Dive into the second collection of Behind Dark Doors, filled with stories of suspense, horror, paranormal and supernatural, from the dark mind of short story award-winning author Susan May.SCENIC ROUTEWhen a young family stop overnight at a quaint country bed-and-breakfast what they don’t know is that something is wrong in Broken Springs, population 402.HIDE-AND-SEEKHenry doesn't like playing hide-and-seek because his siblings don’t play nicely. Until the day he discovers there are worse things than being found. Not being found.HARASSMENT DAYDammit, thinks Edwin, when he sees those people have followed him onto the train and they’ve even gotten off at his station. What can he do to be rid of them for good?THE MONSTER RULESWhen Harry’s best friend shares the Monster Rules he learns how to stay safe at night until he's awoken by strange, scratching noises. Luckily, he knows what to do.WHERE WE ONCE WERETamara dreamed of visiting her distant ancestors' 1897-time line for her PhD research paper. What she discovers is a family secret two hundred years in the making.DESPERATETwo agitated women run into freeway traffic. Both are horrifically injured and should be dead, but they’re determined to get to the other side. What awaits them there?⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "Short stories at their best"⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "5.0 out of 5 stars It totally lived up to the hype!"⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "I absolutely loved this collection!"

     An innocent outing lands FBI Special Agent Katie Freeman and her partner, Michael Powell, on the trail of a kidnapper whose greatest pleasure is torturing women. When a college freshman is reported missing, everyone assumes she ran away. But when her body turns up in a cornfield not far from where she went missing, a different story begins to emerge. Kidnapped, tortured, and left for dead, she clings to life, and now it’s up to Katie and Michael to uncover who did this to her. When a second woman goes missing, the two agents begin a search that has a very different ending. Finding the man responsible will take a combination of new investigative methods and Katie’s unfailing ability to piece together a puzzle - one that is as twisted as the corn maze that has become this perpetrator's hunting grounds.

    5,000 words (16 pages).For Bafion, there is no farther to fall. Once a banneret, officer, and gentleman, he is none of those things now. He is a swordsman who has slipped through the cracks of society and is eking out an existence as a thug for hire.Bafion is presented with the opportunity to reclaim some of what was lost to him, but to do so will mean facing part of his past that he would rather forget.The Swordsman of Tanosa is a swashbuckling fantasy short story set in the same world as the Society of the Sword trilogy.

    In the mist.An apprentice mortician moves his family to the small town of Sotherton to provide them with a better life. Little did he know the dark secret the town and its people harbored. The town sat on the edge of a mist-shrouded forest with a deadly secret. Something lives in the trees, in the mist and it’s jealous. Jealous of all those who have flesh.Disembodied is a preview story from the author’s upcoming collection Creatures and Crypts due out in late 2011. Creatures of the living and the dead gather in a volume of over 70,000 words to stalk their prey…humans. 20 stories set the scene for a cast ranging from the Grim Reaper, shambling zombies and restless spirits, to unimaginable monsters that only inhabit the shapeless darkness and the author’s imagination. Join them as they wreak havoc on their unsuspecting victims and celebrate with a victory dance on hollowed bones.

    P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe." Ghosts, murderers, monsters, and more lurk within the pages of It Came from Anomaly Flats!"Scary as hell!""Creepy and brilliant.""A true resurrection of classic American horror writing!""Another triumph!"The oddest little town in the Midwest has a thousand demented stories to tell...some of them are horrifying enough to send shivers down the strongest of spines. There’s the tale of a man whose utter fear of germs sends him plummeting to the depths of depravity, and the victims he takes with him; the story of a couple escaping Missouri to fulfill their California dreams who take an innocent detour and find themselves trapped in the most unexpected of nightmares instead; the legend of a demonic creature who thrives on human flesh, which may be more reality than fiction. In this first collected volume of chill-inducing stories from everyone’s favorite transdimensional town, you’ll find reason enough to question your own sanity, even as you try to reassure yourself that things like this only happen in stories.Don’t they? Welcome to Anomaly Flats.How loud can you scream?

    If they don't bring in a haul and pay off their loan to Otis Bailey, the King of the Old Bay, they're as good as dead. Unfortunately for them, Otis is the least of their worries.Mixing elements of crime and creature horror, The Old Bay King is sure to delight the fans of Guy N. Smith's Crabs series and J.F. Gonzalez's Clickers series.This short story will be available in the upcoming collection, The Razorblades in my Head, due out in Summer 2021.

    He's in dire straits.From Bestselling authors Isobella Crowley and Michael Anderle.Last Ditch Effort:While his rapidly dwindling checking account is a problem, Remy finds out the last company he owns is run by something that goes bump in the night.And she is willing to bump him off if he fails to live up to her expectations.Trying to get sober, Remy needs to work the day shift for Moonlight Detective Agency. Can he learn the ropes before the faeries, werewolves or his supposed employee kills him off?There is only one way to find out. Accomplish what Taylor sets out for him to do, or die trying.Diamond in The Rough:The secret world is being hidden by a vampire hundreds of years old - and her human frat-boy apprentice. He might shape up to be an asset. If she doesn't kill him first.Between setting up the office and hiring new preternatural staff, with some surprising...talents, Taylor tasks Remy with a new case.She assumes he will stick to her instructions.But this is Remy.Reformed frat boy. Low compliance. With a desperate need to prove himself...Of course, he won’t stick to the plan.So when things heat up with the dwarven cartel - and the preternatural world order hangs in the balance - it'll take everything Taylor has to prevent the city of NY being exposed to all she's managed to kept secret for centuries.Will Taylor decide that Remy needs to take the final nap for the benefit of everyone? Will everything go up in a Frat-Boy blaze of glory? What happens when Remy starts to get a clue?A GIrl's Best Friend:Taylor sets Remy on the trail of a dwarven drug cartel responsible for supplying humans with preternatural drugs. Is this just another way to test if Remy can stay alive?Drugs that are deadly to humans. In order to prevent countless human deaths and keep the preternatural world hidden, Remy has to stop the deal from happening AND take out the supply chain.This would be just a regular Tuesday except Moswen is closing in and her attacks are getting more targeted.To save both worlds, the team have to survive – and that is going to take all their wits and resources - and wits are in short supply.Under Pressure:With Moswen still on the loose and the whole preternatural world in mortal danger, Taylor realizes that drastic times call for drastic measures.Meanwhile, Remy and the team - oblivious to the dire situation Taylor is getting into - work to track down Moswen and her goons.A clear plan of what they're going to do if they find her, eludes them...How do they take on the world's oldest, most powerful vampire?Of course, Moswen is tracking their every move and intends to pick them off one by one before they can get close.Their only course of action is to go balls out to take her out first, in the most cunning way they know how...Will what they know be enough? Or will Moswen accomplish killing Taylor and completing her plans?

    One of them must die. You choose.Widower Sean Levitt receives the ominous message in the post a few days after his teenage boys go missing on their way to army cadets. As time progresses, the abductor makes increasingly horrific demands of Sean by sending him DVDs, and telling him to post videos online of the shocking assignments he sets him. One Must Die is the story of one man’s fight to keep his sons alive, and the terrible lengths he must go to in order to do so.Can Sean do what the police have failed to do and find his sons?Or will the abductor achieve his twisted aim of destroying his entire family?

    Yet. No one believes six-year-old Billie Mae knows how she died. Archivist Andrea Kelley's best friend, police detective William Taka, doesn't believe Andrea is actually conversing with a ghost. And Andrea can’t believe Taka has been doubting her sanity, that she’s scared for the safety of a little girl’s ghost, and that she’s really discovered the trail of a serial killer. Until... She’s relying on strangers to help her investigate, being followed by both the local crime boss and the state cops, fielding phone calls from the dead, and skulking around in the dark, unsure of anyone who crosses her path. Did Billie Mae’s mom kill her? Has Andrea’s bestie run away when she needs him most? How many more kids and cops will die before everyone believes it’s murder?

    He’s got a new career and new friends, but they can never know his real name or where he comes from. But the program can’t protect him from the relentless dreams of a young woman in danger. It’s the same dream, night after night, and Gary is helpless, unable to stop the dream’s inevitable and horrifying conclusion. The woman seems strangely familiar…is she someone from his dark past? Is she even real? All he knows for certain is that she needs his help, or she will die.

    Funny, sad, but always shocking, each tale carries a twist that will haunt readers for days after they turn the final page . . .This 25,000 word collection, available exclusively in this ebook edition, includes:12 Bolingbroke Avenue (First published in 1998)Number Thirteen (First published in 2010)Just Two Clicks (First published in 2004)Dead on the Hour (First published in 2006)Virtually Alive (First published in 1997)Meet Me at the Crematorium (First published in 2009)Venice Aphrodisiac (First published in 2011)Time Rich (First published in 2013)Christmas is for the Kids (First published in 1993)

     Thirteen tales of original terror penned in the dead of the night with only the glow of a computer for light. The collection of short stories runs the gamut of horror. Within its bloody pages you will find a slasher clown, a blood red church, a little girl locked in a closet, a haunted sex doll, etc. 13 Nightmares is a fine collection of terror for the short story lover, but be warned. Some of these stores are not for the faint of heart. Do you dare enter a world where the supernatural, the macabre, and the horrific collide?

    Every game played with your child has the potential to become a lifelong memory.The Rookie is a flash fiction piece (just over 500 words) based on a childhood memory.

    “Ethshar” is the invented world that has been the setting for almost a dozen novels from the pen of Lawrence Watt-Evans. Its inhabitants don’t call it that; they call it “the World.” For readers, though, that’s not specific enough. The dominant nation on the World is the Hegemony of the Three Ethshars, while the largest, richest city, where most of the stories are set, is Ethshar of the Spices, so “Ethshar” is close enough. The name itself comes from words meaning “safe harbor.” You don’t need to have read any of the novels to enjoy the stories herein; each one should stand alone. And if you've read the novels, you will enjoy this return to the world of Ethshar with 11 stories... This is the first time they have all been collected in one book!

    In this strange place, only a select few people ever leave the city limits and even then, they leave reluctantly. This is what fifteen and a half year old Benjamin Granault faces as, through a string of amazing events, he finds himself living in a town where he can never talk about modern technology or current events, a place where being an outsider can cost a person his life and being part of the community may very well cost more. Follow the adventures of Benjamin Granault in ‘50sVille, the strangest town Indiana has ever been unaware of.