Dark Fantasy Short Stories

In his Locus review of Two Worlds and in Between - the first volume of The Best of Caitlín R. Kiernan - Gary K. Wolfe wrote, “...it makes you wish the second volume were here now.” Well, the long wait is over. This second volume completes this ambitious undertaking, collecting the finest of Kiernan’s stories from 2004 to 2012, selected by the author herself. The book includes 25 short stories and one poem, plus the short novel Black Helicopters - more than 200,000 words of fiction, including the World Fantasy Award-winning “The Prayer of 90 Cats”.

Josh Malerman is a master weaver of stories—and in this spine-chilling collection he spins five twisted tales from the shadows of the human soul.

"Everything You've Always Wanted" by Mick Garris: It was supposed to be the night of his life - a celebration of his one hit slasher flick. But the price of admission is higher than this has-been filmmaker ever could have imagined. "The Land of Sunshine" by Kealan Patrick Burke: Although she was mute long before the affair that nearly wrecked their marriage, her silence has tortured her husband ever since. Now he will seek out what he has lost or be driven mad by remorse.

A Hot Erotic Story Designed for MAXIMUM AROUSAL. *Adults Only 18+* *Read On Your PC, Mac, Smartphone, Tablet Or Kindle! * Wet & Sticky: Vol. 9 (A Preview): Like most people their type, they wanted nothing more than a night of fun. He was a struggling young writer with a hankering for booze and a hunger for sweethearts. She was the perfect blend, cute, smart, and coy to a fault; the type of girl who had no idea just how beautiful she really was. But her silence belied a powerful lust. For behind closed doors, it is the quiet ones who make the most noise... Seize Your Copy NOW Tags: erotic ...

A collection of horror/thriller stories with surprise endings to chill you and thrill you to the bone. The nightmares include: JACK IN THE BOX: Harold fixes up old houses and sells them for a nice profit. That is, until he bought the dreaded house on Elm Street. THE SECOND VIRGIN BIRTH: At midnight on Christmas Eve, a nun rescues a baby left on the chapel steps in the freezing cold. GRANDPA: The zombie apocalypse has begun and Grandpa is near death in the next room. TATTOO: Bad things start to happen after Marla picks a ferocious black panther for the free tattoo she won. THE JACK THE ...

Love Is Absolutely Disgusting, and You Know It Licking the Bottom of the Love Jar is a collection of surreal fiction stories and bleak poetry. Using these strange offerings, we explore the topic of L-O-V-E for what it truly is: one part magical fantasy, and one part mental sickness, stirred together and served to those lost romantics who prefer their fables with an extra goop of weirdness. Let’s go ahead and ask ourselves the important questions, such as: Can a snake and a rabbit overcome the obstacles of their forbidden love? Can the boy get the girl when he's incapacitated by depression...

Within this audiobook, you'll find myriad approaches to Alice, from horror to historical, taking us from the nightmarish reaches of the imagination to tales that will shock, surprise, and tug on the heart-strings. So, it's time now to go down the rabbit hole, or through the looking-glass or...but no, wait. By picking up this audiobook and starting to listen to it, you're already there, can't you see?

There are stories we tell to pass the time… and then there are stories we never tell, because telling them gives them power. The Witch in the Well: Return of Her is one of those stories. Set in a small town carved into the wilderness — a place where everyone knows your name but no one dares speak of her — this tale unfolds like a nightmare remembered. It follows the slow unraveling of peace when a sinister presence, once banished, makes her return. What happens when you open the door to something you were never meant to find? And what happens when it finds its way back? In this story,...

As a child, Henry Cadmus lived on Catalina Island, a scenic vacationland off the Southern California coast. But Henry's experiences were far from idyllic. Today, even though Henry has seen firsthand the horrors of war, the ghastly images that haunt his dreams are ones he associates with his childhood... and the island: a snarling pig-man holding a cleaver; a jackal-headed woman on a high balcony, dripping blood; strange occult rituals... and worse. If it was up to Henry, he would avoid the island entirely.

If a person is frozen before they take their last breath, are they dead? Embark on an unforgettable journey through life, death, and the unknown in "Where the Others Go," the captivating seventeenth installment of The Night Portals Fantasy Series. Meet Teddy Haims, a man on the brink of accepting his fate—until a chance encounter with a representative from the premier cryogenics company, CryoCorp changes everything. At ninety-five years old, Teddy has savored the highs and lows of existence, yet time slips through his grasp like sand. Facing mortality, he grapples with the elusive concept...

Write Like Hell is the first horror and dark fantasy anthology released by Sentinel Creatives. Adapted from the zine released under the same name, Write Like Hell features stories from Scott Miller, Justin Probyn, and Mitchell Luthi. In this audiobook, you'll find a feast of fiction for you to sink your teeth into. This release see the debuts of not one but two authors.

The End is Coming. An extinction-level asteroid is cannonballing toward Earth. In humanity’s final hours, a lucky few earn a one-way ticket to the brand-new, ultra-immersive, fantasy-based VRMMORPG, Viridian Gate Online. Making that leap of faith might mean survival, but it comes with a steep price tag: “Travelers” will forever be stranded as digital avatars inside a fantastical world filled with vicious monsters, all-powerful AIs, and cutthroat players. Let the games begin....

"He had been created to replace a lost son. His face was made of porcelain and burnt clay formed his spine. The lips were painted on and showed a never-changing smile, while twisted copper wire held his body together. When the artificial boy looked down he could see through the gaps between the coils. There, deep down inside him, was a living thing - a fleeting flutter, visible for only one moment at a time. His creator called him Felix." In three interconnected short stories, Felix searches for the truth about how he came to be alive. He meets a strange butterfly catcher, a terrifying ...

Five full length books by Sharon Hamilton: Heavenly Lover, Underworld Lover, Underworld Queen, Honeymoon Bite, and Mortal Bite. These books are the entire works of Sharon's Paranormal series, her Golden Vampires of Tuscany and her Guardians. There is dark angel/vampire love waiting for you.

Unity waits. Unity is there to help people like you and me. Do not betray Unity. A house on the beach that no one ever visits. A house with a history. It craves company. A killer. The other side of the mirror. A seaside town, remote and fearsomely private. The fragments of a family, ancient and invulnerable. A Scottish town gripped by cold. A lone creature, isolated and far away. The ignored, the unwelcome, the denied. Solace comes from an unearthly, mysterious place. It comes at a price. * This is a collection of horror stories, birthed up and presented in all their grim glory. “We never...

The Ultimate Gothic Horror Collection is a fully indexed collection of classic gothic stories, read by four Audie-winning narrators. Included here are stories by Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, Robert Louis Stevenson, Sheridan Le Fanu, Oscar Wilde and Edgar Allan Poe.

Where the Shadows Feed: Volume II Short Tales of Horror Prepare to unravel the terrifying secrets that defy the boundaries between control and chaos. In this spine-chilling second volume, Joe Ippolito masterfully explores the thin line between human ambition and supernatural retribution, where every carefully constructed world can unravel in an instant. Venture into realms where reality bends and primal forces beyond comprehension lurk just beneath the surface. From a landscape architect's meticulously crafted garden that transforms into a living nightmare of ancient, malevolent spirits to ...

The four previous volumes in Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling's anthology series of fairly-tales retold with a distinctively modern edge have been hailded by reviewers as "brilliant", "provocative", and "disturbing". In this triumphant new collection of original fiction, 21 of today's leading writers spin the cherished fables of childhood into glittering gold - offering magical tales for adults, as seductive as they are sophisticated.

In this new collection, Richard Thomas has crafted 14 stories that push the boundaries of dark fiction in an intoxicating, piercing blend of fantasy, science fiction, and horror. Equally provocative and profound, each story is masterfully woven with transgressive themes that burrow beneath the skin.

Brian Lumley's Cthulhu Mythos writings began in the 1960s when he was included in new collections by August Derleth's Arkham House. While today, the author is probably better-known for his Necroscope and Psychomech series, he has continued with his Mythos stories for over 40 years. This volume spans that career, using Derleth's suggestion that the Mythos monsters could be viewed as "Elementals", and includes a new novella-length story.