Urban Horror

My name is Sally. For over thirty years I’ve stalked the night, a slave to the vampire nation. I’ve walked among you – a wolf in sheep’s clothing – committing countless atrocities in their name. Now, on the eve of Armageddon, I’ve been offered a chance for redemption, however slim. My past has caught up to me, beckoning me back to the city of my rebirth. I’ll need to seek out those responsible for my turning and confront them once and for all. I’m outnumbered and outgunned, but they’re dead wrong if they think I’m outclassed.

I never thought my life could get any weirder, then Jane Lowry came into my office. It seemed like a straightforward paternity case; something simple for my first solo assignment as a private investigator. Everyone has secrets. Jane Lowry's would lead me down a path that would completely change my life. I knew the world was full of crazy things, but nothing would prepare me for how crazy it would get.

Apprentice mage Chance Fortunato has faced off with a lot of nasty things. Power hungry vampires, abusive alpha werewolves, and deranged cultists. But none of his training under his mentor Dr. Corwin has prepared him for the trial he is about to face: Junior Prom.

Nate Temple has gotten away with a lot in recent years: cow-tipping the Minotaur, decimating a gang of weredragons, sucker punching angels, and eating pancakes with the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. He’s kidnapped one of the most powerful wizards on the planet and slaughtered the Brothers Grimm. Lady Luck has been very good to Nate Temple…until now. Nate's good fortune has turned, catching the attention of a recruiter - the kind of person who offers jobs that can’t be refused.

A drastic accident creates an epidemic that spreads worldwide. The infected die only to be reanimated as something that is no longer human. Their only basic instincts are killing and feeding off of the living. Will the human race survive or be wiped from the face of the Earth?

Bram Stoker kept secret a tale even more terrifying than Dracula. It begins among the Carpathian peaks, when an intrepid explorer discovers a mysterious golden box. She brings it back with her to the foggy streets of Victorian London, unaware of its dangerous power…or that an evil beyond imagining has already taken root in the city. Stoker, a successful theater manager but frustrated writer, is drawn into a deadly web spun by the wealthy founders of a mission house for the poor. Far from a safe haven, the mission harbors a dark and terrifying secret.

Ashley Parker was an ordinary woman who was also a "wild card", immune to the emerging zombie plague, drawn unwillingly into a shadowy paramilitary organization. Having been ambushed in San Francisco, which is now fully engulfed in the zombie plague, Ashley and the wild cards must pursue the enemy to San Diego. There they will discover a dark organization that seeks to weaponize the plague. But that isn't the worst news. The plague itself has gone airborne, making it transferable without physical contact.

For as long as I can remember, I've been the girl who didn't fit in, the girl who collapsed in the middle of class, just because my brain decided to turn on me. I can't really complain, though. We don't live in the Middle Ages, so I have yet to be subjected to an exorcism. I can get treatment for my condition. Epilepsy aside, I can mostly be a normal person and have a normal life. There's just one problem. I'm not a normal person. I never have been. And the first time I find this out is upon receiving an exclusive invitation to The Academy of the Devil.

By day, Mark Wojcik can be found elbow-deep in engine grease, making cars and trucks safe for the highway. By night, he can be found traipsing through the wilds of Pennsylvania, making the world safe for humans. He's more than just a mechanic, he's a New Templar Knight. He travels the backroads and byways fighting weresquonks, ningen, selkies, ghosts, and . . . gnomes? Is that gnome . . . naked? (Sigh.) Season One collects the first four novellas in the Spells, Salt, & Steel series: Spells, Salt, & Steel; Open Season; Deep Trouble; and Close Encounters.

To the uninitiated, Savannah shows only her bright face and genteel manner. Those who know her well, though, can see beyond her colonial trappings and small-city charm to a world where witchcraft is respected, Hoodoo is feared, and spirits linger. Mercy Taylor is all too familiar with the supernatural side of Savannah, being a member of the most powerful family of witches in the South. Despite being powerless herself, of course. Having grown up without magic of her own, in the shadow of her talented and charismatic twin sister, Mercy has always thought herself content.

The Fogg River Seminary, a girls’ school in a small Illinois town, is supposed to be just another stop on Maryse and Vasyl’s endless travels. They’ve made lucrative use of Maryse’s “foreign” looks in their melodramatic séance act—and an act is all it is. Then, during their performance, a blizzard sweeps in and cuts them off from town completely. In the freezing halls, there’s a voice speaking the secrets of the dead, and Maryse has no choice but to listen…because this time, the voice is real.

This issue of Weird Tales presents a variety of stories, essays, and poems about cryptids and urban legends. Not to dispel, but to reveal.

In a London funeral parlor, the dead rise and walk again. On a train in the London Underground, a young couple is terrorized by a demon. In a suburb, a poltergeist forces a family to flee their home. Hellboy has his hands full. While the supernatural is on a rampage in London, a series of brutal Torso Murders turns up at various sites around the city. All of the corpses are headless, limbless, and drained of their blood.

After the world has been cast into the darkness of a nuclear winter, a rural Maine family realizes they must leave their home or risk starvation. They're seeking a better life, but find unimaginable horrors on the road. In this epic, blood-soaked saga, there are only two options: Survive or die trying.

The War of the Damned is upon us, so be careful who you follow. It might be the last decision you ever make. Three months ago there was a demon invasion. Due to that, the world has been dealing with changes in just who the enemy really is. While old rules are thrown aside. The mercenary named Katie (or KatieDora by some) is trying to take a much-needed vacation.

What started as a simple sim soon showed signs of crossing over, of opening a rift to the afterlife. But that's not all. Parts of that world are coming our way, and what used to be worlds for the dead are changing...evolving? This is my story - a journey into the world beyond to find my lost fiancée, in the process changing myself and my understanding of this new reality. An adventure that involves leveling up, forming bonds with demons and spirits, and even going up against a very odd dungeon master.

My name’s Bill Ryder and, despite being a legendary creature of the night, I’m not having the best of days. My girlfriend is trapped in another dimension, my apartment’s being staked out by werewolves, and to top it all off I’m flat freaking broke. Too bad there’s no rest for the wicked. Monstrous beasts of biblical proportions have been unleashed upon the world, leaving me with a mighty big question. How the hell is one poor-ass vamp supposed to stop something the size of a battleship?

It takes more than silver bullets to kill a werewolf. Sylvester James knows what it is to be haunted. His mother died giving birth to him and his father never let him forget it; until the night he was butchered by a werewolf - the night a full moon ruined his life.

Bubba and the team have been called to Charlotte to help the Department of Homeland Security on a job. Since being in North Carolina, Bubba has been tased, kidnapped, beaten silly, and met DEMON agents, actual demons, and an angel. Now he's been hired to hunt down the literal most famous monster in history - Count Dracula.

In the more shadowy corners of the world, frequented by angels and demons and everything in between, Laytham Ballard is a legend. It's said he raised the dead at the age of 10, stole the Philosopher's Stone in Vegas back in 1999, and survived the bloodsucking kiss of the Mosquito Queen. Wise in the hidden ways of the night, he's also a cynical bastard who stopped thinking of himself as the good guy a long time ago.