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Thank you. From the blackest corners of your mind, they call, pulling you deep into shadow, twisting your senses, keeping you from sleep.

It's time to face your darkest fears.

This is Tales to Terrify. Good evening, children of the night, and welcome. It's week three of sharing this year's Stoker Award nominees in the short fiction category.

Tonight, we have a tale about the persistence of nature in the face of mass extinction.

Our Stoker-nominated story for the evening comes from L.E. Daniels.

L.E. Daniels is a two-time Bram Stoker Award finalist for short fiction,

and an American author, poet, and editor living in Australia. Lauren is a finalist for the Shirley

Jackson, Australasian Shadows, Orialis, and Dittmar Awards, with her recent work published by Flame Tree, Black Spot, Hippocampus,

Underland, Twisted Wing, and Godmother of Horror Press. Her novel, Serpents Wake, a tale for the

bitten, is a notable work with the HWA's Mental Health Initiative.

Children of the Night, join me for L.E. Daniels, Stamata, first published in Darkness Most Fowl from the Godmother of Horror Press.

Music The

The Ecstasy.

In orbit, the same dream, telescoping time asleep in straight jackets. I gripped the bar and

gaze out at the sunlit surface of the earth. The view is just as the others told me, but without so many

words. I am pierced by a state of grace. Everything within me rises weightless

toward home, but I resist. I press my spine against the hexagonal structure of the cupola,

and plant my feet firmly, inhaling the cool, recycled air.

...