slept and all seemed well, but their souls left their bodies and rode on the back of the spiral night dog, up and up the hill to where the Nightmare was playing.
By Mike Singleton 💜 Mikeydred 4 months ago in Chapters
The Man Who Married a Turnip. Top Story - October 2025.
Once, in the long-ago time, when the world was younger, but still far from its childhood, a man, a lowly cotter, lived in the crumbling remains of an old keep, which had looked out over the hills and valleys since time out of mind.
By Tom Baker5 months ago in Chapters
Songs Of The Silver Wizard
COMPENDIUM “Blood and bone and heartstring blended, power ushered forth inexorable, unbended. Nay, beware! Beware! The blood magic’s madness may never be mended.”
By Matthew J. Fromm5 months ago in Chapters
Venari: Reigns of Hell
~ From Venari: Reigns of Hell. ~Book 2 of The 7 Plains of Hell Series Chapter: Again, there was a fierce recognition in those eyes, something she didn’t understand. Was it the beast recognizing one of its own or something more? She caught herself glancing back at the beast. For a moment, he returned her stare before once again turning his head in the direction from which they had come. Was this supposed to be another sign, another symbol emphasizing that she was supposed to be in Hell?
By Alisha Wilkins ✒️🦋🖋️5 months ago in Chapters