Showing results by author "Arthur Pendryll" in All Categories

A group of sorority sisters get together to tell scary stories in order to honor the memory of their dead friend. The tales are terrifying, but something lurks in the background, and some of the terrible fantasies might not compare to the evil reality about to strike.

Rodney’s seen a dead girl, and not her body but her ghost, and as he explains it to Mr. Luff and the rest of the students in his seventh grade English class, the story has a ring of truth. A girl murdered. Her boyfriend murdered. All of it decades ago. Nonetheless, the class and Mr. Luff find themselves transfixed and unable to disbelieve. Whatever secrets the small town holds, the story of Ashley’s ghost might be the biggest of all.

Spald arrives at the business of his potential employer and is hired to find and destroy a creature interfering with the operations of a lucrative mine. He doesn’t take too seriously the doomsday stories of almost a dozen hunters already killed by the beast, but he does take seriously the opportunity to recover eleven pouches of gems. As he explores the mine, though, he can’t help but face the truth-this is no fanciful fear brought on by superstition. Instead, an all-to-real native beast threatens the colonists who lost touch with Earth decades before.

Charlotte has been tormented and horrified by thought of the Hunting Man roaming free in the forest near her cottage. Nonetheless, she ventures out in the night, unable to resist the call of the wind and the forest. Too late, she realizes the Hunting Man is after her, and a night of terror follows. How can she survive? How can she get back to her cabin, and how can she live a life free of the torments of the unending hunt?

Melanie doesn't understand why she's not allowed in the cellar, and the curiosity is getting the better of her. Finally, she's determined there's no way around it. Even if her parents and her nanny will be angry she just has to understand why she hears noises and why she's not allowed inside. This thrilling little gem is yet another example of why Arthur Pendryll is rapidly gaining a name in the world of short horror fiction.

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.

Forensic evidence that Alex didn't really understand suggested that their tormenter kept them alive and tortured them for three to five days, before finally slitting their throats and depositing the bodies somewhere remotely. Modern forensics had been available when he retired a decade and a half past, but he'd never really integrated it into his investigations. Why the hell would he need to? Outside of an occasional robbery gone wrong...there really wasn't serious crime to address until recently.