Quietly Yours

Quietly Yours is a horror anthology in which each episode carries its own story, so there is no running plot to catch up on. The stories are credited to writer Brett Barnett. What binds them is the voice that introduces them. The narrator, who answers to the show's own name, opens with 'Good evening' and a weather report delivered without a flicker: sunny spells for three days, a drizzle that will not abate, the hottest year on record. One cold open welcomes a new year by promising to bring anyone feeling hopeful back down to reality. Some episodes then pause for an obituary. These are custom deaths written for Patreon supporters, a shout-out with a grim twist. Claire from Tennessee, a bookbinder who ran Dungeons & Dragons campaigns, is undone by a stray D6, a D20 and a bookshelf; Christopher, an electrician who bred exotic fish and worked to support people experiencing homelessness, gets a farewell of his own. Then the story begins. 'The Graveyard Slot' is a natural first stop, because the narrator lays out its premise up front. Rob runs a call-in advice show in the overnight slot of a quiet local station, hears a strange noise, and takes a call from a driver who travels remote roads alone each night and admits he sometimes thinks he hears or sees things. 'How To Die Calmly' works in a different key. It is written as a guided relaxation for someone whose oxygen is running out, counting their breaths, urging them to stay present, and inviting them to choose which memories will be their last. The calm is the horror. 'Snow on New Year's Eve', which the narrator introduces as a depressing little story, gives a character room to argue that life is a run of random events with little free will in it, as the snow grows heavier. Loss of control keeps surfacing: a fate taken out of someone's hands, a world where anyone can be hit by a car they never saw coming. Other titles include 'The Gift' and 'The Wraith of the Reeds'. Between stories, the show keeps the joke going. A Patreon appeal gives the cast the floor, with talk of playing an elderly lady, a character named Josie, and a soft spot for the most sinister twists. It then closes as a mock recruitment drive, urging sign-ups before October to leave time for 'the cleansing'. Another episode's closing credit claims, straight-faced, that the show is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. One cold open also admits, plainly, that a difficult year slowed the show down. The narrator's sign-off is the signature: 'I am Quietly Yours, and you are Quietly Mine.'