Urban Short Stories

Jack Brown is an unhappy painter whose glass is always half-empty. He lives on the top floor of an apartment complex next to a perky, optimistic witch named Cassie and her troublesome cat. This Halloween, beneath a full moon, Jack stumbles onto a magic spell that brings him far more than he bargained for. Will his pride allow him to ask Cassie for help? And if so...will he manage to do it before he is doomed?

The second novel of the Codex of Souls furthers explores the strange occult world first introduced in Lightbreaker. Mark Teppo’s vision of a magical underworld is a non-stop adventure that continues to bring new light to the occult origins of our history. Markham returns to Paris where he lost his love, and nearly his life. The ancient order of manipulative magicians that once cast him out is now in turmoil...a turmoil made all the greater by the swaths of destruction that Markham tried to avert.

Markham has returned to Seattle, searching for Katarina, the girl who, a decade ago, touched his soul, literally tearing it from his body. But what he discovers upon arriving is dark magick - of a most ancient and destructive kind! An encounter with a desperate spirit, leaping destructively from host to host, sets Markham on the trail of secretive cabal of magicians seeking to punch a hole through heaven, extinguishing forever the divine spark.

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.

Once upon a time in a land far, far away, a wish-granting spirit rapidly approaches burnout. Meanwhile, a banished fairy answers a Craigslist ad, a Victorian orphan navigates an occult situationship, and a multiverse assassin contemplates the one who got away. With both iconic fan-favorite stories and entirely original pieces, Januaries features modified fairy tales, contemporary heists, absurdist poetry, and at least one set of actual wedding vows. Escape the slow trudge of mortality by diving into these enchanting new worlds with a master of imagination.

A giant redneck in Fairyland, what could possibly go wrong? Everything. Absolutely everything. Monsters, Magic, & Mayhem collects four novella chronicling Bubba the Monster Hunter's trip through the lands of the Fae in search of his kidnapped sister.

Everybody’s favorite over-the-top circus performers travel to Hemlock Cove, where they meet a group of witches they didn’t see coming, before heading to the Detroit area and visiting Poet Parker’s old stomping grounds. There, they come across a family of snarky reapers who challenge their world view...and a group of at-risk street kids who are in danger of being swallowed whole by a dark enemy. Finally, they stop at Mammoth Caves, where vampires (and something a little more sinister) seem to be taking over a small town and leaving nothing but devastation in their wake.

Paranormal romance authors Alexandra Ivy, Nina Bangs, Dianne Duvall, and Hannah Jayne present four original novellas in this exciting anthology.

In this reincarnation story, Goovu and Katala’s destined life together is cut short by transatlantic slave traders, who were traitors and cousins from a couple of villages away. The couple’s home village was ravaged to smithereens. Five hundred years later, and in the present-day United States, could there be a chance for the two souls to reunite? After a fateful car accident sends a youth, Jason, into a coma, the young man begins to remember a past life, which now haunts him to seek out the woman of his actual dreams.

This short story unfolds as journal entries. The journal’s author takes you through his grief stricken teenage life, having lost his girlfriend to the afterlife. The lad uncovers something fascinating about the magical book that he’d found in his attic, but what are the consequences to all this newfound power?

A young boy with special abilities to see a world beyond the veil, and a realm teeming with shadow formed beasts, undergoes an emotional roller coaster ride in this coming-of-age short story tale. Will Tommy forever remain haunted by these demons from beyond, or will he somehow find a way to best them?

Lana undergoes a near death experience. Michael’s life, as a baby, is just beginning. What tethers together the two lives? This pseudo-paranormal short story has a few mysteries that beg to be unpacked. From having to contend with notions of the Lazarus effect, to briefly flirting with other dimensional space, find yourself entreated to an odd day, as Francistown folk grapple with life, friends, family, and courage.

Scott is devastated when his wife is horrifically struck and killed by a car on their Caribbean honeymoon. In desperation, he gives into his grief and listens to a mysterious suggestion from a morgue janitor that he could have his wife "cured of death". Against all of his reservations and common sense, he feels he has nothing left to lose, but what he finds is that there are unnatural things worse than death.

Ossie and Baxter are on a mission. They've been sent to conduct a membership interview with Yancey Allyson, the latest applicant to The Society of Super Powered Heroes. But what will they do when they discover that Mr. Allyson is a little bit...unorthodox?

Hank and Josie own a small nursery in Mays Landing, New Jersey. They have three kids and a house with a mortgage. Josie has worked hard making and selling wreaths to make money for Christmas presents. Two days before Christmas, while she is collecting pine cones for her wreaths, she finds a woman named Helen lying in the woods behind her house. She is bruised and beaten, but won't let Josie call for help.

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.

With Brave Wings She Flies is an edgy short story about the Archangel Michael and a demon, who wager for a young mother's soul. An inspiring tale of love and courage, it is the first in a planned series about this provocative female manifestation of the Archangel Michael.

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