Dark Fantasy Short Stories

"The Deep End" by Robert McCammon: Everyone thinks the drowning death of Neil Calder in the local swimming pool was a tragic accident. Only his father knows better. Now, on the last night of summer, Neil returns in search of revenge.

Sometimes, a thread pulled through the flesh is all that holds you together. Sometimes, the blade of a knife or the point of a nail is the only way you know you're real. When pain becomes art and a quarter is buried deep within you, all you want is to be seen, to have value, to be loved. But love can be fragile, folded into an origami elephant while you disappear, carried on the musical notes that build a bridge, or woven into an illusion so real, so perfect that you can fool yourself for a little while.

Scant years after the Civil War, a mysterious family confronts the legacy that has pursued them across centuries, out of slavery, and finally to the idyllic peace of the town of Rosetree. The shattering consequences of this confrontation echo backwards and forwards in time, even to the present day.

Confronting werewolves, exploring haunted forests, calming angry spirits, and befriending ancient vampires. These are just a few of the tasks that Asher Norwood and his raven partner Aethon find themselves doing on any given day. Asher is a sin eater, a guild of mages that exists to combat dark magic wherever it rears its ugly head.

Prometheus - one of the keenest Titans to ever walk the earth. Until, that is, his weakness for the human race resulted in his imprisonment. For thousands of years, Prometheus's only certainty was his daily torture at Zeus's hand. Now, unchained by the Eternal Guardians, he spends his days in solitude, trying to forget the past. He's vowed no allegiance in the war between mortal and immortal, but when a beautiful maiden seeks him out and begs for his help, he's once again powerless to say no.

When Daddy put Granny out on the hill to die he thought that was that - but Daddy had another think coming to him. This is a short story of country witchcraft - just like it says in the subtitle. If you want to read something longer you REALLY ought to hunt up my novel Tatterdemon.

Before Jak became a hero, a horrible secret surrounded her birth. Witness the beginning of that secret as we follow her father while he searches for his wife, and finds more than he could possibly imagine.

Sometimes the world is a very dark place. You know the magic is still out there, but it feels distant or displaced. Voices in the Darkness is an attempt to create a link, to bring some of those voices together in a single work of art. Six award-winning authors lent their talent to this work. The stories are unique and dark, filled with wonder and emotion.

Crimson, the bloodthirsty, sadistic King of Hearts, is a villain. Or at least he’s supposed to be. That’s just how things work in Wonderland, a strange, fanciful place filled with heroes and villains who always seem to be at odds. Crim is in a very dark place after the hero Alister Kingsley wins the Wonderland joust and marries Madeline Hatter. He should have known better than to hope for true love since villains don’t get "happy endings". But there’s something fishy afoot.

Her voice is her brand. It’s also kind of a public safety concern. Marinella’s streaming channel serves up immersive sound, chill vibes, and just enough siren magic to keep her audience blissed out—without triggering another spontaneous group swim. But with sponsorships vanishing and rent climbing, she’s running out of ways to keep things ethical, engaging, and technically legal. Enter WaveSound: a glossy audio-tech giant with prototype headphones, aggressive KPIs, and one marketing director who’s a little too enthusiastic about her “authentic resonance.” They want her ...

Fantasy fans rejoice! Robert E. Howard may no longer be penning Conan tales but that doesn't mean you have to go without your fix of axe wielding barbarians, lusty wenches, and evil wizards! Literary Rebel is dedicated to bringing you a new crop of monthly fantasy fiction by talented authors.

On the lonely planet Satu, where sun sunlight is a precious commodity, and fear is a constant companion, Hana lives a solitary existence. Her world is shattered when a mysterious stranger seeks refuge from the terrifying Rugaru, creatures who stalk the night. They forge an unlikely bond as they navigate a treacherous landscape of secrets and survival. But their fragile alliance is tested when a sinister truth begins to unravel, forcing them to confront a destiny neither could have imagined. The line between hunter and hunted is blurred with each heartbeat, and their survival hinges on a ...

New to Castle Blackbourne, a pretty young housemaid is drawn to the dark and handsome master of the house, but a dalliance with the Earl of Blackbourne would be unwise…for a reason most deadly.

This lesser-known character isn't so much a typical Lumley hero as an innocent bystander, who all too often seems to be standing by in the wrong place at the wrong time - a man in collision with various weird horrors, who can never state definitely that the things he experiences are real. So here he is - the neither hero nor anti-hero narrator of these stories - though, in The Nonesuch and Others, he's at least seen to be brave, if not actually heroic.

"ALICE CROWLEY'S EROTIC STORIES ALWAYS HAVE SURPRISE ENDINGS!" ~ Hwk "I LOVED THE IMAGINATION OF THIS AUTHOR!" ~ Satisfied Kindle Reader "ALICE CROWLEY IS ONE OF OUR GREATEST LIVING WRITERS!" ~ G. Taylor Big, burly, alpha male KING KONG is at it again in this hot and hungry tale of tail! Two civilian women have a threesome one day in LA with a sexy chef named John, only the ladies are unaware of the man's hidden dark side. Things go all the way south as John shifts and mutates mid-coitus, turning into a half-beast, half-man with the size and strength to service a gaggle of females! Only ...

He can’t trust her, but he will claim her. Elise roams free in the anti-shifter research lab. For weeks, she walked by Ransom’s cage, ignoring him. Then she frees him, But she’s reluctant to escape. Ransom won’t leave her behind, She’s shifter, and shifters don’t abandon shifters. There’s more to this brave female than Ransom first realized. Ransom wants to find his pack. Elise wants to return to the anti-shifter research lab. Something has to give. It won’t be Ransom... ◆◆◆ Fight Hard. Love Harder. Ransom’s Revenge is a steamy, stand-alone romance in the Broken ...

An incubus disguised as a high school girl puts a disturbing spin on the teacher/student fantasy. An engineer creates a robot with unexpected consequences during the end of the world. A man becomes the pet of alien invaders. From stories of aliens in other worlds to those living among us, these tales will move you out of your comfort zone and open you up to experiencing something - or someone - completely different.

I've tracked down ten authors who have, at some point, participated in the act of cannibalism. I've collected one short story from each writer and combined them here for your amusement and observation. Isaac Cone presents “Margaritaville”, Jimmy Buffet’s hit song reinterpreted as a southern gothic. Sandeyu Yamamoto writes “Antiquing” about a family with a rare type of OCD where they haunt the object they most obsessed over.

From USA Today Bestselling Author, Uvi Poznansky, comes an anthology of dark fantasy stories: Come into a strange world, where everything is firmly rooted in the familiar—except for some quirky detail that twists the yarn and takes it for a spin in an unexpected direction. So prepare yourself: keep the lights on. If you like to read Edgar Allan Poe, you’ll love this horror anthology, where a woman—or rather, her ghost—finds a way to outwit the devil.★★★★★ "To say her stories are one of a kind would be a disservice as they are really one of no other kind: Twisted is unique....

Everything Aria tried to do in order to save her brother and help those closest to her has made everything worse. She's now alone with Beru, trying to figure out a way to fix what they've done, to undo what they've started. But Aria still can't get over the fact that Beru is a traitor to Onen Suun, the only man who dared to defy Dag'draath. Beru was the reason Onen Suun was forced to sacrifice his life to save the world.