Spectre of the Brocken: Halo for the Observer
A two-part collection of flash fiction, short stories, and stream-of-consciousness poetry
Genre: Speculative Literary Fiction | Psychological Fiction | Flash Fiction & Short Stories
An experimental collection of flash fiction, short stories, and stream-of-consciousness poetry that leans into atmosphere, distance, and the eerie sensation of watching yourself from the outside.
The work is less plot-driven and more mood-driven, shaped by isolation, repetition, and the uncanny.
If you like writing that feels like a signal cutting in and out, this collection lives there.
Paperback · 6×9 · 108 pages · ISBN: 978-1088055496
Illustrated by Terry Bouchie Art Shop
Prefer digital? Buy eBook
"Where do you go when you have nowhere to go?
Home, once a sanctuary, now a dilapidated haven.
The passage of time, like overgrown weeds, weaves a chaotic
scene within these once-hallowed walls."
At death, I’ll plead for a question mark to be branded on my forehead just before being burned at the stake for my sins.
Part I: Spectre of the Brocken
- Stale
- Slave
- Baby Cakes
- Ode to Reader One
- Woodpeckers
- Birds
- A Life of Hell
- By a Tree that Became a Table
- Salim Goes to the Doctor
- Fear God
- Lord of that Fly
- Lost
- Rising for the Dinner Bell
- Day Four
- Swan Song of the Desperate
- 462-0614
- Wednesday
- Kitchen Floor
- Daze-n-Days (make it end)
- Four Day Breath on a Pig
- Need a Tissue?
- Not Wanted
- The Itch – The Flutter
- Promise Me
- Get Me Gone ( A Continuation )
- Riders on the Storm (premonitions)
- Come Clean then Hang me at the Gallows
- Dedication
- Why I Don’t Smoke Weed
- Blackouts and Blacktop
- Wonder
- Something Out of Nothing
Part II: Halo for the Observer
- New Currency
- Thank?
- Welcome Home
- Rapid Fire
- Why Try?
- New Hampshire I Love You
- Closed Up
- A Dome Full of Bad Brains
- The Same Way Home
- Rake
- Falling
- The Guilty Drink
- It’s just a riddle
- In the Air
- HHSSSSS
- Why I left
- Weight
- Same
- Lost at Sea
- Dry your eyes
- Broken
- Sometimes
- One Word Thing
- New Frequencies
- The Ridiculed Path
- Drown Her and Wish her Away
- Pack Rat
- A (S)killed Artist
- Broken Decisions
- Nothingness
Not ready to buy? Dive into some of Ran’s flash fiction and see if it’s your thing.
Explore by Theme
Featured Stories
Stale
A tight, psychologically uneasy piece where repetition, wear, and emotional residue become the story’s real machinery.
Lost at Sea
A reflective descent through uncertainty and emotional drift, where longing and instability keep changing shape.
Blackouts and Blacktop
A rougher piece of collapse and consequence, carrying the working-class grit and emotional disorientation central to the collection.
Keep Reading
Browse more dark short stories, psychological fiction, and literary work shaped by memory, pressure, grief, and consequence.
Books by Ran Kime
