Tina Wingham - Issue 37

Tina Wingham is an Australian horror and dark fiction author known for her emotionally charged storytelling and unsettling, atmospheric worlds. Drawn to the shadows of human nature, she explores fear, grief, survival and the fragile line between reality and nightmare. Her work blends psychological tension with vivid, cinematic detail, inviting readers to feel every heartbeat, every breath, and every flicker of dread. 

---

The Eventual Return

The scratching started like clockwork every hour, a soft, delicate scrape from deep beneath the old wooden floorboards. 

My bedroom sat high above the rotting straw bales in a lonely shed in the back corner of our property, no trees animals or people as far as you could see. 

“Please,” I whispered, “not now, not tonight.”

Silence. Then, three slow scratches echoed back. This could not be happening. Pacing across the squeaky floorboards, I begged for peace. For solitude. For closure. 

A set of bony fingers clamped around my ankle, cold as ice. My body refused to move, frozen in place. 

Collapsing to the floor, I sobbed. Retching sounds tore out of me until my voice was nothing but a whisper. 

Eventually the grip around my ankle loosened enough to pry each finger off with a snap. The sound echoing around the rafters. I scrambled for the door, a futile attempt at escape. The floor creaked behind me. A shadow creeping ever closer, reaching for me, whispering my name as darkness slowly descended. 

Within the pitch black, I heard my gentle mother’s voice.

“Go back to bed, sweetheart. I’ve got you”

How could that be, I was sure I buried her six feet deep.