Appalachia

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Appalachia by H. Dalby lands hard and without apology. This is not a slow-burn mood piece; it’s visceral, jagged, and indebted to the slasher tradition in the way it stages violence as both sudden and inevitable. The tale moves through small-town corridors and backroads where ordinary objects and familiar spaces become instruments of menace. Scenes snap into place with the merciless economy of a knife cut—brief, precise, and lingering in memory. The dread here is physical: the crunch of footsteps on gravel, the metallic taste of panic in the mouth, the grotesque choreography of pursuit and escape. It reads like a nightmare filmed on 16mm, all harsh angles and unforgiving light, and it leaves the listener with the same cold residue a good slasher leaves on the skin.

What makes the story effective is Dalby’s refusal to sentimentalize the violence. The gore isn’t indulgent spectacle; it’s a functional element of a world where danger is mundane and cruelty wears everyday clothes. The characters are given just enough detail to make their fates matter, then the narrative tightens and advances without wasting sympathy. Listeners who expect catharsis will find none; instead there’s the grinding truth of vulnerability exposed and the stubborn, ugly logic that sometimes governs small communities when something feral wakes up among them.

A few production notes and reminders: the music for tonight’s episode is original and written and performed by Empress— their score undercuts and amplifies the horror in all the right places, and their work ethic on this run has been outstanding. Production and episode logistics were handled by Mickie Eberz, who keeps the whole project moving. The raffle is ongoing; the winner will be drawn from the email list of premium subscribers, so double-check your signup if you want your name in the hat. Premium also gives access to the archive of older episodes. There’s a texting service (link in the episode description) where listeners can send short messages for possible on-air reads; important to note, we cannot see who sends those messages or respond to them off-air — messages are only pulled and responded to live.

Credits: Produced by Mickie Eberz. Story by H. Dalby. All original music written and performed by Empress.

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