Short Stories Occult

While the world's still choked with monsters - their work is never done. Tireless and dedicated, the Aces scour the globe in pursuit of the creatures that seek to terrorize humanity. For this ongoing mission, they leave no stone unturned - and no monsters alive. Whether it be in far-off wilderness, small-town America, or among the concrete canyons of the big city, Cap'n, Gats, Joker, Digger, and Trill continue to risk their lives at the cost of their own identities to keep us safe from the things that go bump in the night.

From astronauts in deep space to the ghosts of the Civil War, New York Times best-selling author Alethea Kontis creates worlds of wonder and delight, of weirdness and despair, of whimsy and darkness. Here are 20 stories and poems that will transport you to the magical dangerous worlds you've always known should exist, but have never quite been able to find.

The Doll Maker tells the tale of Clare Lydgate, a young woman studying at boarding school for her Oxford scholarship examinations. In the evenings she escapes the school grounds by climbing over the wall of Brackenbine Hall. It is here that she encounters the charismatic and mysterious Niall Sterne, the Doll Maker. This is a subtle, intelligent, and compelling tale of horror.

The fourth volume in the Max Porter Paranormal Mystery collection is here and it’s explosive! New allies, new foes, and a rivalry centuries in the making all come to a head in one fantastic showdown. And if that wasn’t enough, Max’s family faces its toughest challenge yet, one that threatens to tear away the Sandwich Boys just as they’re settling in. It’s all here and much, much more!

This audiobook features more than a dozen stories by H. P. Lovecraft.

Jessica Niemi is put on leave after a violent altercation between her and a belligerent man makes headlines. To escape the unwanted scrutiny, Jessica travels to a remote island in the Åland archipelago and rents a room at a small seaside inn. She is hoping to be left alone as she faces the possibility that she is losing what is left of her sanity but three elderly visitors have arrived at the inn for their yearly sojourn.

From the Artic to Egypt to Australia, Doyle tells thrilling tales of crime, suspense, mysterious secrets, and humor.

An anthology of short stories based upon/inspired by, and in loving homage to all of those great gore-fest movies and books of the 1980s (not necessarily based in that era, although some do ride that wave of nostalgia), the golden age when horror well and truly came kicking, screaming, and spraying blood, gore, and body parts out from the shadows.

This stunning anthology of classic colonial suspense fiction plunges deep into the native soil from which American horror literature first sprang. While European writers of the Gothic and bizarre evoked ruined castles and crumbling abbeys, their American counterparts looked back to the colonial era’s stifling religion, and its dark and threatening woods.

Follow Caveman and his bros in the Road Dogs MC from Biker Heaven, to the pits of Biker Hell. In the first story, Biker Heaven, after receiving a zombie bite, Caveman hits a tree on his motorcycle at over 100 miles an hour, buying his ticket to Biker Heaven; but when there is trouble in the biker world, Caveman comes back to help his bros in the Road Dogs MC. Taking on vampires and werewolves plus evil demons from the depths of Hell, Caveman and the Halo riders, a band of trouble shooters from the great beyond, have their hands full protecting the bros on Earth.

What happens when that paradise suddenly becomes a purgatory of pain? What will you do when the beaches fill with bodies and the waters run red with blood? When creatures crawl the coastline and the jungle teems with terror. How will you survive when a tropical respite becomes an arena of peril? Slice of Paradise is an all-original anthology featuring 15 shocking stories of beach vacation horror.

When a brothel madame is murdered, it looks as if a centuries old witch’s curse on the land has claimed another victim. But as DCI Mike Saxby and his team investigate the background history of the building, other, more sinister, motives emerge. Then a local journalist who had been investigating that same unhappy history is the next to meet a grisly end, and a further discovery by police results in a race against time to prevent a national disaster.

Survivors trapped in a sunken vessel find themselves hunted through the depths by a deadly adversary. A skeptical journalist discovers the sinister inhabitants of a fake haunted house are all too real. And a husband commits murder to protect his wife, only to learn he has created something even more dangerous....

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.

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....

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.