The Middle Toe of the Right Foot

Title: The Middle Toe of the Right Foot

Author: Ambrose Bierce

Narrator: Amazon bestselling horror author Jonathan Dunne

Original Publication: 1890

Public Domain: Yes

Series Placement: Number 53 in the Timeless Terrors series

Description:

In The Middle Toe of the Right Foot, Ambrose Bierce delivers a chilling tale of guilt, vengeance, and the lingering echoes of past violence. The story follows Manton, pressured into spending the night in the abandoned Odell house—the site of a brutal murder for which he was once accused. What begins as a cruel dare soon becomes a confrontation with forces more relentless than the men who seek to humiliate him.

Alone in the decaying structure, Manton becomes aware of a silent presence watching from the darkness. When his tormentors return at dawn, they find him dead from terror, and eerie footprints in the dust reveal that he was not alone. The chilling pattern exposes the truth behind the crime, the victims, and the supernatural justice that finally found him.

With his trademark blend of irony and psychological dread, Bierce transforms a tale of cruelty and guilt into a haunting exploration of retribution.

Narrated by Amazon bestselling horror author Jonathan Dunne, this performance captures the story’s mounting tension and stark, ghostly imagery, bringing Bierce’s distinct American Gothic style to life. While the text is in the public domain, this narration is an original performance and copyright © 2025 Jonathan Dunne.

As the fifty-third entry in Timeless Terrors, The Middle Toe of the Right Foot remains one of Bierce’s most striking examinations of fear, justice, and the shadows a crime can cast long after death.