Short Stories Occult

When an American man discovers that he's the last descendant of the De la Poer family, he travels to England to take over their crumbling estate. Accompanied only by his cat, the man follows the incessant sound of rats to a dark place beneath the estate, unearthing horrible, dark, gruesome secrets about his ancestors and the type of activities they partook in. Taken by madness, the man falls into a dark pit of despair and commits unthinkable crimes. This jarring story from a renowned writer of horror fiction utilizes fear-inducing themes to entice its audience.

Lovecraftian themes abound in the tales of an intern at a madhouse and an illiterate madman. Slater, the madman whose unspeakable crimes led him to the madhouse, is continuously awakened in this story by surprisingly literate hallucinations of a glowing entity seeking revenge. Inspired by Slater’s uneducated background and the telepathic machine that he had made in his yesteryear, the intern delves deep into Joe Slater - who is receiving telepathic messages from a being of light.

Lucy is finally back with Daniel, but for how long? When she has a dream about Caleb being seriously hurt, she knows that she must do what she can to help him. She gets Caleb back to the motel where she and Daniel are staying, but something isn’t right. When Caleb pushes Lucy for answers, she finds herself in an impossible position, with far too much to lose.

It’s the beginning of the end. The war is impending, and there seems to be nothing that can be done to stop it. Daniel is offered a choice that he seems unable to avoid making, but he’s got other plans that Gabriel could never have foreseen. When the fight breaks out, someone is hurt in the crossfire. That person is then given a choice. A choice between getting to do it all over again or being with the person she loves. Can there be a happily ever after for Daniel and Lucy, or will they always be torn apart?

Lucy knows that she's in trouble. She knows that once Gabriel has the information that he needs, he is going to kill her. She knows that holding on to the information is the only thing keeping her alive. But as Gabriel ramps up the torture is being alive really such a great thing anymore? Gabriel doesn't know who he can trust. He knows that Caleb is probably the only one of his brothers who can help him break into Lucy's mind, but he has his doubts about Caleb. When desperation kicks in, he agrees to let Caleb help. But what will be the cost?

Lucy remembers everything. She remembers the moment she was born. She remembers how she was born, and she remembers what that makes her. Gabriel has managed to unlock her memories, and now she can’t escape them as they play out inside her eyes. She’s finally getting some answers to the questions that have plagued her life, but will they be what she wanted them to be? Daniel wasn’t always called Daniel. In fact, he didn’t take that name until he made a decision that he knew he would regret for eternity. What forced him to change his name, and what was the choice that led him to it?

Lucy knows there is something wrong with the psychiatric home she’s been taken to. She’s noticed that she seems to be the only patient there. She’s noticed all of the empty rooms and the fact that every door to the outside world is locked. She’s also noticed how strangely her doctor is acting. It’s as if he’s pushing her for information — but information about what? Gabriel knows that all the answers are in Lucy’s head, but she’s refusing to find them for him. He’s trying to keep calm. He’s trying to give her time, so that she can discover her memories on her own. But when she starts to cause trouble, he knows that there’s only one thing he can do. Will Lucy survive Gabriel’s desperate attempt to get the answers?

Lucy has always known that she was different from the other kids in her home. Of course, it doesn't help that she suffers from a recurring nightmare that wakes her up with a scream on her lips and sweat pouring down her back. The nightmare is driving her crazy. She's too scared to sleep, she's too tired to live and she feels as though it's never going to get better...until Daniel shows up, that is.

A sleazebag looking for a one night stand gets more than he bargained for in the form of a mysterious woman with red lipstick. Things do not end well for all parties.

In a sleepy, coastal, New England town, three men decide to rob and, if need be, torture a very old sea captain to learn where he keeps his wealth - a man who is so old no one ever remembers him being young; a man who pays for his purchases not with dollars but with ancient gold and silver coins minted over two centuries ago; a man who speaks to spirits in bottles; a man who may not be a man at all.

Sarafian's good buddy, homicide detective John Mayfield, once told him over drinks belly up to the bar of FOP DC Lodge #1 that the devil is always depicted as a pitchfork-toting, horned, cloven hoofed red beast with a tail, but he's not. "The devil is not repulsive," Mayfield continued, "He's attractive. Evil must be inviting... seductive. Charismatic. Tantalizing. The devil is a handsome man, a beautiful woman." Mayfield was right. Vickie was the devil. And it was high time for Dr. Thomas Sarafian to send his wife back to hell.

He listened attentively when Grandpa talked. Curiosity is a terrible curse, he decided. And curious Zander was. He knew that they were considered outsiders on their street even when he was in the second grade. He just knew it even though people were nice to him and to his mother.

A world destroyed by itself but not totally alone. An age that prophesied Earth's destruction by meteors. Out of the air comes infestation, which appears in the year 2013 to kill the President and the populations of vamps and werewolves.

It is the final days of the Civil War and a column of Union Cavalry has met stiff and unexpected and stiff resistance at Mosquito Creek, Virginia.... From one very strong young Southern woman. It is them against her. And they will lose.

Imagine living in a house over 100 years old, and of course wondering about the former occupants, and now the couple living in the home meets the former residents. Only one problem; the former residents have been dead for many years, and these are the ghosts of the loving couple who lived in the home searching for treasure. Glenn Hascall does a magnificent job performing as the narrator of this charming story by Virginia Woolf.

Charlie just didn’t listen. Charlie insisted on performing the ritual from the strange ancient book with the imperfections on the leather. Charlie wouldn’t listen to reason. And now he was dead. He was dead in a pool of blood in the center of the pentagram that was supposed to protect him, and I had to escape from all his ritual had wrought.

A terrifying short from the Hugo-winning author of The Man in the High Castle, narrated by award-winning narrator Mike Vendetti, in which paranoid Verne Haskel suddenly gains almost godlike power over two towns named Woodland - one of them just outside of San Francisco, the other lovingly constructed in the basement of his home.

A genius vampire named Sinclair creates an alternate world where vampires can experience a traditional human life of love, marriage, and children. Sixteen-year-old Gabriel is his beta tester and volunteers to fall in love with a coffee shop girl. But when the pain of love becomes overwhelming, Gabriel wonders about his decision. “It's too real,” he tells Sinclair. “You made it too real.”

Jenna is a beautiful girl who has always dreamed of seeking immortality on the Hollywood screen. When she comes across a beautiful woman named Kharis, she is offered a proposition for true immortality: life as a vampire.

Priscilla putters along in her usual life of bridge and gossip and coffee shops and shopping at the local markets in the small Indian town where she lives, until one morning, the mysterious man known only as the Pharsee gives her a box. The thing is filthy, twitchy and just plain wrong...but no matter what Priscilla tries, or how many cleaning boys she fires, she simply cannot get rid of it.