u/Teners1

We are an indie horror magazine and we’d like to platform talented, emerging voices whose work is undeservedly unseen, unread or otherwise overlooked.

Perhaps you’d like to join us and submit a story for our upcoming issue - Summer Slasher!

*Deadline*

Submissions must be sent in by 29th May 2026 at 5pm EST

*What We Are Looking For*

We are looking for horror stories meant to entice the reader, and leave lasting impressions.

Submissions can be poetry, short stories, etc, but there must be an element of horror.

Reprinted work is accepted.

We do not claim exclusivity rights over any stories published.

*Theme* - Summer Slasher

Shoulder pads and leg warmers are back!

We are looking for nostalgic and retro horror reminiscent of Summers in the Eighties.

Think: You’re driving on a warm Summer night in your Ford escort with Yes’ Owner of a Lonely Heart blaring on the stereo. Suddenly, you hear something shift on the backseat cream leather interior. Then, you feel fingertips brush against your freshly-cut mullet…

For this issue, scares and vibes are everything!

For further information on how to submit, please visit: https://cult.pub/submissions.php

Check our back catalog at: https://cult.pub/zine

**Edit:** Our community is also hosting a live Q&A session with Marcus Kliewer—author of *We Used to Live here* and *The caretaker*—on Wednesday 20th May at 6pm est.

This will be taking place on our discord server. Please DM me if you want an invite.

The Star-reader stood atop the next sand dune. A silhouette against the ghoulish moon. Wordlessly, she pointed to something unseen.

“What is that tongueless bitch doing?” King Thalric wheezed a couple of paces behind.

I shrugged and offered him my water flask. “Perhaps our luck has turned.”

“Find out. I refuse to climb another dune tonight.”

“What have you found?” I called to her.

No response. Instead, she dropped over the other side of the crest and out of view.

“Follow her, Sellsword,” the King shouted. He had already thrown down his gear.

I scrambled up the sand in pursuit. Reaching the summit, the Star-reader was stood pointing out over the desert. The sand ridges snaked towards the lowest hanging stars. And, among the slopes, there stood something completely out of place.

A tall black beacon. A burning flame at its peak.

We had found it. The house of the Desert God.

###

With newfound zeal, Thalric reached the tower first. With little regal grace, he tumbled down the dune in a cloud of sand.

We found him scrambling feverishly at the tower’s base. His body pressed against the obsidian-black stone, hands searching its surface.

“Where is the door?” Thalric fell to one knee and entered a coughing fit.

His flask was at his mouth before he could ask. I helped him up and brushed him down, before he waved me away.

“The sand moves. Perhaps the entrance is buried?”

Thalric shook his head. “There is wizardry afoot. Get her”—he threw a finger at the Star-reader—“to find the door.”

Sighing, I turned to the woman. Her facial jewellery winked like stars in the moonlight. Before uttering a word, she drew out a piece of chalk from her robes and scrawled a crude rectangle onto the wall.

“What is that?” Thalric hissed.

“It’s a…door.”

“A door?” Thalric bared his teeth. His chin flecked with phlegm. He staggered forward with a hand on his sword hilt. “How dare—“

Without a word, the Star-reader side-stepped through the stone.

We both stood aghast. Then, each drawing a blade, we followed her through the doorway that wasn’t there.

###

Darkness.

Then, a flicker of amber light. A candle, no more than ten paces ahead. Its guttering flame pressed weakly against the shadows.

The true scale of the chamber was unclear. Though, as I stepped forward, the endless echoes told of a room in excessive of the structure itself.

“Where are we?” Thalric called out from the murky dark.

“Does it matter?” I took another step toward the light. My sword trained on the surrounding dark.

“It does if you wish to be paid.”

Another step.

The flame snapped, perturbed by movement beyond its glow.

“Hello?”

A thousand replies; all in my own tongue.

I pressed on. The candle was now within reach. The flame danced upon the wick. And still, an impenetrable darkness all around.

“Are we in the presence of the Desert God?”

No answer.

The silence broken only by Thalric’s rasping coughs. I scanned the shadows.

“My lord wishes to renege on his promise.”

Another step. I grabbed the candle.

Then, a spectacular flash. As brief as a breath, the entire chamber was illuminated, revealing a beast larger than any creature I’d ever seen.

I saw shoulder spines scrape against the cavernous ceiling. Endless pale arms outstretched along the walls. Clawed hands clutched to crags in the stone.

And its face: a mask of twisted anger. Teeth haphazardly stacked into drooling grey gums. Eyes as black as the darkness between stars. Huge and fixed not on I, but that shambling old man at my back.

The candle snuffed out. A black veil swallowed us. A guttural rumble shook the air and was followed by a hot, wet blast of breath.

“A wish cannot be undone,” a voice boomed from every direction.

Then, silence so thick it clung to my skin. Our sharp fast breaths were the only proof that we were still alive.

I startled. A shaking, bejewelled hand slipped into mine. A fortune on every finger.

A frail whisper in my ear. “Kill it. And I’ll reward you greatly.”

“Why do you follow him?” Another whisper from the dark.

I spun around, readying my sword. “Star-reader?”

“What are you doing?” Thalric’s hand clamped tighter on my own. “Focus on the beast!”

“If he can betray a god,” the whisper again, “he will forsake you.”

“Sellsword,” Thalric hissed, pulling at me, “ready your weapon. I order it!”

Before me, another light sparked. The candle’s flame barely cut through the dark. The Star-reader’s face, shimmering gold.

“When your actions are judged,”—what used to be a tongue was a fleshy knot that churned at the back of her throat—“you will not be asked who or what moved you.”

I let go of the King’s hand.

“Desert God,” I called out, “will you grant another wish?”

Thalric began to protested, yet was cut short by the beast. It moved unseen. A violence shuddered through the ground.

“What do you desire?” It bellowed.

“What is the cost?”

“A life.”

I nodded, dropping my sword, “I wish to be ruled by someone with honour.”

“Very well.”

Silence.

Thalric screamed. A broken, high-pitched rasp. Then, a loud crunch followed by a wet slap.

In the distance, a door creaked open and the sunlight rushed in. Revealed to me was a long hall with walls festooned in colourful banners and shields. Crowds of people stood in ceremony where the beast had once been. The light lanced onwards, honeying every stone and then every thread of an ornately designed rug. Slowly, the sunlight crept past me, eventually shining upon a tall wooden chair.

Cut from the darkness and washed in gold, Thalric’s throne was revealed to me.