Dark Tide

by Mark Lawrence

A short horror story originally collected in the "Fading Light" anthology.

This short story inspired the book Darker Tide, which is a different tale concerning the same event.

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Fantasy, Fiction

35 pages, ebook

First published September 1, 2012

About the author

My books vary a LOT - so here's a handy guide.

[My new book Daughter of Crows is out in March 2026!]

Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/marklawrencea...

Blog here: http://mark---lawrence.blogspot.co.uk/

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Mark Lawrence is married with four children, one of whom is severely disabled. Before becoming a fulltime writer in 2015 day job was as a research scientist focused on various rather intractable problems in the field of artificial intelligence. He has held secret level clearance with both US and UK governments. At one point he was qualified to say 'this isn't rocket science ... oh wait, it actually is'.

Mark used to have a list of hobbies back when he did science by day. Now his time is really just divided between writing and caring for his disabled daughter. There are occasional forays into computer games too.

Reviews

[Mark Lawrence]

Part horror, part fantasy. I like this story. Hope you do too.

It's free!

http://www.marklawrence.buzz/story/da...

This short story inspired my book Darker Tide, which is a full (short) book concerning the same event but with different characters, problems, etc.

It's free on Wattpad or in ebook form for tier 3+ patrons on my Patreon.
https://www.wattpad.com/story/1894734...


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Join my 3-emails-a-year newsletter #prizes



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[John Mauro · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Dark Tide" is #10 on my list of Top Ten Mark Lawrence Short Stories. Read my full listicle at Grimdark Magazine.

Dark Tide is an eerily unsettling horror story from Mark Lawrence. A mysterious dark tide is rising, leading to strange electrical disturbances, epileptic seizures, and spontaneous boiling of holy water. The dark tide threatens to engulf the world, as if hell itself were rising from the depths to drown humanity in its darkness.

The story takes place on two time frames, beginning on a submarine navigating the depths of the dark tide. We then fall back in time to when the dark tide first emerged, seeping up from basements accompanied by an ancient rotting stench. The second part of the story eventually brings us back full circle.

Dark Tide is a haunting sci-fi/horror story, which also dabbles in philosophical and religious overtones. The horror of the story is only amplified by its spareness, leaving the reader guessing as to the origin of the dark tide and the ultimate fate of our protagonists.

[Morvrun ☁Oneiromancer☁ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent short story, very much in the style of the master Stephen King. It has the necessary cruelty with just a dose of hope. And it's beautifully written, I personally hope Mark Lawrence will write more in this style, I will read it for sure.

[karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

WELCOME TO DECEMBER PROJECT!

this explanation/intro will be posted before each day’s short story. scroll down to get to the story-review.

this is the SIXTH year of me doing a short story advent calendar as my december project. for those of you new to me or this endeavor, here’s the skinny: every day in december, i will be reading a short story that is 1) available free somewhere on internet, and 2) listed on goodreads as its own discrete entity. there will be links provided for those of you who like to read (or listen to) short stories for free, and also for those of you who have wildly overestimated how many books you can read in a year and are freaking out about not meeting your 2020 reading-challenge goals. i have been gathering links all year when tasty little tales have popped into my feed, but i will also accept additional suggestions, as long as they meet my aforementioned 1), 2) standards.

GR has deleted the pages for several of the stories i've read in previous years without warning, leaving me with a bunch of missing reviews and broken links, which makes me feel shitty. i have tried to restore the ones i could, but my to-do list is already a ball of nightmares, so that's still a work-in-progress. however, because i don't have a lot of time to waste, i'm not going to bother writing much in the way of reviews for these, in case GR decides to scrap 'em again.

i am doing my best.
merry merry.

DECEMBER 8: DARK TIDE - MARK LAWRENCE

In the deep places there are things older than man, things that cannot be forgotten and so are better left unknown.

i promised to read a longer story today to make up for yesterday's nursery rhyme quickie, and I HAVE COME THROUGH.

this is a spooky short-long story about the emergence of a mysterious Event that is reminiscent-of-but-different-than stephen king's The Mist; in this case, a (wait for it) DARK TIDE that starts creeping into an unsuspecting city by night, engulfing buildings, cars, people, and leaving all that it touches changed in horrifying ways once it recedes. as the crisis escalates, tension becomes panic, giving rise to violence and looting, all of which become obstacles for one family struggling to survive this menacing supernatural flood.

Being trapped is bad. The slow discovery that you’re trapped is worse. Having to march your young children through decay and ruin in order to learn that you’re trapped is hell.

apparently, there's a companion story, Darker Tide, that also qualifies for this project, so—spoiler alert—that is what i will be reading tomorrow if anyone else cares to join me.

read it for free here

THE STORIES:

DECEMBER 1: NIGHT STAND - DANIEL WOODRELL
DECEMBER 2: MR. DEATH - ALIX HARROW
DECEMBER 3: THE FRUIT OF MY WOMAN - HAN KANG
DECEMBER 4: THE TINDER BOX - KATE ELLIOTT
DECEMBER 5: BABYCAKES - NEIL GAIMAN
DECEMBER 6: HIS MIDDLE NAME WAS NOT JESUS - NOVIOLET BULAWYO
DECEMBER 7: SING A SONG OF SIXPENCE - LILLI CARRÉ
DECEMBER 9: DARKER TIDE - MARK LAWRENCE
DECEMBER 10: BREAK - MISHELL BAKER
DECEMBER 11: A RUMOR OF ANGELS - DALE BAILEY
DECEMBER 12: THE ENGLISHMAN - DOUGLAS STUART
DECEMBER 13: IT CAME FROM CRUDEN FARM - MAX BARRY
DECEMBER 14: NO MOON AND FLAT CALM - ELIZABETH BEAR
DECEMBER 15: A STUDY IN SHADOWS - BENJAMIN PERCY
DECEMBER 16: ART APPRECIATION - FIONA MCFARLANE
DECEMBER 17: THE SOUND OF FOOTSTEPS - SILVIA MORENO-GARCIA
DECEMBER 18: WE HAVEN'T GOT THERE YET - HARRY TURTLEDOVE
DECEMBER 19: THE DUNE - STEPHEN KING
DECEMBER 20: THE WORTHINGTON - EMILY CARROLL
DECEMBER 21: SUNBLEACHED - NATHAN BALLINGRUD
DECEMBER 22: BLOOD DAUGHTER - MATTHEW LYONS
DECEMBER 23: THE LINE - AMOR TOWLES
DECEMBER 24: PIGEONS - NIBEDITA SEN
DECEMBER 25: WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED, WHAT WE WILL FORGET, WHAT WE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO FORGET - EUGENE LIM
DECEMBER 26: ONE/ZERO - KATHLEEN ANN GOONAN
DECEMBER 27: MATINEE - ROBERT COOVER
DECEMBER 28: ACCESS - ANDY WEIR
DECEMBER 29: UNNECESSARY THINGS - TATYANA TOLSTAYA
DECEMBER 30: HOOK - DANIELLE MCLAUGHLIN
DECEMBER 31: HE'S VERY WELL READ - CATHERINE LACEY

previous years' advent calendars (what's left of 'em):

2016
2017
2018
2019
2020

come to my blog!

[Dannii Elle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Um, please excuse me while I never fall asleep for the rest of my life!

[seak · Rating 5 out of 5]

This short story, by the author of the excellent Prince of Thorns and Red Queen's War trilogies, was a powerful story. I was up late already and could not put it down once I started - talk about creepy. I will say no more for fear of ruining it. (5/5)

[Alina · Rating 4 out of 5]

An apocalyptic horror story, made my hair stand on end

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Odlicna pricica o pocetku kraja. Atmosfera je mracna i neudobna, bez previse razumevanja ali sa trackom nade.

Jedino sto mi smeta sto ovo vise dodje kao uvod u neko daleko vecu knjigu. Valjda ce se i to dogoditi.

[Sherry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good stuff! Gave me the heebie-jeebies reading it. I mean, who doesn’t have a little fear of their basement in the dark?

[Christoffer Ladstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interwowen as they are, I might prefer this one to the longer "version": Darker Tide. Make this shortstory into a novel and you will definitely blow Stephen King away from his nr. 1 spot as a horrormaster😅👌.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Creepy factor I needed on a foggy evening!

[Gary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, this was a nice surprise! Mark Lawrence writes outstanding fantasy - characters & situations lending it more towards the dark fantasy genre at times than regular fantasy. This is not a bad thing. But it is a window into understanding how he is able to write a story such as this which is clearly horror. I loved it! It was described by one reader as Hitchcockian - or rather, is it properly called Hitchcockesque? Yeah, I liked that description. Edgy, with a twist of fear. Great work!

[Molly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this one four days ago, rated it four stars and turned to the next chapter of Prince of Fools , which is so goooood so far, by the way (almost done). The thing is, I kept thinking about it. I re-read it today without interruptions.
It's a nice, creepy , clever story.
I really hope that that book of short stories featuring the brothers of the Broken Empire series is still on.

[Nerine Dorman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely, nasty little weevil of a story by one of my favourites, that skirts the blurry line between dark fantasy and out-and-out horror. This is a free read off Mark's site so if you've a moment, it's not going to take long to read. There's something quite claustrophobic about an environmental horror beyond our ken, that rises up like a dark tide. And that is all I'll say.

[Ryann · Rating 5 out of 5]

very curious, very unsettling. This really highlights how good he is in juggling both the horror and fantasy aspects of this short story. I read many horror books that tried to incorporate fantasy but it wasn't done masterfully so it ended up really weird and random. But in this case, it really works and I could say that this might be his best short story to date.

[B. Venecia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shivering horror ... a quick read.

[Mads Damgaard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mark Lawrence's forray into Cosmic Horror.

Mark never shies away from the horrible questions: Would you have gone into that basement?

I shall be reading the "sequel" for sure.

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just finished Mark Lawrence's newest short story and I absolutely loved it! It had everything I like about his writing style combined with a healthy dose of oozy black Lovecraftian suspense. Conjured up memories of Stephen King's Langoliers & The Mist but didn't feel at all like an imitation. Freely combined elements of several "genres" while maintaining it's integrity as a unique bit of wordsmithery.

I could go on all day singing this story's praises but I'll leave off after saying that in this, as in During the Dance, and his ongoing Gunlaw serial, Mark is really flexing his literary muscle and showing himself to be as well-rounded and consistently excellent, as he's been innovative and edgy.

Highly Recommend!

[Natasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this on the same day as Locked In by the same author. That was a mistake. After an already haunting read, I dove into Dark Tide. All the light was sucked out of my world for a while after reading this. I have to acquire a few survival skills, that's all I'm saying. We have to McGyver our way through, people. It was awesome.

[Tim Goyette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great little horror story really had my heart pumping but I don't know what it was about to be honest.

[Sophie Tallis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intriguing, dark and unsettling, just the way a dark tale should be. Excellent!

[Diane · Rating 5 out of 5]

That was scary good. Glad I read it during the daytime...lol!

[Beverly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Soooo good! Very Hitchcock-like.

[Mitali Parihar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great short story, perfect balance of fantasy, horror and intrigue.

[Yvette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whoa, 35 pages of creepy AF...I might have nightmares tonight.

[Machiavelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun story! Quick, interesting read. Really grabs you! And it’s free!

http://www.marklawrence.buzz/story/da...

[Joy Cronje · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very strange, terrifying, and exciting.

[Storm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Collected in Fading Light: An Anthology of the Monstrous and free on author Mark Lawrence's Website. A scientific expedition inadvertently digs up something they should have left alone. Now a Dark Tide threatens all of humanity in this exciting survival horror story.

[Kjetil · Rating 5 out of 5]

A nice short apocalyptic horror story from the author of the Broken empire trilogy.

Definitely a different kind of setting than Lawrences most famous fantasy works - this is a more contemporary piece with normal people in a normal family setting - who experience the a sinister apocalyptic event which is a bit different than the "usual" zombie and nuclear threat.

An entertaining action filled read, which can be completed in under an hour, which works well for the flow of the particular story, I think.

Best of all, its free on Lawrences website.
http://www.marklawrence.buzz

[J.A. Ironside · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this ages ago and completely forgot to add it to GR. This just shows the breadth of Lawrence's talent. While the world of the Red Queen's War and the Broken Empire is fabulous, the author is far from being a one trick pony. This is dark and sayisying. A little brain worm that burrows in and comes back to you long after reading it. excellent stuff. I'd also recommend checking out Lawrence's Wattpad writings - particularly Gunlaw.