S4 E3: Rebirth

S4 E3: Rebirth

Content Warning: This story contains violence, graphic imagery, depictions of war, and allusions to murder. Listener discretion is advised. A combat veteran returns home after many months away at the front. The inhabitants beyond the door of his flat are not expecting his arrival, especially since his departure from their lives was less than graceful. No matter, now he is a hero, the sins of his past burned away by the fire of war and the pardon that came with surviving them. Only one more mission remains. View the original story on Vocal to read along: https://vocal.media/fiction/rebirth-qas5a0frx [https://vocal.media/fiction/rebirth-qas5a0frx] The Washington Post article referenced in the Author’s Note: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/05/04/russia-prisons-recruits-criminals-ukraine/ [https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/05/04/russia-prisons-recruits-criminals-ukraine/] As always, please consider leaving a quick rating or review wherever you listen. Cover photo by Arthur Podzolkin and licensed through Unsplash.

S4 E2: SEALAB IV

Content Warning: This story contains blood, death, graphic imagery, and allusions to cannibalism. Listener discretion is advised. Navy divers manning a top-secret underwater lab discover they are not the only intelligent life forms plumbing the depths for knowledge. And unlike the human researchers, their contemporaries are quite well-suited to the murky blackness and crushing depths. What happens when the scientists themselves become the subjects of an experiment? View the original story on Vocal to read along: https://vocal.media/horror/sealab-iv [https://vocal.media/horror/sealab-iv] Alternate recordings: * Kaidankai Podcast [https://open.spotify.com/episode/0SA5XBoXLUEMiJqDIDPowe] * The NoSleep Podcast [https://open.spotify.com/episode/3tPBFcfBQSeRi18aqN39OM] As always, please consider leaving a quick rating or review wherever you listen. Cover photo by Alex Rose and licensed through Unsplash.

S4 E1: In Him, We Know Freedom

Content Warning: This story contains blood, graphic imagery, violence, torture, and allusions to cannibalism. Listener discretion is advised. An escapee from the prison camp of an authoritarian state, we join our haggard protagonist as he stalks the streets of the crumbling nation’s capital. His only companion? A mirror that shows a reflection that is not his own. But with the counsel of an ancient voice that awakened at the height of his torture and guided him from the prison camp to freedom, the man of purpose and the idyllic world shown within the mirror are closer than the fugitive thinks. Even if the means to achieve this vision are less than pleasant. View the original story on Vocal to read along: https://vocal.media/horror/in-him-we-know-freedom [https://vocal.media/horror/in-him-we-know-freedom] As always, please consider leaving a quick rating or review wherever you listen. Cover photo by Ali Arif Soydaş and licensed through Unsplash.

S3 Bonus: Dwellers of the Underworld

For this bonus addition to Season 3, we present two additional stories for your listening pleasure, neither long enough to warrant its own episode and together… still not long enough to be considered a true episode. Thus we present a bonus helping of comedy to go along with the main course we have presented over the past eight regular episodes. You’re welcome. The unifying theme for our pair of vignettes is the underworld. Our first story features a private detective in touch with the seedier side of the city, the one concealed from the sight of more civilized society. Our second story centers on an unlikely protagonist and the wraith that has emerged from the shadows only to meet its match in a man with a fucked-up knee and zero fucks left to give. Plus, it’s Halloween, so why not end on a story about a shadow figure? View the original stories on Vocal to read along (ordered by appearance): * “Privateyeism”: https://vocal.media/fiction/privateeyeism [https://vocal.media/fiction/privateeyeism] * “A Far Greater Horror”: https://vocal.media/horror/a-far-greater-horror [https://vocal.media/horror/a-far-greater-horror ] Check out Chapter 1 of A Bloody Business, a humorous rampage through history written by the same comedic genius and narrated by the same voice talent whose stylings you’ve heard in Season 3: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2I9qKhmGGhBBLfCQUcEcOg [https://open.spotify.com/episode/2I9qKhmGGhBBLfCQUcEcOg ] And, as always, please consider leaving a quick rating or review wherever you listen. Cover photo by Eduardo Mallmann and licensed through Unsplash.

S3 E8: My First Day (The Finale)

For the eighth and final episode of Season 3, we conclude young Jason’s first assignment as junior and senior Nightingale, now armed with a plan to flush out their target, do what they do best: wanton violence. However, the golden-locked girl that confronts them turns out to be more of a mask for a golden-locked demon hiding beneath. Lusario and Jason will find themselves facing physical, magical, and psychological forces. Will all of Jason’s training hold up in this baptism of fire? View the original story on Vocal to read along: https://vocal.media/humor/my-first-day-part-3-the-finale [https://vocal.media/humor/my-first-day-part-3-the-finale] If you enjoyed this story, don’t forget to vote in our poll or leave a comment—if you listen on Spotify—and you might just see a future book from our author centering on Jason Nightingale. That’s right, we opened Season 3 with a concept for a novel, and we have just spent the past three episodes concluding the season in epic fashion with another future book concept. Why? Because we’re just that goddamn clever, that’s why. And, as always, please consider leaving a quick rating or review wherever you listen. And stick around next week for one final chaser to close out Season 3. Specifically, a pair of flash fictions united by theme: Dwellers of the Underworld. Nothing like a little dark humor to round out our comedy tour in this bonus episode. Cover photo by Peter Robbins and licensed through Unsplash.