The Late Hour, Stories for the Insomniac.: Volume 1 (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798892833257)

The Late Hour, Volume 1 opens with the crackling signal of The Other Realm, a late-night radio show celebrating its eighteen years on the air. Hosted by Johnny Decker, the program drifts in and out of every story in the collection-a familiar voice threading each tale together from somewhere in the background. Whether you hear it from a passing car radio, a bedroom stereo, or a lonely kitchen at midnight, The Other Realm is always there, inviting you to stay awake a little longer.

These aren't horror stories in the traditional sense. They're urban suspense tales-quiet, eerie, lived-in. Stories where tension creeps in from the edges of ordinary life, and where the strange and the unexplainable slip into the everyday.

Johnny Decker hosts his anniversary broadcast of The Other Realm, the cult-favorite radio show devoted to the weird, the unexplained, and the stories people whisper only when the sun goes down. His voice becomes the connective tissue of this collection, playing softly behind each tale and tying the book's world together.

During a suffocating summer heatwave, Rudy takes his loyal dog, Dingo, out for a walk to escape the heat inside his house. Lost in memories of his high-school crew and the friendships that shaped him, he doesn't notice the danger waiting ahead. Two strangers-drunk, restless, unpredictable-cross his path and change his life in ways he never could've imagined.

Mimi is small but fearless-she stands up to bullies without hesitation. But the real threat is waiting for her at home: a creature hiding in her bedroom closet. She begs her parents to believe her, warning them that one day the thing in the dark will swallow her whole. They dismiss it as childish fear... until the nightmare grows too real to ignore. Everything builds toward a final confrontation, and only one of them will walk away.