What if you found a VHS tape... that showed you the future?

It's 1992, and Clint Mercer is a lonely man living a quiet, predictable life. His only solace is the local video rental store, a relic of a bygone analog era. But when the clerk hands him a mysterious, unlabeled cassette with one word on it ...REWIND! his world is shattered.

It's not a movie. It's a prophecy.

Clint watches, horrified, as the grainy, handheld footage shows him events that haven't happened yet, a future he can't even comprehend. The tape's cryptic message is clear: if he doesn't rewind it, it will all come true.

But the future doesn't want to be changed.

The moment Clint decides to act, he learns that something is guarding the timeline. Creatures of static and shadow begin to crawl from the dark corners of his apartment, whispering his name, their only goal to stop him from pressing that button.

This episode of Dust and Echoes is a gripping story about a man in a race against time, armed only with a failing VCR and a flashlight. It's a chilling blend of supernatural thriller, 90s nostalgia, and analog horror that asks: if you had the power to save the world, could you survive the things trying to stop you?

If you love stories about cursed objects, found footage, or "what if" time travel thrillers, this episode was made for you. Written and performed by the author, James Cawley. Like this? Want more? Please SUBSCRIBE and LEAVE A RATING.

Jack's a long haul trucker that's not just hauling freight.

He's cursed with a psychic radar for evil...a 'Thump' in his skull that screams for blood, freezes the cab with spectral dread, or heralds true, ancient darkness.

Blackmailed by a demonic 'Dispatcher' holding his sister's life as leverage, Jack is now on a cross-country run with an impossible cargo: a sealed, freezing trailer that's a beacon for every monster on the map.

From roadside serial killers to rival psychics, Jack's about to discover he's not just making a delivery...he's hauling the key to the apocalypse.

Buckle up, because the haul has begun, and on this highway, there's no turning back.

Part 1 of a multiple part series: "THE BLACKTOP SAINT" book series.

GET THE COMPLETE EBOOK FREE, https://www.dustandechoespodcast.com/

Written, produced and performed by the author, James Cawley

Seeking total solitude in the vast, silent corners of the Utah desert, a traveler believes he's finally alone. But the darkness is listening...and waiting.

When a relentless siege begins against the thin fabric of his small tent, he is forced to remember the ancient, whispered rules of the night:

Don't speak,

don't whistle,

and never, ever tell the darkness your name.

This is a terrifying psychological battle against a patient predator that specializes in mimicry, using the voices of the loved ones he's lost.

Our traveler will fight to survive the long, dark night, but sometimes, the greatest horror isn't what's trying to break down your sanctuary...it's the rules you forget, before you encounter it. Support the podcast by purchasing a copy of my first book, The Silent: https://a.co/d/5pbBJBW Written and performed by the author, James Cawley

Under the searing Utah sun, where the San Juan River cuts through stone and silence, a quiet frontier life is set ablaze. When a brutal betrayal rips her world apart, Emma Hawthorne rises from the ashes...scarred, armored, and guided by something far older than the church bells that once tried to tame her.

Redemption is not your typical western. It’s a vengeance-soaked, faith-fractured, desert-burning odyssey. A cinematic audio drama where religious power turns violent, colonial myth collides with Indigenous truth, and one woman’s grief is forged into something unstoppable.

Redemption is an Original Dust and Echoes Story in Audiobook style Podcast form. Written and performed by the author, James Cawley

Looking for the perfect SCARY SHORT STORY??? 👉JAMES CAWLEY'S SKINWALKER More on our website: https://www.dustandechoespodcast.com

After the funeral and the estate sale Thomas stays behind to spend one final night alone in his childhood home. To say goodbye before it's sold.

The rooms are now empty. But something still moves in the silence.

As he clings to fading memories, something within the house begins to respond.

A slow-burning tale of guilt, loss, and the dark things that wait in places we think are safe.

Written and performed by the Author, James Cawley.

Some roads lead to what people would rather forget.

In the backroads of Indiana, the corn grows high enough to swallow the horizon. Mile after mile of silent rows, where sound dies and even daylight feels heavy. Farmers tell their children to stay clear of the fields after dark. Hunters avoid them altogether. And still, the missing persons reports grow.

This is the story of what Jenson and Susan McBride stumbled into one late summer evening when a wrong turn, a stranger, and a simple act of kindness led them into a darkness beyond imagination.

Part crime story, part rural legend, The Corn Witch is a descent into isolation, obsession, and the terror that grows wild when no one’s looking.

A Dust and Echoes original story, written and performed by James Cawley.

Three hundred years after the fall of the old world, the survivors live not in cities… but inside their skeletons.

High above the vine-choked ruins of what once was Manhattan, the Stone Tree Clan endures among the rooftops guided by firelight, memory, and the stories passed down since the first flames were lit. Stories that remind them of the sins that burned the world… and of the one law that has kept them alive:

Stay close to the flame. Remember the stories. Never go into The Down Dark.

But rules can’t hold forever.

The Down Dark is a haunting tale of survival, silence, and the weight of tradition in a world built on ashes. A cinematic story told in the rhythm of oral myth, kept alive through fearing the shadows of the past.

From Dust and Echoes, this is James Cawley’s The Down Dark

Some places will never let you go.

Jeff Bauer thought he escaped his hometown of Burley, Idaho. He traded wheat fields for Hollywood lights, childhood ghosts for film scores and awards. But a phone call from an old childhood friend drags him back into the nightmare that he thought he'd escaped.

Developers are unearthing the farmland where two kids once hid things that they hoped would always stay buried. Now, Jeff must confront the dungeon once again....the town he fled, the boyhood pact he broke, and secrets the Idaho soil refuses to keep.

In Burley, silence is currency, memory is a trap, and loyalty can cost more than blood.

Listen to past episodes and see what's next at: https://www.dustandechoespodcast.com