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Between Worlds: Thirteen Tales of Lore
Between Worlds – Thirteen Tales of Lore
Step beyond the veil and into a realm where ancient whispers still haunt forgotten villages, and every shadow holds a story.
Between Worlds is a spellbinding collection of folklore-inspired horror tales that breathe new life into the old fears that once ruled the night. Journey to a mist-shrouded Italian village where silence is the only safeguard against dark processions. Follow the chilling toll of a clock that counts not the hours, but the lives it claims. Face the Hollow Guest in a snowbound Norwegian cabin where isolation eats away more than sanity. Meet the Bone Weaver in a forsaken Mexican graveyard, weaving the souls of the forgotten into a tapestry of bone and sinew. Venture into the cursed caves of the Kalahari, where the blood-red moon calls the Twin-Souled Ones to reclaim what was denied them. And discover many more chilling encounters in the pages beyond.
Each story in this haunting anthology explores a place suspended between myth and memory, where reality frays and folklore takes hold. Drawing inspiration from some of the world’s most obscure and eerie traditions, these tales blur the line between legend and nightmare, creating a tapestry of chilling encounters and unforgettable mysteries.
Blending a passion for authentic lore and a storyteller’s gift for atmosphere, Between Worlds doesn’t just entertain - it unsettles, lingering long after the final page. Each location, each ritual, each whispered warning is rooted in a deep cultural history, inviting readers to question what ancient truths still hide behind the world’s forgotten places.
Perfect for fans of eerie folklore, psychological horror, and richly atmospheric storytelling, Between Worlds will transport you to places you’ll wish you could forget—but never will.
Are you ready to cross into the shadows? Some doors, once opened, can never be closed.
Step beyond the veil and into a realm where ancient whispers still haunt forgotten villages, and every shadow holds a story.
Between Worlds is a spellbinding collection of folklore-inspired horror tales that breathe new life into the old fears that once ruled the night. Journey to a mist-shrouded Italian village where silence is the only safeguard against dark processions. Follow the chilling toll of a clock that counts not the hours, but the lives it claims. Face the Hollow Guest in a snowbound Norwegian cabin where isolation eats away more than sanity. Meet the Bone Weaver in a forsaken Mexican graveyard, weaving the souls of the forgotten into a tapestry of bone and sinew. Venture into the cursed caves of the Kalahari, where the blood-red moon calls the Twin-Souled Ones to reclaim what was denied them. And discover many more chilling encounters in the pages beyond.
Each story in this haunting anthology explores a place suspended between myth and memory, where reality frays and folklore takes hold. Drawing inspiration from some of the world’s most obscure and eerie traditions, these tales blur the line between legend and nightmare, creating a tapestry of chilling encounters and unforgettable mysteries.
Blending a passion for authentic lore and a storyteller’s gift for atmosphere, Between Worlds doesn’t just entertain - it unsettles, lingering long after the final page. Each location, each ritual, each whispered warning is rooted in a deep cultural history, inviting readers to question what ancient truths still hide behind the world’s forgotten places.
Perfect for fans of eerie folklore, psychological horror, and richly atmospheric storytelling, Between Worlds will transport you to places you’ll wish you could forget—but never will.
Are you ready to cross into the shadows? Some doors, once opened, can never be closed.
177 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 19, 2025
8 people are currently reading
7 people want to read
About the author
Haydn Croft
3 booksHaydn Croft is drawn to the places maps forget, abandoned villages, mist-choked forests, ruins where time stands still. His travels off the beaten path are more than journeys; they are quiet descents into the stories that refuse to be forgotten. His stories are the result of years spent chasing the thin line where folklore bleeds into reality.
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January 23, 2026
Croft draws on the common fear of the world being slightly larger and stranger than perceived which underlies folktales and urban legends, creating a series of tales that show that whether the light is electric or fire, the darkness lies just beyond its edge.
This collection gathers thirteen short stories that feature ordinary people encountering the truths that lie behind folktales and other strangeness just beyond the borders of the mundanely possible.
‘The Silent Procession’ When Brandon hears about a festival of silence that occurs every year in the small village of Ombre di Rovina, it seems ideal content for his travel vlog—and the personal connection to his grandfather will might make it even cooler. However, instead of rural insularity or a charming example of folk tradition, he finds what seems to be genuine fear.
‘The Chimes of St Corvin’ Eleanor death bells
‘The Hollow Guest’ While renting a cabin in the middle of nowhere to focus on his latest work, Mark glimpses evidence someone might be trying to sneak in. At first he dismisses it as stress or mundane thievery—until he finds notes that sound like him but that he can’t recall writing.
‘The Bone Weaver’ Travelling to a small village in Mexico to capture oral legends before they are lost forever, Daniel Reyes encounters the tale of a creature that literally weaves the dead into the tapestry of history.
‘The Night of the Red Moon’ Naledi believes in science, not superstition. So, when a child goes missing from their village, she willingly searches the cave that villagers believe houses the twin-souls who steal the unwary every blood moon. However, when the signs suggest the child has entered but not left, Naledi must try to unravel the truth beneath stories.
‘The Devil of Kandaw County’ With Rangoon under British colonial administration, Inspector Aung has accepted there is tacitly one law for white people and another for natives. However, as his investigation into a series of violent deaths uncovers stranger evidence, he wonders if—even if he can find a way to uncover the truth—whether he should.
‘The Black Harvest’ When an English gentleman asks Ewan to lead him to an ancient ritual site, Ewan wants to refuse: but a nobleman could destroy his life on a whim; and Ewan can barely support his family so needs the money. However, there might be a way to stop the Englishman getting the power legend says is there.
‘The Mask of Kuda’ Following his father’s death, Nabin Gurang returns to the small village of his birth, only intending to stay long enough to settle affairs. However, the elders claim he must remain forever or a great evil will break free.
‘The Fisherman’s Daughters’ When a man disappears from the coastal village of Kuroshio, allegedly stolen by the sea, Detective Tanaka expects the answer to be accident or mundane criminality. But something makes it hard to ignore the tales of drowned women seeking a husband.
‘The Whispers in the Sand’ While excavating ruins deep in the desert, Dr Haddad uncovers a carving warning not to answer the wind when it calls.
‘The House That Swallowed the Rain’ When Anaya arrives in
Jalampur to survey an abandoned mansion for possible conversion into a boutique hotel, she is puzzled to discover the rain that is torrenting across the city doesn’t seem to touch the mansion.
‘The Firekeeper’ Mack Delaney assumes his vivid dreams of burning buildings are just the mundane effects of a life spent as firefighter. However, when he arrives at a blaze to discover everything matches his last dream perfectly, he suddenly recalls overhearing his grandmother talking about the fire taking her husband before he was dead.
‘The Forty-Eighth Name’ When Inspector Santiago’s superiors dismiss his theory that people disappear from every journey of the Andean Express as just administrative mistakes and tourists getting off at the wrong stop, he decides the only way to prove it is to ride the train himself.
Croft’s tales each bear a strong echo of the classic ghost story in the tradition of James and Bierce, building their plot around a specific folktale of the area where they are set rather than one of the classic monsters such as a vampire or werewolf. However, while some of the stories conjured the time period of these literary ancestors including the manner in which characters express themselves, Croft is not constrained by the sensibilities of those authors; thus, although not filled with graphic details and gore, the stories feel like a modern continuation of the tradition rather than an arch or stilted attempt at copying it.
Although the collection is united by this common feel, the individual stories display a diverse range of different supernatural systems and outcomes, including good triumphing, evil being punished, willing sacrifice saving the day, and events being inevitable. In addition to denying the reader certainty over the ending, adding to the tension, this avoids the risk of the collection feeling like either it is preaching objective good and evil, or denying morality exists.
In contrast to the subtle and growing otherness of the supernatural elements, Croft’s characters each display a unique set of plausible and conflicting drives and beliefs, making them both realistic and good proxies for the reader’s experience of the unknown.
Croft’s presentation of varied historical and geographical settings is equally engaging, capturing the social structures and beliefs of the time and place without demanding the reader take a specific stance on the question of science vs folklore or the positives vs negatives of colonialism.
This nuanced approach to character and setting makes each story different enough that readers choosing to read them back to back rather than dip into the collection over a period of time are unlikely to find them becoming stale or samey.
Overall, I enjoyed this collection greatly. I recommend it to readers seeking tales of supernatural otherness that neither cleave too closely to the tropes of the genre nor subvert them merely for the sake of being different.
This collection gathers thirteen short stories that feature ordinary people encountering the truths that lie behind folktales and other strangeness just beyond the borders of the mundanely possible.
‘The Silent Procession’ When Brandon hears about a festival of silence that occurs every year in the small village of Ombre di Rovina, it seems ideal content for his travel vlog—and the personal connection to his grandfather will might make it even cooler. However, instead of rural insularity or a charming example of folk tradition, he finds what seems to be genuine fear.
‘The Chimes of St Corvin’ Eleanor death bells
‘The Hollow Guest’ While renting a cabin in the middle of nowhere to focus on his latest work, Mark glimpses evidence someone might be trying to sneak in. At first he dismisses it as stress or mundane thievery—until he finds notes that sound like him but that he can’t recall writing.
‘The Bone Weaver’ Travelling to a small village in Mexico to capture oral legends before they are lost forever, Daniel Reyes encounters the tale of a creature that literally weaves the dead into the tapestry of history.
‘The Night of the Red Moon’ Naledi believes in science, not superstition. So, when a child goes missing from their village, she willingly searches the cave that villagers believe houses the twin-souls who steal the unwary every blood moon. However, when the signs suggest the child has entered but not left, Naledi must try to unravel the truth beneath stories.
‘The Devil of Kandaw County’ With Rangoon under British colonial administration, Inspector Aung has accepted there is tacitly one law for white people and another for natives. However, as his investigation into a series of violent deaths uncovers stranger evidence, he wonders if—even if he can find a way to uncover the truth—whether he should.
‘The Black Harvest’ When an English gentleman asks Ewan to lead him to an ancient ritual site, Ewan wants to refuse: but a nobleman could destroy his life on a whim; and Ewan can barely support his family so needs the money. However, there might be a way to stop the Englishman getting the power legend says is there.
‘The Mask of Kuda’ Following his father’s death, Nabin Gurang returns to the small village of his birth, only intending to stay long enough to settle affairs. However, the elders claim he must remain forever or a great evil will break free.
‘The Fisherman’s Daughters’ When a man disappears from the coastal village of Kuroshio, allegedly stolen by the sea, Detective Tanaka expects the answer to be accident or mundane criminality. But something makes it hard to ignore the tales of drowned women seeking a husband.
‘The Whispers in the Sand’ While excavating ruins deep in the desert, Dr Haddad uncovers a carving warning not to answer the wind when it calls.
‘The House That Swallowed the Rain’ When Anaya arrives in
Jalampur to survey an abandoned mansion for possible conversion into a boutique hotel, she is puzzled to discover the rain that is torrenting across the city doesn’t seem to touch the mansion.
‘The Firekeeper’ Mack Delaney assumes his vivid dreams of burning buildings are just the mundane effects of a life spent as firefighter. However, when he arrives at a blaze to discover everything matches his last dream perfectly, he suddenly recalls overhearing his grandmother talking about the fire taking her husband before he was dead.
‘The Forty-Eighth Name’ When Inspector Santiago’s superiors dismiss his theory that people disappear from every journey of the Andean Express as just administrative mistakes and tourists getting off at the wrong stop, he decides the only way to prove it is to ride the train himself.
Croft’s tales each bear a strong echo of the classic ghost story in the tradition of James and Bierce, building their plot around a specific folktale of the area where they are set rather than one of the classic monsters such as a vampire or werewolf. However, while some of the stories conjured the time period of these literary ancestors including the manner in which characters express themselves, Croft is not constrained by the sensibilities of those authors; thus, although not filled with graphic details and gore, the stories feel like a modern continuation of the tradition rather than an arch or stilted attempt at copying it.
Although the collection is united by this common feel, the individual stories display a diverse range of different supernatural systems and outcomes, including good triumphing, evil being punished, willing sacrifice saving the day, and events being inevitable. In addition to denying the reader certainty over the ending, adding to the tension, this avoids the risk of the collection feeling like either it is preaching objective good and evil, or denying morality exists.
In contrast to the subtle and growing otherness of the supernatural elements, Croft’s characters each display a unique set of plausible and conflicting drives and beliefs, making them both realistic and good proxies for the reader’s experience of the unknown.
Croft’s presentation of varied historical and geographical settings is equally engaging, capturing the social structures and beliefs of the time and place without demanding the reader take a specific stance on the question of science vs folklore or the positives vs negatives of colonialism.
This nuanced approach to character and setting makes each story different enough that readers choosing to read them back to back rather than dip into the collection over a period of time are unlikely to find them becoming stale or samey.
Overall, I enjoyed this collection greatly. I recommend it to readers seeking tales of supernatural otherness that neither cleave too closely to the tropes of the genre nor subvert them merely for the sake of being different.
Displaying 1 of 1 review