Twisted Horror

Everyone loves a good joke, but nobody enjoys being subjected to the fun. Pranks are an especially childish form of delight, perhaps because they are the ultimate expression of prurient sadism, which we must disavow as civilized adults. We, the same civilized adults who teach our beloved youth the art of warfare while stockpiling an obscene surplus of thermonuclear weapons. Now that is funny! So, tease a guilty moment to titillate your secret sadist today. Giggling, it whispers. Of spoiled affluence and nothing better to do; of grotesque victimization that makes monsters from innocent ...

Rascals, rapscallions, villains and varlets; all terms of a bygone era intended to describe the guy in the black hat, that perverse character of low virtue and strayed morality who forever ties the distressed damsel to cold, steel rails. Gasp! Within fictional fantasies, they are always guys and damsels, and they must wear black. In reality, we still mostly read about bad ‘guys’, but the women tend to fight back now, often with devastating effect. Tonight, the devil laces thigh-high boots over fence-net stockings before taking a turn through town. Be warned and beware. Of evil delight ...

Tabloids invite us to gorge ourselves on tales of epic personal failures, and so many of us eagerly oblige. Guilty pleasures, we savor these stories most satisfactorily with a garnish of sex scandal, a dash of fiscal malfeasance and a generous dollop of social corruption. Next, we expect a weeping dessert of shame and regret to follow. Afterward, everything ends in a dumpster or the backseat of an aging sedan before we stagger home again, sated, smug and full of improving condemnations. Cup your ears and shade your eyes now. Peer into the gloom of your neighbor’s windows to eavesdrop. ...

Champions come in all shapes and forms. The same is true of cowards. Most of us line up somewhere between these two extremes of potential, but none of us eagerly anticipate having to prove ourselves in a crossfire. In fact, most notable acts of heroism are not the results of well-considered, carefully laid plans. Rather, these are often spontaneous yet deliberate demonstrations of selflessness occasionally on display when normal human beings must confront life-threatening risk. Take a deep, calming breath now before you dare gaze into the face of death. Trembling, heed its heckling catcalls...

A silly titmouse once sang sweetly to describe love as “a many-splendored thing”. Perhaps this is so. For some. For others, love’s terrible spectacle shines in its many violent twists and unexpected turns. Each feckless angle of its affection or disaffection invariably leaves a disfiguring blemish that renders exquisite facets of character from alternating impacts of tragedy, disaster, triumph and ecstasy. Too briefly, desire’s artistry sparkles the amazed eye with a fateful brilliance before fiery passion fades to leave its victims cold and trembling in its wake. Steal a secret ...

Within each human being lingers a mischievous child, but each of us also cages an unformed primitive. We keep our individual id-monster within the tempered bars of civility, yet it remains our secret delight of a darkened, unobserved evening and we make it our fondest fetish at every available opportunity. No matter how mightily we struggle, history scrawls with endless tales of failed self-control, so each scandal both titillates and disgusts depending upon personal sensibilities. Indulge your inner-beast. How it roars! Of broken souls crushed between despair and revenge; of normalcy ...

While we collectively fear wild animals and muggers, most contemporary plagues come in the guise of unavoidable corporate logos and unforgettable commercial jingles. This new and most modern form of disease presents symptoms that include unhealthy obsessions, unwise compulsions and preprogrammed responses, all accompanied by an irrepressible tune that inevitably drives a rational mind to the very brink of lunacy. Visualize anything except the latest fad slogan while engrossing yourself in a moment of hysteric interest, and then pause to think. Of dreamscape dominions wrought from the felt ...

Boogeymen, banshees, werewolves and vampires; all figments of horror drawn upon parchments of fable, each the scrawl of individual phobias revisited by trembling quills dipped into inkwells of collective nightmare. Despite vaguely amusing caricatures, these monstrous legends probably developed from grisly human origins. Indeed, we confront our violent primitives in every new atrocity, and each murder teaches a simple lesson that humankind consistently resists. Consequently, we forever lack viable means for exorcising so-called ‘inner demons’. Even now, your secret devil whispers into ...

Peddlers and snake oil, pimps and pornography, lunatics and paranoia… each pair travels the same darkened alleyways to service identical shadow-bound gates. We receive them by the backdoor, thank you, and always well into the evening. These are private matters undertaken and clearly marked by clandestine hush and furtive sidelong glance. Sometimes concealed in the open but more often hidden in a fog of disinformation, our every secret contains a kernel of truth wrapped within a burlap of proficient lies. Patience and due diligence may unwrap the enigma to decipher a hidden message, but ...

Horror! Suspense! Halloween haunts! Everything that goes bump in the night is here, waiting to be read... if you dare. This collection of Twisted Tales contains Volumes 13-16 in all their gory, gruesome short story goodness.

An all-apocalyptic volume of Twisted Tales! Four short stories that delve into the troubled minds of the doomed, the damned, and the desperate. The end times have never been more destructive, diseased, or dementedly depraved... WARNING: These stories contain violent scenes and naughty words.

Lucas- Too timid, he lives inside his shell. Always fearful of who’s lurking around the corner, waiting to take out their own shortcomings or frustrations on his poor soul. Lucas will make a valiant stand in his head; he wants desperately to make one in real life as well. But he never will. He knows that with the hand he’s been dealt, his runty vessel would never deliver against the campus giants of the football kind. For this reason, Lucas hides. He hides in his college dorm, in his baggy clothes, hides in his head. He lives in daydreams of his fairer coeds, the same ones who look upon...

A terrifying set of four short stories sure to tingle your spine. In the "End-forcer" a repairman messing around with an old television accidentally releases a woman's soul from hell. As he struggles to protect her from a demon that is bent on her capture, he is forced to consider some disturbing questions about why she was in hell in the first place. In "Spare Parts Department" a hard-boiled Bronx detective is hot on the trial of the man who killed her partner. However, her quarry seems to have supernatural capabilities and the closer she gets to solving the mystery the more disturbing the...

What happened to James Lockedon? When a man is reported missing, Detective Jain can’t understand why he has to deal with it. Missing people are mundane jobs for uniform officers. However, he quickly realises that he’s in over his head and the investigation takes a dark turn. Going back to crimes from decades before to help him solve this new mystery, Jain wonders how far a man can go in order to stay hidden. A debut novel, mixing genres into an unconventional mystery novel. Independent review quotes (Goodreads): "The best book I've read this year" "What a fantastic read" "I took for ...

The end is near... This volume of Twisted Tales dives headlong into the end of everything - shortly after the bombs fall and the mushroom clouds have barely settled. Erica's Stepfather (She might very well be the last woman on Earth, but Erica can't get him out of her head), Jacob's Final Days (Life on the farm comes to a fiery end), Waiting it Out (Michael and Amanda are twins hiding in the remains of a shopping mall as a murderous psychopath searches for them)

A third suspenseful collection of terrifying short stories! These Twisted Tales cover it all, from zombified raccoons to the horrifying ramifications of social distancing. And of course you'll find enough ghosts, vampires, alien creatures, and other sociopathic monstrosities to leave you fear-filled until the late hours of darkest night.

From the biggest of creatures to the teeniest-weeniest monsters... Twisted Tales 7 dives deep into the troubled minds of psychopaths, travels across the globe into dark jungles, and even calls ancient gods from the sky. What a Zombie Thinks (peeks inside the mushy minds of the shambling dead), When the Rain Came (the dangerous side of deity worship), Monkey Business (a retired general takes on his greatest foe), The Infestation (what happens when billions of vampire ticks are let loose), Ups and Downs (don't get caught out on the road after dark)

Bounty hunters, alien abductions, serial killers, and lost Boy Scouts. This fourth collection of Twisted Tales scratches that short horror story itch.

A fifth collection of Twisted Tales to leave you feeling troubled, unsettled, and terrified... Included this time round: Mining My Own Business (Horror a mile underground), The Thing in the Woods (A nerdish teenager's nightmare worsens as he attempts to flee from a couple of bullies), Halloween Nights (An old man remembers the terror of a Halloween past), The Gamer (Reach that next level and it may kill you), Vaccine (This is one pandemic you definitely want to steer clear of)

You've been misled. Lewis Carroll didn't reveal the whole story... Alice never left Wonderland. She's trapped. She's angry. And she wants revenge. The truth is not what you were led to believe. It wasn't all "just a dream." It's a nightmare. A nightmare she can't escape, where formerly pleasant characters throw her unhappy unbirthday parties to torment her, while others like to make her cry so they can lick her tears. But one day after years of this unpleasantness, she loses her heart. Literally. Well, technically somebody steals it. And she has to get it back. By any means necessary. And ...