Classic Literature Dark

The Ivy City is dying. It flails under a sea of the risen dead, the holy churches broken, the nobles largely destroyed, the population leaderless and alone, the city itself is bleeding and growing cold. Tattered crimson ribbons of blood fill the gutters. A despicable wizard, scion of the noble line, has shoved the Ivy City to the brink of death as he seeks what he sees as his rightful throne. Doomed by his forbidden love, discarded by the crown, forgotten by the people, a disgraced hero rises from the ashes to combat the rising darkness.

Collinwood is plagued with a series of menacing events when a ballet troupe arrives there to perform for the summer tourists. One girl in particular, the beautiful Diana Samson, whom Barnabas has come to love, is repeatedly attacked by a mysterious, invisible presence. When the star of the ballet is murdered, everyone is suspect - including Diana and Barnabas. And when several graves are found opened, the old legend of the invisible ghost of Collinwood is revived. As the attacks on Diana continue, Barnabas must find a way to stop them before she is murdered.

Welcome to six of the most amazing fantasy stories you'll ever hear. This volume includes five full-length fantasy stories plus an exclusive bonus short story.

The multi-award winning SmartPass full-cast, unabridged performance with comprehensive commentary and analysis for any student to fully understand and appreciate the play.

In the second installment of The Back Road to Wonderland ... Kayden, our sexy adventurer is betrayed by the King he loves as the lines of good and evil within Wonderland begin to blur. After a period of bondage will the seeds of madness take its toll on his soul or can a young mysterious man who followed "the bunny" down the rabbit hole show him he can love again and mend his bleeding heart?

Scarred from the death of his parents, young Prince Uhlrich must set aside his eagerness for revenge in order to utilize the strength of the one person who is both his worst enemy and closest ally - a death-bred executioner who cannot see or speak, and stricken of all emotion. Enter a world of torment where trust is an unlikely relic and fear dwells within every infested shadow of despair. Where the ability to control an executioner can greatly alter the tides of war.

The Organization was all-powerful, and the Baron's word was law. A sinister villain's network, raking profits from all fields of crime. But one man is ready to storm them, and bring 'Babylon' crashing down...

For Harry Youngblood, it means finding a new identity. Burying his own criminal past, then finding ways to attack the evil at its roots. Each step brings him closer to betrayal, until there's only one way left to fight...

Dracula, Wolfman, The Mummy, Frankenstein. You've lived with the stories your whole life. You've read the tales. You've watched the films. But what if the stories were different? What if the things you read about these monsters were warped and twisted? Here lie stories you may not have heard. Stories both weird and shocking. Bizarre and grotesque. Alternate versions of your favorite classic monsters you've never read and never will again. Featuring 13 stories by Jonathan Moon, The Sisters of Slaughter, Tom Lucas and more!

The dream always started the same…. Psychology Meredith Morgan understands the how and why of dreams. She understands that dreams are how our subconscious mind tells us things we are too busy to notice. It was a nearly senseless dream…. She understands that some see dreams as prophetic, as the future reaching back and giving us a clue as to what is to come. Some see dreams as open doors through which the past can claw its way into the present. Dreams are where time and space collapse. Meredith awoke…. But dreams are dreams, and when you wake up, the people you meet in your dreams shouldn't still be with you….

To defeat his greatest enemy, he may have to become his greatest fear.... Now that he's come home, Wardin is determined to reclaim all that was lost. But when his enemies unite against him, he finds himself outnumbered and outmatched, and his kingdom in more danger than ever. Amid these threats comes a chilling warning against walking the same treacherous path as his father before him. Desperate not to repeat the failures of his forebears, Wardin turns to mysterious new allies and perilous new magic. And even that may not be enough.

Barnabas befriends lovely Paula Jennings right after her marriage to strange, mysterious Christopher Jennings. He feels protective towards the lovely heiress because he suspects Christopher is the werewolf who has been ravaging the countryside. When Christopher is joined by Melissa Henry (the reincarnation of the evil Angelique), Barnabas is certain Paula is in terrible danger. Barnabas knows he can defeat the evil werewolf. But will his powers be stronger than those of the beautiful and deadly Angelique?

Victoria stood on the ledge known as Suicide Cliffs and stared down at the raging surf and jagged rocks below. Next to her stood Professor Mark Veno, a mysterious visitor to Collinwood. He spoke to her in a low, sinister voice. “Think of all those who threw themselves from these very rocks.”His eyes seemed to burn into hers.

Maggie Evans visits the Collins family graveyard and is transported back in time to the year 1880. There she awakes, an amnesia victim, at a Collinwood she barely recognizes. All that seems familiar are the house itself and the family’s guest, Barnabas Collins. Slowly, Maggie learns she is trapped in a nightmare. She has fallen into the hands of Dr. Giles Collins, whose mysterious experiments with human blood have already taken several lives. Now she is slated to be his next victim. Though Maggie is warned by the others that he is a vampire, she turns to Barnabas for help.

Feeling a chill amidst the warmth of the season? Sensing a shadow lurking behind the tinsel and lights? Experience the darker visions hidden within our brightest holiday. Come listen to the water ghost's story as she spends Christmas Eve haunting Harrowby Hill.

After centuries of secret conflict, humans and parahumans have reached an uneasy truce. But unspeakable evil now threatens the tenuous peace.

A collection of strange and often grisly tales by some of the world's greatest writers, ranging from mildly unsettling to hair-raising.

Canary Islands, 1882: Explorer and plant biologist Niklas Bruunis researches a species alleged to have hallucinogenic qualities capable of eliminating the psychic limits between one human mind and another. Buenos Aires, 1983: Born to a white Argentinian anthropologist and a black Brazilian engineer, Cassio comes of age with the Internet, and demonstrates the skills and personality that will make him one of the first great Argentine hackers. The southern Argentinian techno-hub of Bariloche, 2024: Piera, on the same research group as Cassio, studies human DNA.

If war is hell, there is no word to describe what Private Jones has been through. Forced into a conflict with an unknowable enemy, he awakes to find himself in a strange land and is soon joined by a young woman, Morana, who tends to his wounds and tells him of the battles played out in this impossible place. She tells him of an Iron Beast that will end the Great War, and even as he vows to help her find it, enemy combatants seek them, intent on their utter annihilation.

When Quentin Collins invited Lara Balfour to Collinwood, they knew each other only from the correspondence that had grown out of Quentin’s admiration for the haunting waltz her father had composed. Soon Quentin professes to love Lara - but is his love really a threat? His first wife’s throat was torn out by a wolflike creature who escaped capture. Since then, other young women have died in the same grisly fashion…in the full of the moon, when Quentin’s mysterious “attacks” occur. Lara faces the terrifying possibility that her brooding, sensitive host is a werewolf.

These three novella-length tales explore psychological themes latent in the classic Grimm versions. Rather than presenting two-dimensional "good" heroines pitted against "evil" step-mothers, Grim portrays fully realized characters grappling with shame and self-doubt, suffering at the hands of mothers best thought of as narcissistic in modern terminology. Due to their dark themes and some graphic sexual material, these tales are not for the faint of heart and are unsuitable for children.