Dark Horror

A die-hard paranormal skeptics beliefs are turned upside down after a night of unimaginable terror trapped inside a notoriously haunted house. Pages torn from a lost journal recount a camping trip gone terribly wrong. A teenager investigates a knock at the basement door of an abandoned church in the woods. A late-night gas station clerk encounters disturbing pale figures in top hats. Airline passengers glimpse tentacled monsters outside the plane windows.

18-year-old Jana has always been a good girl. Despite being blonde and beautiful, she has always been shy and devoted to her studies, and always resisted temptation. But one day everything changes, as Jana finds herself thrust into a world of domination and submission, of lust and blackmail, of discipline and bondage. As Jana struggles to find her way in a new world which alternately thrills and horrifies her, she is forced to confront the worst and strongest urges of herself and others in a high-stakes game of blackmail and retribution. But Jana proves to be more difficult to control than ...

'Bright Lights' AJ Starr is a pro wrestler on the rise, and his life is about to change forever. Knowing this, he plans one last party with all of his best friends. The venue? Saxon Hills theme park, abandoned 10 years ago after its flagship ride burned down and killed nine innocent people. Some people say the place is haunted, but AJ knows from his time inside the squared circle that fantasy and reality are totally separate things. Or so he thought.

When the gods demand bloodshed, it will take a brave few to answer the call. Owen, Fioni, and Lady Danika have survived the horrors of warfare and the undead, but now they must face their greatest challenge yet: the fabled Mouth of the Gods. This treacherous passage will bring them to a haunted island, a place of untold danger, and perhaps the only way to kill the vampire queen Serina. But standing between them and victory are the island's deadly predators, and the ever-present danger of Serina herself. If you enjoy the dark fantasy epics of George R.R. Martin, Joe Abercrombie, David ...

Created as an homage to the 1980 classic horror anthology, Dark Forces, edited by Kirby McCauley, this collection contains 12 original novelettes showcasing today’s top horror talent. Dark Stars features all-new stories from award-winning authors and up-and-coming voices like Stephen Graham Jones, Priya Sharma, Usman T. Malik, Caroline Kepnes, and Alma Katsu, with seasoned author John F.D. Taff at the helm. An afterword from original Dark Forces contributor Ramsey Campbell is a poignant finale to this bone-chilling collection.

Two old friends on a fishing trip discover their love of stories may have opened a door to a different and much darker world. A middle-aged couple faces down an extinction–level cataclysm the only way they know how: together. A research student learns the horrifying delusions that have crippled a man for most of his life may be more than just the aberrations of a troubled mind. When a young woman in a yellow dress finds herself on an island inhabited by blade-wielding psychopaths straight out of a slasher movie, she must discover who she is and fight to make a place, and a name, for ...

The supernatural, the surreal, and the all-too real . . . tales of the dark. Such stories have always fascinated us, and modern authors carry on the disquieting traditions of the past while inventing imaginative new ways to unsettle us. Chosen from a wide variety of venues, these stories are as eclectic and varied as shadows. This volume of The Year's Best Dark Fantasy and Horror offers tales from some of today's finest writers of the fantastique. Sure to delight as well as disturb!

When Claire Ashford gets a job documenting the history of Gray Hollow Manor, a crumbling estate tucked deep in the mist-shrouded woods, she expects a fresh start and a chance to delve into the history of a stately home steeped in mystery. But the manor has secrets of its own. Shadows dance in darkened corridors, whispers drift through empty rooms, and the walls seem to breathe with life. As Claire explores the house’s haunted history, she uncovers stories of lost souls who have been tethered to the manor for centuries. Thomas Grayson, her boss, is a brooding enigma who knows more about ...

Announced thirty years ago from the now-defunct Pulphouse Press, S.P. Somtow's theme collection of stories about Fathers and Sons has been "about to come out" ever since. Diplodocus Press now brings the collection into print just as it would have been in the 1990s, an interesting snapshot of Somtow's career up to that moment. There are four stories in this mini-collection, with far-flung settings. "Kingdoms in the Sky," about a mafia don taking his son to Peru to participate in an ancient and terrifying ceremony; "Fire from the Wine-Dark Sea," in which a tormented poet with twin sons meets ...

An ancient blade awakens. A nameless boy takes it in hand. Something must break—his enemies, or his soul. In a dying empire, sixteen-year-old blacksmith’s apprentice Erikson Gray unearths Lightbearer, a lost sword bound to a forgotten voice. It whispers promises. It waits to be obeyed—and it has chosen him. Now hunted by the emperor, zealots, and the scattered powers of a fractured realm, Erik flees with two outcast knights and a band of thieves. But the blade’s voice grows louder. It knows his doubts. It feeds on his need. As trust rots and loyalty breaks, Erik must choose: forge ...

Vitus Adamson is falling apart. As a pre-deceased private investigator, he takes the prescription Atroxipine hourly to keep his undead body upright and functioning. Whenever he is injured, he seeks Niko, a bombshell mortician with bedroom eyes and a way with corpses, to piece him back together. Decomposition, however, is the least of his worries when two clients posing his most dangerous job yet appear at his door looking for their lost son.

Tormented and abused by her father, teenaged runaway Alex soon finds herself the victim of a vicious sex trafficker. When she escapes, Alex realizes there are far worse abuses to suffer in her unlucky life. But that all changes the moment she dies. Her abusers are about to find out KARMA IS A BITCH.

Horror writer Michael Richards is disturbed from his daily grind by blood dripping from the ceiling, which steadily worsens. Soon, the blood becomes Michael's personal metaphor in a battle of denial. When a compulsive gambler is forced to seek out a loan shark rooted in myth, he discovers the dark saviour teaches more to his pupils than deliverance from debt. Trapped within a room of sinister dolls, an average man is forced to confront his very worst fears ... and quickly learns staring into the abyss does not grant you a reprieve from them. Interweaving horror into socially relevant ...

After two thousand years of immortality, Timmy Valentine has finally become a real boy, having swapped his vampire nature with look-alike Angel Todd. But something is missing ... in a desperate bid to salvage his career, he goes on a world tour ... a harrowing, sweeping journey that stretches through Europe, the red-light districts of Bangkok, to the jungles of New Guinea. Scouring his past, he encounters Jack the Ripper, Bram Stoker, Oscar Wilde, Christopher Marlowe, and ultimately the Dark Lord himself - Dracula. "The closest thing to a nightmare ever put on paper" - Robert Bloch, author ...

Blaise is a shifter collared from birth to keep her from her abilities. It's been her dream to get the collar off and vanish into the countryside. Working as a highly paid whore has gotten her close - she can almost taste it. Until her Mistress dies, and the new Master burns her contract. Now everything is gone, and Blaise has to fight just to keep herself out of his hands. Keepers are charged with keeping the peace amongst shifters, mages, and humans. The Six Horsemen are an elite, high ranking, team, but to those who rule the kingdom, these six men are little more than ...

Would you kill your daughter to save the world? Thirty years ago, Bishop Kane made the ultimate sacrifice—he killed his own daughter to stop an unspeakable evil from consuming the world. Or so he thought. Now undead and bound to the secretive Ministry of the Wraith, Bishop hunts the supernatural from the shadows. But when his next target is revealed, the mission hits too close to home: his daughter is alive. And she’s no longer human. Sent back to the frozen town where he died, Kane walks into a living nightmare. A brutal blizzard cuts off all escape. The townspeople are changing—...

When horror writer Nick Steen gets sucked into a cursed typewriter by the terrifying Type-Face, Dark Lord of the Prolix, the hellish visions inside his head are unleashed for real. Forced to fight his escaping imagination - now leaking out of his own brain - Nick must defend the town of Stalkford from his own fictional horrors, including avascular-necrosis-obsessed serial killer Nelson Strain and Nick's dreaded throppleganger, the Dark Third.

“Forgive me, Father, for the hunger I feel when the moon is full and the wolf rises…” Tilda was sent to kill the Alpha Prime. Instead, he claimed her. Reyes Garza isn’t just an alpha—he’s a priest. A vessel for devotion, danger, and the beast inside him. When he saves her with a bite, their bond becomes a sacred curse. Now, trapped in the den of her sworn enemies, Tilda is hunted by her own desire…and a monster who prays for her soul while craving her body. As desire ignites and secrets unravel, Tilda and Reyes are forced to confront their deepest fears and darkest longings. ...

Like the tanning of a leathered corpse, the inaugural release of Grimoire seeks to stretch the fleshy bounds of dark fiction and horror. Included within these unhallowed book are tales of medieval horror and cacophony, Lovecraftian delights and wretched Kaiju, accursed djinn and pestilential priests, all brought together for the very first time in one horrific collection. Engaging and provocative, these tales of the damned stalk the graveyards at night, crawl up from the empty and wet places of this world, and haunt the dreams of all who hear them.

In the haunted village of Eldergrove, the legend of Elspeth, the Pumpkin Patch Witch, still sends chills through the hearts of the villagers. Once a woman of beauty and charm, Elspeth's descent into the dark arts unleashed a storm of cruelty—especially upon her own husband. Tormented by her wicked spells, Edmund sought a desperate escape from her spells and twisted grasp, but their love story ended in betrayal, and a curse that bound her spirit to the cursed pumpkin patch. Now, as the tale comes full circle, an eerie prophecy unfolds: the witch’s reincarnation rises from the very ...