Ghost Anthology

Patrick Lafcadio Hearn, was an Irish writer known also by the Japanese name Koizumi Yakumo. His book Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things, comprises two parts, the first being the "Kwaidan Proper" and the second, "Insect-Studies", which consists of an essay each on ants, butterflies and mosquitos. According to the author, most of the folk tales and ghost stories in the first part were translated from old Japanese texts. The themes encompass resurrection, sacrifice, magic, and the realm of dreams.

Here are some truly spooky stories, given a spine-tingling read by Richard Pasco. The stories include "The Mark of the Beast" by Rudyard Kipling, "Aurelia" by E.T.A. Hoffmann, "Ligeia" by Edgar Allan Poe, "Mrs. Amworth" by E.F. Benson, and "Dracula's Guest" by Bram Stoker.

It's amazing how we as individuals see life through our lenses of experience and perception. Our fears become an entity in themselves that becomes our reality. Differences in others may seem like barriers or opposition, but in essence we can learn from each other, and ultimately we can see similarities more than our differences. Building walls of the unknown can be overwhelming and impossible.

This short story is about the dead spirit of a little girl. Maggie was six years old when she died, and she attached herself to another six-year-old little girl by the name of Linda. This is both Maggie and Linda's story.

'Wicked Captain Walshawe' is a disquieting ghost story. Captain Walshawe, a dissolute rake, marries a wealthy heiress as a means to pay off his gambling debts. The marriage is an unhappy one on account if his dreadful behaviour. When his wife dies, her old Irish servant casts a curse on Walshawe...which years later leads to a bizarre and totally inexplicable scene after the captain's own death.

Every year, on the same night in November, a bouquet of flowers, a vintage bottle of wine, and a handwritten note appear next to a small wooden cross on the side of a lonely country highway. Year after year, it's the same offering at the same time. On his way home from work at the factory, Tom notices these roadside tributes and wonders who the mysterious mourner might be.

A superbly crafted Dickens classic, masterfully narrated - a ghostly apparition supervises the trial of his murderer.

Doug has been having disturbing dreams about his friend, Alan, who had killed himself nearly thirty years earlier. While shopping at the annual flea market one summer day, Doug is drawn to a mirror in a plain wooden frame. He brings the mirror home and hangs it in his office, the perfect place for it as far as he's concerned. One night while sitting in front of his word processor trying to find the inspiration he desperately needs to finish his latest story, Doug sees something out of the corner of his eye and it's moving.

Mary Cholmondeley (1859-1925) was an English novelist and short story writer. 'Let Loose' is a supernatural ghost story where a young architect wishes to research a unique fresco in the crypt of a remote and ancient parish church in Yorkshire. The parish clergyman is remarkably reluctant to hand over the keys to the crypt and sets some odd conditions to their use. On the subsequent days after the young architect has opened the crypt, terrible and mysterious deaths begin to plague the village.

Mark Twain takes his humor to the graveyard in this memorable short story. Twain carries on a conversation with a skeleton that has been neglected in the cemetery. While we aren't told what a smiling skeleton looks like, Twain is clear it's not a pleasant view. None of us want to be forgotten and this story helps the hearer understand that even in death we do not want to be neglected.

A story of how individual destiny can be shaped and formed by mentors and friends. Culwin is a modern villain, whose crimes arise from holding his tongue at crucial moments, so that events further entangle themselves.

Zsilvia is still struggling with her feelings for George as tortured memories of her past keep her from accepting that he is her intended mate and allowing herself to give in to his attention. Instead, she has separated herself from him and spends her time observing his efforts with the rest of the women to find a solution to the locked people in the settlement. An emotional conversation with Eden makes her start to question her own fears and think that she may be ready to take the next step with George. However, the surprising arrival of another shuttle makes her rethink everything.

Bannack has been devoted to battle his entire life, but there is something that he knows is far more important to him, and he doesn't want to wait any longer. Remembering the question that he had asked when he first bonded with Loralia, he starts planning to give her the tying ceremony that she has always wanted. Even though it can't be anything that either of them ever imagined, he knows now that there is no such thing as a perfect moment, and that they truly have everything that they need.

Nolan Lerner is guilty. His past is a thing choked with secrets, blood � and sunflowers. Only Nolan knows what really happened that summer in 1977, when his younger brother, an idiot savant named Morris, built a vast cardboard fort with secret doors inside, doors leading into other worlds.

While spending the night in an eerie, decrepit, old bungalow in late 19th-century India, the narrator tells how he begins to hear the unmistakable sounds of a billiard game in the locked adjoining room. It's a room that was once a billiard-room where one of the sahibs is said to have died in the midst of a game... and is believed to have become a ghost.

The clergyman named John Haynes becomes an archdeacon after his predecessor dies a seemingly natural death. One day, he touches a carved wooden figure in Barchester Cathedral. Then an ancient spell goes into effect....

This ghost story is a very unusual tale for O. Henry - longer than most and one of the few he wrote that dealt with the supernatural.

Scare Street is proud to present volumes 13 and 14 of Short Horror Stories in a single edition. Six bone-chilling tales of supernatural horror, each one guaranteed to satisfy your addiction to terror. Just be sure you keep your guard up as you listen to them into the night. They say one good story deserves another. And the spirits within these collections have their own tales to tell.

Things look different in the moonlight. Old trees become gnarled claws. The howling wind transforms into the cry of a hungry beast. And jagged tombstones turn to fangs, eager to devour new flesh and drag fresh bodies into their graves....Scare Street brings you volumes 11 and 12 of Short Horror Stories in a single edition. Five diabolical morsels of fear, brought together for your listening pleasure. And each tale packs enough scream-inducing terror to keep you listening all through the night.

Tormented spirits, fiendish demons, ravenous monsters...there's no end to the ghastly creatures that slither in the dark corners of your room. But have no fear, they just want to play a little game of hide and seek. And they want you to be their new playmate.... Scare Street brings you volumes seven and eight of Short Horror Stories in a single edition. Six terrifying tales of supernatural horror - brought together for your listening pleasure.