Young Teen Short Stories

A town is overrun by road weenies - a.k.a. joggers - who never smile. A girl thinks she's too old for Halloween...until she finds a special pair of gloves. A boy takes a shortcut to an unexpected place. A mummy takes his revenge, one little piece at a time.... These 35 tales ranging from the silly and offbeat to flat-out horrifying are just right for listening alone in the dark.

Then you don't mind sitting by a vampire's tomb at midnight. Or being locked up with the mummies in a dark museum. Or you might like to join the mysterious boy who lurks in the shadows at Saint Michael's. Or the ghost who waits by the side of the road. Or maybe, when you are home alone, you'd like to listen to these spine-chilling tales...and try to believe they won't happen to you!

Meet Syrenka, a little mermaid who must convince her father the Sea King, not to start a war against the humans. Except she had become the very thing he despised...she is secretly living on land as a human. A fairy tale fantasy adventure prequel! This short story takes place after the events in Hans Christian Andersen’s Little Mermaid and before Roy Mauritsen’s epic Shards of the Glass Slipper series.

Washington Irving was an American author of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories, with his two most famous being "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip van Winkle".

The Dome protects us. It is life for all who live under the ice barrier, but it is on the brink of failure. The Elders saw this coming; they have a plan. There's just one problem: I can't breathe underwater like everyone else. I'm the last air-breathing human in the Dome. As the Aquatics migrate to their new home, I'll need to find a way to survive.

Vicar Obadiah Demurral isn't satisfied running the affairs of his village, now he wants to control the world. And if his plan works, he will obtain a weapon so powerful, even God and his angels will fall down at his feet. Demurral will stop at nothing, and as a shadowmancer (a sorcerer who speaks to the dead), he even commands restless souls to do his bidding.

Humans are mostly made of water. Tessa is mostly made of molten iron. The petite firefighter had always grown up fearful of her abilities, and went through life harboring this deep secret. Until her encounter with a strange man, Tessa wasn’t sure what kind of freak she was...Begrudgingly; she begins her quest for self discovery. Will Tessa ever know freedom, or will she know happiness instead, or are the two synonymous or inseparable?

In a town where it's not safe to be out after dark, student Claire Danvers and her friends have had their fair share of thrills. But Morganville still has a few secrets left to tell. Now, in this collection, you can venture down the town's strange streets, revisit all the tales you've come to love, and experience six new stories featuring your favorite Morganville residents - both human and vampire.

The story is a double play: is it the story of a woman going mad, or a woman possessed by something evil? We begin to suspect that the narrator’s apparently caring husband John may not be as caring as she thinks. Is he trying to control her? We know that Charlotte was much concerned with the emancipation of women and them achieving financial independence, so is the character of John an echo of this?

Nothing puts a damper on the Christmas spirit more than a fluffy white rooster named Sweetie. Reginald and his flock plot to serve the big bully a helping of humble pie with the aid of their fellow farm animals and some creative storytelling. Will they end up on Santa's naughty list? Or Martha's stewpot? And can they teach a humbug how to get along?

In this short story fiction, you’re entreated to the life of a one dollar bill, Todd. Todd falls for a higher denomination, a bill that’s as sassy as him. However, in a world more uncertain than ours, with his movements constrained by his human carrier, will Todd ever escape his form of slavery, let alone sail off with his new love?

The disparate lives of a preteen boy, a mafia kingpin and a crooked bar owner intersect in this thrilling drama. The story is perceived from the vantage point of an aerial being who simply observes as the lives of mortals unfold. Though rendered homeless, do Marco and his mother find redemption? What tethers the misunderstood Roger to those slums, and will he find what he seeks? “Do humans truly get what love is, amidst the rage, war, and greed...or is life simply chaos?”

In this magic inspired short tale, Anthony struggles with family drama as ancient magical forces and traditions resurface. Before long, the ignorant and overwhelmed lad finds himself at the mercy of a pair of sorcerer bounty-hunters. Will Anthony finally get the acceptance that he desperately seeks from his parents? Or will he chart his own path and see the different personalities in his life for who they are?

A toy giant and a clockwork unicorn star in this retelling of Aesop's fable "The Lion and the Mouse" in a steampunk fantasy setting.

Black, like a select few other beings, is a soul reaper, whose sole predilection is to claim human souls. However, his life is turned upside down in a chance encounter with a human woman. Black’s memories of his past human life come flooding back to him. Will he continue to hunt human souls or will he turn against the authority and now hunt the hunters? This is the tale of the beginnings of Black’s journey as a changed reaper.

This is the first question Bobby Barnes asks himself as he stands over his dead body at the scene of the tragic car crash that ended his life. He is furious with his girlfriend Brittany, who was the driver and he follows the investigating officers to the hospital to confront her.

Nine authors get real and dish up some of the best young adult fiction around. From family issues to teens struggling to find themselves, this collection offers a great escape while reminding us all that the best way to discover ourselves is to embrace the hope we all have inside ourselves.

Alex is part of a long bloodline of Africans who hold dear a magical secret. Until he goes back to his humble childhood home for Thanksgiving, Alex is not clued in on his inherent gift for being able to wield his soul as a weapon, and to turn it into a wild beast, which a select group of other sensitive humans are able to see.

For the Rest of Us has descriptive copy which is not yet available from the Publisher.

What if you could get high on someone else's emotions? When Alice joins her boyfriend's university experiment in shared consciousness she discovers a world where thoughts are reality and concepts are smells. Her scientific brain, still trying to prove whether or not two people can exist in the same headspace, is soon overwhelmed by the presence of other people, some dreaming, others hunting.