Dark Fantasy Short Stories

These stories present electric messiahs, identity constructs, the Beatles, and even a nuclear Armageddon, which serve as comic foils for Lain's everyman characters. Here is an America where packets of Sea Monkeys arrive in the mail containing secret messages, and the girl next door can breathe underwater. With Last Week's Apocalypse, Douglas Lain arrives with a punch line and a warning.

As a child, Henry Cadmus lived on Catalina Island, a scenic vacationland off the Southern California coast. But Henry's experiences were far from idyllic. Today, even though Henry has seen firsthand the horrors of war, the ghastly images that haunt his dreams are ones he associates with his childhood... and the island: a snarling pig-man holding a cleaver; a jackal-headed woman on a high balcony, dripping blood; strange occult rituals... and worse. If it was up to Henry, he would avoid the island entirely.

This is a collection of the sixth six short stories in the Caverns and Creatures series...Sound interesting? The author thinks so too! Listen to 6d6 and experience the compelling world of dark humor and fantasy.

In a military kingdom where the king is selected through a series of challenges and through combat, with 600 competitors in the mix, a human warrior struggles to reach the top of an alien society and claim the throne. With his inclusion in the tournament, the first human in centuries to participate, Marcus comes to uncover a deeper and more sinister plot by the king that could see an end to tradition.

Betrayal. Ambition. Violence. Magic. Stranded in a winter wilderness, a young girl fights to survive after the massacre of her family. Her motto is simple: Always create opportunity. It's not long before she runs into an old friend, but can she trust him? This majestic fantasy short story defies cliché and stirs the soul.

Soar among the redwoods in this bite-sized adventure with Chloe, the recently divorced fairy inventor. She's the one who'll discover the encroaching zombie horde, but what will she do when she does? Come for the campy creature face-off. Stay for the inventiveness, adventure, romance, and intrigue. Torn between her handsome ex-husband and the brave and beautiful captain of the fairy guard, Chloe must fight to save her unborn young and the rest of the fairies.

When the mighty and cruel must be brought low, it's the killers and the schemers who emerge from the shadows. As plans twist and change, and our protagonists are foiled and beaten, one thing remains true: no matter the cost, the king must fall.

The very best of Brian Lumley's works in the Cthulhu Mythos sub-genre, including such recent tales as "The Hymn" and "The Taint", are collected and presented for the first time in audio format.

Villains take center stage in this collection of 19 dark and magical stories. Listeners will be cheering for all the wrong heroes as some of the most fearsome, devious, and brutal antagonists perform savage deeds towards wicked ends. And why not? These characters are the champions of their own stories - evil is a matter of perspective. Contributors also include Mark Adler, Bradley P. Beaulieu, E.V. Morrigan, Peter Orullian, Matthew Ward, Kaaron Warren, Deborah A. Wolf, and Janny Wurts.

Bubba’s back from Fairyland, and sometimes it feels like they shoulda just stayed there! Man, coming back to the real world sucks. Bubba and his whole team have been fired on account of going MIA for a year and a half (yeah, time moves differently in Fairyland - yay), and now they’ve got to…get jobs? Oh, this is going to go well.

Sin’s Doorway and Other Ominous Entrances is the 4th volume of Night Shade Books’ five volume Selected Stories of Manly Wade Wellman....

This is a collection of six short stories from the Caverns and Creatures series. It includes the following stories: "Slimes and Misty Wieners", "Great Balls on Fire", "Your Anus Is a Gas Giant", "Clear and Present Ranger", "The Mimic's Chest", and "Styxian Stoners May Break My Boners".

They Hide: Short Stories to Tell in the Dark collects 13 chilling tales that weave through the shadows, exploring the nature of fear, powerlessness, and control.

A fallen angel with a mean streak and a Mohawk, Hades has spent thousands of years serving as Jailor of the Underworld. The souls he guards are as evil as they come, but few dare to cross him. All of that changes when a sexy fallen angel infiltrates his prison and unintentionally starts a riot. It's easy enough to quell an uprising, but for the first time, Hades is torn between delivering justice - or bestowing mercy - on the beautiful female who could be his salvation...or his undoing.

Stephen King meets Neil Gaiman in this story of ancient gods and tortured spirits, of temptation and manipulation, and of mankind’s quest to seek justice over revenge. When a forgotten god arrives in a town haunted by the ghosts of dead slaves, will they accept its offer to guide them to the afterlife, or will they heed their priestess’s warnings about the mysterious deity? Gripping and provocative, this story will leave you pondering its ending, and your presumptions, deep into the night.

Destinies can’t be ignored. No one knows that better than Annita. For as long as she can remember, it's been foretold she would find a dragon. A real-life dragon. She’s beginning to think it was all some kind of mistake until she’s swimming in one of the many caves around the island and discovers none other than a dragon. There is no fear as she approaches, utterly transfixed at the sight of the creature. Then he shifts into the shape of a thoroughly gorgeous man who spears her with bright blue eyes.

Dark Ride is a collection of short fiction by one of the brightest writers in the genres of horror and dark fantasy. These stories range from the horrific to the surreal, and prove Michael Laimo to be a compelling stylist and relentless storyteller. None have been collected previously, and some are original to this volume.

A selection of collated short stories. This collection boasts 20 stories, including "Frosty Origins", "Deus Vault", "Of Secret Societies", and more.

Valerie’s Tale is a story about a little girl with a heart filled with courage and strength, living in a world plagued with war and where magic is divided by clerics, who believe in using magic conservatively, and mages, who use it for whatever their heart’s desire.

Stranded on a desert island, a young man yearns for objects from his past. A local from a small coastal town in England is found dead as the tide goes out. A Norwegian whaling ship is stranded in the Arctic, its crew threatened by mysterious forces. In the nineteenth century, a ship drifts in becalmed waters in the Indian Ocean, those on it haunted by their evil deeds. A surfer turned diver discovers there are things worse than drowning under the sea. Something from the sea is creating monsters on land.