That's all it takes for the darkness to penetrate. To infect. To destroy.A plague has incapacitated humanity, spreading across the globe faster than it could ever possibly be contained. Almost overnight the world is awakened to a new reality and the realization that no one is safe, not a single living soul.As the virus takes control, humanity is brought crashing to its knees. The few left untouched fight frantically for their survival, even as they know their future no longer exists, doing the uninmaginable at the brink of death.A dark tale that shows exactly how desperate, how dark, humanity can get once the undead winter arrives.This short story will haunt readers long after the last page has been read. A story you will want to read over and over.

    A fast-paced read with a generous body count, ‘Husk’ will make your skin crawl.” —Scott Nicholson, Bestselling author of They Hunger “Remember the first time you read Joe Lansdale’s The Drive-In, or Freezer Burn? Remember how exhilarated you felt as you tore through the pages as Lansdale kept knocking your jaw to the floor with his endless inventiveness, unexpected belly-laughs, and those even more unexpected moments of terror and pathos? Miss that feeling of being completely at the mercy of a writer’s imagination and boundless energy for his subject? Fret no more, friends—you now have Matt Hults’s Husk. This sucker is the real thing, an in-your-face, rollicking, scary, funny, and unexpectedly poignant potpourri of a horror story, an unabashed and unapologetic throwback to the early pulps infused with a vindictive modern-day sensibility that will have your head spinning and your mouth hanging open. It doesn’t get any more fun than this.” —Gary A. Braunbeck, winner of the Bram Stoker Award and International Horror Guild Award, author of Coffin County and Destinations Unknown “Suspenseful and gruesome, with just the right leavening of hopefulness and nod-wink humor.” —Dr. Kim Paffenroth, Bram Stoker Award Winner for Dying to Live. “Husk is wild, bloody, scary, action-packed, and entertaining as hell. Matt Hults seems to be having a blast telling his tale, and I had a blast going along for the ride. Great fun!” —Jeff Strand, Bram Stoker Nominated Author of PRESSURE "'Husk' is a chilling and relentless tale that will make you want to check your closets, lock your windows and keep an eye in your review mirror...but don't think that'll save you!" ––Fran Friel, Bram Stoker Nominated Author of Mama's Boy “Husk is violent, intense and terrifying. The characters are as real as you and I, and every triumph is rapturous while every death is harrowing. Matt Hults proves himself as a master of the genre with his striking debut novel. It will leave you feeling skinned alive and dying for more.” —Joel A. Sutherland, Bram Stoker Nominated Author of Frozen Blood “I have come across some pretty mind-blowing demons on paper, on the big screen, and especially in my mind. But the ‘Husk’ Matt Hults created in this his first novel breaks all my thresholds for fear, and believe me I have built some pretty sound barriers in my time.” —Giovanna Lagana, author of With Black & White Comes the Grey About the book: ONE NIGHTMARE ENDS… Serial killer Kale Kane has finally died, having survived five years in a coma after a shootout with police. But is his reign of terror truly over? When he died, Kane took the reasons for his atrocities with him, along with the answer to a question police never got to ask: did he work alone? …AND A NEW HORROR BEGINS. Mallory Wiess is a typical teenage girl… or so it seems. When she moves to rural Minnesota with her father and younger brother, she quickly discovers her new home won’t be as boring as she’d feared. Who is the dark figure watching her from the house across the street? What is the shape hanging in the shadows of the old barn behind the neighborhood? And why has someone begun digging up graves at the ancient cemetery in the forest? Soon Mallory will learn the truth. For she has attracted the attention of a killer, a ruthless predator who believes only her death will finish the work Kale Kane began, and unleash an evil that has faded into legend.

    But are these disturbing revelations of his life merely the addled fabrications of a cancer-ridden mind, or is there any truth to his frightening claim that a dark and menacing figure has been roaming the land all these many years. About 6,500 words.

    Subject to bizarre and inexplicable visions, Cait is desperate to learn whether her biological mother can provide any insight as to the origin of her unusual ability.When a local investigator learns Cait was born in a Boston suburb, the Tampa lawyer wastes no time booking a flight to the East Coast.In Boston, with the city under siege by a killer known as "Mr. Midnight," Cait's visions intensify, morphing from merely annoying to graphic and terrifying. Worse, Cait begins to realize she shares a strange psychic connection with the depraved sociopath. A connection that may just get her killed.As Cait and the murderer are drawn inexorably toward a violent confrontation, unraveling a decades-old mystery might be the only thing that prevents her from becoming the next victim...of Mr. Midnight.

    It has lain in the cold and dark of the bog, waiting patiently for a host to set it free. Now, for John Cluer and his family, nothing will ever be the same again.A novelette of approximately 10,000 words.

    His name was Alton Turner Blackwood, and in the space of a few months he brutally murdered four families. His savage spree ended only when he himself was killed by the last survivor of the last family, a fourteen-year-old boy. Half a continent away and two decades later, someone is murdering families again, recreating in detail Blackwood’s crimes. Homicide detective John Calvino is certain that his own family—his wife and three children—will be targets in the fourth crime, just as his parents and sisters were victims on that distant night when he was fourteen and killed their slayer. As a detective, John is a man of reason who deals in cold facts. But an extraordinary experience convinces him that sometimes death is not a one-way journey, that sometimes the dead return. Here is ghost story like no other you have read. In the Calvinos, Dean Koontz brings to life a family that might be your own, in a war for their survival against an adversary more malevolent than any he has yet created, with their own home the battleground. Of all his acclaimed novels, none exceeds What the Night Knows in power, in chilling suspense, and in sheer mesmerizing storytelling.

    This collection contains the edited a revised editions of all three books and is available for the first time in a single eBook. The Sovereign Spirit Saga follows survivors aboard a ship sailing through a world overrun by the zombie apocalypse. Refer to individual titles for detailed descriptions, ratings and reviews:"Voyage of the Dead""Flotilla of the Dead""Deluge of the Dead"Welcome aboard and enjoy the ride!

    It’s a routine job, and everything seems to be going according to plan. But when one of their number goes missing, leaving behind only a severed foot as evidence, former lieutenant Colby Phillips must lead an expedition to find him. A HORROR UNKNOWN TO MANWhat they find instead is an entirely new species. A large breed of insect whose ravenous larvae display features and abilities never before seen in nature. The scientists’ amazement turns to fear when they find themselves at the bottom of the food chain. Can Colby lead the survivors to safety? Or is it already too late? IS HUNGRY

    But even the most carefully laid plans can fall apart...Wildfire Chronicles is the acclaimed horror/science fiction series from K.R. Griffiths. This compilation collects book 1 to 3 in one package.Panic (#1)Michael Evans is only in rural St. Davids to maintain a low profile after his time spent as a city cop ended in disaster. The town is perfect for him: isolated. A tiny population. Virtually no crime.Until the night the strange canisters fall from the sky and the town priest starts killing people with his teeth. To Michael, the bloodbath looks like a murder case that the quiet town's two police officers can't possibly handle.But this isn't just a crime scene.And the priest is just the beginning...Shock (#1.5)The team had been told it would be a straightforward mission: enter St. Davids, now little more than a ghost town, retrieve the target and return to base.Trouble is, the target is a man named Victor, and it looks like somebody else got to him first.And St. Davids is anything but a ghost town...Psychosis (#2)Michael Evans, crippled survivor of the massacre at St. Davids, has only one goal left: to find his young daughter. And that means journeying north and discovering that during the five days he spent comatose in an underground bunker the world has changed dramatically.And worse, it's still changing.Struggling to come to terms with a world steeped in shocking violence and ever-present danger, Michael must adapt quickly to a new reality: the virus has already infected the population. But it isn't stopping there...Mutation (#3)The only thing the survivors of the catastrophe in South Wales wanted was a safe place to ride out the apocalypse. The castle looked perfect: high walls and natural defenses that even the infection could not breach.The problem was that someone had beaten them to it. Someone who would stop at nothing to maintain control.Someone with a dark secret that could change everything...

    . . he just didn't say what kind. So when the small-town televangelist and con man climbs out of his coffin at his own wake, it becomes Judgement Day for everyone gathered to mourn - or celebrate - his death. Jake is back, in the rotting flesh, filled with anger and vengeance. And accompanied by demons even more fightening than himself. What follows is a long night of endless terror, a blood-drenched rampage by the man not even death could stop.

    There was nobody watching her at cheerleading practice. Or as she walked home. Or when she was stopping her handsy boyfriend at second base. It was just her overactive imagination, that was all.Or was it?She had heard the stories about what went on in her house generations before her family took up residence. But that was all they were—just stories, tall tales told and retold for the singular purpose of giving gullible young girls goosebumps.Right?They had to be. If they weren’t, what could she do? Who could she tell? Where could she hide? If even half of what she had heard was true… God. The thought alone made her sick. And, scarier still, it also made her home sick!

    She has no idea that that just a few hours later, her life will be threatened by hoards of 'Eaters', the infected whose lust for rotten food quickly turns to an insatiable desire for human flesh once their corpses are reanimated. Cheryl witnesses the best and worst of human nature as she and a group of refugees struggle to stay alive. What will she have to do to survive in this new dark world?

    Moreover, they are carbon copies of killings committed years earlier - committed by men currently incarcerated in one of Britain's maximum security prisons. How could this be?

    . . but nothing could be farther from the truth. In Adam Cesare’s thrilling novel, the residents will find little mercy—only a shocking eruption of unfathomable horror.   Harriet Laurel notices the odor at Mercy House as soon as she sets foot inside, brought there against her will by her son, Don, and his wife, Nikki. In the early stages of dementia, Harriet has grown resentful of Nikki, blaming her daughter-in-law for failing to supply grandchildren. Yet even Harriet must admit that her mind becomes clearer as soon as she crosses the threshold. If it wasn’t for that annoying smell.   Arnold Piper is an eighty-five-year-old ex-Marine, a proud man who has cared for himself his whole life. But no longer. Betrayed by his aging body, Arnold is learning that the trials he survived long ago in war-torn Korea pale beside the daily indignities of growing old. Little does he know that his greatest nightmares are still ahead of him.   Sarah Campbell is an idealistic nurse whose compassion has been stretched to the breaking point at the chronically understaffed facility that is Mercy House. But now Sarah’s list of unpleasant duties is about to take a terrifying turn. For something wicked is brewing in Mercy House. Something dark and rotten . . . and deadly.

    Deeply disturbing and absolutely riveting. Highly recommended."--Jonathan Maberry, NY Times bestselling author of THE KING OF PLAGUES and PATIENT ZEROHorror writer Bryan Smith, author of Depraved, The Killing Kind, and The Freakshow unleashes an epic work of apocalyptic horror. In DARKENED, a full-length novel of approximately 90,000 words, an infinitude of alternate realities exist side by side. From the dawn of time, each of these alternate realities has been beyond the reach of the others.UNTIL NOW.The wall separating earth and another of the realities crumbles. The fabric of existence itself unravels. Soon an army of winged creatures tears its way into our world, laying waste to the entire planet. But this is only the beginning of the human race’s nightmare. A strange rot begins to infect our world, causing inorganic matter to decay at an accelerated rate. Gleaming modern skyscrapers fall to ruin in a matter of weeks. Cars become rusted hulks.Two other creatures from the alien realm, each far more powerful than the winged warriors who decimated the planet, have also slipped into our world. One exists only to kill and destroy. The other is its ancient enemy and has come to earth in a final attempt to vanquish The Dark One.Some of the surviving humans find themselves used as helpless puppets by the opposing forces. They are pawns in a larger game destined to end in a final showdown that will determine the ultimate fate of the world.Emily Sinclair, a Nashville singer-songwriter, is no puppet. She survives through a combination of guts and sheer luck. She and Jake Dunham soon find themselves caring for an orphaned little girl named Abby. But there is more to Abby than meets the eye.Warren Hatcher is Emily’s ex. On the day the world dies, he and his current girlfriend, Amanda, begin a journey south to reach her family. But things go awry and Warren is soon propelled in another direction--back to his former hometown of Nashville.Jeff Wheeler is an ordinary man, a mechanic who also lives in Nashville. Something strange happens to him in the wake of the alien invasion. He is now Captain Flash Wheeler, the One True God. And he has a new purpose.To walk down Salvation Road on Judgment Day.