Our family has always been obsessed with the strange and horrifying. We figured that everyone else was, too. It wasn’t until later in our lives we learned that falling asleep hoping for a nightmare was a little weird.
As children, we’d all wake up in the dead of night, intentionally, synchronously, to play games in the dark. All six of us were looking for new ways to scare one another. But we didn’t want an ordinary jump scare. We lived for the slow burn. Listening for the sounds. Imagining a monster around the corner.
Horror pushes away the fantasies of the people we want to be and wish we were, instead exposing those parts of ourselves we didn’t know were lurking—that which haunts and terrifies but nonetheless defines us. Our magazine seeks to recapture the contrast between fear and beauty that we grew up chasing.
The Phantom Pulse has been a long-time goal of ours, and it’s been supported and influenced by each Reed sibling in some way or another throughout its ideation and realization. We’re so pleased to be able to share it, at last.
The first issue of The Phantom Pulse features seven talented writers. Their work is terrifying, weird, and beautiful. We feel these stories reflect the heart of our magazine. We hope the chilling cover art by Katherine Uhlenkamp will tempt our readers to crawl out of the darkness and become something new.
Thank you for reading The Phantom Pulse.
Mike, Jess, & Kat