Gothic Short Stories

Welcome to Winterhaven ~ Almost Nothing Is What It Seems... But the Sex is Real and the Secrets are Many! Down and out on her luck, Verity answers an ad in in a small country newspaper. The job offer sounds almost too good to be true and the salary is much more than she made in the city. Even with her doubts, though, Verity visits Winterhaven and falls in love with the rural area... but behind the lush green beauty of the countryside lies ugly secrets! Winterhaven Manor holds many secrets, and all those associated with the grand old estate seem to have secrets of their own to protect. ...

Between life and death lies obsession. Some nurses hold more than just medicine in their hands. Jillian walks the sterile corridors of the ER with a secret in her scrubs pocket—a laminated photograph of Jason, her first love, forever frozen at twenty-two. Perfect. Unchanging. And buried somewhere on the property at 1001 Magnolia. Through three failed marriages and a nursing career where the chaos of trauma medicine helps mask her own internal turmoil, Jillian wields the subtle power that comes with deciding who receives care, and how quickly. Every relationship is measured against the ...

In a remote countryside station long removed from the main line, a lonely stationmaster maintains a schedule no train follows—until one cold evening, a forgotten locomotive glides in from nowhere. The passengers have no faces. The whistle doesn’t echo. And the watch in his pocket, long dead, starts ticking again. The Stationmaster’s Watch is a chilling tale of memory, regret, and the hour that never ends—another eerie entry in the world of Sebastian Blackwood.

Struggling writer Elijah stumbles on an antique fountain pen buried in a forgotten desk. The words flow like never before—vivid, raw, unstoppable. But something isn’t right. The stories feel too real. Too alive. As fiction bleeds into reality, Elijah must uncover the pen’s secret before it finishes his story for him. Dark, elegant, and addictive, The Ink Thief is a gothic short story that grips from the first line and doesn’t let go.

The theme of trust, betrayed or fulfilled, runs through this collection of short stories: Parents lead children into peril, husbands abandon wives, wives manipulate husbands, and time undermines all. Love pangs, a favorite subject of the author, take on a new urgency as earthquakes, illnesses, lost wallets, and deaths of distant friends besiege his aging heroes and heroines.

Listeners know that few authors are able to create an atmosphere of unease and terror as well as Oates, a fact confirmed by the four novellas presented here. All the novellas in this collection revolve around the theme of love gone wrong - horribly, shockingly wrong.

The latest thrilling collection of “Vampire for Hire” stories featuring vampire private eye, Samantha Moon, including: Silver Hammer - When a silver hammer appears in the hands of one of Samantha Moon’s closest friends―along with a bloodthirsty need to use it―the vampire detective is about to discover just how clever the Universe can be... When Sam Met Santa - When Santa Claus shows up at Sam Moon's door, it's hardly the strangest thing that's ever happened to her. What happens next, however, is another story... One Swallow - A murdered wife. A desperate husband seeking revenge. ...

"Hampshire Stories by Joe Giampaolo is a stellar collection of short stories” (Literary Titan, 2020) - "A delightful story brimming with sophistication and charm" (Indies Today, 2022) The Hampshire Stories Series, Deluxe Edition is an award-winning anthology of selected short stories set in 19th-century England. This collection includes twelve short stories divided by genre (Previously published). -- 2020 Literary Titan Book Award, Gold Medal, (Hampshire Stories) -- 2022 Global Book Awards, Bronze Medal, Historical Romance, (Hampshire Stories) -- Readers' Favorite, Five Star Seal, (The ...

Theodora Goss's first major short story collection showcases such stories as "The Rose in Twelve Petals," "The Rapid Advance of Sorrow," "Lily, With Clouds," "In the Forest of Forgetting," "Sleeping With Bears," and many more.

Echoes of the Forgotten: A Short Story Collection In Echoes of the Forgotten, five gripping tales unfold, each exploring the fragility of memory, the unspoken darkness lurking in everyday lives, and the harrowing choices that define us. The collection opens with "Echoes of the Forgotten," where Avery wakes in a sterile room with a family she doesn’t remember. As she unraveled the truth behind her accident, she discovered a terrifying conspiracy that threatens to erase her past and her future. In "The Golem’s Heart," Grim, a golem brought to life to protect a village from monstrous raids...

A salacious secret at Pemberley. Will Mr. Darcy's carefully hidden delights be exposed? When Elizabeth Bennet, the woman Darcy yearns for but cannot marry, arrives unexpectedly at Pemberley, he struggles not to succumb to tormented desire. But when she discovers his secret dungeon, his gloves come off, and the pleasure begins. Mr. Darcy's Dungeon is a steamy Pride and Prejudice variation featuring Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, eroctic rom, steamy comedy, steamy romace, steamy historical romance, P and P steamy romance, steamy regency romance, Jane Austen eroctic comedy, Pride Prejudice ...

Our story begins in 1785 when a young seafarer, Captain Thornhill, disappears while visiting the shop of a barber in London, a certain Sweeney Todd whose shop in Fleet Street is situated by St. Dunstan's church, just round the corner from the famous and popular meat pie shop run by Mrs. Lovett. Thornhill was carrying a string of pearls as a gift for Johanna Oakley, the sweetheart of his friend Mark Ingestrie who is missing, presumed lost at sea.

Featuring work by M. R. James, Edith Nesbit, Oscar Wilde, Gertrude Atherton and many more, this enhanced audio collection of eight enduring stories - some well-known, others less familiar - transport you to a candlelit fireside to hear tales of lonely coastlines, deadly rivers, dark, creaking corridors, horrific, everlasting love and unknown entities lurking in black velvet shadows.

Delve into the darkest corners of the human psyche with "Nightmare: Blood and Bones," a chilling collection of 10 Gothic horror stories guaranteed to send shivers down your spine. Each tale is steeped in mystery, suspense, and the macabre, transporting readers to eerie settings that range from haunted mansions and underground labyrinths to sinister laboratories and cursed villages. This anthology features a diverse cast of tormented characters, each struggling to survive in a world filled with malevolent spirits, insatiable bloodlust, and deadly secrets. Witness the terror that unfolds as a...

When a mega popular band from Liverpool sang about Maxwell’s silver hammer, most listeners considered it a catchy, if dark tune. Flash forward half a century later, and something curious is happening around the world. Magic is returning-powerful enough to activate creations once lying dormant. Including some classic songs. When a silver hammer appears in the hands on one of Samantha Moon’s closest friends-along with a bloodthirsty need to use it-the vampire detective is about to discover just how clever (and literal) the universe can be..... Click BUY NOW or READ FOR FREE today!

Samantha Moon returns in an all-new story! Whoever heard of a Leprechaun losing his pot of gold? As Sam digs deeper, she’s faced with the question: was the gold lost or was it stolen? Or maybe, just maybe, something else? The search is on for what might just prove to be Sam’s wildest case yet! Click BUY NOW or READ FOR FREE!

A boy with a dream. A demon with no name. A childhood in suburbia like a lucid dream. It all comes together, in no way predictable. But, in every way true. The truth has emerged about life, and its parallel worlds. Many will never get it. Some, unfortunately, will forever fear it...

A Collection of Folk Horror Novellas What if the land remembers? What if it never forgives? Step into five isolated villages where ancient rituals still hold sway, grief grows like roots beneath the soil, and forgetting can be fatal. From forest pacts and weatherbound sacrifices to mirrored souls and orchards that bloom with teeth, The Root Remembers gathers five original folk horror tales that peel back the pastoral to reveal the rot beneath. Inside, you’ll find: The Root That Weeps – A grieving woman inherits a cabin with a sealed root cellar... and a tree that feeds on loss. The ...

When revenge meets redemption, even eternal ice can burn. Last survivor of a murdered coven, Sera infiltrates the frozen fortress of a cursed winter demon seeking vengeance against the Winter Court. But Kairos isn't the monster she expected—he's a collector of frozen treasures, preserving what his cruel kin would destroy. His frost-touched caress should repel her summer magic. Instead, their powers merge in an impossible fusion of ice and fire that could transform their world... or shatter it completely. As ancient magics awaken and forbidden attraction burns, Sera must choose: cling to ...

Beneath the serene facade of Twin Pines, an ancient evil waits in the shadows. For Emma Flowers, a troubled teenager grappling with her father's mysterious disappearance and her mother's overbearing nature, life has become a labyrinth of bad moods and unanswered questions. Then, after a night of bad storms, Emma finds her neighbor’s dog dead in the middle of the street. As the mystery intensifies, teenagers around town begin falling into coma-like, nightmare states. As the creature moves in on Emma, she begins to uncover the evil’s origins, discovering dark parts of her own past in the ...