RQ Network Feed Drop – “Burned by a Paper Sun” – Ep. 1

Dec 17, 2025

Aubrey Akers, a talented narrator and voice actor, brings chilling life to a harrowing tale in this horror anthology. The narrative follows William, a rational man grappling with haunting dreams and a mysterious figure known as the Elevator Man. As William navigates a post-apocalyptic world shaped by the Great Darkness of 1999, eerie folklore intertwines with his reality. The tension escalates as he confronts his nightmares and fears, culminating in a spine-tingling ride that blurs the lines between dream and reality.

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ANECDOTE

Waking In A Butcher's Abattoir

William awakens in a butcher-like metal room with stitched human-leather apron and piles of spoiling remains.
He remembers skilled, monstrous actions and drops a bloodied meat hook in stunned horror.

INSIGHT

Science Explains, But Does Not Heal

The Great Darkness is framed as a global event causing pervasive post-stress syndromes and altered memories.
Science offers a tidy electromagnetic-sun explanation, but it fails to soothe survivors' moral and psychological wounds.

ANECDOTE

Therapy Beneath A Brazen Bull

William attends therapy under the shadow of a gigantic brazen bull memorial to the Darkness's victims and follies.
His sessions unearth symbolism tying his nightmares to purposeless, repetitive work and 'feeding the damned.'

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Today we are sharing an episode from a brand new podcast launched on the RQ Network, Burned by a Paper Sun.

Burned by a Paper Sun is a brand new, chilling, horror anthology podcast from the same brilliant creators of The Gentleman From Hell, Maeltopia and The Sleep Wake Cycle.

In Burned by a Paper Sun, shadows come in a thousand shapes—some drawn long beneath a dying sky, others drifting and lost beneath a wandering cloud. Yet one certainty has always remained: every shadow must have a caster. But what if that isn’t true? What if darkness could stand on its own?

In this first episode William is a rational man, but even rational men are left broken by the Great Darkness of 1999. Despite his sceptical outlook, he is haunted by dreams of the most horrible and macabre variety. Most of all, he is terrorised by a single harrowing figure - the Elevator Man.

Introduction and outro by Billie Hindle

You can listen to the next episode of Burned by a Paper Sun by clicking on this link, or by searching for Burned by a Paper Sun wherever you find podcasts, or on the Rusty Quill website

Cast:

Written by Mark Anzalone

Edited by Walker Kornfeld

Sound mastering by Steven J. Anzalone

Narrated by Aubrey Akers

Intro music by Steven Anzalone, Lou Sutcliffe, and female vocals by Harper Tacent

Artwork done by Mark Anzalone and Danielle Adam's

Music and Sound effects are licensed from third party providers including Envato, Epidemic Sound, Artlist, Soundstripe, Melody Loops, Pond 5, Soundcrate, Music Vine, Youtube, Melodie, Slipstream, and Storyblocks

Content Warnings:

Amnesia, Altered Reality, Compulsions (supernatural), Existential Threat, Gore, Graphic Violence, Torture, Human Remains, Sleep Disorders, Psychosis, Anxiety and Panic, Compulsive Thoughts, Therapeutic malpractice, vehicular accidents, Environmental Collapse, Human Butchery, Falling, Elevators.

Mentions of:

Alcohol, Suicide, PTSD, People Going mission / abductions, Cults, Mass Suffering

SFX

Gore/blood, Screaming, Beeping, Car Crash, Misophonia, Storms, Squelching

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