Short Horror

Below the pale orb of a full moon, a lone boat navigates the dark channels of the Louisiana bayou, moving between ancient cypress and the heave mats of Spanish moss that dangle from their gnarled limbs. Who are the two who brave the swamp at night? One is a lanky Cajun man by the name of Pierre, while the other is his visiting cousin from Tennessee. The man folks call...the Old Storyteller.

Josh Malerman is a master weaver of stories—and in this spine-chilling collection he spins five twisted tales from the shadows of the human soul.

From the incomparable master of horror and suspense comes an electrifying collection of contemporary literary horror, with stories from 25 writers representing today’s most talented voices in the genre. Horror writing is usually associated with formulaic gore, but New Wave horror writers have more in common with the wildly inventive, evocative spookiness of Edgar Allan Poe than with the sometimes-predictable hallmarks of their peers. Showcasing this cutting-edge talent, Poe’s Children now brings the best of the genre’s stories to a wider audience.

Fifteen of the biggest names in weird literature come together to pay tribute to Hellboy and the characters of Mike Mignola’s award-winning line of books! Assembled by Joe Golem and Baltimore co-writer Christopher Golden, this anthology boasts 15 original stories by the best in horror, fantasy, and science fiction, including Seanan McGuire (October Daye series), Chelsea Cain (Heartsick), Jonathan Maberry (Joe Ledger series), and more! The new writer of Hellboy and the BPRD, iZombie co-creator Chris Roberson, pitches in as well!

"Crooken Sands" is a short fantasy/horror tale by the author of Dracula. The story follows a London merchant on a mysterious adventure in Scotland.

The intoxication from a pint of vodka, the electric buzz from snorting cocaine, the warm embrace from shooting heroin - drinking and drugging provide the height of human experience. It's the promise of heaven on earth, but the hell that follows is a constant hunger, a cold emptiness. The craving to get high is a yearning as intense of any blood-thirsty monster. The stories inside feature the insidious nature of addiction told with compassion yet searing honesty.

Editors Randy Chandler and Cheryl Mullenax put the call out to horror writers and editors of extreme stories, the hardcore stuff that breaks boundaries and trashes taboos, the transgressive tales you can't "unread" (as Chuck Palahniuk says). Some of the stories you'll find here are loaded with very graphic descriptions of violence, sex, and depravities, while others may contain only one shocking moment of brutality. In others, the hardcore aspect may be less graphic and subtler than you might expect.

TALES OF NYARLATHOTEP is the fourth book of the Books of Cthulhu series by Crossroad Press (Tales of the Al-Azif, Tales of Yog-Sothoth, The Book of Yig). It is an anthology featuring pulpy tales of horror starring Outer God and his myriad plots as well as games. Nyarlathotep is functionally omnipotent and treats humanity like ants underneath a magnifying glass. He is impossible to kill but perhaps capable of being thwarted. Or maybe that's just what he wants you to think.

This stunning anthology of classic colonial suspense fiction plunges deep into the native soil from which American horror literature first sprang. While European writers of the Gothic and bizarre evoked ruined castles and crumbling abbeys, their American counterparts looked back to the colonial era’s stifling religion, and its dark and threatening woods.

Y’ALL AIN’T RIGHT is an anthology of Southern Extreme Horror stories featuring 17 of the best extreme horror authors in the genre. From gator infested swamps to the overgrown backwoods, be careful how far you venture off of the main road. And if you hear banjos… well, you better paddle faster!

BRACE YOURSELF FOR THE ULTIMATE HORROR EXPERIENCE! Are you ready to have your reality shattered and your mind rewired? "Scary Stories: A Collection of Short Horror Tales" isn't just an audiobook - it's a one-way ticket to a world of unimaginable terror!

This edition of Jack Ketchum's Broken on the Wheel of Sex: The Jerzy Livingston Years is the most complete edition of the Stroup stories ever collected together. These stories, written from 1976 to 1981 and appearing in various men's magazines and other outlets, offer Ketchum fans a look into this author's formulative years. This is where Jack Ketchum honed his writing craft that has become so well known with his novels The Girl Next Door, The Crossing, Off Season, and The Lost.

A spirit who appears in a law firm reliving the exact moment she lost her chance at love, a man haunted by the trees cut down to build his house, nefarious specters that snatch anyone who steps into the shadows in which they live, and parakeets that serve as mouthpieces for the dead - these are just a few of the characters Kevin Brockmeier presents in this extraordinary compendium of spectral emanations and their wildly various purposes in (after) life.

A cemetery full of the restless dead. A town so wicked it has already burned twice, with the breath of the third fire looming. A rural, isolated bridge with a terrifying monster waiting for the completion of its summoning ritual. A lake that allows the drowned to return, though they have been changed by the claws of death. These are the shadowed, liminal spaces where the curses and monsters lurk, refusing to be forgotten.

An aspiring writer moves into a new apartment and discovers that her landlady has murdered her husband. Elsewhere, an accomplished surgeon is approached by a cabaret singer, whose beautiful appearance belies the grotesque condition of her heart. And while the surgeon's jealous lover vows to kill him, a violent envy also stirs in the soul of a lonely craftsman. Desire meets with impulse and erupts, attracting the attention of the surgeon's neighbor - who is drawn to a decaying residence that is now home to instruments of human torture.

In these five tales of bizarre, bloody - and often erotic - horror, you will learn about the most innovative sex toy on the market, how to reach the peak of sexual pleasure, how jelly is made, if the dead are really dead, and what happens in a pawn shop when the world ends. Prepare yourself to be frightened, offended, revolted, and even aroused! Prepare yourself for 5 Tales that Will Land You in Hell!

Fifty terrifying short stories from the great classic horror writers: 1. 'Pigeons from Hell' by Robert E. Howard 2. 'Pickman’s Model' by H. P. Lovecraft 3. 'The Horror Horn' by E. F. Benson 4. 'The Fearsome Touch of Death' by Robert E. Howard 5. 'The Terrible Old Man' by H. P. Lovecraft 6. 'The Step' by E. F. Benson 7. 'Dagon' by H. P. Lovecraft 8. 'The Dream Snake' by Robert E. Howard 9. 'Caterpillars' by E. F. Benson 10. 'The Clock' by W. F. Harvey 11. 'In the Forest of Villefore' by Robert E. Howard

Robert Louis Stevenson was best known for novels like Treasure Island and Kidnapped, but he also wrote a number of fascinating short stories, many dealing with the supernatural.

From hayrides, corn mazes, Jekyll n Hyde, warped games, witches, demons, and death personified, Autumn Nights: 13 Spooky Fall Reads brings together the very best in chilling tales to hear under a harvest moon. This audiobook is for those who get excited about Halloween and crisp fall weather (and yes, even pumpkin spice lattes). Are you the type to dream of windy nights and tumbling leaves even while summer days stretch on? Do you want scary bonfire stories with doses of humor and twists on classical tales? This collection is perfect for you.

Nick Antosca's The Girlfriend Game is a tumble through the looking glass into a vortex of violence and desire. The 12 stories in the newest collection by the Shirley Jackson Award-winning author are brutal, urgent and unforgettable. In "Predator Bait", a decoy in a sex-sting news show questions her job and the man who shares her bed. An undependable son watches his mother become a creature he hardly recognizes in "Amphibian". A young man plots the death of his girlfriend's killer in "Winter Was Hard".