What happens when a pandemic hits the failing US healthcare system? When Kiara becomes sick, she can’t afford to admit her infection and miss work or even go to the doctor to treat it. Failed by the system, she searches for any way to survive.

After a waking nightmare that continues to haunt her, Elisa experiences increasing episodes of disassociation. As her sense of self unravels, she gets closer to the horrifying truth.

Someone is killing kids in the projects. Bryce thinks Mama Shug, the neighborhood candy lady, might be responsible…but the truth is far more sinister than he realizes.

An orphan discovers a mummified cyborg while hiding from scientists on his worldship and turns it into a cult saint.

Hannah finds her life thrown into chaos when she has to figure out how to care for her unexpected child: a blood squid.

“In the countries that are more uniform, people were more likely to smile to show they were superior to one another.” Can a smile really kill? One of these two men is about to find out.

Charles learns the hard way that some jobs aren’t worth the money.

Cammie has grown up in foster care since the accident that took the lives of her parents, for which she blames herself. She was alone until recently, when her little brother Jason was returned by his adoptive family and joined her in a foster home. She tries to scare Jason by reciting a nursery rhyme about a monster called Mr. Chew, but she is the one who is scared. She sees Mr. Chew every day, staring at her and creeping closer and closer.

An isolated man undergoes an otherworldly – and sinister – experience after a meteorite lands in his back yard.

A predatory young man chooses the wrong girl to follow home from the Halloween disco.

“Come outside, dearest mine.
Come taste the spring honey
drip-drip-dripping from every hive.” Read this dark poem by Avra Margariti.

This story will make you question your perception of time, space, and reality.

The poltergeists leave the darkroom the way they came: faceless. Read this beautiful poem by Avra Margariti, only on The Dread Machine.

(What are humans but an amalgamation
of meat and electricity?) Read this unsettling poem by Avra Margariti.

A cardboard box on the curbside. A magic marker missive: TAKE ME. Free books for someone to take. But what if these books shouldn’t be taken? What if they’re haunted?