Small Horrors

When a young man goes from the demands and rigors of the army to a luxurious and serene country living, his mind is bound to wander where it should not. Such is the fate of Alexei Alexeyevich Fedyashev, who becomes so absorbed in his newfound idleness that he falls in love with an old portrait. When the famous conjurer and medium Count Cagliostro accidentally ends up at Fedyashev's escape, the young man begs him to bring his dream to reality. "Be careful what you wish for" is the lesson young Alexei has yet to learn - and how!

In this ordinary North Carolina suburb, family secrets are always in bloom. Samantha Montgomery pulls into the driveway of her family home to find a massive black vulture perched on the mailbox, staring at the house. Inside, everything has changed. Gone is the eclectic warmth Sam expects; instead the walls are a sterile white. Now, it's very important to say grace before dinner, and her mother won't hear a word against Sam's long-dead and little-missed grandmother, who was the first to put down roots in this small Southern town.

Emily Sinclair is a teacher in seclusion, reeling from the loss of several of her third-grade students by the hands of a shooter that opened fire on several classrooms within Marie-Glen Elementary. While dealing with the anxiety of leaving her home and facing the people of the town, Emily is terrified by what is waiting for her outside that takes the shape of shadowy figures resembling her deceased students and the ghostly kids that she refers to as “the pales” that get closer to her with every step she takes.

A brand new novella set in the engrossing world of The Demon Cycle from bestselling fantasy author Peter V. Brett. Humanity has been brought to the brink of extinction. Each night, the world is overrun by demons. Bloodthirsty creatures of nightmare that have been hunting the surface for over 300 years. A scant few hamlets and half-starved city-states are all that remain of a once proud civilization, and it is only by hiding behind wards, ancient symbols with the power to repel the demons, that they survive.

Great magicians are masters of illusion. The truly dangerous ones don’t bother with tricks. On Augie Doyle’s seventeenth birthday, a strange carnival rolls into Hollowbrook. It’s all gears and steam, brass and bone—a dazzling steampunk spectacle of rides, wonders, and performers. But beneath the laughter and cotton candy, Augie senses something dark. Something wrong. Then the magician takes the stage. He doesn’t just perform tricks—he defies reality. In his most chilling act, he assembles a man piece by piece, as if stitching together a living puzzle. The crowd cheers. Augie’s...

The Victorian-era writers featured in this collection are known for their power of invention and command of horror and the supernatural. Included are "A Watcher by the Dead" by Ambrose Bierce; "The Body Snatchers" by Robert Louis Stevenson; "The Adventure of the German Student" by Washington Irving; "Dickon the Devil" by J. Sheridan Le Fanu; "The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allan Poe; and "The Open Watcher" by Saki.

Things still linger in the creeks, swamps, and low places of our childhoods. They never venture into the road, nor rise to stand in open fields. They crawl about in the spider corners of aging barns, moan from mist-choked river banks, and stand hunched and patient in the shadows as we age and die. These beings neither heaven nor hell can claim.

This town's dark secret tried to be nice... John Weston has been living the good life. A successful relationship, a good business, and not one but several women on the side. Tonight, he found out why. Every seven years, the town where he lives chooses a sacred king. For seven years, he has everything his heart desires; at the end of the seventh, he is sacrificed to ensure the prosperity of the town. That's bad enough, but something weird is going on - well, even weirder. All of the people trying to kill John Weston tonight are being as nice about it as they can, and they act like they're ...

The sleepy town hides a horrifying secret. Can a dog turn the rising tide of death and destruction? Sandville, England. Kito is worried. Living in the small town with his elderly owner, the happy Labrador is a very special canine. But when strange things begin to happen in town, the dog feels he is inside a dreadful nightmare, with little chance to stop the chaos. With some help from a local teacher, Kito allows himself to believe the possibility that there is a chance to stop this. Until the brave animal realizes he is up against an all-consuming evil, and learning to fully unlock his ...

"Something ancient and sinister threatens the people of Iron Shores, and it's killing the men off one by one!" After several days of torrential rains, Chief of Police Judith Ware joins forces with a minister, a physician, a bookstore owner, and a paranormal celebrity to solve the mystery of what is desecrating women’s graves and killing the men in the town. Overhead, clouds of crows fly in the air while a demonic power grows underground. Cut off from everything else around them, Chief Ware races to save the town and her two daughters from certain death from an ancient evil before the crow...

In the time of paranoia and religious fanaticism, one young woman's life falls into the hands of two very misguided men.

The Engineering Castle is a real building that still exists. It remains one of the most sought-after landmarks in St. Petersburg, and it is steeped in legend, ghost stories, and lore every bit as much as Nikolai Leskov makes it sound.

Chuck Warren died tragically at the old abandoned mill, but Paz Espino knows it was no accident—there's a monster under the town, and she's determined to kill it before anyone else gets hurt. She'll need the help of her crew—inseparable friends, bound by a childhood pact stronger than diamonds, distance or death—to hunt it down. But she's up against a greater force of evil than she ever could have imagined.

Edward Smalls got the nickname Sawbones by cutting people up. For a bloke called Robert, who is Eastern European. Now, small time dope pusher Alfred Leonard wants Edward to star in a snuff film. With additional fuckery.

In the forgotten town of Black Hollow, nestled in the shadows of the Appalachian hills, the past lingers like a bitter chill. Children have vanished for decades, sucked up by the earth and its dark secrets. The townsfolk whisper of a malevolent force, an entity buried deep beneath the crumbling landscape, waiting for the right moment to resurface. The summer of 1978 was hotter than anyone could remember. When three prisoners make a desperate escape from the local penitentiary cemetery, chaos erupts in the already beleaguered town. As Sheriff Thomas leads the frantic search, one of the ...

Why would a biotech company release a dangerous virus? Because they already have the cure... A mysterious, man-made virus outbreak races through the small town of Marshall, Wisconsin. Dogs throughout the town are quickly infected by the plague with disastrous results. The gentle pet of yesterday suddenly snaps at its loving owner. Dogs all over town are turned outdoors when they abruptly become aggressive. Stray dogs, reverting to the behavior of their canine ancestors, begin to form efficient and deadly packs. A hunter in the vast forest outside of town becomes the hunted. A runaway ...

The foothills of upstate New York are alive with something terrifying. It hunts, it tempts, it traps, and there’s no escape. Thomas R Clark reinvents Irish mythology and takes you on a bloody, emotional, and horrific journey back through time with the tale of the McEntire clan, and the devastating secrets they hold. The author of the Splatterpunk Awards-nominated Bella’s Boys: A Tale of Cosmic Horror has crafted a story that’s part The Wicker Man and part Cycle of the Werewolf, but at the same time like nothing you’ve heard before.

CONTENTS: 1. The Imp of the Perverse [Poe], 2. The Devil in the Belfry [Poe], 3. The Crawling Chaos [Lovecraft], 4. Aunt Joanna [Sabine Baring-Gould], 5. The Outsider [Lovecraft], 6. The Hound [Lovecraft], 7. The Disinterment [Lovecraft], 8. The Horror At Martin's Beach [Lovecraft], 9. The Tree On The Hill [Lovecraft], 10. The Outgoing of The Tide [John Buchan], 11. The Curse of Yig [Lovecraft], 12. The Haunter Of The Dark [Lovecraft], 13. Berenice [Poe], 14. The Angel Of The Odd [Poe], 15. Black Ram [Baring-Gould], 16. The Cask Of Amontillado [Poe], 17. Dracula's Guest [Bram Stoker].

None of us ever agreed on the exact beginning. Was it when we started drawing the chalk figures, or when they started to appear on their own? Was it the terrible accident? Or when they found the first body?

A peasant's son leaves his family after being drafter into the army and returns far more different than anyone ever expected.