A hungry seventh grader asks the cafeteria manager for a second lunch.

Then another.

Then two.

Each time, the food disappears into a hallway closed for repairs.

By Friday, whatever is waiting behind the locked door doesn’t want sandwiches anymore.

It wants raw meat.

And when the boy finally explains what happens if he stops feeding it, the cafeteria manager makes a decision he won’t be able to take back.

Seconds: Part One is the seventh episode of American Dreadline, a first-person anthology of original horror stories.

One voice. One nightmare. One place you'll never see the same again.

Part Two concludes next Friday.

Follow American Dreadline wherever you listen, and leave a rating if the story got under your skin.

New nightmares every Friday.

Sound Design Credit: “Windy Dark Background Atmo.wav” by szegvari, sourced from Freesound.org. Licensed CC0.

A man driving home from a late shift outside Reno notices a motorcycle behind him.

No headlight.

No engine noise.

And no matter how much he speeds up or slows down, it keeps exactly the same distance.

Then the motorcycle disappears.

A moment later, it’s riding beside him.

Same speed. Same silence. Empty black visor.

And when the rider asks to pass, a stupid decision turns an empty highway into a contest neither of them can afford to lose.

The Rider with No Headlight is the sixth episode of American Dreadline, a first-person anthology of original horror stories.

One voice. One nightmare. One place you'll never see the same again.

Follow American Dreadline wherever you listen, and leave a rating if the story got under your skin.

New nightmares every Friday.

Sound Design Credit: “Windy Dark Background Atmo.wav” by szegvari, sourced from Freesound.org. Licensed CC0.

A long-haul driver running I-15 late at night passes a wrecked car on the shoulder.

Hazard lights blinking.

A man standing beside it.

He keeps driving.

Twenty minutes later, he sees them again.

Same car. Same hazards. Same man.

There’s no exit. No turnaround. No reason he should be seeing any of it twice.

And the next time the man appears, he’s a little harder to ignore.

Hazards on I-15 is the fifth episode of American Dreadline, a first-person anthology of original horror stories.

One voice. One nightmare. One place you'll never see the same again.

Follow American Dreadline wherever you listen, and leave a rating if the story got under your skin.

New nightmares every Friday.

Sound Design Credit: “Windy Dark Background Atmo.wav” by szegvari, sourced from Freesound.org. Licensed CC0.

A new night-shift warehouse worker gets one warning from his supervisor:

Don’t use Break Room Three.

It seems ridiculous until Labor Day weekend, when a crowded break room, triple-time exhaustion, and the promise of a few quiet minutes send him through the door anyway.

Inside, an old worker sits perfectly still, facing the wall. Beside him is a time card stamped with two words:

NO COVERAGE.

Soon, the lights go out, something starts following him through the warehouse, and he learns why some workplace rules survive long after the employees who created them.

The Break Room Nobody Uses is the fourth episode of American Dreadline, a first-person anthology of original horror stories.

One voice. One nightmare. One place you'll never see the same again.

Follow American Dreadline wherever you listen, and leave a rating if the story got under your skin.

New nightmares every Friday.

Sound Design Credit: “Windy Dark Background Atmo.wav” by szegvari, sourced from Freesound.org. Licensed CC0.

A customer walks into Pump & Go at 12:47 in the morning.

The bell rings. Footsteps move toward the snack aisle. But there’s nobody there.

Then the night clerk checks the security cameras.

The cameras can see something he can’t.

At first, it’s just a shape on one screen. Then it starts moving from camera to camera, getting closer each time. And the longer he watches, the more it seems to learn exactly where he is.

The Last Customer of the Night is the third episode of American Dreadline, a first-person anthology of original horror stories.

One voice. One nightmare. One place you'll never see the same again.

Follow American Dreadline wherever you listen, and leave a rating if the story got under your skin.

New nightmares every Friday.

Sound Design Credit: “Windy Dark Background Atmo.wav” by szegvari, sourced from Freesound.org. Licensed CC0.

Avery knew Weaver’s Point better than either of them. So when she disappeared into the fog, she gave Mason and his friend one instruction:

Don’t follow me.

They followed anyway.

At first, the clues make sense. A hair tie. A glow stick. Boot prints leading deeper into the ridge. Then the trail starts leaving things that don’t belong to Avery, and something in the fog begins copying the way she moves.

The Fog at Weaver’s Point is the second episode of American Dreadline, a first-person anthology of original horror stories.

One voice. One nightmare. One place you'll never see the same again.

Follow American Dreadline wherever you listen, and leave a rating if the story got under your skin.

New nightmares every Friday.

Sound Design Credit: “Windy Dark Background Atmo.wav” by szegvari, sourced from Freesound.org. Licensed CC0.

After 12:30 a.m., there was one rule at Burger Barn: if someone walks up to the drive-thru window without a car, don't open it. Don't talk to them. Don't even look too long.

At first, the new guy assumes it's just another strange graveyard-shift rule. Then an order comes through with no car at the speaker. The voice asks for a menu item that hasn't existed in years.

Number five. No onions. Extra napkins.

Soon, something is standing outside the window, and whatever learned how to use the drive-thru headset is getting better at reaching the people on the other side.

The Drive-Thru Window After Midnight is the first episode of American Dreadline, a first-person anthology of original horror stories.

One voice. One nightmare. One place you'll never see the same again.

Follow American Dreadline wherever you listen, and leave a rating if the story got under your skin.

New nightmares every Friday.

Sound Design Credit: “Windy Dark Background Atmo.wav” by szegvari, sourced from Freesound.org. Licensed CC0.

Three nightmares arrive September 4.

A rule at a drive-thru window after midnight.
A fog that copies someone you trust.
A screen that may be more invitation than distance.

Meet the first three stories of American Dreadline, an original first-person horror podcast.

The Drive-Thru Window After Midnight
The Fog at Weaver's Point
The Last Customer of the Night

All three arrive Friday, September 4.

One voice. One nightmare. One place you'll never see the same again.

New nightmares every Friday.

Sound Design Credit: “Windy Dark Background Atmo.wav” by szegvari, sourced from Freesound.org. Licensed CC0.