AntonHalden
Dark, existential stories, from the office down the hall to the end of the universe.
Liminal horror · Existential sci-fi
The Novel
2026
Thank You for Your Patience
A liminal horror novel
Nobody is really missing. Only filed in the wrong place.
Ivo is the best closer in Retrieval. When a worker wanders into the Vacancy, the endless lit offices, drowned stairwells and empty swimming pools the Factory keeps building for people who haven’t arrived yet, Ivo finds them on paper. One line on a twelve-line form, one press of his stamp, and the case is closed. The little green light in the missing worker’s wrist goes out.
After that, the sirs take care of the rest. They’re very polite about it.
Good morning. Have you seen the memo? You appear to be out of place. Let me help you.
Then a new case lands on Ivo’s desk. The photograph has his face. The handwriting in the margin is his own: Hello, clerk.
Darkly funny and deeply unsettling, Thank You for Your Patience is a novel of polite machines, impossible architecture and the paperwork of complicity.
Short Films
- 01No Further Events ScheduledThe last black hole in the universe evaporates. Someone is still on hold.2:23
- 02Sea AreasA lighthouse reads the shipping forecast for seven and a half billion years.3:16
- 03OccupancySecurity footage of an endless office where nobody breathes. Then someone does.2:57
- 04Voyager 1 Turned Its Camera Back OnIts cameras have been dead since 1990. Until tonight.3:00
- 05Let There Be LightAfter the last black hole, the line clicks back on.3:07
- 06The Grass Moves Against the Wind40,000 years ago, a family crosses the grass at sunset. The wind blows east. Something in the grass moves west.2:30
- 07You Are Signed In on Another DeviceA cheerful box asks you to prove you’re not a robot. Meanwhile, you’re signed in somewhere else.2:31
About
Anton Halden lives in Austria, the country where Kafka died. He writes novels and makes short films: dark, existential stories, from the office down the hall to the end of the universe.