“And the word that rose in my mind was not the gross description of ‘impure,’ but the more fundamental qualification—‘un-pure.’”

The Damned & Other Stories of the Macabre is Skyboat Media’s second original compilation of stories by Algernon Blackwood, featuring six of his most unique and macabre stories that contemplate the true meaning of reality and nature of the making of the world.

In “The Damned,” a brother and sister visit a recently widowed friend at her massive estate in the countryside, only to discover that there is something corrupted at the heart of this former estate of a dead preacher—something eerily similar to the fire and brimstone in his sermons. “A Desert Episode” sees an unlikely couple finding solace in each other against the ominous presence waiting for them in the Egyptian desert. Then in “First Hate,” a man shares a disturbing story about the early years of his engagement with his hunting party. A tenacious little boy ventures into the forbidden parts of his house looking for the mysterious figures of Sleep and the Ruler in “The Other Wing.” In “The Sacrifice,” after receiving terrible news, a man leads a last-minute mountain trekking expedition with two men he has never met before. And finally in “The Man Whom the Trees Loved,” a married couple living on the edge of a forest find themselves on different paths—called to, and warned away from, the trees—and they must decide whether to listen to those calls or to put each other above all else, above their own natures.

Full Contents:

Introduction by Alison Belle Bews

“The Damned”

“A Desert Episode”

“First Hate”

“The Other Wing”

“The Sacrifice”

“The Man Whom the Trees Loved”