Horror Fiction Short Stories

Suburban decay, familial horror, bleak lullabies. Abnormal Statistics is the debut story collection from Max Booth III. Bad times are waiting for you.

Laird Barron’s fourth collection gathers a dozen stories set against the backdrops of the Alaskan wilderness, far-future dystopias, and giallo-fueled nightmare vistas. Combining hard-boiled noir, psychological horror, and the occult, Swift to Chase continues three-time Shirley Jackson Award winner Barron’s harrowing inquiry into the darkness of the human heart.

In this remarkable collection the author has selected over two dozen of her best Lovecraftian tales ranging from 2000s “Valentia” to her more recent classic “A Mountain Walked” as well as including the complete Dandridge Cycle, as well as a new story, “M Is for Mars.” In short, this is a cornerstone volume for Kiernan fans and Mythos devotees alike.

Welcome to another kind of terror as Peter Straub leads us into the outer reaches of the psyche. Here the master of the macabre is at his absolute best in seven exquisite tales of living, dying, and the terror that lies in between.

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.

Four classic tales of the undead, read by Bill Wallis, Anthony Head, John Telfer and Cornelius Garrett.

No-nonsense octogenarian Ida Mae Turnbull is the head judge of Happy Hollow's annual charity baking competition. The prestigious event has been the town's pride and joy for more than a hundred years—until his year. This year, something dark, something evil, something hungry, lurks in the cherry pie. Ida Mae will face a terror unlike any humanity has ever seen. Because sometimes, pure evil is baked with love. Because sometimes, good grannies go bad, and some bakers will do anything to win.

And now, your chance to sample Rusty Wilson’s great storytelling! This collection of six short Bigfoot stories isn’t really so short, it is full of fun and Bigfootness! Great for both the Bigfoot believer and those who just enjoy a good adventurous story! All original and new stories. Flyfishing guide Rusty Wilson spent years collecting these stories from his clients around the campfire, stories guaranteed to scare the pants off you - or make you want to meet the Big Guy!

First published in an 1839 edition of Burton's Gentleman's Magazine, "The Fall of the House of Usher" is the story of the declining physical and psychological health of the residents of the House of Usher - and the way in which the house itself reflects that. Gothic in theme and style, the story is an exemplar of Poe's philosophy of composition, which dictates that literary works should be short and methodological and have a unity of effect wherein all the elements of the story are related and relevant.

Susan Harris lived in self-imposed seclusion, her mansion featuring numerous automated systems controlled by a state-of-the-art computer. Every comfort was provided. Her security was absolute. Until her security system is breached - from the inside. In the privacy of her own home, and against her will, she will experience an inconceivable act of terror and become the object of the ultimate computer’s consuming obsession: to learn everything there is to know about human flesh.

The haunting voices of children echo through the darkness. Ancient curses, sinister lullabies, dark nursery rhymes fill your ears - no matter how hard you try to drown it out with your screams. You feel your sanity slipping away as you struggle to escape this hellish prison....

Germany, 1945. In the waning days of World War II, the Nazis have been all but defeated. Uwe Fuchs, never a fighter, feels fortunate to have avoided the front lines as he cared for his widowed mother. But Uwe’s fortune changes when Hans Sauer, the village bully, recruits him to join a guerilla resistance unit preparing for the arrival of Allied soldiers. At first, Uwe is wary. The war is lost, and rumor has it that Hans is a deserter. But Hans entices him with talk of power, brutality, and their village’s ancestral lore: werewolves.

A short story from the New York Times best-selling author that brought you Feed, Mira Grant. Every week five friends get together to play a game - a game they call the Apocalypse Game. It's a fun time with chips and beer and plotting the end of the world. Except this time, one of them is missing and the stakes are higher than ever before.

Moonlit graveyards, ravenous monsters, and deadly reflections in the mirror...some nightmares are so diabolically delicious, you never want them to end. And now they don’t have to. Scare Street brings you volumes one and two of Short Horror Stories in a single edition. Six macabre morsels of fear, brought together for your listening pleasure. And each tale packs enough spine-tingling chills to last a lifetime. The clock chimes midnight. Your heart pounds in your chest as you start to listen. You begin to wonder...can you survive long enough to see the next nightmare begin?

Horror stalks the sideshow tents of the 40’s and runs a 70’s era dive bar steeped in murder… It preys from the frozen peaks of a small, 80’s Alaskan town and spills across the streets of modern-day New York City. From the Great Plains of Native America to war-torn North Korea and the cradle of civilization itself in ancient Mesopotamia, the Beast is out for blood but the werewolf hunter pursues and will not stop until the last drop of blood has fallen.

Providence is flooded. An agoraphobic artist watches from his window as the sea takes the streets. But the ocean has brought more than storms, as the presence of something alien prods and grasps his mind. Can he find the courage to flee, or will his mind and body be taken by the storm and the creatures within? Even as the skies open and the streets fill, an international art thief takes one last job to steal from the legendary Miskatonic Library. His mission is the Incendium Malificarum, powerful enough to end the world, or to save it. But is he simply a pawn of powers greater than he knows?

The female vampire is so deliciously wicked that her powerful sexual nature was hidden for centuries. But the vampire story has always been one of submerged eroticism. The vampire emerges from the shadows, seduces her intended victim, and feeds on her, defying all rules in her pursuit of pleasure. In Daughters of Darkness, editor Pam Keesey brings the eroticism of the female vampire front and center with explicit tales from some of the finest contemporary queer writers.

This collection comprises stories by and inspired by the originators of weird fiction. From Allen's "The Arctic Death", through to Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart", Stoker's "Dracula's Guest", and beyond. Time immemorial; worlds unimaginable.

The living dead are more alive than ever! Zombies have become more than an iconic monster for the 21st century: They are now a phenomenon constantly revealing as much about ourselves - and our fascination with death, resurrection, and survival - as our love for the supernatural or post-apocalyptic speculation. Our most imaginative literary minds have been devoured by these incredible creatures and produced exciting, insightful, and unflinching new works of zombie fiction.

Right Behind You is a collection of 13 horror stories of different genres. The thing that connects these stories is the emotion of our inner fears that resides in all of us. We might mask these fears, we might even deny them, but they emerge when least expected, and then they begin to encroach upon every aspect of our lives. In this collection of assorted horror stories, you will find noir horror, urban myths, fantasies, campfire tales, stories of phobias, gore, and even a story that takes place entirely on chat.