There was a legend about the sugar cane fields. Everybody knew not to go in there after dark, especially under the light of the harvest moon. Andrew's Uncle Joe disappeared in there. The only trace ever found of him was his partially smoked cigar.One October night, Andrew set out to discover what happened to Uncle Joe. He took his younger sister with him and went looking for his missing uncle.There was a legend about the sugar cane fields. Everybody knew not to go in there after dark, especially under the light of the harvest moon. Andrew's Uncle Joe disappeared in there. The only trace ever found of him was his partially smoked cigar.One October night, Andrew decided to find out what happened to Uncle Joe. He took his younger sister with him and went looking for his missing uncle.This story was originally published under the title "The Halloween Story". The Courier newspaper supplied the opening lines of a Halloween story and contestants had to continue it. My story won first place.1,784 words

What happens when Greg's romantic evening is ruined by the ghosts of an old house? In this short and funny tale, find out how Greg takes action against the long lost souls that call his recently inherited estate, home.A ship burns, sinking into the dark sea. There is only one survivor—a child hunted for the power of her song. Hidden away on an isolated island, Lilette buries her power deep, convinced it caused the deaths of those she loves.But she can’t run from who she is. And when her secret is revealed, the only thing that can save her is her song. It’s time to rise up and become what she was always meant to be: the most powerful witch ever born.

Shortly before leaving work for the day, George received a call from a distant relative telling him he was the sole heir of his great grandfather's castle in England.This will give me time to work on my new novel about a haunted castle.I can't wait to tell Henrietta and the kids about our new found riches.George's dead relatives are about unleash the forces of evil even George can't stop.Shortly, before leaving work for the day, George received a call from a distant relative telling him he was the sole heir of his great grandfather's castle in England."Wow, I've always dreamed of living in a castle ever since I was a little boy. This will give me time to work on my new novel about a haunted castle. I can't wait to tell Henrietta and the kids about our new found riches. We will have to leave by the end of the week to be in time for the reading of the will and sign all the appropriate documents," he said excitedly.The whole family instantly fell in love with the castle and everything in it, but it wouldn't be long before their dreams would be shattered. Everything seemed fine for a few months. One day when the children were playing in the dungeon, one child came across an old book. They were amazed at the pictures of demons, witches, and ghouls as they flipped through the old pages. The cover of the book was too dusty to read, so they just kept gazing at the pictures. They ran across some words that were surely demonic, but the children didn't realize how powerful these words would be when read aloud. These words would end up destroying the whole family and everything that is cursed in these castle walls.As the children read the ancient incantation, the thunder got louder and screams and moans could be heard within the castle walls. Henrietta went searching frantically through the castle to find her children, but there was no sign of either child. It was as if the castle had opened up and swallowed them whole. The children didn't realize the words they had read were from the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead. It was thought by the local villagers to have been burned with the witch that practiced black magic from its pages.There was no stopping the undead from the terror that was bestowed on George's family. George didn't have the strength or the will to stop undead's grasp of horror and macbre.

During December 1900 the three lighthouse keepers of Eilean Mor in the Flannen Isles disappeared without a trace. Speculation has followed for years thereafter until the personal journal of one of the keepers was found.The pioneer of what has come to be known as Psychedelic Pulp brings his mix of madness and adventure to digital singles. Chuck Miller, the creator of The Black Centipede introduces The Fabulous World of Zenith, a new and original series that will examine the world of the Black Centipede, Vionna Valis, Mary Kelly and Doctor Unknown Junior from a variety of strange and oblique angles. The first episode in Miller’s series focusing on the city in which his characters live and die takes a look into The Journal of Blood Mary Jane: My Florida Idyll. For the first time, the Black Centipede's closest friend and most implacable opponent, the mysterious and deadly Mary Jane Gallows, pulls back the shroud on her life in her own words. Thrill to her surreal encounters with Ponce De Leon, Cotton Mather, Professor James Moriarty, Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin, Mary Pickford, H. P. Lovecraft, and many others-- including her father, the diabolical genius known as Jack the Ripper

The end of the world started in Glasgow, with a kiss. Two people - two creatures - fated to be eternal enemies downed their blazing spears and loved. To do so, they broke rules hardwired into the DNA of the universe. The universe noticed. The universe broke. Now Heaven and Hell are hunting them. Nobody on Earth can help them. Worst of all, the fabric of reality is unravelling around them, the Apocalypse has been brought forward a millennium, and it might all be their fault. On cold streets, the last tattered remnants of humanity must draw faith in a world that has no more use for them. As the masses pray and crawl on bloody knees, the few must restore the fearful symmetry between good and evil - for the sake of all. Blood will flow. Days will end. Fire will fall.

No one from Logan's former life seems able to see or hear him, making his afterlife little more than a miserable nightmare. That is, until the day of his funeral, when the bitterly sarcastic Zoe, a friend from his childhood, starts calling him out at his own wake. Now his only chance at moving on means dealing with his sordid past—and the girl he never really got over.Logan woke up with a big problem.He’s extremely dead.No one from his former life seems able to see or hear him, making his afterlife little more than a miserable nightmare. That is, until the day of his funeral, when the bitterly sarcastic Zoe, a friend from his childhood, starts calling him out at his own wake. Now his only chance at moving on means dealing with his sordid past—and the girl he never really got over.

Greg King is being chased through a graveyard by a shadowy madman bent on killing him. An old secret has finally come back to haunt him.Greg King is being chased through a graveyard by a shadowy madman bent on killing him. The drugs in his system are making it hard to coordinate, and the Grave Digger knows this. A terrible secret is about to revive, and come back for final revenge. You can't hide from your past.

Popular collegian Willy takes his apprehensive friend Spencer out on a double date to experience his first time...killing somebody.The United Kingdom is free of rabies, but the danger is ever-present.Billy Harsley is eleven and hyperactive. School bores him and he longs to have adventures like Huck Finn. He has run away for the third time and is sleeping rough on the marshes near Great Yarmouth, while the police search for him in the town.A German coaster has just tied up in the port, ready to unload, but there are problems on the ship, mechanical and animal. Both the Captain's dogs, unknown to him, have been infected with rabies. As he goes to feed them there is an explosion and the little mongrel, Mukki, escapes while his attention is diverted.Before long both boy and dog are on the same marsh. Add in a meeting with the marsh 'ghost' and the mixture begins to brew. It is soon a question of who will have the last laugh...

Tom Lowell enjoys walks with his daughter, and uses their time together to teach Alexis about life. He didn't know he would have to teach her about survival.Tom Lowell enjoys walks with his daughter, Alexis, and uses their time together to teach the kindergartener about life. The lake near her school is an idyllic place for their one on one time. But when their walk is interrupted by somehing neither has ever seen before, Tom must teach her about survival.This is a short story, approximately 4400 words, and is meant as a quick, creepy read. I hope you enjoy.

Being thirteen has pitfalls of its own, but growing up has never been this hard. Jenna had promised her mother that if the worst happened during her dad’s weekend, they would meet at Red Hill Ranch. When she finds seven words spray-painted on her dad’s wall the morning after a deadly outbreak, she makes a promise to herself: to get to the ranch with her seven-year-old sister, Halle, and to get them both there alive. **Among Monsters** is the companion novella to **Red Hill**, both exploring from different perspectives what many broken families experience every other weekend: What if your children aren't with you when the world ends? What would you do to get to them? What would they go through to get to you? For Jenna, seeing her mother again is worth everything. Determined to keep her promise, she is faced with experiences and decisions that force her to leave her childhood behind.

Ed, an American author on the hunt for a story for his next book, arrives in London looking for inspiration. A stranger in a strange city, he's haunted by a deadly secret that refuses to stay buried, and no matter how hard he tries he cannot escape the manifest sins of his past. What Ed wants is answers, what he finds is something he definitely didn't bargain for: the beautiful and untouchable Andeanna Menderes. Andeanna is a woman who is dangerously bound to one of London's most notorious crime lords, and if they are caught together it could mean death for them both. Ensnared in an illicit affair that can only be conducted in the shadows, Ed's world is turned upside down as a series of shattering revelations blurs the line between what's real and what's not...

Seven “masterfully told” stories of suspense and nightmarish drama from the National Book Award–winning author of Them (The Guardian). With the novella and six stories collected here, Joyce Carol Oates reaffirms her singular reputation for portraying the dark complexities of the human psyche. The title novella tells the story of Marissa, an eleven-year-old girl with hair the color of corn silk. When she suddenly disappears, mounting evidence points to a local substitute teacher. Meanwhile, an older girl from Melissa’s school is giddy with her power to cause so much havoc unnoticed. And she intends to use that power to enact a terrifying ritual called The Corn Maiden. In “Helping Hands,” published here for the first time, a widow meets an Iraq War veteran in a dingy charity shop, having no idea where the peculiar encounter is about to lead. In “Fossil-Figures,” a pair of twins—an artist and a congressman—never outgrow an ugly sibling rivalry. And in “A Hole in the Head,” a plastic surgeon gives in to an unusual and dangerous request. Together, these seven tales offer “a virtuoso performance” of “probing, unsettling, intelligent” storytelling from one of the world’s greatest writers of suspense (The Guardian). “The seven stories in this stellar collection from the prolific Oates may prompt the reader to turn on all the lights or jump at imagined noises. . . . This volume burnishes [her] reputation as a master of psychological dread.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review “For horror stories to be truly horrific, the reader has to care. Oates feels this deeply in her writing, and delivers with style.” —The Independent “Further confirmation of a unique writer’s restless, preternatural brilliance.” —The Guardian

When the Colonial Marines set out after their deadliest prey, the Xenomorphs, it’s what Corporal Hicks calls a bug hunt—kill or be killed. Here are fifteen all-new stories of such “close encounters,” written by many of today’s most extraordinary authors. Set during the events of all four Alien™ films, sending the Marines to alien worlds, to derelict space settlements, and into the nests of the universe’s most dangerous monsters, these adventures are guaranteed to send the blood racing— One way or another. CHANCE ENCOUNTER by Paul Kupperberg REAPER by Dan Abnett BROKEN by Rachel Caine RECLAMATION by Yvonne Navarro BLOWBACK by Christopher Golden EXTERMINATORS by Matt Forbeck NO GOOD DEED by Ray Garton ZERO TO HERO by Weston Ochse DARK MOTHER by David Farland EPISODE 22 by Larry Correia DEEP BACKGROUND by Keith R.A. DeCandido EMPTY NEST by Brian Keene DARKNESS FALLS by Heather Graham HUGS TO DIE FOR by Mike Resnick and Marina J. Lostetter DEEP BLACK by Jonathan Maberry DISTRESSED by James A. Moore DANGEROUS PREY by Scott Sigler SPITE by Tim Lebbon

Tremble in fear at this terrifying collection of flash fiction!Just a little…Haunting – These tomes of terror will stay with you long after you put your book down and go to bed for the evening. They’ve been known to burrow themselves into a reader’s imagination and are capable of warping dreams into twisted, unspeakable nightmares.Just a little…Unique – These aren’t your standard horror stories. Don’t think this collection will include tales of haunted mansions, or blood sucking vampires. Expect one-of-a-kind takes on every gothic ghoul and hideous monster you read about in this book.Just a little…Frightening – Prepare yourself for some of the most chilling flash fiction ever penned. The mad genius, Vincent V. Cava, has done it again with the latest entry in his creepy catalogue. Do yourself a favor and leave the lights on when you read it.Just A Little…Terrible

The rural community of Owensville has grown old. The glass factory that once gave that town heart has been shuttered for decades. Yet the residents still hope that Mr. Turner will rise from his bed to bring life and industry back to their sleepy streets. Each morning those residents gather at the foot of Mr. Turner's crumbled wall and pray that man's bones provide answers they desperately need.Following the death of her father, Lauren Freeman decides to pay an overdue visit to Owensville, the town of her family’s origins. She travels to the estate of her grandfather, Roscoe Turner, a man who built and managed the great glass factory that long ago provided purpose and means for the families who settled in that rural town. Lauren is shocked to discover that one of the walls to her grandfather’s home has collapsed, and that Grandpa Roscoe’s body sleeps in a bed exposed to wind, sun and rain. Yet cousin Maximillian holds up a hand and tells Lauren that calling for help can no longer do any good, and Lauren must learn what forces Max to keep a family skeleton in the daylight