Stories to Haunt the Living

Step inside a world where shadows speak, technology betrays, and the monsters that haunt us most wear our own faces.
In Stories to Haunt the Living, Michael Slabicki delivers eight chilling tales that unravel the hidden horrors of modern life. A cursed scroll reveals truths no one wants to hear. A deadly affair ends with two women hunted by the man they murdered. A viral video turns a father into a slave of the algorithm. Smart homes refuse to let their owners leave. Texts arrive from beyond the grave. In Argus, even time is currency-and the bill always comes due.
And in the unforgettable final story, The Kind One, a man discovers that a gentler, more careful version of himself has stepped out of the static to replace him. What if your family learned to love the stranger who wore your face better than you ever could?
Each story is detailed, immersive, and terrifying enough to stand alone, yet together they form a collection that lingers long after the last page.

Michael Slabicki crafts fiction with the precision of a poet and the soul of a witness—drawing from a life shaped by geography, movement, and deep human observation. Born in upstate New York and raised across the United States as the son of a military family, he absorbed the quiet rhythms of small towns, the solitude of northern woods, the weight of southern skies, and the intimacy of place. Now rooted in South Carolina, his stories bear the layered textures of every landscape he's called home.
His work defies formula, yet always returns to the core of what makes a story matter: people. With emotional honesty and immersive detail, Michael writes characters who are flawed but faithful, weary but still reaching—individuals whose journeys echo the reader's own. Whether unfolding through a slow-burning romance, a quiet redemption, or a deep spiritual reckoning, his narratives feel lived-in and quietly revelatory.
Slabicki's prose is unhurried but relentless, inviting readers not only to feel, but to reflect—to linger in moments that most writers rush past. He doesn't just tell stories. He builds lives, moment by moment, with a rare steadiness and conviction that is felt long after the final page.