Except the minor non-player character in the world Riley is building makes her own impossible decision—veering wildly off course and exploring the boundaries of the map. When the curious Riley extracts her code for closer examination, an emotional relationship develops between them. Soon Riley has all new plans for her spontaneous AI, including bringing Max into the real world. But what if Max has real-world plans of her own?Blake Crouch’s Summer Frost is part of Forward, a collection of six stories of the near and far future from out-of-this-world authors. Each piece can be read or listened to in a single thought-provoking sitting.

    WWI veteran. Vampire slayer.In the year 2044, reporters from the Public Relations Ministry gather at the home of Benjamin Harker, the last surviving member of the Harlem Hellfighters. At the age of 144, he is the oldest recorded man alive.Hidden among them, Clyde Bruner is looking for a different kind of story. Across the United States, despite the Great Walls and patrol drones built to keep America secure, something has found its way in. And now towns are vanishing during the night. Entire populations, gone. Only to return after the sun sets, changed, unholy, and lethal. And whatever this evil is, its spreading west.According to a bedtime story Bruner’s grandfather told him when he was a boy, Benjamin Harker has seen this before. He’s faced this scourge. Fought this evil. Survived them. Killed them. From the trenches of the Great War to the jungles of Vietnam to the sands of Iraq, Harker will search his past to save our future.But as each city light extinguishes across the country, is there no time left to stop what’s coming?

     Fresh from Duck Soup (1933), Julius, Leonard, Arthur and Herbert Marx - or as the world knows them, Groucho, Chico, Harpo and Zeppo - are transported by a freak electrical storm to Nacogdoches, Texas in the year 1826. Landing in the midst of the Fredonian Rebellion (the first attempt by settlers in Texas to secede from Mexico) and into the company of the only other Jewish person in town, they are in deep dreck. Falling in with Stephen F. Austin and inadvertently filling his head with knowledge of what is to come, our heroes risk tampering with the future of Texas, and perhaps the entire U.S.A., in their quest to return to their own time. Will they find their way back? Or will they be doomed to live out their lives without indoor plumbing?

    Marked. Don’t think about the kid you used to be when you’re homeless and dumpster-diving in the rain. Just eat whatever you find to keep your engine full. Because the shadow with too many teeth wants you tired.You’re easier to catch when you’re tired.It has hunted you since the summer of 1994, back when we confessed who we were through mixtapes. When every movie at the video store had dirty heads. You were thirteen and thought you knew who you were. Only the shadow with too many teeth knew you better. It still does. And it won’t stop. Not until you come home.Back to where it all began.Part cosmic horror, part coming-of-age monster story, DIRTY HEADS is a terrifying read from the author of HOUSE OF SIGHS, THE FALLEN BOYS, and A PLACE FOR SINNERS

    R. James is best remembered for his ghost stories which are widely regarded as among the finest in English literature. One of James' most important achievements was to redefine the ghost story for the new century by dispensing with many of the formal gothic trappings of his predecessors, and replacing them with more realistic contemporary settings.According to James, a story must "put the reader into the position of saying to himself: 'If I'm not careful, something of this kind may happen to me!'"

    Monique learns that the hard way after her girlfriend Donna vanishes without a trace. Only after the disappearances of several other impoverished women does Monique hear the rumors. A taloned monster stalks the city’s underground and snatches victims into the dark.Donna isn’t missing. She was taken.To save the woman she loves, Monique must descend deeper than the known underground, into a subterranean world of enigmatic cultists and shadowy creatures. But what she finds looms beyond her wildest fears—a darkness that stretches from the dawn of time and across the stars.

    But nothing prepared him for Milkwood: a fat, ugly bastard who could take a beating like a government mule, but never, ever won. So when Malcolm risks his life to discover Milkwood's secret, he convinces the fighter to stop being a punching bag and to go for broke in the local tournament. Only problem? A beautiful woman called Lash who needs Milkwood for her own purposes, and a fouler creature on her heels known only as Dizzy Colt. But for Malcolm and Milkwood? Hell, it’s just another day of Blood and SawdustPRAISE FOR BLOOD AND SAWDUST!"With wicked, playful prose that blends the best of pulp with the supernatural, Jason Ridler’s Blood and Sawdust creates an unholy, hell-raising hybrid, the kind of tale Christopher Moore and Jim Thompson might swap after a long night of drinking, trying to one-up one another with acerbic absurdity." Joe Clifford, Author of CHOICE CUTS and JUNKIE LOVEPRAISE FOR THE WORK OF JASON RIDLER!"An exciting new writer." Lucius Shepard, multiple-award-winning author of HANDBOOK OF AMERICAN PRAYER. “Jason Ridler is kind of like a bull rider who’s tossed a saddle on a Tiger tank, and he’s riding that bucking sucker for all he’s worth, because, hey, no one told him that he couldn’t do it, did they? So here he is, the Man in the Barbed-Wire Straitjacket." Norman Partridge, Award Winning Author of DARK HARVEST. "Jason Ridler’s work is intense and taut, with incredible characters and plots that keep your mind buzzing long after you’ve reached the final page." Trent Zelazny, author of TOO LATE TO CALL TEXAS, and FRACTAL DESPONDENCY. ABOUT THE AUTHORJason S. Ridler is the author of BLOOD AND SAWDUST, the Spar Battersea thrillers (DEATH MATCH, CON JOB and DICE ROLL), the short story collection KNOCKOUTS, and has published over fifty stories in such magazines and anthologies as Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Brain Harvest, Chilling Tales, and more. His popular non-fiction has appeared in Clarkesworld, Dark Scribe, and the Internet Review of Science Fiction. A former punk rock musician and cemetery groundskeeper, Mr. Ridler holds a Ph.D. in War Studies from the Royal Military College of Canada. Visit him at twitter at http://twitter.com/JayRidler, Facebook ,http://www.facebook.com/Ridlerville, or his writing blog, Ridlerville, atwww.jsridler.com

    Being dumped because your ex-boyfriend thinks you’re too fat is heartbreaking. Rosie Hayes wants to lose weight in order to win back her ex-boyfriend, Phil, who told her she "didn't do it for him anymore" as she'd put on a few pounds. She joins a gym owned by Jake Matthias, millionaire and entrepreneur. Commitment-phobe, Jake, wants to stay single, but every woman he meets seems to be looking for a Happy Ever After. Jake assigns personal trainer, Samantha, to help Rosie lose the weight and get fit. Samantha, who wants Jake for herself, only trains athletes and is disdainful of Rosie, especially when she confesses her desire to win Phil back. "Don't ever, and I mean, never, ever, try to get such a man back!" is Samantha's advice. Rosie is thrilled when Jake picks her for his special boot camp, held in the grounds of his home in Buckinghamshire. Unbeknownst to Rosie, Samantha has invited herself along too. As Rosie and Jake grow closer, her feelings for Phil decrease. Rosie asks Jake to be her plus-one at a friend's wedding. An event Phil will also be attending. Will Rosie lose enough weight before the wedding to win back her ex? Does she still want to? Will Jake be able to persuade Rosie that this Phil guy isn't good enough for her? And can he stop himself falling in love with her? And what plans does Samantha have for boot camp?

    

    . .so disturbing that locals ultimately burned the school to the ground.Years later, Pinewood Elementary is the future, and for new teacher Ryan Herb, a chance at a fresh start. But the townspeople don't believe that rebuilding the school and changing its name is enough. They believe that whatever evil inhabited the halls of Highland still dwells at Pinewood.Ryan is a realist and isn't the type to be affected by local lore. But when Ryan begins to experience horrifying visions of past tragedies, he starts to question his own beliefs. Something in the school is reaching out to Ryan for help, a potentially lethal request as something else - or someone else - in the school is keen on keeping the evil therein very much alive.Can a skeptical Ryan unearth the origins of the evil's true source and put an end to it? Or will he, like many before him, become a permanent resident of the school himself?Rife with supernatural terror and intrigue, 'Dark Halls' blurs the lines between horror and mystery - a whodunit that, when solved, proposes the even greater question of: How do you stop it?

    Loved it!"★★★ A clever mash of X-files, Tombstone, and Dresden Files! ★★★In 1885, President Grover Cleveland commissioned a special group of agents to investigate paranormal activities plaguing the nation. Unwilling to accept failure, he granted each the authority to operate outside the law. His directive was simple. No rules. No excuses. Just get it done.Remy Kincaid and his cynical steed, Fable, head to the town of Wharton, Texas, to investigate the disappearance of several young children. As clues lead them from a decrepit old house to an abandoned silver mine, they soon learn that an ancient evil is trying to release itself upon the world.★★★ If you enjoyed The Survivalist Series, you'll love The Watchman! ★★★

    He left with his friends to ‘debunk’ the urban legend and never came back.Now Jason and his group of friends are fed up and want to discover what is happening, what is the real cause of the terror holding their small town hostage.But something is waiting for them. She may look sweet and innocent, but the friends are about to find out that pure evil can exist in the smallest of packages.She's out there. And while you may not know her name or what she looks like, the local kids will tell you if you ask, that you should fear for your life from the girl who hid in the trees.From the dark mind of Steve Stred, the author of Wagon Buddy, YURI and Invisible comes this fast-paced, seat of your pants coming-of-age tale.  A quick, violent, bleak read,The Girl Who Hid in the Trees will make you think twice about those sounds you hear far off in the woods.

    What’s meant to be an uneventful trip turns into a coming-of-age journey that teaches Jem that adulthood is not as easy as he might have expected, and life usually has a plan of its own.

    Nearly a century later there are those who still report seeing the children swimming beneath the surface like elusive dolphins. After losing her husband in a violent car crash, Rachel King and her two young sons venture to Arrowhead Lake to heal. When Rachel discovers that Great Woods Timber is planning to clear-cut this beautiful wilderness she enlists the help of Lilly Bowman and her mysterious father, chief and shaman of the Wabanaki nation. But dark events have been set in motion and Arrowhead Lake is under siege by a sinister force of mercenaries. When Chief Neptune vanishes, Rachel and Lilly call on Seth Ferguson, the local deputy sheriff for help. Together they discover an astonishing truth; a shadowy cabal that will stop at nothing to obtain the secret of Arrowhead Lake, a secret that if unearthed could have far-reaching consequences. When one of Rachel’s sons vanishes in the Lake, she and Lilly embark on a harrowing journey to find him. What they discover is a mind boggling truth that will change their lives forever. *

    They’ve been known to burrow themselves into a reader’s imagination and are capable of warping dreams into twisted, unspeakable nightmares.Just a little…Unique – These aren’t your standard horror stories. Don’t think this collection will include tales of haunted mansions, or blood sucking vampires. Expect one-of-a-kind takes on every gothic ghoul and hideous monster you read about in this book.Just a little…Frightening – Prepare yourself for some of the most chilling flash fiction ever penned. The mad genius, Vincent V. Cava, has done it again with the latest entry in his creepy catalogue. Do yourself a favor and leave the lights on when you read it.Just A Little…Terrible