"The Suff": a comprehensive timeline

The Chronicler
Nov 12, 2023
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Welcome one and all to the official timeline for our very own Substack-grown urban legend: The Suff.

Below, you will find each author in chronological order (ending with alternate realities) complete with links. Their contributions have made this wonderful event so colorful.

Stay a while and embark with us on this journey!

-

The Chronicler
and Macabre Monday team

by @Jon T

Working theory: like a Lovecraftian beast of lore, the Suff is so powerful that its thoughts radiate. Those who are sensitive perceive these thoughts either subconsciously or while dreaming.

Josh Tatter Has Thoughts
Midnight Train to Purgatory
This story is a follow up to Wolves of the Western Wilds…
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a year ago · 15 likes · 6 comments · Josh Tatter
Josh Tatter Has Thoughts
Midwinter Blues
Snow drifts jostled into impenetrable mounds. Huge flakes pummeled the land, tumbling down chaotically from the clouds. Just another reminder that winter was an utterly bleak affair as soon as Christmas festivities ended. He sprawled on his bed in a state of midwinter listlessness, the opening strains of Grieg’s…
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a year ago · 6 likes · Josh Tatter

  • by

    Honeygloom
    . An art restoration assistant to the Suffolk County Historical Society comes face to face with a strange and terrifying being. (Click the picture for the link)

focus photography of brown fox
The Hengrave Crypt

Merry Suffmas from

Honeygloom
:

Prefab
Dans Deliberations
The Study - 1912
My study hangs heavy with the lingering fug of pipe smoke. Oak panelled walls and leather bound tomes reek in its comforting stench. Low flames splutter in the grate, offering meagre heat to my ink blackened fingers poking palely from frayed gloves, as I scribble and scratch my notes…
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a year ago · 22 likes · 6 comments · Daniel O’Donnell

  • 1915 “Andrew Portnoy, a gifted polyglot and grifter, has a horrifying encounter on one of WWI’s worst battlefields.” by

    Daniel Baldwin

Vigilance
The Suff
Andrew Portnoy, a gifted polyglot and grifter, has a horrifying encounter on one of WWI’s worst battlefields in the dark days before the formation of the Office. Not even Vigilance is safe from the Lovecraftian dream virus infecting Substack. After reading everyone else’s fantastic work, I couldn’t help myself…
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a year ago · 1 like · Daniel Baldwin

  • Possibly 1921: blues lyrics discovered by

    Jon T

  • 1926 (three days later) by

    Yakubian Ape
    : Ralph is interrogated following the disappearance of Jackie le Fay

Simian Fiction
The Suff: Three Days Later
Recently, the Chronicler at Work In Progress published a short horror piece, featuring a strange and odious creature of ill-intent. I’d highly recommend giving it a read. Several other writers here on Substack took note and added their own bits and pieces, creating a larger framework of lore and stories around the creature. It’s honestly a real delight t…
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a year ago · 16 likes · 7 comments · Yakubian Ape
Choose Fiction
The Suff
For those of you who do not know, The Suff is quite new urban legend to Substack. It originally sprang from a short horror story that mysteriously appeared in my drive. There was no details other than the title, “The Suff” and the 9 pages of content. After deleting it, twice, it kept returning. It’s now known as a cursed document, akin to the movie “The…
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a year ago · 23 likes · Jeff Kinnard
Blinking Blue Line
The Suff
The woman crossing the threshold of the clinic looked impossibly old. She was wheeled in by a younger woman, certainly not young herself, but young in contrast to the ancient, hunched creature seated in the wheelchair. Arthur’s heart raced as he watched them slowly make their way across the reception room of the newly-open…
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a year ago · 22 likes · 13 comments · Sara Dietz

  • footage from ~90s-2000s:

    Cole Noble
    tattoos and mass amnesia

Cole’s Chapters
The Suff
A few days ago, Jeff Kinnard was cursed. As it turns out, Jeff is not the first writer on Substack to encounter the primeval mystery that is The Suff. Others have been sharing accounts; and it turns out, I have one too—dating back to my early college days…
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a year ago · 21 likes · 2 comments · Cole Noble

  • 2006:

    Jon T
    uncovers a transcript referring to The Suff:

The Casual Writer
Prompt: The Suff
I know I said I was in a writing ebb, and in some ways I am. But what started as a call for help turned into an inside joke, and to be honest I felt this desire to jump in on the fun! The setting is based off of the school I used to work at, which relied heavily on Chromebooks…
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a year ago · 15 likes · 3 comments · Mariana

Current day

  • Scoot
    a man finds a strange file on his newly acquired computer

Gibberish
Crunch: The Suff
Jeff Kinnard has been cursed: The Chronicler and several others—among them Michael S. Atkinson and Sara Dietz have fueled speculation about this mysterious document, The Suff. I volunteered to offer an attempt to bring it to life. If you have ideas for Prompts, Crunches, Sprints, Relays, Stretches, or other writing exercises in the future, please leave them in the comments! If you would like to write your own…
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a year ago · 25 likes · 25 comments · Scoot
Naptime Novelist
Untraceable
I couldn’t put my finger on why The Suff, the urban legend that sprouted up on Substack recently, seemed eerily familiar. Then it hit me. This is a short story that I wrote for a prompt-based competition back in January of 2023, and Substack’s new favorite Lovecraftian Being may have made an appearance…
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a year ago · 6 likes · 3 comments · Bridget Riley
Title, goes here
The Box in the Trunk
Harold sneezed. He was annoyed with himself for ignoring the task of cleaning out the attic for so many years. He and Sallie had given it a good go through last month, but it wasn’t quite ready yet for what he had planned. Harold wanted to use the attic to store the various meat cuts from the pig. The cellar was now the …
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a year ago · 10 likes · 5 comments · Kim H.

Part II

Title, goes here
Drowning The Suff
With Sallie perched on his shoulder, Harold walked along the creek bank to an old, unused fishing hole. Sallie helped him pack the grey ashen box into another box and pack it tight with small rocks. Before shutting the box, she inserted the picture that had been cut up into small pieces…
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a year ago · 2 likes · Kim H.

Wednesday Afternoon
Tick tick tick
She dug her hands through her hair, ripping them out with such ferocity that clumps of hair came with it. So close. So soon. Running out of time. Her eyes darted to the clock, its glowing green numbers staring at her in the darkness. 4:03 AM. He would be here soon. He promised. He was never late…
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a year ago · 11 likes · 3 comments · Olivia St. Lewis
Wednesday Afternoon
Jingle, Jingle, Jingle
He dodged down the street with his head in his hands, tearing through the snowy drifts that avalanched on the sides of the road like tiny mountains. His ragged breath echoed in his ears, his pink nose running with cold. His ears had long since lost their feeling, and if they hadn't he wouldn’t’ve have noticed anything. The only thing he could hear was t…
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a year ago · 21 likes · 9 comments · Olivia St. Lewis

Future

ReddOscarWrites
The Suff
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a year ago · Redd Oscar
ReddOscarWrites
The Derelict (or, The Suff in Space)
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a year ago · 15 likes · 19 comments · Redd Oscar

Alternate Realities:

Story
Redemption of The Suff
Sanus didn’t know that he had died at the place he called home. He woke up on a damp rock. The small fire burning a few feet away did nothing for him. His clothes were torn at various places from being dragged unceremoniously to the cave. The man muttering with his back to him was someone he knew. He would give him a new life again. Like he had before…
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a year ago · 5 likes · Isha Jain

  • It seems to have transcended time and space and fallen into an alternative reality:

    Michael S. Atkinson

Michael’s Musings
Dorp Attacks
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a year ago · 14 likes · 8 comments · Michael S. Atkinson
Michael’s Musings
Ask the Captain Special: Chiaroscuro
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a year ago · 13 likes · 4 comments · Michael S. Atkinson
Michael’s Musings
A Visit from the Suff: a Christmas Special
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a year ago · 20 likes · 5 comments · Michael S. Atkinson

  • Kay Moulton
    two brothers rough-housing has disastrous consequences

Mommy's Writing a Novel
The Gift
AUTHOR’S NOTE: This The Suff Christmas story is alternate reality and not part of the canon The Suff lore—not unlike Marvel’s What If . . .? series. Click here if you would like to read my last The Suff story. While they both take place in the same universe, they are stand-alone and do not need to be read in any particular order…
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a year ago · Kay Moulton
Tales of Calamity and Triumph
A Shroud of Ink and Stars
Wood blackened in the fire, then whitened as it snapped, sending embers floating and ash falling into the shallow makeshift pit. Gaiur sat cross-legged beside it, bathed in its warmth just outside its circular border of stones. Her axe rested in the crook of her shoulder while her companion, the gray furred greatwolf Varro, lay snoring at the edge of th…
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a year ago · 1 like · The Man Behind the Screen
Tales of Calamity and Triumph
Lanterns Upon the Graves
The old man stood amongst the graves with his tall companion at his back, though perhaps companion wasn’t the right word for the enrobed figure. The night was cold, but not too dark thanks to the presence of a waning half-moon. Heavy clouds passed overhead, their bulbous purple-gray bodies limned in silver moonlight and plump with snow waiting to fall. …
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a year ago · 17 likes · 12 comments · The Man Behind the Screen

If you have the chance, don’t forget to check out these authors’ other fantastic works!