Short Horror

From werewolves and vampires, to demons and aliens, the monster is one of the most recognizable figures in horror. But what makes something, or someone, monstrous? Award-winning and up-and-coming authors like Richard Kadrey, Cassandra Khaw, Indrapramit Das, Priya Sharma, and more attempt to answer this question. These all-new stories range from traditional to modern, from mainstream to literary, from familiar monsters to the unknown . . . and unimaginable.

Father John has lived his whole life without knowing a woman's touch. Hard at first, his self-denial grew easier over time, as he learned to master his urges with a regimen of prayer, cold showers, and jigsaw puzzles. That changes the day that Debra Rocks enters his confessional. A rough-talking adult film actress, she has come to ask him to pray for a murdered costar.

The tale of a man who unwittingly angers a sorcerer, who is assumed by some Monty scholars to be based on the self-styled 'Great Beast,' occultist Aleister Crowley. Montague Rhodes James was a noted British mediaeval scholar and provost of King's College, Cambridge (1905–1918) and of Eton College (1918–1936). He is best remembered for his ghost stories which are widely regarded as among the finest in English literature.

At first blush, Widdershins is a conventional haunted house story involving an unsuccessful writer who moves into an empty house in hope that isolation will help his failing creativity. His sensitivity and imagination are enhanced by his seclusion, but his art, his only friend, and his sanity are all destroyed in the process. It can be interpreted as narrating the gradual possession of the protagonist by a mysterious, possessive feminine spirit, or as a realistic description of a psychotic outbreak culminating in catatonia and murder, told from the psychotic subject’s view.

2019. The year certainly made its mark on the world. It also made for a bounty of good horror stories of the extreme kind, the best of which the tales herein serve to illustrate. 2019 was the year Year's Best Hardcore Horror went global. Not by design but because the stories inside just happened to have been written by authors hailing from various parts of the globe. From Australia by way of South Africa, to Italy, Scotland, Norway, Taiwan, North America and India - the common denominator being that their tales come from darkest regions of imagination.

J.R. Hamantaschen returns with a collection of his inimitable weird, dark, and imaginative fiction. In these intelligent and haunting stories, Hamantaschen pushes the boundaries of horror, exploring the deepest corners of the human psyche with an unflinching eye.

We’ve recorded some 400+ stories since 2015 here at HorrorBabble. This collection comprises some of our very favorites. From Blackwood's evocative "The Transfer", through to Smith's terrifying visit to the vaults of Yoh-Vombis, there’s something here to strike fear into the heart of any horror enthusiast....

A wealthy man attempts to escape a global plague by hiding in an underground city. Jolly old Saint Nick delivers an unexpected and terrifying present. A loner endures a curse that causes his eyes to bleed. A jealous actor plans for fiery revenge on stage. A woman investigates the urban legend of the murderous “Johnny Blackjack.”

Brian Evenson’s hallucinatory and darkly comic stories of paranoia, pursuit, sensory deprivation, amnesia, and retribution rattle the cages of the psyche and peer into the gaping moral chasm that opens when we become estranged from ourselves. From sadistic bosses with secret fears to a woman trapped in a mime’s imaginary box, and from a post-apocalyptic misidentified Messiah to unwitting portraitists of the dead, the mind-bending world of this modern-day Edgar Allan Poe exposes the horror contained within our daily lives.

Ces 13 nouvelles glaçantes de Shirley Jackson feraient pâlir d’angoisse Hitchcock lui-même. Sous un cuir souple et de qualité se cache le sang à peine séché de la bête : les nouvelles de Shirley Jackson distillent une petite musique qui endort la vigilance pour mieux glacer le sang et faire craquer les articulations. Découvrez l’essence de l’horrifique avec la maîtresse incontestée du genre à travers ses gentilles et cruelles nouvelles parues en 1948. Il ne faut pas résister aux sombres humeurs des lectures, au scalpel, de Pierre-François Garel.

Seabury Quinn's short stories were featured in well more than half of Weird Tales' original publication run. His most famous character, the supernatural French detective Dr. Jules de Grandin, investigated cases involving monsters, devil worshippers, serial killers, and spirits from beyond the grave, often set in the small town of Harrisonville, New Jersey. Collected for the first time, The Complete Tales of Jules de Grandin, edited by George Vanderburgh, presents all 93 published works featuring the supernatural detective.

Red Room Press is extremely proud to present its fourth annual anthology featuring this year's hardcore corps of authors with the best extreme horror fiction of 2018 that breaks boundaries and trashes taboos. Salud! Sleep well. If you can.

A father spends years chasing a mysterious funhouse where his son vanished. A man discovers the terrifying reality that humans are considered cattle for an ancient, malevolent race. A trip to the voting booth turns into a nightmarish responsibility when the outcome decides mankind’s apocalyptic fate. In an abandoned radio station, a couple fights for survival against sinister forces that can only be kept at bay by the power of rock-n-roll. A teen girl stumbles upon a supernatural convenience store that offers her a chance to alter her destiny.

Step into the darkness with Midnight Terrors, a collection of five spine-chilling short horror stories crafted to haunt your imagination and keep you awake at night. Perfect for fans of psychological horror, supernatural thrillers, and suspenseful mysteries, this book delivers relentless terror in every tale.

An arcade game glitch reveals a sinister secret. A kidnapped man finds himself trapped in an elaborate and deadly labyrinth. A sinister mastermind unleashes a deadly pandemic where a simple yawn becomes a gruesome death sentence. A chance fall into an abandoned cellar plunges a man into a nightmare of serial killers and ancient horrors. A sleep-deprived new father faces a terrifying question: is his newborn daughter a supernatural monster, or is he losing his grip on reality? A rare Nazi-era synthesizer proves to be a gateway to mind-bending horrors.

The second immortal volume in this dark and fantastic series, Fangs is a scintillating and sinister collection of vampire stories and part of the now legendary vampire archives. Including Clive Barker, Anne Rice, Arthur Conan Doyle, and many, many, more...Featuring: Bloody fangs, dark and foreboding crypts, mysterious nighttime apparitions, and languid ladies.

Spine Chillers Volumes 11–15 brings another wave of terrifying short stories, each one designed to leave you breathless with dread. In this book, shadows stir in forgotten rooms. Whispers echo from the walls. Doors open on their own, revealing places that should never exist. Ghosts, curses, and things older than time reach out with cold hands, eager to claim the living.

An aspiring writer moves into a new apartment and discovers that her landlady has murdered her husband. Elsewhere, an accomplished surgeon is approached by a cabaret singer, whose beautiful appearance belies the grotesque condition of her heart. And while the surgeon's jealous lover vows to kill him, a violent envy also stirs in the soul of a lonely craftsman. Desire meets with impulse and erupts, attracting the attention of the surgeon's neighbor - who is drawn to a decaying residence that is now home to instruments of human torture.

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.

From horror master Rick Wood, author of The Sensitives and This Book Is Full of Bodies, comes 12 horrifying stories to spook up your Christmas season! From a sadistic secret Santa gift, to a murderous telekinetic fairy, to a nativity full of the undead, you’ll find a horror treat for all 12 days of Christmas.