Short Stories Occult

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.

The Beast in the Jungle is a 1903 novella by Henry James, first published in the collection titled The Better Sort. The story addresses themes like fate, loneliness, love and death. The protagonist, John Marcher, anticipates an event that he believes will set him apart from other people. Marcher is frozen by his fears and a sense of impending doom. A haunting tale of egotism, fear of the unknown and unrequited love, the story warns that the only thing one has to fear is fear itself. John’s failure to reciprocate May Bartram’s love condemns him.

Adam Soto, author of the debut novel This Weightless World, which Robin Sloan called “the social novel for the 21st century,” returns with Concerning Those Who Have Fallen Asleep. The stories in Concerning Those Who Have Fallen Asleep, strange and unsettling, explore the quiet spaces where the living and the dead alike haunt one another through their choices, dreams, and institutions.

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.

Christmastide. A time of feasting and good cheer. Gifts, cards, and blazing holly logs. Snow falls while family and friends trim the tree and kiss under the mistletoe. But it isn’t always joyful. It’s the coldest time of year. The days are short, the nights long. Chilling myths lie concealed behind the raucous revelry...The ghoulish events in the frozen workhouse...The undead presence at the costumed ball...The pantomime that became a massacre...The winter goddess with the heart of ice...The thieves who woke the dark side of the festive spirit...

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.

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.

What Price Gory? is the new horror collection from Terry M. West, the critically-acclaimed author of A Psycho's Medley and the filmmaker best known for Flesh for the Beast. What Price Gory? is a collection of weird supernatural stories. Monsters and demons dwell in these tales.

The narrator is interested in mesmerism, a pseudoscience involving bringing a patient into a hypnagogic state by the influence of magnetism, a process that later developed into hypnotism. He points out that, as far as he knows, no one has ever been mesmerized at the point of death, and he is curious to see what effects mesmerism would have on a dying person. He considers experimenting on his friend Ernest Valdemar, an author whom he had previously mesmerized and who has recently been diagnosed with phthisis (tuberculosis).

"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.

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...

So...this vampire walks into a palm reading shop... That might sound kind of funny to you, but MOVING LINES is a very touching tale of love, vampirism and saying goodbye. WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT STEVE VERNON "If Harlan Ellison, Richard Matheson and Robert Bloch had a three-way sex romp in a hot tub, and then a team of scientists came in and filtered out the water and mixed the leftover DNA into a test tube, the resulting genetic experiment would most likely grow up into Steve Vernon." - Bookgasm "Steve Vernon is something of an anomaly in the world of horror literature. He's one of the...

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.