The Wicked Library · 9th Story Studios LLC

TWL 1201: Two Dark Tales / Lamont A. Turner, T. M. Morgan

March 14, 2023·51 min·4 clips

Brandon reads an inscription for circus performers who burned alive in 1932 rather than abandon children they were calming during a tent fire, then ghost clowns rise from the graves to protect him.

The episode opens with host Daniel Foytek welcoming listeners to Season 12 after Ninth Story Studios relocated to central Pennsylvania. He presents two stories narrated by Graham Rowett, each with a custom score by Nico Vettese. The first story, One Last Performance in Gibbtown, follows Brandon and Nicole whose car breaks down on a rural Florida highway in a thunderstorm. They are picked up by an unsettling seven-foot giant in gray coveralls who tows their car toward Gibsonton, a town historically populated by sideshow performers. He diverts them to a cemetery and attacks Brandon, dragging Nicole off to a secluded cabin. Brandon wakes injured and alone in the graveyard, crawls to an obelisk commemorating the dead from the 1932 Midland Fire — performers who kept their act going to calm trapped children while their tent burned. Ghost clowns and sideshow performers begin emerging from the graves. When the giant returns to finish Brandon, the supernatural entities tear him apart. Only a foot remains. Brandon ultimately rescues Nicole from the cabin and writes a bestselling book about his ordeal. The second story, The Quiet Ones, is set during a slow fungal apocalypse in which a mold is gradually transforming humans into plants. The unnamed narrator in Boston observes neighbours in the early stages — filling pots with soil, growing reverent toward nature. He still goes to work and talks with his mother, who reports that his father has begun burying himself in a dirt mound in the yard. A neighbour named Josie, whose estranged husband cannot bring himself to return, visits and shows the narrator what has become of her youngest son Ben: a small plant growing on the bedroom windowsill, already transformed. Together they carry Ben to a park and plant him in the ground, along with a second mound. The story ends with both of them kneeling in the dirt, smoothing soil, as the narrator reflects on the beauty of the moment.

As heard by us

A grim opener that builds its dread slowly and lands the dark finish cleanly.

Season 12 opens with two Wicked Tales in episode 1201, and The Wicked Library leans into dread, bodily danger, and a world where monsters win and people die.

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Why you'd press play

For when you want horror fiction that tells you up front: monsters win, people die, and hope is often shattered.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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