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Nightcrawlers

At a storm-swept diner, a cook, waitress, and cop speculate about a motel shoot-out as a stranger stops for coffee. Tensions rise as a veteran’s war memories distort reality.

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In an isolated diner on a storm-swept night, a cook, a waitress, and a cop pass the time, speculating on a recent shoot-out at a local motel. When a stranger stops in for a cup of coffee, they can’t help but be suspicious. He’s shaky, surly, and looks to be teetering on the edge of a breakdown. As tensions rise and violence erupts, reality crumbles—and everyone in the diner bears witness to the horror of a veteran terrorized by gruesome memories of war.

Nightcrawlers was previously published in the short story collection Blue World.

First published: 1984
Publisher: StoryFront
Amazon reviews: Read reviews on Amazon

Book tags

Content warnings

War / War Violence

Missing warnings do not mean other content is absent.

Horror profile

Scary: Not rated
Creepy: Not rated
Gore: Not rated
Disturbing: Not rated
Weird: Not rated

How we calculate this

These are editorial estimates of intensity, informed by reading and review evidence, then checked before publication. They aren't star ratings, reader-vote averages or a measure of quality.

Each dimension runs from 1 (low) to 5 (exceptionally intense). A 5 is reserved for strongly consistent evidence. People experience horror differently.

Scary: Fear, tension and immediate threat.
Creepy: Unease, dread and an uncanny atmosphere.
Gore: Graphic injury, blood and bodily detail.
Disturbing: Upsetting ideas and lingering psychological impact.
Weird: Surreal, strange and reality-bending elements.

We draw a filled profile only when all five scores have been reviewed. Unrated does not mean mild. Missing scores are not estimated from genre tags or your saved taste. This profile isn't a complete content-warning guide.