Tainted Meat and Other Stories

A small collection of short stories inspired by author H. S Wolfe's Wolfetober 2026 prompts, an October art and writing challenge.

In the titular "Tainted Meat", a man discovers his pregnant wife and his family are hiding a terrifying secret.

(Trigger warnings for "Tainted Meat": Non-graphic animal death and brief descriptions of dead animals. Vague mentions of implied domestic abuse in a marriage. Brief descriptions of pregnancy, nudity and blood.)

The crew aboard a submarine in "Distorted Signal" discover that the depths of the ocean are hiding something inexplicable...and hungry.

(Trigger warnings for "Distorted Signal": Thalassophobia, non-graphic character death.)

A vampire must fight to free herself from a trio of angry humans in "Tooth Extraction."

(Trigger warnings for "Tooth Extraction": Blood, non-graphic character death, and forced removal of teeth.)

Finally, "Still Warm" follows an unnamed narrator who stumbles into an abandoned house, where they find the still-warm bodies of the previous owners. When the seemingly dead mistress of the house suddenly awakens, the narrator finds themself trying to navigate the influence of mysterious magic they don't understand.

(Trigger warnings for "Still Warm": vague mentions of parental abuse.)

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Length: 4,457 words (approximately 14 pages)