Seven Holy Paths to Hell
(And your trip begins): Horror-erotica fiction collaboration
On this Valentine’s Day, seven writers offer you seven different ways to fall.
We began with a simple question: What if the seven deadly sins weren’t warnings, but invitations? What if pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth weren’t moral failings to avoid, but hungers to explore—each one a different path down, each one leading somewhere we’re not supposed to go but can’t help following?
So, we assembled seven writers and gave them one sin each. No other constraints. No prescribed format. Just this: take your sin and make us feel it. Make it seductive. Make it dangerous. Make us uncertain whether we’re experiencing horror or desire, violence or intimacy, corruption or recognition.
The only thing we asked them to include: a heart.
What that means varies wildly. One writer gives you a heart that’s literal, warm, still beating. Another makes it metaphorical, symbolic, the thing you trade for what you want. Some hearts slow. Some stop. Some are offered, some are taken, some are eaten, some are kept. The heart appears in each story, but never the same way twice.
What ties these seven pieces together isn’t plot or setting or even consistent tone. It’s ambiguity. Each story exists in that uncomfortable space where categories collapse. You’ll finish each one uncertain—was that horror or erotica? Seduction or destruction? Did the character survive or surrender? And is there a difference?
This is horror-erotica, but not the way you might expect. Some stories contain explicit content. Others contain none. Some are viscerally physical. Others are entirely psychological. Some protagonists choose their fate. Others have it chosen for them.
What makes them erotica isn’t sex—it’s the intimacy of want meeting danger. The moment when hunger becomes something you can’t control. The realization that you’re complicit in your own consumption. The question of whether being devoured is different from being loved.
What makes them horror isn’t violence—it’s the recognition that you might want this. That surrender feels like relief. That the thing offering you everything you need might be the thing that destroys you. Or becomes you.
THE SINS & THE WRITERS
Pride — Mac Sitko
Greed — Kelly Xan
Lust — RM Greta
Envy — Hylia Corvidae
Gluttony — Kayla Button
Wrath — Ed the Editor
Sloth — Morgan A.Drake
CONTENT WARNING
This anthology explores mature themes including sexuality, violence, psychological distress, body horror, death, moral transgression, and the places where these intersect. Individual stories contain varying levels of explicit content and potentially triggering material.
Below each story you will find its own specific content warnings.
Please review them before reading.
The ambiguity in these stories is intentional. If you need definitive answers about character survival, consent, or outcome, these stories may not be for you. We’ve designed them to resist easy categorization—and that uncertainty is part of the experience.
HOW TO READ THIS COLLECTION
You can read the stories in order (as we’ve arranged them), or jump to the sin that calls to you first. Each story stands alone. There’s no required sequence, no overarching plot to follow. Just seven different paths downward.
Each story is linked below with its title, author, brief description, and content warnings. Click through to read on the author’s platform, where you’ll find the complete piece.
When you finish, come back and try another sin.
Whichever road you choose, we’ll see you down there.
— RM Greta & Morgan A. Drake
THE STORIES
PRIDE: “Smartass”
by Mac Sitko
Jack loves being right, and he loves his new robot. To prove his point and protect his new lifestyle, he’ll clear the house of every distraction. A gruesome reimagining of Pride for Valentine’s Day.
Content Warning: Body horror, family death (poisoning), erotica. 18+
About the Author: Mac writes new weird fiction, visceral body horror, and cosmic horror. Their work explores change, contamination, and the strange taboo of flesh, blending surrealism with dark humor and grim introspection.
GREED: “Grip”
by Kelly Xan
It longs for your worship, just as you long to revere it.
Content Warning: Unhealthy obsession, implied murder, implied (light) sadomasochism.
About the Author: Kelly Xan is a writer, world-builder, and jill of many creative trades. She is a FicStack curator and runs a writing project called The Bureau of Barbarity.
LUST: “Hunted, Hunting”
by RM Greta
There is a place that calls your name, knows your secrets, and waits eagerly for your return. Let it swallow you, let it carry you—to the end.
About the Author: RM Greta writes genre-blending erotica as well as sci-fi, horror, dark fantasy, and speculative fiction.
ENVY: “Why Not Me?”
All that Livia wants is to be everything that Teresa could ever need.
Content Warning: Ritual-based suicide/self-sacrifice, animal sacrifice (deer), mild rot and decay.
About the Author: Hylia Corvidae writes primarily horror and thinks teeth and other bones are neat!
GLUTTONY: “Leave Room for Dessert”
by Kayla Button
When you’ve been given everything and are still never satisfied, how far would you go to sate your appetite?
Content Warning: Disordered eating, light erotica.
About the Author: Groundskeeper of Liminal Logic House. The Hallway Girl. Kayla writes elegiac stories about grief, haunted bodies, and love twisted into ruin. Fragments, poems, and essays for those who sleep with the lights on.
WRATH: “Relentless Heat"
When Hank appears outside his cabin in a fury, Jacob must confront him and the truth. Poor Jacob’s wife never saw him again.
Content Warning: Relentless brutal murder or hesitant aggressive sex (even the content warning is confused).
About the Author: Author of The Flucks, unsettling, sardonic sci-fi. Editor for The Spectral Agent, paranormal crime thriller. Ed accidentally writes body horror and purposefully doesn’t write erotica—but it’s not always easy to tell which is which.
SLOTH: “Drowning”
When exhaustion becomes a lover, surrender feels like relief. A woman sinking into depression discovers she’s not alone in her stillness. Something has been watching, waiting for the moment she stops fighting. As her world narrows to bed and couch, a presence emerges—tender, patient, and hungry for her surrender.
Content Warning: This story depicts depression and suicidal ideation through the lens of supernatural horror. It personifies depression as a seductive entity and explores themes of surrender, stillness, and the blurred line between rest and death. While not graphic, the content may be triggering for readers experiencing depression or suicidal thoughts.
About the Author: Morgan A. Drake writes high fantasy and dark speculative fiction, with a focus on identity, transformation, agency, and power.
Find them at morganadrake.com and on Substack, where they host multiple fiction and non-fiction platforms.
cover images are comprised of photos by Maximus Mazar and Ricardo Gomez Angel and edited under the Unsplash license
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So many good writers! This is like a box of chocolates. Icky, nasty chocolates, but, hey: that's what you get from the Scrawlmark Valentine's selection!
I enjoyed this immensely. Everything was sexy, scary, and insightful. I couldn’t ask for more… but you know I am (;