Occult Anthology

Lidia and Simon Drago are living their last hoorah, a European vacation financed by insurance money they received when their house burned down. On the night train from Paris to Florence they encounter a stranger who directs them to a lovely pensione in Florence. There, a clever artist agrees to depict the Dragos not as they look now but how they appeared in their prime. If only Lidia and Simon hadn't talked to the stranger, or taken his advice about the pensione.

The piano was a gift, a symbol of enduring love, but from the moment she began playing it, Melody's nights became filled with terrifying visions. Visions of an ancient city in ruins where the streets run red with blood and winged creatures watch lustfully from high above. Visions of murder, betrayal, and madness. She knows that her night terrors are inextricably entangled with the piano and its troubling history, but she must keep playing...searching for that one melody that will quiet the haunting voice that threatens her very sanity.

Priscilla putters along in her usual life of bridge and gossip and coffee shops and shopping at the local markets in the small Indian town where she lives, until one morning, the mysterious man known only as the Pharsee gives her a box. The thing is filthy, twitchy and just plain wrong...but no matter what Priscilla tries, or how many cleaning boys she fires, she simply cannot get rid of it.

William Hope Hodgson was an early British writer of supernatural and fantasy fiction, becoming an inspiration for later writers such as Clark Ashton Smith and others. Dating to 1904, this was his first published story, and it tells the tale of a mysterious marble statue coming to life and murdering the townspeople.

Shadow Beings come in different shapes and sizes. Some are horrid looking and stare on for what seems like an eternity, while others are misty-like and disappear in the blink of an eye. Everyone has had a nightmare at one point of their life. But what if that nightmare was crouched next to your bed watching you sleep? A figure so terrifyingly darker than the unlit surroundings of your room.

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.

Real-life cases of gut-wrenching demon encounters that’ll shock the daylights out of you! Best-selling author Hannah J. Tidy will introduce horrific stories and experiences of demonic encounters had by normal people who’ve dared to play with games such as the Ouija board.

Janell making phone calls to demonic lovers in front of her husband is just the beginning. The horrors hit home for two young men telling ghost stories while driving through the thickest fog of the year. An aging hunter summons the spirit of the Bavarian wilderness as his abilities and will begin to fade. A teacher opens his mouth to instruct his students - and finds himself speaking in the voice of his newly deceased mentor. A young woman, pregnant out of wedlock in the late 1950s, is "sent away" only to find her new home harbors strange secrets.

Pickman es un pintor en cuyos cuadros se encuentran monstruos desconocidos realizando actos de innombrable crueldad, cuya sola visión transmite una inenarrable sensación de realismo que atenta contra la cordura.

>"Chi insiste nell’idea peregrina che il racconto fantastico italiano è stato un episodio minore quanto tardo apparso sulla scena europea, non valuta appieno il contributo di Tarchetti". Tarchetti "per ardore sperimentale" scosse "la tradizione del fantastico con una invenzione formale che non avrà emulatori." Lo fece con i suoi Racconti fantastici e in particolare con il racconto I fatali.

This is a short story about the events that happened during a vacation in the South in the life of Jo Danning, a retired military linguist. She and her son, Casey, spend time with her grandmother while odd events unfold that surround a nearby house beside her grandmother's garden. Something evil is under the ground; something wicked from the past. Jo Danning only wanted to get to Wilmington, North Carolina as soon as possible. She wanted to start her new life with her son, Casey.

Creepy is a collection of short stories, some fiction and some not, that will send shivers down your spine! Creepy contains two of my favorite short suspense stories ("The Rumblin'" and "Murdoch's Eyes"), but best of all, it includes some of my real life supernatural experiences...absolutely true ghost stories. I was around 10 years old when I had my first supernatural experience. Thirty years later, my ghosts have returned and they are creepier than ever.

Il Canto dell'Amor trionfante è un racconto dello scrittore russo Ivan S. Turgenev. Ambientato nella Ferrara del ‘500, ai tempi dell'Ariosto...

Two adventurers set out on a long mountainous hike into a remote cave with a sinister history. Listening to The Cave will take you from excitement to fear. Each emotion the same physiologically and drastically different psychologically.

First published in an 1849 edition of The Flag of Our Union, "Hop-Frog" is a revenge tale akin to "The Cask of Amontillado". Told from the perspective of a crippled jester who was taken from his homeland and has been abused by the king he serves, the story focuses on the revenge Hop-Frog takes after the king strikes his fellow countrywoman and performer, the dancer Trippetta.

A volunteer candy-striper stays over night at St. Mary's hospital to watch over a boy from her class. The same boy that had asked her to the school dance five times already. The same boy that she'd rejected five times already....

A broken author tries to get back on his feet by staying at the super-cheap Fairfax Gardens. But the menacing Vagrant outside warns him repeatedly that the place is DAMNED. It all swings from bliss to horror and back, daily and inexplicably, due to the sweet and bubbly Sistine and her marauding demon of a mother. All, as the diabolical Vagrant outside seemingly grows more and more bent on killing them all.

The dark strains of madness that permeate many of the works of Edgar Allan Poe make their way through this macabre story. This memorable short story bears a resemblance to Poe's Tell Tale Heart. In both stories guilt leaves a murderer with a singular choice.

On the first day of my stay, I just spent most of my time roaming about the woods and taking pictures. The selling point of this place was undoubtedly the beautiful nature that was surrounding it. I didn’t use the motor bike since its noise would scare away the animals, and I was able to take some great shots of the gorgeous scenery and its inhabitants. As I was strolling, I noticed some peculiar etchings on the trees that were clearly carved by a human. It was some kind of sigils or characters that were foreign to me.

William Wymark Jacobs (1863-1943) was an English author of short stories and novels, well known for his comedies involving rural Essex characters. His most famous story, "The Monkey's Paw" (1902) is a tale of intense psychological horror. "The Old Man of the Sea" is a farcical comedy about a young man, George Wright, who tries to win a lady’s hand by pretending to be the only heir of a rich uncle.