Short Stories Occult

From time to time when I take a break from researching and writing my thrillers, I write short stories such as the ones collected for the first time in this new anthology, Trust and Other Nightmares. Each of these stories has its germination in nights when my sleep was suddenly savaged by ethereal visions and sounds sufficiently disturbing to wrench me from tangled, sweat-drenched sheets.

The Smiling Men: once the face of friendly law enforcement, now brutal enforcers for the conniving Arch Pastor Michael and his equally twisted comrade, Lady Penelope. As Michael and Penelope use these enhanced super soldiers to crush the populace of Britain into submission, one man prepares to unleash the end of the Smiling Men...maybe even the end of the world. For the world stops when the Smiling Men cry.

In Turn Up the Sun, Hazard, the eccentric drug dealer from Criterium, is horrified to discover he has a doppelganger who appears at the scene of a grisly murder. In Stridor, a pediatrician is not only haunted by her mistakes, but stalked by them. In Sidewinder, a young musician receives a custom, otherworldly guitar pedal.

A monster demands candy on Halloween night. “Falconers” train ghosts to harvest bits of human souls. A father stretches the boundaries of reality to bring his son back from the dead. A pious man is tormented by a demon he guards.

Beware of the night, for it shows no mercy. Anxieties run rampant as the last sprinklings of light twinkle out on the inky horizon. The shadows dance their choreography in the damp, dusky air. Night is taking over, and it knows how to keep a dark and deadly secret, for it allows no witnesses. And that screaming you hear nearby? Watch out, because you might be next. The Sinister Supernatural Stories series brings you delicious horror that focuses on elements of the supernatural. Pull up a chair and dig in, but never after dark—everyone knows bad things always happen after dark.

This anthology details encounters with ghosts, evil spirits, dark entities, malicious beings, and demonic encounters that’ll send a chill of terror tickling up your spine. Don’t worry, you’re not alone. There’s almost certainly a ghost or two peeking over your shoulder. These true paranormal encounters are unlike any you’ve heard before. And, if you don’t believe, just know that you don’t have to believe in something for it to exist.

She only wants me for my body. I just wish she hadn't used it that way. I found where the Devil keeps his pets, and now I have one of my own. Every morning I wake up screaming, knowing I'll be killed each day. The wolves were disappearing from the Alaskan wilderness, and I discovered what they were being turned into. Have you met the only demon in heaven?

A businessman discovers he has a ghostly twin whose presence may be far more ominous than he had thought.... Mischievous children learn that supernatural forces are nothing to toy with, after a Halloween prank goes wrong. And holiday festivities set the backdrop to a terrified teen’s worst fears, when his grandmother’s corpse comes looking for revenge....

Scare Street delves into the darkness to bring you a new collection of spine-tingling terror. This diabolical tome is bursting with 13 sinister stories of supernatural horror, featuring ghastly ghosts, cold-blooded killers, and fiendish visions torn from your worst fears. Just be careful you don’t lose track of time as you meander through this shadowy landscape of dreams and nightmares. Because, once the sun sets, something waits for you in the darkness of night.

Imagine, if you will, you’re traveling through the unknown, hellbound, with no road map or stars to guide you. The light fades as you descend into a shadow realm where supernatural terrors make their lair and evil lurks at every turn. Here, dead things don’t always stay dead, for this is a world where things that shouldn’t be...are, and things that should be are not. In this world, we pay a visit to the smallest, but terrifyingly necessary, room, and stories are written precisely to chill the bones as you wait for nature to make its call.

There is evil in the woods and it wants you dead. They warned us not to enter, but we didn't listen. The call too strong to ignore. And now there is no one left to save us. Beware, these things within the forest will rip out your heart and devour your soul. You will tremble as they revel in your madness, taking everything from you and leaving you with nothing. Delve inside this anthology of what truly lurks within the shadows of the trees.

The beasts Detective Loren and Soriya Greystone battled in Lou Paduano’s debut book Signs of Portents were just a hint of what lurks in the city. Tales from Portents explores the city’s immersive history, including stories of Loren’s descent after his wife’s death - and his opportunity to have her rise from the grave. Soriya battles gremlins, navigates lessons with Mentor, and meets the werewolf Luchik. Follow new characters with expansive histories as they come face to face with the horrors of Portents - both human and otherwise.

As war veteran Marcus Holt and the others struggle to escape Worthe’s haunted village, they find themselves stalked by a new enemy. A paranoid psychotic, this demented soul hears voices in her head and is convinced that people are talking about her. Armed with her hatchet, she is determined to murder everyone in the village to silence them all.

Thrilling tales of despair litter the countryside of Rustle County, where children have been disappearing for hundreds of years. This collection of terrifying short stories details the odious occurrences that have haunted Boltsville for generations. Follow Sheriff LeBuff and his affable deputy, Officer LeBlanc, as they try to piece together the dark mystery.

When an author helps the police to identify symbols carved into two dead bodies, he becomes the focus of a murderous cult. He has to become the hunter to survive.

In Ty Schwamberger's first short-story collection, For After Midnight, the author takes you on a terror-filled ride through dark woods, the desert, a graveyard, and dark streets where monsters and strange creatures run amok. The other half of this collection is filled with characters driven to the brink of insanity, coping with the loss of loved ones, spousal abuse, and fighting crime on the mean city streets. Are you up to the challenge of venturing into the mind of a true up-and-comer in the horror genre, today?

A beer run becomes an interdimensional excursion. Two men settle their differences after discovering an extraordinary secret in the wilderness. A woman faces the bureaucracy of a digital afterlife. A grieving man seeks to know where his wife was reincarnated. Strange lights in the sky transform the lives of a small town. God and the devil play billiards for people's souls. A teenage deity's science project sprouts a startling discovery. These and more dream-like detours into the surreal, interstitial, and inexplicable await within. Chock full of gooey, mind-bending goodness.

Terrifying secrets from the past are revealed when a ghost hunter discovers a letter from his deceased mother. A lost young couple learns all is not what it seems when an elderly woman welcomes them into her remote outback home. And a guilt-ridden carpenter takes a journey into another dimension but is shocked by what follows him home.... Scare Street is proud to present a diabolical new collection of 17 ghastly stories. Each spine-tingling tale is a portal to a new world, the beginning of a seemingly endless voyage into fear and dread.

In The Twelve Ghosts of Christmas, you will even be chilled by the stories in the introduction to the book, never mind the devilish dozen true tales about eerie time slips, gory premonitions, heart-stopping exorcisms, heartbreaking tales of lost love, graveyard tricksters, and sinister old hags. Listen to a story about the devil that tempted a bishop with pleasures of the flesh in "The Missing Room" and of the titanic, ominous force that turned a 3,000-ton ship upside down and sent its crew of 75 into limbo, never to be seen again.

An ancient legend comes to life when a savage creature stalks a terrified girl through the jungle. A mission to Mars takes a grisly turn as the last surviving astronaut encounters horror beyond comprehension. And the shadows that lurk in a young boy’s bedroom become sinister protectors, lashing out at the child’s cruel and dysfunctional family.