Tales Across Midnight
The Night Bus
On the number eleven bus everyone is asleep. A glove is left on the seat, and a man follows it — but the woman says: "It isn't mine. But I know whose it is."
Reading time: 4 minNight stories
Night is not about darkness; it is about honesty. This collection gathers stories that take place between late evening and dawn: a leftover glove on the number eleven bus, a radio show with exactly one faithful caller, a bakery where the same woman asks for two rolls every dawn, a rooftop two people climb when they cannot sleep, and a dried monkey’s paw that grants three wishes.
Different genres, one shared hour. There is mystery here, warmth, laughter and a hint of something unspoken — but all of them ask the same question: what happens when the city falls asleep and someone stays awake anyway?
Reading time: 4 minutes per story. Start wherever you like.
Stories in this collection
Tales Across Midnight
The Radio
At half past one every night the same voice calls the city station, and for eleven months it will not give a name. A night story about a voice, a corridor and a door.
Reading time: 4 min
Tales Across Midnight
The Bakery
At four in the morning the same woman comes in and orders the same thing. Then one day she does not come, and the baker says nothing about it to anyone for a long while.
Reading time: 4 min
Tales Across Midnight
The Roof
At three in the morning two men go up to the same roof, each convinced the other is a burglar. Then they invent a game about the windows opposite.
Reading time: 4 min
Tales Across Midnight
The Bronze Whistle
A professor finds a bronze whistle beneath the ruins of a Templar preceptory — and blows it, though the inscription asked a question. A retelling of M. R. James's 1904 ghost story.
Reading time: 6 min
Tales Across Midnight
The Monkey's Paw
A dried monkey's paw that grants three wishes, and two hundred pounds that the family badly needs. A retelling of W. W. Jacobs's 1902 horror story.
Reading time: 5 min
Tales Across Midnight
The Tell-Tale Heart
A nameless narrator explains why he is not mad, and in doing so describes what he did to the old man he lived with. A retelling of Edgar Allan Poe's 1843 story.
Reading time: 5 min
Tales Across Midnight
The Judge's House
A student looking for quiet to revise moves into a house that has stood empty for years, and that everyone warns him against. A retelling of Bram Stoker's 1891 ghost story.
Reading time: 5 minFrequently asked questions
What genres are these night stories?
Mixed: a mystery (The Night Bus), a romantic drama (The Radio), a warm everyday story (The Bakery), something lighter (The Rooftop) and a horror classic (The Monkey's Paw). Read them in any order.
How long is one story?
About 4 minutes, roughly 800 words. Exactly the length of a late coffee or a ride home.
Are they for adults?
Written for adult readers, but restrained: the emphasis is on mood, tension and feeling.
Why 'midnight'?
Because every story takes place at night or at dawn — the hours when people are more honest than they are by day.
What does 'retold classic' mean on one of these stories?
It means the story is our own retelling of a work that is in the public domain worldwide: the author died more than seventy years ago and the work was first published before 1930. We credit the author on the page and explain the copyright status there. Our public domain sources page has the details.
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