Body Horror

The human form is familiar to all of us. We like limbs connected to bodies. Writers of the dark and macabre are not too concerned if that remains the case. Indeed limbs, or rather pieces of the body, sometimes are best written about when not connected. It’s one of our greatest fears. It quite rightly riddles us with a very unsettling feeling. So why then do we turn the page? We’re about to find out.

This is a story from the The Body Snatcher and Other Stories collection.

Sam Jackson had over a thousand acres of tobacco that brought in so much money it made him the richest farmer in a town called Painville. Sam never had to worry about money for many years, but Sam's money making machine was about to run dry. Sam's ego and money got the best of him one day. Sam was drinking with some of the local farmer's down at the local tavern. Sam pulled out his wallet and started counting thousand dollar bills on the table in front of them.

Jeremy Gunn was a young child when he first used his gift. He touched his father's cheek as he peered into his casket and cried. That's when he saw it, his father's darkest secret. Tormented, he seeks to act on the secrets of the dead. To right the wrongs of people passed, to find the missing, and to avenge the fallen. Jeremy comes for you when you die, but that's not his gift. His gift is stealing your secret, the one you died with and never told a soul. But It's what he does with your secret; that is the epic story!

I grew up in a world of magic. By the time I was ten I understood nature, talked to the trees, and listened to the wind. When the kingdom of men conquered my town, I was murdered by one of my own - the betrayer of my kind. But I didn't stay dead. I woke to find myself in a strange new world called Los Angeles. The only keys to the life I remembered were my father's ring, my unique abilities, and the onslaught of demons that seemed hell-bent on finding me. Now I must learn who I really am, protect my friends, get the girl, and find my way back to my beloved hometown of Orenda.

She seduces hot young men. Sleeps with them. Eats them...When Christian Gordon, a 23-year-old American bachelor and longtime virgin, embarks on a spring break trip to France, he goes in fully expecting to have the time of his life and lose his virginity to some French hottie in the process...What he doesn't realize is that his newfound one-night stand has a twisted penchant for murdering and eating every man she brings to bed....

It’s Halloween, and Ruby is looking forward to a party at China Bayles’ house and a busy holiday weekend at her New Age shop, the Crystal Cave. But her holiday plans are interrupted when Jessica Nelson, a crime reporter at the Pecan Springs Enterprise, shows up with a hard-to-believe story about a serial killer who is targeting the terminally ill. Jessica claims that the killer’s calling card - a card picturing Azrael, the Angel of Death - comes from a deck Ruby once carried in her shop.

A pair of casual paranormal researchers are experimenting with the idea of astral projection. One night, one of them inadvertently succeeds in projecting his spirit from his body, which is then taken possession of by a malevolent entity in his absence.

"The Stolen Body." Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890-1937) is a novelist famous for his horror stories, fantasy and science fiction. Although he was not famous during his lifetime, his work is now considered a classic of literature. Lovecraft's work has influenced many authors, including Stephen King, who considers him "the greatest craftsman of the classic horror story of the 20th century."

The time is the American Civil War. The place is Louisville, Kentucky, where a notable physician and professor at a medical school becomes in need of cadavers for student studies. Offering high wages for acceptable corpses, Doctor Theodore Finch hires an old ignorant and destitute man, Johnathan Brooks, and his young Christian wife, Theda, to remove the enemy dead from local battle fields. Upon the 31st of October, and during a full moon, the body snatchers, the doctor, and his students learn that the dead are not always at peace.

Bill and Karen Stevens were so excited to get to spend a weekend away from their children. Bill was the top salesman of his company that year and was awarded a weekend trip to any four-star hotel of his choice, compliments of the company he works for. Bill and Karen packed their belongings and said goodbye to their children and headed to the airport, to their destination. The plane finally landed and they were ready for a fun-filled weekend without their kids. Bill and Karen held hands as they approached the front desk of the beautiful four-star hotel....

England, 1990. Reed has travelled his whole life in search of someone who understands him. So he’s thrilled when his journey brings him to free-spirited Zoya, who shares his rare ability to dream-walk. But after his gift leads him to a hidden corpse, he becomes the prime suspect in the murder. Despite the setback, Reed resolves to use his power to help crack the case. When the real perpetrator delivers a violent threat, he’s tempted to give up, slip into his camper van, and hit the road again. After all, who would miss him?

I am not one of you. At least that’s what you’ll tell yourself. You’ll say I’m a monster. A sicko. A deranged killer. But I am no monster, I am no sicko, and I am not deranged. I am simply a man who happens to enjoy murdering people in the most violent of ways. So don’t bother listening to this if you have a weak stomach, get easily offended, or are simply not interested in the best way to dispose of a dead body. (It’s pigs, by the way. They eat anything.) My name is Gerald Brittle. I am a serial killer. And this is my memoir.

After Ryan makes a horrifying discovery near the Red River, he is confronted by an unexpected guest. Was he followed? Unfortunately, the horrors only escalate from there. Perhaps little Tony Peterson's claim about the existence of an "ape-man" wasn't so farfetched after all.

They stalk their prey from deep in the menacing shadows, poised and ready to strike at the penultimate moment. Their victims unexpecting, unaware, until they wake in dark rooms, dank basements, or on chilly floors stained with the rotting blood of other hapless victims. The stench fills their nostrils and permeates their pores, the bile rising up in their burning throats. They scream and try to escape, but all attempts are futile. Fear dances like spiders down their spines as they hear ominous footsteps approaching — their eyes spread wide in horror as they realize the end is near.

Todas las noches cuatro amigos se reúnen en una posada de Debenham. Fettes es el más reservado, poco saben de su vida pasada de la que nunca quiere hablar. Una noche, llega a la posada un reputado médico venido de Londres, el Dr. Macfarlane. El médico y Fettes parecen conocerse, pero éste se muestra arisco con el doctor y rechaza sus amables ofrecimientos.

It's midnight. Turn out the lights, cuddle with your true love, and shiver to fright-meisters Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Louis Stevenson, and H. P. Lovecraft. Quicken your pulse with the elegant terror of Henry James, Edith Wharton, and Guy de Maupassant. Chortle at the black glee of H. H. Munro and Ambrose Bierce.

Está todo permitido en la profesión médica, para poder investigar? Unos amigos están una noche bebiendo en una taberna, cuando entra el Dr. MacFarlane, que resulta ser un antiguo compañero de estudios de Medicina de uno de los presentes, Fettes, cuando ambos estaban a las órdens del Dr. Robert Knox.Al mirarse los dos recuerdan las experiancias que vivieron sobre la forma irregular que el Dr. Knox tenía de procurarse el material de investigación.

It's a story that he hasn't told anyone for fifty years. A secret that he's kept ever since he grew tired of the disbelieving faces and doctors' reports advising medication. He's been careful. He hasn't even touched a single drop of booze since that one, fateful evening. This is why his decision on this day - the decision to have three drinks - will change the life of bright young waitress Lisa Willoughby forever. For today, the Man on Table Ten has decided that he wants to share his incredible tale.

The afterlife doesn't come with a manual. In fact, Hart and Bowler (two ordinary but dead men) have had to work out the rules of their new existence for themselves. It's that fact (along with being unable to leave the boundaries of their city center, unable to communicate with the other lost souls, unable to rest in case The Beast catches up with them) that makes getting out of their situation a priority. But Hart and Bowler don't know why they're there in the first place; if they ever want to leave, they will have to find all the answers to be able to understand the physics of the dead.