The Death Agreement

      Kristopher Mallory
     The Death Agreement

Jon Randon recounts the life and death of his best friend. After a brutal injury leaves Jon trapped in a nearly decommissioned medical hospital, he tries to find the man he used to be by exploring the closed down sections of the military base. When a secret room dating back to the civil war is uncovered, Jon learns that some discoveries can't be forgotten. Part One of the Jon Randon Series.Dedicated to memory of Major Jesse Taylor.We made a pact. He lived up to his end by dying. I tried to live up to my end by following The Death Agreement.What you will find within these pages is a true recounting of a man's life as seen through my eyes. It's almost an impossible task when some of what you see can't be real and what is real you may refuse to see.Human beings have a capacity to dread the truth, to distort facts when they don't fit our predefined notions of how the world should work. We forget that reality isn't what we want it to be. We ignore the signs that our universe doesn't care about us. It constantly changes to suit its own needs. Nothing is perfect. This includes the focus of my story. People come and go. Pieces don't fit neatly together. Doubt clouds judgment. Mistakes are made. All hell breaks loose when no one is looking. I guess that's how life is supposed to be.For me, it doesn't matter anymore. What happened, happened, and I'm still bound by the terms set.Please consider this dedication a warning sticker. Come in if you dare, leave if you don't. Some might call this experience horror. It is that, no doubt, but at the root I suppose it's a tale of transformation.Speaking of transforming: Have you ever stood in a dim bathroom and stared at a mirror? For the past 18 months, I've done that every day. What I see in the glass consumes me. My silhouette fades into a thousand different terrifying faces; each sharpens to crystal clarity before morphing into someone else. I don't know who these people are, but I recognize them all. I've learned that what we see isn't a reflection. We are the reflection.My name is Jon Randon and I'm going to tell you a story.

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    The Box: Uncanny Stories

      Richard Matheson
     The Box: Uncanny Stories

What if you were told that you could make a fortune just by pushing a button on a box? But pressing this button will simultaneously cause the death of another human being somewhere in the world . . . someone you don't know. Would you still push the button? "Button, Button," Richard Matheson's chilling tale of greed and temptation, is now the basis of The Box, the new film from the director of Donnie Darko. In addition, this outstanding collection also contains many other unforgettable stories by Matheson, the award-winning author of I Am Legend and What Dreams May Come. "The inventive plots and spare but convincing portraits of ordinary men and women caught up in forces beyond their control demonstrate why Stephen King has called Matheson his most significant influence." --Publishers Weekly

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    Memories

      Gene Denham
     Memories

A young artist uses the memories of the dead to create wonderful paintings. But not all of the memories are pleasant.Every night Kevin would dream the same dream. Each time Kevin dreamt the same dream it seem to become more and more vivid. It was as though the dream was drawing him closer and closer until he could reach out and touch it. The dream would start out with Kevin driving down a road on a stormy night. As his car would approach the destination Kevin would see a gate at a cemetery and some devilish looking man in a cape with blazing red eyes waving him to come in but Kevin was too scared to enter the gates. As Kevin would push on the gas pedal to speed off his car would stall and the devilish man in the black cape would approach Kevin's car then Kevin would wake up screaming in horror and sweating profusely. Kevin tried his best before he went to sleep not to read or watch any scary movies on the television so his mind wouldn't be fixated on that horrible dream. Kevin was so scared of his dream that he would leave the light on in his room all night in hopes he could sleep soundly but that wasn't the case.Kevin's dream was about to become a reality that would open the gates of hell with no way out but into the fiery pit of hell.

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    The Perfume

      Caroline B. Cooney
     The Perfume

An enticing new perfume has a deadly bite When fifteen-year-old Dove Daniel’s friends discover the new perfume called Venom, they become infatuated. They have Obsession and Poison; now they simply must have Venom. When they discover it’s available at Dry Ice, the coolest store in the local mall, they rush over after school. But to Dove, Venom seems inexplicably terrifying, as does the store that carries it. If she breathes in its potent scent, she is sure something terrible will happen. At first whiff, she senses something primitive and dark. Once she’s inhaled the scent, she begins to feel something . . . different . . . and her heart beats in double time. What has Venom’s bite awakened inside her? This ebook features an illustrated biography of Caroline B. Cooney including rare images and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection.

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    Arena 13

      Joseph Delaney
     Arena 13

Welcome to Arena 13. Here warriors fight. Death is never far away... Leif has one ambition: to become the best fighter in the notorious Arena 13. Here, punters place wagers on which fighter will draw first blood. And in grudge matches, they bet on which fighter will die. But the country is terrorized by the creature Hob, an evil being who delights in torturing its people, displaying his devastating power by challenging an Arena 13 combatant in a fight to the death whenever he chooses. And this is exactly what Leif wants... For he knows Hob's crimes well. and at the heart of his ambition burns the desire for vengeance. Leif is going to take on the monster who destroyed his family. Even if it kills him.

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    In the Dark

      E. Nesbit
     In the Dark

Edith Nesbit's natural gift for storytelling has brought her worldwide renown as a classic children's author. But beyond her beloved children's stories lay a darker side to her imagination, revealed here in her chilling tales of the supernatural. Haunted by lifelong phobias which provoked, in her own words, 'nights and nights of anguish and horror, long years of bitterest fear and dread', Nesbit was inspired to pen terrifying stories of a twilight world where the dead walked the earth. All but forgotten for almost a hundred years until In the Dark was first published 30 years ago, this collection finally restored Nesbit's reputation as a one of the most accomplished and entertaining ghost-story writers of the Victorian age. With seven extra newly-discovered stories now appearing for the first time in paperback, this revised edition includes an introduction by Hugh Lamb exploring the life of the woman behind these tales and the events and experiences that contributed to her...

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    Ghosts of War

      Sajjad Tameez
     Ghosts of War

Captain Barnes and his team of specialists are assigned to a mission in Germany. At first it seemed like a straight forward rescue but this couldn’t be further from their reality. Experiments were being conducted on humans. And the subjects were all behaving in a way that was incredibly far from human. Barnes and his team soon found themselves in the heart of the chaos - with nowhere to run.A 10 minute long script set in a dystopian future where political correctness has gone mad. This was originally written around 2000 for a competition run by the SciFi channel on cable tv.The idea being to write a script for a 10 minute long movie, the winners script was actually made & shown in cinemas all across the UK.My entry came in the top 50 winning me a red SciFi channel t-shirt telling me to "Smell the coffee", an inflatable grey alien (its still sitting on top of my wardrobe!) and a glow in the dark mini alien.One of the judges was Douglas Adams & I am proud that he read my work before he died.Please note - THIS IS A SCRIPT!

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    Three Dead Hands

      Luke M. Charles
     Three Dead Hands

Jack Reese makes a living cleaning up the gruesome remains of corpses and is hired for a job in a remote mechanic shop at the dead of night. But something in the darkness that surrounds Jack and his work crew is stalking them. Jack also has visions of memories he swears are not his own. Are they real or is he imagining them? The answers lie hidden in the darkness but the darkness always lies.This short contemporary fantasy explores the bond between grandfather and grandson. Beau knows the town thinks his grandfather Leon is crazy. Leon doesn't help that fact by claiming to be Ponce de Leon while manning the counter of his liquor store, The Fountain. But crazy to outsiders is just life to Beau, who for as long as he can remember has been following his grandfather into the Louisiana swamps and looking for the right place to set their fires."At some point in the story, I found myself almost wishing to be burned, which must mean that this story is doing something remarkable." -Matt Williamson, Unstuck Books.EXCERPT - Grandpa Leon was a firebug for as long as Beau could remember. He was not one of those you see on TV, setting fires to abandoned homes and warehouses and accidently torching sleeping homeless. It was nothing like that--or maybe it was, just with a different style.For one, Grandpa was a seasonal firebug. When the spring rains tapered off and the swamps started heating up--bluegill turning circles in their shrinking pools, gator trails drying into mud tracks between the islands--Beau began listening for the antsy snap of that Zippo lid coming out of his grandpa's trouser pocket. It was like the sun's hot eye set something afire in the old man and he'd whisper in his thick Cajun, "Cher, let's you and me go find something to do."

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    Such Wicked Intent

      Kenneth Oppel
     Such Wicked Intent

When his grieving father orders the destruction of the Dark Library, Victor retrieves a book in which he finds the promise of not just communicating with the dead, but entering their realm, and soon he, Elizabeth, and Henry are in the spirit world of Château Frankenstein, creating and growing a body. [Book two of The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein series.]

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    Mister Slaughter

      Robert R. McCammon
     Mister Slaughter

The world of Colonial America comes vibrantly to life in this masterful new historical thriller by Robert McCammon. The latest entry in the popular Matthew Corbett series, which began with Speaks the Nightbird and continued in The Queen of Bedlam, Mister Slaughter opens in the emerging metropolis of New York City in 1702, and proceeds to take both Matthew and the reader on an unforgettable journey of horror, violence, and personal discovery. The journey begins when Matthew, now an apprentice "problem solver" for the London-based Herrald Agency, accepts an unusual and hazardous commission. Together with his colleague, Hudson Greathouse, he agrees to escort the notorious mass murderer Tyranthus Slaughter from an asylum outside Philadelphia to the docks of New York. Along the way, Slaughter makes his captors a surprising - and extremely tempting - offer. Mister Slaughter is at once a classic portrait of an archetypal serial killer and an exquisitely detailed account of a fledgling nation still in the process of inventing itself.

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    The Last Apprentice: Grimalkin the Witch Assassin

      Joseph Delaney
     The Last Apprentice: Grimalkin the Witch Assassin

"I'm coming for you, and nothing living or dead can stop me." One witch is the most feared, the most ruthless, and the most deadly of all the witches in the county. If she hunts for you, she will find you. If you have crossed her, you don't stand a chance. She is the witch assassin, and her name is Grimalkin. Grimalkin's one alliance is with Tom Ward, the Spook's apprentice. With Tom, she plans to rid the world of the most terrifying evil, the Fiend, who once did her great wrong. For the first time, fans of the Last Apprentice series will hear the story from Grimalkin's side, as she is hunted herself by creatures of darkness set on revenge. Grimalkin has never been defeated. But can she survive an enemy created for the sole purpose of destroying her?

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    Spares

      Michael Marshall Smith
     Spares

They were raised for one chilling purpose.... A loner, an ex-cop, Jack Randall is the dangerous veteran of a savage war. All he's held dear has long been destroyed. For the last five years, he's been hiding out on a Spares Farm, guarding those who've been prisoners from birth. Now he's on the run with seven of the Farm's inmates (well, six and a half), and the people who own them will do anything to get them back. What's worse, Jack is on a head-on collision course with a cold-blooded killer with one purpose: to cancel Jack once and for all. Jack has a tough decision to make: keep running or even the score. Either way spells trouble...the kind of trouble most people run screaming from. Who are the Spares? And what is their purpose? That is the most shocking revelation of all. From the Paperback edition.

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    Dancing in Darkness: The Damned

      Kassandra Alvarado
     Dancing in Darkness: The Damned

A mysterious man from Evelyn’s childhood appears after an accident on a snowy night on the road back to civilization. Driven to protect him, she faces dangerous opponents that are hellbent in condemning the young man to the tortures of the damned.Journey into the Darkside of the world with the hunters of Blackwood Paranormal Security Department as they unravel the mysteries of the night and protect the innocent.

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    Bougainvillea

      Carrie Ryan
     Bougainvillea

In the wake of the zombie apocalypse, the island of Curacao becomes one of the few remaining pockets of safety. Iza's father rules the island with a cruel and militant fist, showing little mercy to those who come begging at his docks. Iza chafes under his absolute control, refusing to believe that ruthlessness is the only path to survival. But when zombies breach their compound one night and rebels take her hostage, Iza must decide for herself what it truly takes to survive in a world filled with death and betrayal. Set in the zombie world of The Forest of Hands and Teeth, Bougainvillea is the story of growing up between two worlds: the living and the dead, the rulers and the ruled, the privileged and the cast off. PLEASE NOTE: this is a short story, not a full novel. It was originally published in the Zombies vs. Unicorns anthology and is included in the collection, The Dead and Empty World (also available).

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    Danse Macabre

      Laurell K. Hamilton
     Danse Macabre

These days, Anita Blake is less interested in vampire politics than in an ancient, ordinary dread she shares with women down the ages: she may be pregnant. And, if she is, whether the father is a vampire, a werewolf, or someone else entirely, he knows perfectly well that being a Federal Marshal known for raising the dead and being a vampire executioner, is no way to bring up a baby.

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