Psychological Thriller Short Stories

Psychiatrist Dr. Renee Conway has taken on a new patient: Kevin Reynolds, the local hero who ran into a burning building to save a young family from certain death. When the rescue goes horrifically wrong, a boy is dead and Kevin suffers excruciating burns. Plagued with nightmares and left with a horribly disfigured face, Kevin finds celebrity its own torture.

When you're only five years old the world is held together by strange and mysterious things like zippers. And the greatest mystery is what ants do when they go down in the ground. Trying to follow the ants, Johnny opened the zipper that turned the world inside out.

The world of the professional truck driver can be a lonely one. For Roy Harper, a man for whom loneliness coupled emotional baggage and a series of life failures, it all may be too much to handle. It all comes to a head when he is tormented by a younger driver who is the quintessential "Bully" on the road.

A young man's desperate search for his biological mother leaves more questions than answers. After a solid lead takes him halfway across the country, the woman he encounters leaves a bad taste in his mouth.

Twenty-eight-year-old Kade hasn't been able to make it past his sidewalk in eight years. In this chilling short story, you will be given a glimpse into the inner workings of his mind as he goes through the process of trying to face his irrational but very real fears.

This story explores the constant rivalry between intellect and sexuality. Time, as a relative dimension, is jumbled as a technique to explore this fascinating rivalry in more realistic depth. Frank's writing has been praised by readers as “engrossing,” “gritty and entertaining,” “colorful and authentic,” “fast-paced,” “intriguing,” “fun and complex,” “very hard to put down,” “smart, stylish, and fun,” and “seductive.”

Il professore universitario Tal dei Tali, corre per una strada nel cuore della notte. Sembra sia molto spaventato, ma a suo dire la fuga è dovuta al troppo coraggio, un coraggio così grande da averlo portato a trovarsi faccia a faccia con dei brutti ceffi e finire incastrato tra le maglie della giustizia. Il professore ci spiega perché nella vita non si scappa mai abbastanza. "La paura del coraggio" è un monologo che fa parte della raccolta "Dodici monologhi" di Luigi Arnaldo Vassallo.

Pat, a Vietnam vet finished with marriage and booze, gets his dose of society sitting alone and dry at the local bar. One afternoon, watching a pre-season Red Sox game, he ends up next to a group of loudmouth writers gathered around a man in a wheelchair. The writers get under Pat's skin, and he says something lousy to the big-shot who, it turns out, is also a big-shot writer.

Thirty years hasn't changed Las Vegas - the desert just got dirtier. The biggest game in town centers on a massive, deadly roller coaster that winds its way through the Strip's most famous attractions. On the first Saturday of every month, twenty-four desperate passengers get strapped into the notorious ride and gamble with their lives in a twisted game of chance, to the thrill of webcast audiences worldwide. One of them will win, and one will die, but the other twenty-two will escape with nothing but their lives.

Liz Kelsey promised herself she’d never again spy on her feckless husband, Phil. But then she discovers a string of suggestive texts on his secret burner phone. Even worse, he’s flirting with the woman who shook their unstable marriage once before. But knowledge is power. What’s more dangerous - what Liz knows or what Phil doesn’t know?

Poison-tongued film critic Reginald Wright is known for his creative insults and intolerance for the garbage culture, insufferable rudeness, and thoughtless racism of predictably common people. Now, against his better judgment, and with a marriage in crisis, he’s attempting a getaway in the Poconos that quickly fulfills his every low expectation. In fact, it’s becoming a nightmare. And that’s just what Reginald needs to wake up.

Si tratta di un racconto lungo. Un facchino uccide e deruba un compagno di sbornie. Compie poi, sulla spinta del senso di colpa, una serie di errori che porteranno al suo smascheramento e al suo arresto. Si avverte l'influenza sulla narrazione di Zola e del naturalismo. Si avvertono, inoltre, echi kafkiani e dostoevskijani, ma sopratutto traspare la passione dell'autore per l'analisi psicologica.

Este relato corto aparece como leído antes de irse a dormir por el Sr.Samuel Pickwick, en los divertidos "Papeles póstumos del club Pickwick". La esencia de la historia es la de un hombre que sabiéndose loco, por uno de esos regalos con que la genética a veces nos sorprende, decide ocultar su locura a los ojos de todos. Como es un hombre de gran patrimonio, la relación con él es envidiada por todos y una familia en especial, muy pobre, decide que su hija se case con él, a pesar que ella está enamorada de un muchacho de su edad.

While renovating her Victorian home, Ana Clementine finds an ornate door buried under forty years of earth. Once she restores it to the attic, she starts hearing whispers, her loving husband has become a stranger, and her baby daughter learns a chilling new word. Maybe Ana has unlocked the house’s secrets. Or maybe she’s becoming just a little unhinged herself.

Terry loves his coffee. One morning while enjoying his daily intake, a stranger approaches his table and accuses Terry of following him. From that moment on, Terry's life becomes a living nightmare as he tries to defend himself from the insanity around him.

In these two short thrillers, best-selling author L.J. Sellers explores how the dark side of human nature takes over in crucial, fearful moments and leads to irreversible, life-changing repercussions.

Gerald is his Mother's precious one, but his father doesn't share her opinion and neither do his school friends. He is both pampered and bullied until he discovers a unique telepathic skill. Aged seven, he wonders, what if everyone were a house, and what type of house would they be? These two moments eventually come together in adulthood, with frightening consequences....

Bad things have been happening since Mia began to mature. Her dad left. Boys at school can’t keep their hands to themselves. A lecherous stepfather has moved in. Her only refuge is an abandoned lot on her suburban cul-de-sac, crawling with feral felines - one of which follows Mia home. Ghostly white and affectionate, she is Mia’s new companion and - as Mia’s tormenters will soon discover - her fierce protector.

Zur Geschichte: Es gibt wohl kaum ein passenderes Fleckchen verseuchter Erde, das man als Vorort zur Hölle bezeichnen könnte. Bitterfeld: die Mülldeponie des Ostens, das Restloch der DDR. Hier lebt die ROSE VON BITTERFELD, die Grande Dame des Bio-Recyclings. Bei einem guten Glas Whiskey berichtet sie von den Feinheiten und Hintergründen der humanen Abfallbeseitigung... Was? Glauben Sie nicht? Wer zwischen Schwefel und Schwermetallen groß geworden ist, der tickt einfach anders.

It’s the hottest winter on record, but Raymond’s demanding, bedridden mother doesn’t mind. She likes it warm. Lately, however, control over the thermostat has become a nasty struggle. And each morning that she’s still alive is a suffocating new challenge for Raymond. How high can the mercury climb before he boils over?