Short Stories Occult

When Crag Minyac is released from prison, his demons return, begging for blood. As deranged as he is, Crag doesn't put up much of a fight. When he's forced to move into a halfway house as part of his probation, he immediately begins looking for his next victim - a tasty treat to satisfy his wicked cravings. But things get complicated when a ghost that haunts the old Astora Hotel discovers his plot. As it turns out, Crag's blood lust may cost him a higher price than he expected to pay.

Agatha isn't looking forward to Christmas. While other eight-year-olds are hoping for a pile of presents, she just wants her evil stepsisters to leave her alone. Summer and Rain have a cruel idea of what passes for fun, and it always involves tormenting Agatha.

A witch so powerful she could destroy the world with just a wave of her hand, secrets so dark that they could really kill a friendship, and a mother too obsessed with social media that it destroyed her family. These three stories will leave you second-guessing decisions you've made in your own life...

A volunteer candy-striper stays over night at St. Mary's hospital to watch over a boy from her class. The same boy that had asked her to the school dance five times already. The same boy that she'd rejected five times already....

Train Girl On a train ride home to visit her sister, Marley Walker encounters a haunting old man who reveals a dark premonition: her sister’s life is in danger. She would be crazy to believe him, but if she doesn't find the courage to face her darkest fears, her life will be in danger, too. Again Human resources director, Lucy Matheson, is an expert at terminating staff members. But when she fires the most feared and notorious employee at Edmon Enterprises, a curse is set into motion, turning her nightmares into a reality for all eternity. To Preserve, Protect and Defend When Fiona ...

Arthur Machen has been cited as an influence to many writers of supernatural horror. He was also a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. This story, originally from 1888, is about a monk, in charge of the wine cellar at his abbey, who finds a strange jar and decides to take a drink.

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...

In The Twelve Ghosts of Christmas, you will even be chilled by the stories in the introduction to the book, never mind the devilish dozen true tales about eerie time slips, gory premonitions, heart-stopping exorcisms, heartbreaking tales of lost love, graveyard tricksters, and sinister old hags. Listen to a story about the devil that tempted a bishop with pleasures of the flesh in "The Missing Room" and of the titanic, ominous force that turned a 3,000-ton ship upside down and sent its crew of 75 into limbo, never to be seen again.

William Hope Hodgson was an early British writer of supernatural and fantasy fiction, becoming an inspiration for later writers such as Clark Ashton Smith and others. Dating to 1904, this was his first published story, and it tells the tale of a mysterious marble statue coming to life and murdering the townspeople.

Tonia Brown shoots for the weirder side of horror with this collection of strange tales.

David Bain presents six tales of small town supernatural horror.

What if the Frankenstein creature didn't die in a fire, on a crumbling castle, or on a glacier? What if he never died at all? Adam Frankenstein, a product of science and magic. A creature of horror, come to life. In this re-imagining of Mary Shelley's famous creature, Adam is still alive and his stories are that of legend. A lonely and reluctant hero looking for redemption and salvation through the ages.

This collection contains a mixture of stories about ghosts and contacts from spirits, some by celebrated authors, together with essays on psychical research. As Joseph French notes in the preface, even for the skeptic, tales of ghostly activity retain a distinct fascination. The widespread interest in psychic phenomena in the early twentieth century proved to be a significant stimulus to literary production.

A terrifying short from the Hugo-winning author of The Man in the High Castle, narrated by award-winning narrator Mike Vendetti, in which paranoid Verne Haskel suddenly gains almost godlike power over two towns named Woodland - one of them just outside of San Francisco, the other lovingly constructed in the basement of his home.

"The Vampires" is a collection of classic tales about those aristocratic predators who haunt dreams and lust for blood from beyond the grave.

Short Story Press Presents Lies We Tell One Another by Don Codner. A woman that was living a normal, mundane existence with her fiancé is thrust into a world that she isn’t equipped to deal with. Her life is shattered, and she must pick up the pieces with the help of a strange man who appears in her room.

An anthology of uncanny short stories and poems for late-night enjoyment from the multi-award-winning author of the Hell Holes series and The Secrets of the Hawthorne House. Listen to stories about a very special birthday party, a memorable farmer’s daughter, a collector of unique collectables, the investigation of a Romanian strigoi, an unintended consequence of using voodoo dolls for revenge, and an arsonist considering working in a crematorium. If you liked The Twilight Zone and similar shows, you will love these uncanny little gems.

It's 1987. Dane Morrison, a middle-aged ad agency sales rep, meets an enigmatic street rose salesman during a hot summer in Houston, Texas. As Dane learns more about the rose man, Dane’s dreams and reality become a hellish playground for the unearthly vagabond. And as Dane soon discovers, where love and hope are found, the rose man walks....

Since 1941, the National Fantasy Fan Federation (N3F) has supported fannish activities across America and around the world. One of those activities is our annual short story contest. In honor of this, our 75th anniversary, we present the winning stories from our 2015 contest First Place Sean Gillhoolley – The Bazaar of Forbidden Dreams Second Place Jeff Spitzer – The Last Ordeal of James Willoughby Third Place Kristin Janz – Fabiana’s Fairy Grandmother Honorable Mention Deborah Rocheleau – Track Invasion plus fiction from other Neffers, including Angela Parson Myers, Kent McDaniel...

Unspeakable rituals are performed by an occult group residing in the Red Hook region of New York City in this haunting short story by H P Lovecraft, and told by Mike Vendetti.