Horror Fiction Short Stories

A selection of some of the scariest, weirdest, and downright crazy horror writers have been collected together by award winning author Christopher Ripley to form an assortment of twisted tales that have inspired the greatest Halloween event on earth. An anthology put together with the sole purpose of exploring how the genesis of these stories began and where perhaps they are heading. A mixture of classic and new tales that will fill your cold nights with terror. So lock the door, start the fire, and sit back as we share our horror filled tales with you....

On a moonless Oklahoma night, Maynard Blackoak (author of Eerie Trails of the Wild Weird West) lit a candle against the darkness and sat down with quill in hand. A lifelong student of Edgar Allan Poe, he began to compose his homage to the master while the wind outside sought passage through the old walls and threatened the candle flame. This volume contains that result. Twelve tales of Poe-esque nightmares. So, light a candle, pour yourself an Absinthe, and enjoy the madness.

Spiders. Magic. Horror. Guts. Sisters Skylar and Mia drive deep into the countryside to clean up their dead father's house. Little do they know that they've been followed. Listen to this story for the spider shaman magic. Remember this story in flashes during the night. Better buy some bug spray.

Learn more about The Great Detective Sherlock Holmes in The West End Horror. Illustration by David K. Stone...

At the end of our days we will most likely lie for eternity in the cemetery or graveyard. Many of these, now wreathed in time, have a romance and overgrown beauty as nature keeps and shelters the dead. For our varied and talented authors, a major theme, or indeed character of the stories in this volume is that very location, and how they weave it into their narratives is both fascinating, enlightening and a wonderfully distinct way of telling classic short stories.

This collection of 26 stories contains some of Joe R Lansdale's favourite and most violent dark horror tales. 'God of the Razor' introduces the dark god behind serial killers. A martial arts fight to the death between a reluctant champion and a sadistic alpha male, is featured in 'Master of Misery'. Human sacrifice, to ensure prosperity or as a coming-of-age ritual, are themes of 'On a Dark October' and 'Duck Hunt'. In 'The Fat Man', young boys learn the hard way that some mysteries should not be investigated. Many of the tales are truly weird, such as 'Chompers', the story of the false teeth with an appetite.

This is a story from the Fall of the House of Usher collection. The horrors of the Spanish Inquisition, with its dungeon of death, and the overhanging gloom on the House of Usher demonstrate unforgettably the unique imagination of Edgar Allan Poe. Unerringly, he touches upon some of our greatest nightmares: Premature burial, ghostly transformation, words from beyond the grave. Written in the 1840s, they have retained their power to shock and frighten even now.

A young woman’s night-time escapade goes eerily wrong. A man is forced to relive the horrible accident that tore his family apart over and over again. An underground thrill through ancient catacombs proves disastrously horrific. A young boy is haunted by the scarecrow in the fields behind his home. And a woman is revisited by the ghost of a psychotic killer in the most dreadful of ways. Scare Street brings you some of the best short horror stories by authors Ron Ripley, David Longhorn, Eric Whittle, Sara Clancy, and A. I. Nasser, all in one book.

Join your guide Travis Brown, one of Reddit’s most-upvoted NoSleep horror authors, for a tour of his most chilling tales. Visit different locations in 22 terrifying short stories. When you go looking for monsters, don’t be surprised when they look back.

A new mother is pursued by mysterious men in black. A misguided youth learns the dark secrets of the world from an elderly neighbor on Halloween night. A housewarming party where the guests never leave. A caretaker tends to his rusted relic of a god deep in the desert.... In his debut short story collection, Bram Stoker Award finalist Ronald Malfi mines the depths and depravities of the human condition, exploring the dark underside of religion, marriage, love, fear, regret, and hunger in a world that spins just slightly askew on its axis. Rich in atmosphere and character, Malfi's debut collection is not to be missed.

The first issue in the second century of Weird Tales features a new HELLBOY story by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden. Editor Jonathan Maberry has built a collection of cosmic horror that will destabilize your worldview.

The Gods of H.P. Lovecraft: a brand new anthology that collects the 12 principal deities of the Lovecraftian Mythos and sets them loose. Featuring the biggest names in horror and dark fantasy, including many New York Times best sellers; full of original fiction; and individual commentary on each of the deities by Donald Tyson.

Elizabeth Gaskell's chilling Gothic Tales blends the real and the supernatural to eerie, compelling effect. 'Disappearances', inspired by local legends of mysterious vanishings, mixes gossip and fact; Lois the Witch, a novella based on an account of the Salem witch hunts, shows how sexual desire and jealousy lead to hysteria; while in 'The Old Nurse's Story' a mysterious child roams the freezing Northumberland moors.

Thirteen terrifying horror stories from the master of the macabre....1. 'Pickman’s Model' 2. 'The Terrible Old Man' 3. 'Dagon' 4. 'From Beyond' 5. 'The Cats of Ulthar' 6. 'Nyarlathotep' 7. 'Imprisoned with the Pharaohs' 8. 'The Book' 9. 'Memory' 10. 'The Beast in the Cave' 11. 'The Evil Clergyman' 12. 'In the Vault' 13. 'Cool Air'

Imagine a future in which human boxing has been replaced by heavyweight bouts between massive robots. Richard Matheson’s classic short story, “Steel", is the inspiration for Real Steel, a new movie starring Hugh Jackman.

Kenji Sanada has always been more comfortable with classic fictional monsters than with other people, even his family—Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster, the mummy—all safely immortalized on his wall of fame. But what will he do when the all-too-real horrors of modern reality threaten to break right through those selfsame walls?

This collection of classic horror stories is sure to give you goose bumps, raise the hair on the back of your neck, and put some fright in your night. Includes Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper by Robert Bloch, Coin of the Realm by Charles L. Grant, Something Had to be Done by David Drake, The Graveyard Rats by Henry Kuttner, The Small Assassin by Ray Bradbury, Calling Card by Ramsey Campbell, The Words of Guru by C.M. Kornbluth, and Passengers by Robert Silverberg.

Darkly thrilling, these 20 new ghost stories have all the chills and power of traditional ghost stories, but each tale is a unique retelling of an urban legend from the world over. Multiple award-winning editor Ellen Datlow and award-nominated author and editor Nick Mamatas recruited Jeffrey Ford, Ramsey Campbell, Joe R. Lansdale, Caitlin Kiernan, Catherynne M. Valente, Kit Reed, Ekaterina Sedia, and 13 other fine writers to create stories unlike any they've written before.

Many say that a composer's tenth symphony is cursed. Few have made it to their tenth, and Ludwig Van Beethoven, Spencer Evans' idol, was not one of them. Spencer Evans, professor of music at a prestigious university, is one of the most well-respected pianists in the world. He is a legend in music, and is obsessed with the work of Beethoven. He has collected rare artifacts and items that belonged to Beethoven himself. To Spencer Evans' amazement, a new treasure arrives under mysterious circumstances. An original copy of Beethoven's tenth symphony.

A couple is stuck in a small town, unable to leave due to a violent storm that seems to have come out of nowhere. The residents seem overly prepared for what, at first, seems like an ordinary thunderstorm. People are fleeing into their homes and shutting them up as if protecting themselves from something far deadlier than thunder and lightning. There's just something about those clouds....