Horror Step

The Ghosts of Grand Central is a collection of 13 stories. A weaving of tales filled with haunting ghosts, whimsical spirits, and imagination laced with historical details and interesting trivia.... The stories vary in time period from the 1800s to the present, from pure imagination to historically based fiction.

Little did he know his lovely misty city Saturday morning, was about to become a nightmare.... The young man dashed to the hall leading out to 42nd street, then cut a sharp right and jogged down and up the ramp past the Oyster Bar...the mist swirled after him, going over the bridge overpass, misting walkers in its path, those who had umbrellas opened them...it followed him as he pushed through the heaver doors to gain access to the marble stairs up to the offices on floors above. The thing swirled up the stairs after him like an amorphous polar bear...

The first short story - "The Tomb of Sara" - was written by English navy officer, and writer, Frederick George Loring. It was one of the very first stories from the last century featuring a lady vampire. The feminine element represents the connection with "Luella Miller" by Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman. The inhabitant of a haunted house sucks life out of everyone who gets interested in her - and the atmosphere gets denser throughout the story.

Tom is a gay young artist struggling to find success in New York City. For Tom, a love life seems an impossibility. One day, his hope in romance revives when he encounters Cal - a charming stranger, but...it might be a problem that Cal was killed in the First World War - 100 years ago! Then again, death might be just the beginning - the beginning of romance!

Melanie doesn't understand why she's not allowed in the cellar, and the curiosity is getting the better of her. Finally, she's determined there's no way around it. Even if her parents and her nanny will be angry she just has to understand why she hears noises and why she's not allowed inside. This thrilling little gem is yet another example of why Arthur Pendryll is rapidly gaining a name in the world of short horror fiction.

"Beyond the Wall of Sleep" is a short story from 1919 based on the innovative (at that time) idea of using psychology for explaining real-life issues. Incidentally, a near namesake song ("Behind the Wall of Sleep") appeared on the debut album of Black Sabbath. The second story, "From Beyond" (written in 1920, published in 1934), hovers around the theme of a mad scientist willing to peek beyond reality. It inspired a few films, songs by death-metal bands, and it even features in the PC game, "Half-Life". The last story of the trio is "The Transition of Juan Romero", from 1919. The feature "character" is a mysterious evil encountered in an ancient ritual to the Mexican deity, Huitzilopochtli.

I am a shadow. I live in the dark recesses of the darkest places in the tunnels of Grand Central Station, but I do not stay put there; I am free to pass into the light. I wander among the vast marble passages. Sometimes, I make myself as noticeable as possible. I have prevented muggings by casting an ominous shadow in front of the intended victims to warn them. I like to think of myself as an angel; a shadow angel.

In the mode of a story like the classic Twilight Zone television series: A young woman loses herself in the rush of Grand Central Station, waking up in a mysterious place with a bizarre history....

"Jekzorcist. Shag vtoroj. Igra nachinaetsja" - fantasticheskaja povest' Pavla Korneva, zhanr geroicheskaja fantastika, boevoe fjentezi. Besy iz veka v vek rvutsja v dushi ljudej iz seroj bezdny, v kotoroj nikogda nichego ne proishodilo i nikogda nichego proishodit' ne budet...Jekzorcisty i jekzekutory molitvami i ognem spasajut dushi besnovatyh i izgonjajut nechistyh obratno v porodivshuju ih pustotu...Tak bylo s samogo sotvorenija mira i tak dolzhno bylo byt' do konca ego dnej.

Сколько попаданцев кругом. И все, конечно, невольные. Никто не мечтал провалиться в черную нору и огрести приключений. Всех закинули без спроса. Хоть один из них оглянулся на оставленных родных?

James, hoping to recover from a broken heart (broken by both girl and a boy), has taken off from college and rented a caretaker’s cottage in a cemetery on the edge of a small town, where he plans to work on his master’s thesis in what seems to be a setting of ideal quiet. But James’ sensitivity unexpectedly allows him to hear the voices of the various spirits who inhabit the cemetery along with him. He proceeds to change his thesis to "A History of American Gravestone Carvings" and designate himself the related task of writing down the stories of the ghosts he encounters.

Ghost stories by M. R. James are pretty varied, and based on the genre of Gothic novels. The plot of "Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad" is unveiled when Professor Parkins finds a whistle engraved with a Latin inscription... and blows it. "The School Story", builds a mystic and fearsome atmosphere around a mysterious Byzantine coin. Once again, well-chosen voices, superb music, and original cover-graphics serve to enhance the feel of the stories.

After a blizzard in New York City, a huge snowman appears mysteriously outside of Grand Central Station and everyday seems to grow larger while also appearing at another door. What at first was funny becomes more and more menacing. Elsewhere in Grand Central, a man with an icy soul named Clinton Rudge fumes with anger at the cheerful holidaymakers filling the station. After making an evil wish, he vanishes....

This audiobook features "The Tenant of the Cedars" by Mary Elizabeth Penn - a story about the vengeance of the dead. Little is known of the author other than the fact that she was published in magazines in the late Victorian era. On the other hand, Bram Stoker (author of the famed novel "Dracula") is a legend in the horror world. This collection features Stoker's short story, "A Dream of Red Hands". The theme is crime and punishment, seasoned with a hint of redemption.

The Ghosts of Grand Central stories are interwoven with the dual themes of ghosts and the Grand Central Station Terminal. The stories vary in time period from the 1800s to the present, from pure imagination to historically based fiction. Some of the stories are humorous, some thought provoking, and some are frightening. Generally, the stories are short in length, the thought being that one might listen to this audiobook on a train, and that in transit concentration and time may be limited.

"Dracula's Guest" is one of the stories published only after Stoker's death, and even though Dracula is in the title, he will not make it into the story. Interestingly enough, Jonathan Harker, the actual guest - also does not appear. This short story is actually an original introduction to Dracula. It is a slightly altered version of a chapter of the novel that was discarded during preparations for print. The final story is "The Room in the Tower", by Edward Frederic Benson. Strange, unsettling atmosphere is present right from the beginning, and it intensifies via recurrent nightmares - right up to the shocking climax of the final scene.

The pioneer of modern-era horror stories, Howard Phillips Lovecraft, meets one of his "gurus" - Edgar Allan Poe (Lovecraft himself is sometimes referred to as E. A. Poe's direct successor). "William Wilson" is a typical specimen of Poe’s fantastic, even mystic style that won him world renown. H. P. Lovecraft is also the author of the other two short stories - "The Terrible Old Man" and "Ex Oblivione". Curiously enough, Lovecraft's name now defines one of the subgenres of horror literature (the fear of the unknown, as opposed to a bloodbath).

"The Music of Erich Zann" by H. P. Lovecraft: the author himself considered the story to be one of his masterpieces, and it is often deservedly included in various horror-story collections. The second short story was written by Bram Stoker. Indeed, THAT Stoker who wrote the epistolary novel "Dracula" - the very first novel that dealt with a vampire legend. "The Judge's House" (written in 1914) completes the collection, and its strongest point is building the atmosphere of fear, which is underlined by excellent voices and music.

Trapped between his real life and his dreams of being a creative writer Adam lives in quiet desperation, only on his daily commute on the train to Grand Central does he find he is able to escape in private world writing and imagination. His life as an accountant is an endless grey reality -- until one day as the train moves into the darkness of the tunnel.

The author of the first short story - "The Haunted Dolls' House" - is Montague Rhodes James, "master of terror and monstrous visions". "Cool Air" and "Azathoth" by Howard Phillips Lovecraft complete the collection. The atmosphere of horror and mystery is underlined by excellent performances by all actors and music.