SHORTS

Seven stories.
Seven doors.
Each one opens onto a world where the ordinary slips its leash.

A lone rider crosses a merciless Western landscape, where justice is as dry and unforgiving as the land itself. A private investigator conducts a routine stakeout in a mall and finds his present entangled with his past after meeting a perceptive young boy. The encounter drags up memories of childhood and lost friendships. In fog-bound Victorian streets, a woman is offered a mysterious potion that promises love, but exacts a price no one ever explains. A broken-down car, a relentless rainstorm, and an isolated house called Chaddleworth draw a traveller into an English countryside nightmare that refuses to let him leave. Inside a quiet care home, residents cling to life by means too terrible to speak of, hidden behind tea trays and visiting hours. In 1930s America, a black man seeks revenge for the lynching of an innocent friend, delivering justice in a world determined to deny it. And when a magic lantern is rubbed, wishes are granted - but the cost of getting exactly what you want may be far worse than never having wished at all. Dark, sharp, and threaded with irony, these stories explore obsession, desire, vengeance, and the thin line between salvation and damnation. Some are cruel, some are tragic, some darkly funny - but none are safe.