Under A Black Sky

by Seán O'Connor

Stranded in a blizzard on a full-moon night, a pregnant woman faces her violent partner and a far more monstrous threat emerging from the darkness… On the seventh anniversary of his wife’s disappearance, a grief-stricken train conductor speeding through the night discovers that some losses refuse to stay buried… In the village of Lusk, two siblings discover that the imaginary monster in their father’s garden shed is terrifyingly real when strange sounds begin to emerge from below… While skiing in the French Alps under a near-full moon, a depressed Irish businessman confronts a primal horror tied to his rejected vision of rewilding the Wicklow Mountains with wolves… A couple seeking rural peace in Ireland find their off-grid sanctuary invaded by mysterious aerials that soon reveal a terrifying conspiracy… A young woman battling insomnia and self-harm becomes dangerously obsessed with her enigmatic older neighbor, blurring the line between watcher and prey… From the ancient towers above Lusk, a helpless witness watches a cataclysmic horror descend from the sky.

Seán O’Connor delivers seven atmospheric and deeply unsettling tales of contemporary horror fiction. Blending psychological dread, supernatural terror, and sharp social commentary, these stories explore the monsters we create and the fragility of sanity when the dark skies descend. This is a collection for readers unafraid to gaze into the abyss and meet the eyes of what stares back.

Cover art by Alex McVey

Introduction by T.E. Grau