Monster Fiction

The Summer of Love has been replaced by the Summer of Fear as a sadistic killer prowls the streets of San Francisco. Known only as 'The Gemini,' his brutal murders have the city paralyzed in a merciless grip of terror as he taunts police with a series of cryptic puzzles and the body count rises. As detectives work to unravel the Gemini's chilling clues, the line between nightmare and reality begins to blur when Cassie Kennedy—a newly separated young mother and part-time psychic—discovers that her dreams are foretelling the gruesome deaths of three women.

Three months ago, Tansy Bloom quit monster hunting. Since then, she’s been trying to live a normal life (whatever that means), but ending up single, unemployed, and living on a boat outside her godfather’s pub definitely wasn’t part of the plan. So, when Tansy’s ex-husband – fellow monster hunter Rex Barclay – turns up like a bad penny and asks for her help with his latest investigation, Tansy reluctantly agrees. At first, the job appears to be a straightforward monster hunt – following a spate of large creature sightings, Rex believes a werewolf is on the loose in Norfolk.

31 Brand-New Dark Fantasy Horror Stories. Bloody corridors of ancient rock. A castle surrounded by poisonous thorns. A lost temple of traps and corpses. A subaqueous cave at the bottom of a cursed lake. These are the places where secrets are buried, where ancient evils are summoned, where beasts are imprisoned, where the insane lie in wait. These are tombs of darkness and nightmare, where if you stare into the abyss, the abyss will stare back. Heed the warnings of your elders and return from whence you came. Ahead lie monster lairs.

It all starts with the radio. Dorothy's husband has left for work, and she is at the kitchen sink washing the dishes, listening to classical music. Suddenly, the music fades out and a soft, close, dreamy voice says, "Don't worry, Dorothy." A couple weeks later, there is a special interruption in regular programming. The announcer warns all listeners of an escaped sea monster. That afternoon, the seven-foot-tall lizard man walks through Dorothy's kitchen door. She is frightened at first, but there is something attractive about the monster, and the two begin a tender, clandestine affair.

It was an ordinary job. Another night, another asshole collector of the supernatural. I free some poor little beasties from their cages, pocket a few trinkets to pay my bills, and burn the place down on my way out. Just call me the Robin Hood of monster emancipation. I didn’t count on three manly monsters following me home like lost puppies. Stunningly hot lost puppies, but still. Now I’ve got a seductively cheeky incubus, a sweetly enthusiastic demon, and a grimly stoic angel camped out in my kitchen.

She spends her days chasing around her high-energy, half-shifter toddler and her nights working full-time trying to make ends meet. Oh, and add in the absolute cluster of a situation her ex dumped in her lap on his way out? Well, that's just icing on the cake. With virtually no options left, Emerson heads for Haven, a sanctuary city for monsters and humans alike. Survival means taking a job at The Monster's Den—a club that caters to the inhuman residents of her new home. But freedom comes with complications of its own.

When it comes to stealing from mafia men, there are three rules. Don't get caught. Don't be seen. And most of all—don't fall in love with them. After being hired to steal a painting, I find myself ensnared. Damon, Minos, and Aaecus are monsters, and they only want one thing: Me. Seven days of sin in exchange for freedom from the Three Fates Mafia. If only it were that easy. The strings of fate have bound the four of us together, and not even gods or monsters can keep us apart.

A weekend with friends, fun in the sun, and huge, naked orcs. What could be better? That's what three suburban elves think when they book a trip to an orc nudist resort, well-known for its libidinous residents and hedonistic parties. Ris, Lurielle, and Silva arrive with plans to sample the DTF locals and work on their tans, not catch feelings. When Lurielle meets a syrupy-voiced gentleman who seems interested in more than just a weekend fling, she finds sticking to the plan is easier said than done.

Magic is fading from the Wild Wood. To renew it, goblins must perform an ancient ritual involving the rarest of their kind - a newborn changeling. But when the fateful night arrives to trade a human baby for a goblin one, something goes terribly wrong. After laying the changeling in a human infant's crib, the goblin Kull is briefly distracted from his task. By the time he turns back, the changeling has already perfectly mimicked the human child. Too perfectly: Kull cannot tell them apart. Not knowing which to bring back, he leaves both babies behind.

Tobias can't remember why he was locked inside Freak Camp when he was five. All he knows are the camp rules: Other monsters are not your friends. Never disobey the guards. Don't expect anything to get better. The world is safer with him behind these iron-reinforced walls. But then he meets a hunter's son who defies all the rules. Jake is not just the only bright spot in his world but proof that goodness exists.

THE DARK ROUTES A young boy’s best friend disappears into a fast-food restaurant playland ball pit never to be seen again. Something is stolen from a secret government lab that will quite literally change everything. Donned in a trench coat, a disgruntled youth grabs a bulky duffle bag and drives into the fierce storm of his destiny with an unwanted passenger. Two cowboys are tasked with finding the rustlers responsible for missing cattle. What they find in the harsh Wyoming mountains is anything but a rustler. Two boys run into a dark evil on the back streets of a Jamaican tourist town. ...

Distress signal lost. Communications down. And a bone-chilling message painted in blood welcomes them aboard. The Copernicus, humanity's hope for deep-space exploration, docks with Cordova Station - silent, deserted, a ghost ship adrift in the void. Captain Markie Cox, ever the pragmatist, orders a spacewalk: investigate, assess, report. What they find chills them to the core. A breached hull, airlocks jammed, and one terrifying word scrawled on the bulkhead in a life-draining stain: RUN. With rescue light-years away, Cox faces an impossible choice: turn back and leave the station's secrets...

One fateful day Lucy is invited to study at the prestigious Overworld Academy. The academy offers her the opportunity to learn all of the secrets of the Overworld - and it's an opportunity she can't miss. She's sad to leave behind her friends, Henry and Max, but it's time for her to have an adventure on her own. At Overworld Academy she meets two new friends, Jane and Phoebe. Jane is an expert fighter, and Phoebe is a talented alchemist. With Lucy's own knack for treasure hunting, the trio makes an incredible team.

One day, while delivering papers on his same ordinary paper route, Jack finds himself amidst a very unordinary world. A world where strange and silly monsters become his friends. In this story, Jack and Annabelle meet Earl, a monster who surprises them with his huge ears and intense sense of hearing.

From, Ethan Hayes, bestselling author of FEAR IN THE FOREST, WHAT LURKS BEYOND, and ENCOUNTERS IN THE WOODS, comes a compilation of true stories written by the very people who experienced them. It delves into a world of the unknown, focusing on encounters with Bigfoot, Sasquatch, demons, black-eyed children, and other enigmatic creatures or entities. Within the pages you'll embark on a thrilling journey through raw and genuine firsthand accounts that explore the boundaries of our understanding. These accounts come from individuals who have come face-to-face with the unimaginable, sharing ...

Dolli was just getting to like the idea of being the overlord of Monster Haven when a roaming Warmonger set his eyes on her dungeon core. Some of her citizens have defected to the enemy horde for the promise of safety, and now Dolli has a choice to make. Does she wipe them out to save those who remain, or does she sacrifice herself to save them all? But the defectors don’t know that the Warmonger has an even more sinister plot than just consuming Dolli’s core—and when they finally see his true monstrous nature, will it be too late?

Max Bloodnight can't decide what's more terrifying about his weekend in Wolf County - the fact that he has to stay with grandparents he's never met before or being stuck on a farm without cell service. If only that was all he had to fear. Determined to solve the mystery of his father's death, which occurred years before at the claws of a legendary werewolf, Max must hunt to uncover the truth before the full moon rises...and the werewolf strikes again.

Five years removed from a life as an apprentice to a group of heroes who battled supernatural evils, the once-promising student Janzen Robinson has become a package courier. He now works the daily grind, passing time at a hole-in-the-wall bar and living in a tiny run-down apartment on the south side of Cleveland, Ohio. Then from the ancient recesses of unyielding darkness known as the Abyss, a creature has been summoned: a Stalker, a predator whose real name must never be spoken. It's a bastardization of the natural order, a formidable blend of dark magic and primal tenacity.

"If you like your heroes effortlessly cool and your monsters terrifyingly real, the action brutal and prose dripping with gore, you’ll love Award-Winning Film Director Kely McClung’s LOOP. " A Devastating Computer Virus Jumps to Humans... When the small college town of Mazevlle, home to a Defense department research lab and an reclusive A.I. pioneer, becomes ground zero for a zombie-like plague, the fate of the town, and maybe the world, lies in the hands of a one-legged badass, a nearly naked Interpol agent, a waif-like retro-gaming genius, and the military scientist that started it ...

When Grace sees her name flashing on the TV screen, she knows this is the last day of her life. She’s being drafted as this year’s sacrifice to the monster that lurks beneath her world. It will keep her people safe, prevent her sisters from being the one chosen instead, even if it means she’ll be eaten whole once she’s lowered into the ground. They put her into a softer dress than she’s ever worn, feed her a meal she could never afford otherwise, and tell her what an honor it is to have been selected. Then she’s placed in the shaft that will take her to her fate. Only, once ...