Tales to Terrify 723 Derek Alan Jones

December 5, 2025·53 min·4 clips

The revived sailor reveals he survived the 1854 wreck of the HMS Prince and was placed in the box by the islanders.

The invitation comes before the story. After the supporter appeal and the familiar call into darkness, the host introduces a single long tale about antiquarians and a mysterious artifact. Derek Allen Jones gets formal credit, along with a brief biography: warehouse work in Kansas by night, speculative fiction in named magazines, and more collected at his website. Then Antiquity begins. The surviving excerpt moves from scholarly doubt into bodily dread. The safest assumption is not safe at all. A man has come from a box, and he is so damaged that even helping him feels risky. The narrator worries that too much pressure could break his jaw. Water is the first mercy. He asks for clean water and broth, then feeds him drop by drop through lips compared to sailcloth. Even the teeth feel wrong. Against the wrecked texture of the mouth, the sound incisors are somehow worse. At last the throat moves. That small bob gives the caretaker enough reason to stop, and exhaustion takes him in the chair beside the bed. Sleep does not help. He wakes sharply, sure only that his dreams were troubled and that someone has been near him. The landlady is crouched beside the bed. She says his room has been turned down, but gives no reason for being in the sickroom while he slept. He chooses not to ask. By staying, he accepts the vigil. Her displeasure adds a social chill to the horror already in the room.

As heard by us

A strange artifact, a man from the box, and dread that builds through careful domestic detail.

Derek Allen Jones's "Antiquity" begins with a team of antiquarians and a strange artifact, then settles into the uneasy care given to the man from the box.

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Why you'd press play

You want a dark, patient horror tale about antiquarians chasing the origin of a mysterious artifact.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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