Psychological Horror

The most terrifying sound on the Appalachian Trail isn't a predator's howl. It's the sound of your own footsteps being mimicked behind you. From the misty peaks of the Great Smoky Mountains to the remote forests of Maine, a primal intelligence is stirring. This is not the clumsy, shy creature of folklore. This is something that hunts, something that thinks, and something that hates. In this collection of fifteen standalone tales of survival horror, you will follow seasoned hikers, determined scientists, and arrogant thrill-seekers as they are stalked by the true terror of the woods. They ...

This Easter, six-year-old Mary Chan is going to have an old fashioned Easter Egg hunt with her Aunt Gerry...oh, the horror! You see, Aunt Gerry is a lonely spinster who lives all by herself on an enormous farm in downstate Illinois. Not to mention that she keeps quite a collection of steamer trunks in her dark, dusty attic. Timothy Kirby's short story, taken from his book, THE SIREN OF SINGAPORE (2010), is one that won't soon be forgotten. So fasten your Easter bonnets,it's going to be a bumpy night!

Leah was unemployed, broke, and desperate. A few years earlier, a fatal car crash took the lives of Leah’s beloved husband and their two babies, leaving her disabled. Life looked bleak. Then she met Mason. He was charming, charismatic, persuasive, and a successful businessman, well respected in the community. His teenage daughter did nothing to welcome Leah into the family, but life is never perfect. And the nightmares began the day the dog died… Two years into her second marriage, Leah Brand’s world is turned upside down. Inanimate objects move, her clothes are left out for the ...

Claudia Shephard’s husband died in a fire. Everyone says it was tragic. Accidental. She doesn't remember much—just smoke, panic, the way her lungs burned as she ran. But three weeks after the funeral, a manuscript arrives on her doorstep. A book she didn’t write. A book that describes, in disturbingly intimate detail, her husband’s affair… and the precise steps she took to murder him. It’s written in her voice. With her quirks. Her phrases. Her secrets. And page by page, Claudia feels her grip on reality begin to unravel. As whispers swirl through their coastal town and friends ...

A mission to the deepest part of the ocean. A captain consumed by obsession. A monster that should not exist. Disgraced academic Ishmael signs on for a routine geological survey at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. The vessel is the Pequod, a retrofitted Typhoon-class submarine operated by the shadowy Ozymandias Oceanic corporation. The pay is life-changing, but the job has one catch: absolute secrecy. The mission is a lie. The moment Captain Ahab steps aboard—a man with a prosthetic limb and a soul scarred by an impossible encounter in the abyss—the scientific expedition becomes a hunt...

In the quiet shadows of her seemingly perfect life, Lily’s world begins to unravel. When she stumbles upon a hidden diary in the house she shares with her husband, Tom, Lily is plunged into a past she didn’t know existed—one that belonged to Emily, a woman who lived her life in the same house and died under mysterious circumstances. As Lily reads deeper into Emily’s words, eerie parallels begin to emerge: the isolation, the strange noises, the feeling of being watched. Soon, Lily can’t shake the suspicion that her life is mirroring Emily’s—and that Tom may be hiding dark ...

In Havenport, the fog doesn’t just hide secrets- it keeps them. When investigative journalist Evelyn Cross arrives in the fog-shrouded town of Havenport, she’s looking for a quiet place to disappear. But when a local teenage girl vanishes without a trace, Evelyn is pulled into a chilling mystery that the town refuses to face. The sheriff insists it’s a runaway. The locals whisper about the Fogkeeper- a legend wrapped in fear and silence. And every time Evelyn gets closer to the truth, the mist creeps in a little thicker... and a little more alive. As Evelyn digs deeper, she uncovers a...

An extrasolar mining crew is rerouted to a dwarf planet whose readings display promising potential. A small world devoid of life, according to their bio-scans, but rich with lucrative ore. When the crew lands, however, they realize that the planet harbors a terror that surpasses their concept of life, and not only feeds on their fear, but propagates from it.

It's impossible to stay away from such perfection, such beauty. I watch from a distance for as long as I can, but my willpower is weakened by her. Will she open her door to a stranger?

If death is knocking at your door, you have no choice but to accept it. But if evil is knocking at your door, you have no choice but to kill it. It's been decades since Rebecca Underhill and her late twin sister, Molly, were abducted by a madman in the deep woods behind their farmhouse. It's also been many years since that madman was released from prison and went after Rebecca a second time. It's also been years since a copycat killer called The Skinner tried to murder Rebecca and her young son. Now sixty and alone, Rebecca is battling cancer. But soon she will encounter a third monster who...

After a traumatic past she can’t quite piece together, Lena accepts an invitation to stay at her new boyfriend’s isolated coastal estate. The house is beautiful. Quiet. Safe. At first. But as memories slip and dreams return, Lena begins to suspect this is more than just a romantic escape — it’s a place tied to her in ways she can’t explain. And Isaac, the man who promised her comfort, may know more than he lets on. As the walls close in and forgotten truths claw their way to the surface, Lena must confront what really happened here — and what she might have done. The House That ...

In the quiet corridors of a forgotten childhood, Lena’s past begins to resurface. After a series of disturbing dreams, Lena is haunted by the name "Lia"—a name she can’t recall but feels deeply tied to. As she digs deeper into her lost memories, she uncovers a fractured identity buried beneath years of trauma. Driven by an obsession to piece together her past, Lena is drawn to a decaying house that holds more than just forgotten memories—it holds the truth. But as the line between Lena and Lia blurs, hallucinations and forgotten horrors rise to the surface, threatening to consume ...

Four friends. One viral post. A nightmare they'll never tweet about. Mia and her friends were chasing a ghost—an impossibly perfect, sapphire-blue swimming hole hidden deep in the Jersey wilderness, known only by its hashtag. The plan was simple: drive in, get the perfect shot for their feeds, and be home by dark. It was meant to be an escape from their curated lives, a quest for something real to post about. But when their car breaks down and their phones lose signal, the vast, silent forest begins to feel less like an adventure and more like a trap. They are not alone. The strange ...

An old-fashioned looking book, found in the Cornish hotel where Kirsty was hiding from the horror of her old life, seemed to offer her an escape. But slowly, things start to go horribly wrong and Kirsty's past begins to catch up with her, until she has to confront her worst fears.

A killer walks the trail. And he's smiling at you. When Alice and Chris stumble upon a hiker named Kevin through their Facebook feeds, they think it's just a bizarre algorithm fluke. But when the same bearded stranger keeps popping up—posting about burgers, rainstorms, and “meeting up”—they decide to follow an old dream: hike part of the Appalachian Trail together. At first, the journey is peaceful. Healing. Then they meet Kevin. Days later, they vanish. Eric, a young detective and soon-to-be father, is pulled into the case when his friend’s wife and brother-in-law don’t return....

Michael Shipman is paranoid schizophrenic; he suffers from hallucinations, delusions, and complex fantasies of persecution and horror. That's bad enough. But what can he do if some of the monsters he sees turn out to be real? Who can you trust if you can't even trust yourself? The Hollow City is a mesmerizing journey into madness, where the greatest enemy of all is your own mind.

In The Psychology of Money, award-winning author Morgan Housel shares 19 short stories exploring the strange ways people think about money and teaches you how to make better sense of one of life's most important topics.

A trip to the Yukon Territory in northern Canada turns into a nightmare for three childhood friends. Shortly after being dropped off on a frozen, isolated lake they make a bone chilling discovery. When the initial shock eventually wears off, they realize that the ones responsible are hiding in the woods and keeping a close eye on them. That’s when the terror starts in earnest. The plane that brought them to this vast, isolated wilderness is not scheduled to return for another week, and they have no means of communicating with the outside world. There’s only one option available to the ...

Some memories don’t drown. They wait.When Erin Mallory returns to Greywater Cove, she isn’t just revisiting the home she fled. She’s stepping back into a story the sea never stopped telling. The coastal town has tried to paint over its past, but the cracks always return. Spirals surface in sand and salt. Children hum songs that no one remembers teaching them. And the sea, silent for years, has begun to whisper again. Erin’s bloodline carries a debt, and the sea is calling it in. Driven by dreams, tormented by the voice of her lost sister, and pursued by a legacy she never chose to ...

Something ancient and terrifying lurks in the depths of Scape Ore Swamp. Lance Simms and Mark Briggs thought they were on a routine alligator hunt. They had their sights set on a record-breaking bull gator, but what they found was something else entirely—something that shouldn’t exist. When Mark is dragged beneath the water by a monstrous, reptilian creature, Lance barely escapes with his life. Now, the case has caught the attention of Dark Angel Medical—or rather, the team that operates behind its cover. Rick, Doc, Sarah, and D.A. have dealt with things most people wouldn’t believe...