A Vine on a House

Title: A Vine on a House

Author: Ambrose Bierce

Narrator: Jonathan Dunne

Original Publication: 1905

Public Domain: Yes

Series Placement: Timeless Terrors No. 83

Description:

A Vine on a House is one of Ambrose Bierce’s most quietly disturbing works of supernatural and psychological horror—a subtle meditation on decay, obsession, and the slow intrusion of the unnatural into everyday life. What begins as an ordinary, even innocuous presence—a vine growing along the side of a house—gradually becomes something far more unsettling.

Central to the story is the vine itself, a living presence that grows with unnatural persistence, clinging to the house as if guided by an unseen will. As it spreads, so too does an atmosphere of unease, transforming a familiar domestic space into a symbol of encroaching dread. Bierce allows tension to build not through overt shocks, but through the quiet realization that something is deeply wrong.

Rather than relying on spectacle, Bierce crafts horror through implication and psychological pressure, letting the reader feel the weight of an unseen menace tightening its grip. Narrated by Amazon-bestselling horror author Jonathan Dunne, this performance captures the story’s creeping unease, restrained menace, and lingering sense of doom.

A Vine on a House endures as a masterclass in understated horror—a reminder that terror often grows slowly, taking root long before it is fully understood, and once established, may be impossible to remove.