Horror Fiction Short Stories

At sixteen, Sadie Young had a brush with death, and as a result she became more sensitive to the supernatural. Rather than embrace this gift, she spent years running from it, and from the darkness that once preyed upon her. Now twenty-five and working as a librarian, Sadie is called upon by a desperate family friend to look into a strange series of events. A teenaged girl has entered a reputedly haunted house in town and has gone mad. Committed, the girl attempts suicide and claims to be terrorized at all hours by a horrific specter known as "Mother Maggot."

The ghost story has long been a staple of world literature, but many of the genre's greatest tales have been forgotten, overshadowed in many cases by their authors' best-selling work in other genres. In this spine-tingling anthology, little known stories from literary titans like Charles Dickens and Edith Wharton are collected alongside overlooked works from masters of horror fiction like Edgar Allan Poe and M. R. James. In bringing these masterful tales back from the dead, Ghost Stories will enlighten and frighten both longtime fans as well as new listeners of the genre.

Do you think people stop talking once they are dead? Then let this book change your mind. Here are four terrifying stories drawn from real-life events. Four supernatural tales about college days in India. Four surreal narratives that will twist their way into your nightmares.

A vampire named Bitsy. A grieving father's rage. An intergalactic cosmetic saleswoman. Loving wives, thwarted mistresses. Demons, ghosts, gods, and angels. Telepathic dinosaurs and humanoid robots. What do these diverse elements have in common? Stories about them have sprung from the imagination of Karen E. Taylor, a Bram Stoker Award-nominated author. In Mexican Moon and Other Stories, the writer of the popular Vampire Legacy series will take you on a tour of distant planets, drafty castles, haunted houses, and the most frightening place of all.

We each inhabit many worlds, often at the same time. From worlds on the inside to the world on a cosmic scale. Worlds imposed on us, and worlds of our own making. In time, though, all worlds will end. With Skidding Into Oblivion, his fifth collection, award-winning author Brian Hodge brings together his most concentrated assortment yet. It includes all of the best picks and awards finalists. All stories have one thing in common: It’s the end of the world as we know it, and we don’t feel fine at all.

Peter Straub has spent 40 years at the forefront of modern literary horror. This pair of stories represent his astonishing range and his ability to terrify, transport, and hold a reader or listener hostage. Both stories crack the foundation of our reality and open our eyes, taking us further and further into the darkness that normally remains deeply - and safely - hidden.

Where do flies go at night? It is a harmless question, but does anyone really know the answer? Sometimes it is best not to ask such harmless questions, for you may not like the answers. Horror Stories and Tales of the Supernatural is one those books that will keep you up way past your bedtime, whether you are listening to it or trying to forget it so that you can get some undisturbed sleep.

Here you have found a book so foul, so repulsive, so horrifying...that you will undoubtedly find yourself running to the nearest bathroom in an effort to both relieve your bowels and scrub your hands clean of its putrid filth. They have finally released this humorous collection of terrifying tales, despite the bitter public outcry which demanded these pages never see the light of day...and perhaps for good reason.

Lovecraft in a Time of Madness is a collection of 21 horrifying tales, inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft. Featuring stories from across the globe, this anthology unveils a universe of macabre ritual, terrifying creatures, and those brave souls who dare challenge the nature of the unknown! From Arthurian legends to the very depths of the Mariana Trench and the darkest corners of the human mind, Lovecraft in a Time of Madness oozes with unique takes on some of Lovecraft’s most formidable creations.

In this collection of classic ghost stories from Japan, beautiful princesses turn out to be frogs, paintings come alive, deadly spectral brides haunt the living and a samurai delivers the baby of a Shinto goddess with mystical help. Here are all the phantoms and ghouls of Japanese folklore: 'rokuro-kubi', whose heads separate from their bodies at night; 'jikininki', or flesh-eating goblins; and terrifying faceless 'mujina' who haunt lonely neighbourhoods.

Few authors can claim to have marked a genre so thoroughly and personally that their words have leaked into every aspect of modern pop culture. Clive Barker is such an author, and the Books of Blood marked his debut - his coming out to the world - in brilliant, unforgettable fashion. Crossroad Press is proud to present Clive Barker's Books of Blood in digital for the first time.

Actor David Ian Davies' telling of Poe's Gothic horror tale "The Tell-Tale Heart" captures this classic narrative of the unnamed murderer in all its exquisite vileness, its self-effacing insanity that poses rationality where none exists.

Our greatest fears are of the unknown. Usually we think those fears are in front of us...or behind us. But perhaps the human body itself holds the greatest horror. What happens after death? Do our bodies have a new existence either in whole...or part? Will others seek to claim them and do unspeakable things? We don’t know. But our authors do. And they have the talents and wits to make these diabolical stories vehicles for horror, for terror, for the unimaginable....

En los doce soberbios cuentos que componen este volumen Mariana Enriquez despliega todo un repertorio de recursos del relato clásico de terror: apariciones espectrales, brujas, sesiones de espiritismo, grutas, visiones, muertos que vuelven a la vida... Pero, lejos de proponer una mera revisitación arqueológica del género, reelabora ese material con una voz propia y radicalmente moderna. Tirando del hilo de la mejor tradición, la lleva un paso más allá, con historias que indagan en lo siniestro que se agazapa en lo cotidiano.

Chizmar assembles 35 stories, including a previously unpublished novella, and presents us with A Long December. This massive new collection features more than 150,000 words of Chizmar's very best short fiction and includes 8,000 words of autobiographical story notes. Eerie, suspenseful, poignant, the stories in A Long December range from horror to suspense, crime to dark fantasy, mainstream to mystery.

Down below the Mason-Dixon Line, deep in the shadowy hills and hollows of Tennessee, lives a teller of terrifying tales and a spinner of dark yarns unlike any you have ever heard before. Stories to chill your bones and pepper your flesh with goose bumps. What his true name may be, no one knows for sure. But, if you listen closely, you can hear his voice ringing through the dead of night!

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.

LA PLUS FASCINANTE DES CRÉATURES DE LA LITTÉRATURE D'ÉPOUVANTE. Cette créature venue de l'Est qui se refuse à rejoindre l'au-delà et qui, chaque nuit, s'éveille de la mort fascine les écrivains depuis plus de deux siècles. Pour le plus grand effroi et le plus grand plaisir du lecteur, ce recueil rassemble les titres suivants : La Famille du Vourdalak, Tolstoï, Vampires de la Hongrie et de ses alentours, Augustin Calmet, La Morte amoureuse, Théophile Gauthier, Le Vampire du Sussex, Conan Doyle, La Dame pâle, Alexandre Dumas, Camilla, Sheridan Le Fanu, Un Vampire, Jan Neruda, La Vampire, Jean Bouvier, La Jeune vampire, Rosny Aîné.

DES HISTOIRES À NE PAS ÉCOUTER LA NUIT. Seize récits d'épouvante cultes de la littérature classique, qui suscitent toujours l'horreur et l'effroi du lecteur. Ce recueil rassemble les œuvres suivantes : Mujina, Lafcadio Hearn; La Porte du monstre, William Hodgson; La Chute de la maison Usher, Edgar Allan Poe; L'Affaire de Lady Sannox, Arthur Conan Doyle; L'Épouvante Mikhaïl Artsybachev; L' Enterrement des rats, Bram Stoker; L'horrible, Guy de Maupassant; L'Araignée, Hans Ewers; Un Stylet, William Chambers Morrow; Construire un feu, Jack London; L'Horloge, Maurice Level.

A tribute to the glorious slasher movies of the 1980s.