Self-Consumed contains the title story as well as Bagged, Tagged, & Buried. Both tales were featured in the out of print Journals of Horror anthology. They are both reprinted here for the first time and have been polished and edited. In Self-Consumed, a wealthy businessman who killed a young girl while drunk-driving discovers that guilt isn't the only thing that will eat someone alive.

In the quiet town of Pineville, Annie Munroe escapes from a thirty-year captivity, igniting a desperate search for her sadistic abductor. Meanwhile, three teenage friends, after witnessing their friend's abduction, team up with a retired detective haunted by the town's dark secrets. Together, they race against time to unravel a web of hidden horrors and bring the monstrous kidnapper to justice. With every twist and turn, the small town's facade crumbles, revealing a chilling past that refuses to stay buried.

A die-hard paranormal skeptics beliefs are turned upside down after a night of unimaginable terror trapped inside a notoriously haunted house. Pages torn from a lost journal recount a camping trip gone terribly wrong. A teenager investigates a knock at the basement door of an abandoned church in the woods. A late-night gas station clerk encounters disturbing pale figures in top hats. Airline passengers glimpse tentacled monsters outside the plane windows.

"The Wilderness Collection" presents a captivating anthology that brings together two timeless classics by Jack London: "White Fang" and "Call of the Wild." These stories delve into the primal instincts and struggles for survival in the harsh landscapes of the North American wilderness. Each tale offers a unique perspective on the bond between humans and animals, exploring themes of loyalty, courage, and the untamed spirit of the wild. Through White Fang's journey, London portrays the brutality and beauty of nature, and the transformative power of kindness.

When Matt logged on to Zombie Wars Online, he expected another fun-filled night of zombie killing with his friends. Under the spell of the Felote, a gaming apparatus that forces the player into a controlled REM sleep, reality faded away, and a new life began. It was the perfect escape from the harshness of everyday life. But when a malicious hacker takes control of the game, a new nightmare begins, far worse than Matt and his friends could have ever imagined.

When their son Arthur mysteriously vanishes in the idyllic village of Kenwood, Emily and Derek are plunged into a heart-pounding race against time to uncover the truth behind his disappearance. As the facade of their once-perfect community crumbles, the couple must navigate a treacherous web of deceit and betrayal, testing the very meaning of family and trust. Discover the chilling secret that will leave you questioning everything you thought you knew about this seemingly peaceful village.

R.k. Kombrinck, co-host of Night of the Living Podcast, delivers a collection of short stories to make you dread the empty house across the street; to make you wonder what lurks in the woods behind the park and question the smile of your kind, elderly neighbor. A new employee uncovers his workplace’s top-secret supernatural history. A little girl unknowingly invites a sinister creature into her family’s home through conversations with her “imaginary” friend. A hellish virus brings a cursed town’s populace back from the dead.

How far will a father go when the life of his daughter is on the line? That's the question Connor Heart, a detective with 15 years on the job, will have to ask himself as an investigation into a series of kidnappings becomes a deadly personal vendetta. When a serial kidnapper targets his daughter, Connor will have to step outside the law, outside the procedure and red tape that he's been forced to follow for years, and engage in a heart-pounding race against the clock to get his daughter back and put the monster who took her in the ground.

Pearl’s perfect life was an illusion. After uncovering her husband’s multiple affairs, their divorce is complicated when their eight-year-old son is abducted. Desperate to save her only child, Pearl will do the unthinkable to find him.

The day before Detective Jim North is set to be married, an entire busload of children goes missing. Jim and his partner, Detective Kerry Martin, are called to assist in finding the missing bus. But a closer look at the case reveals a connection to Jim’s past that he had hoped was buried forever.

A young hospital security guard with a disturbingly unique taste in women. A maternity doctor with a horrifically unusual appetite. When the two of them meet, they embark on a journey of self-discovery while shattering societal norms and engaging in destructively aberrant behavior. As they unwittingly help each other understand a world in which neither seems to belong, they begin to realize what it truly means to be alive...and that it might not always a good thing.

Sisters Sarah and Chloe inherit a house they could never have previously dreamed of owning. It seems too good to be true. Shortly after they move in, however, the siblings start to notice strange things: horrible smells, sudden drops in temperature, as well as unexplainable sounds and feelings of being watched.

When Randall Morgan returned to East Alin and found a dead man hanging from a lamppost in the first Strung book, he had been away for two weeks, and the world he came back to had already gone to hell. Rose Lavine, on the other hand, was there when it all began. She saw it happen. This is her story. Rose’s story is a prequel to Per Jacobsen's Strung trilogy. It tells the story of Rose Lavine's personal tragedy while also offering insight into what happened during the fourteen terrible days leading up to the events in Strung.

To eight-year-old Bela, her family is her world. There’s Mommy, Daddo, and Grandma Ruth. But there is also Other Mommy, a malevolent entity who asks her every day: “Can I go inside your heart?” When horrifying incidents around the house signal that Other Mommy is growing tired of asking Bela the question over and over, Bela understands that unless she says yes, her family will soon pay. Other Mommy is getting restless, stronger, bolder. Only the bonds of family can keep Bela safe, but other incidents show cracks in her parents’ marriage. The safety Bela relies on is about to unravel.

As a young, queer couple who flip houses, Charlie and Eve can’t believe the killer deal they’ve just gotten on an old house in a picturesque neighborhood. As they’re working in the house one day, there’s a knock on the door. A man stands there with his family, claiming to have lived there years before and asking if it would be alright if he showed his kids around. People pleaser to a fault, Eve lets them in. As soon as the strangers enter their home, uncanny and inexplicable things start happening.

When Sasha receives a call from her old university friend Gabby inviting her to spend Christmas at Gabby’s remote Scottish lake house, Sasha knows she shouldn’t go. Twelve years ago, on Christmas Eve, when Sasha and her five closest friends were celebrating the festive season, something truly horrific happened that would change the course of their friendship forever. Something that meant Sasha hasn’t spoken to any of them since that night.

Lowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin when she accepts the job offer of a lifetime. Jeremy Crawford, husband of best-selling author Verity Crawford, has hired Lowen to complete the remaining books in a successful series his injured wife is unable to finish. Lowen arrives at the Crawford home, ready to sort through years of Verity's notes and outlines, hoping to find enough material to get her started. What Lowen doesn't expect to uncover in the chaotic office is an unfinished autobiography Verity never intended for anyone to read.

England, 1914. The world is at war. Captain Hastings, injured and shaken, is invited to Styles Court to recover. It’s a grand old country house - the family home of his old friend - and a perfect haven. Or so it seems. But in the blistering summer heat, trouble is afoot. Simmering tensions are tearing the family apart, and it all comes to a head in the most horrifying way.

After the killing of a prominent mob lawyer, NYPD homicide detectives Jacob Jackson and Caitlin Grimes start receive chilling, written “rules” for how to commit the perfect murder. "Rule number one for the perfect murder: Evidence is your enemy. Leave none behind." Jackson (Reid Scott) and Grimes (Cobie Smulders) race to find the killer, setting them on a collision course with the city’s crime underbelly, and a perpetrator who seems happy to toy with them. “Rule number two. No crimes of passion. The perfect murder is always business, never pleasure.”

Jenny sits in the same seat on the same train every week, seeing familiar faces come and go. Until a chance encounter shatters her world. Sixteen years ago, Jenny survived a traumatic ordeal that left her best friend, Susie, missing and presumed dead. The world has its theories about what happened to Susie Patterson, and one of those theories points the finger at Jenny. Now she lives a quiet life, volunteering at a crisis helpline while trying to deal with her own anxiety and the true crime fans obsessed with finding her missing friend.

Kidnappers grabbed Jenna in broad daylight, right in front of her children and their horrified classmates. Her family was issued an insane ransom demand: $25 million in cash and jewels, payable by the end of the school day, otherwise they’ll never see her again. As Jenna’s mother scrambles to gather the money, detectives Mo Butler and George Ortega follow the trail of the kidnappers, which will lead them through a sordid landscape of jealous lovers, broken dreamers, and twisted schemers. But every second counts, and there’s one thing Jenna Wade doesn’t have: very much time.

Everyone thinks my husband is dead. Just like we planned. Eleven years ago, my husband disappeared. Eleven long hard years I waited, my heart breaking for our son, who didn’t know his father was coming back. Today, my hands shake as I try to understand what I’ve just learned: my husband has a new wife. This wasn’t part of our plan. Eleven years ago, my husband made a terrible mistake. I sacrificed everything to help him fix it. But now he’s put our son and me in danger again. We had a plan. He broke the rules. But who will pay the price?

It’s been two years since Anna Cartwright’s life fell apart. During her first school trip as a young teacher, a student went missing and was never found. Not only was her career ruined, she was also accused of having an affair with fellow teacher and prime suspect Graham. Facing questions from journalists, police and family, Anna said she didn’t know what happened. She was lying. Now, Anna has returned to Australia. Her only hope is Land’s End Area School, an isolated concrete wasteland perched on the cliffs.

My fiancé brought me tea and scrambled eggs in bed that morning, and we snuggled together, talking about buying our rings, and about our perfect wedding next year. Then we headed into town. He held my hand and gazed at the ring I liked best, a smile spreading slowly over his face. Then a glass of bubbly to celebrate. I felt flushed, excited and ready for the rest of my life with the man I loved. We race to get on the train home. It screams to a halt and I run towards its open doors. Made it. I think he’s right behind me — but when I turn around, he’s gone.

Jazz Bashara is a criminal. Well, sort of. Life on Artemis, the first and only city on the moon, is tough if you're not a rich tourist or an eccentric billionaire. So smuggling in the occasional harmless bit of contraband barely counts, right? Not when you've got debts to pay and your job as a porter barely covers the rent. Everything changes when Jazz sees the chance to commit the perfect crime, with a reward too lucrative to turn down.