Who is this apparent stalker? The answer is more frightening than Claire ever imagined. The Octopus Nest, Sophie Hannah’s prizewinning short story from her collection of ‘glittering darkness’ The Fantastic Book of Everybody’s Secrets is the first to be published as an exclusive eBook short. About Sophie Hannah: Sophie Hannah is an internationally bestselling writer of psychological crime fiction. Her Culver Valley Series featuring Simon Waterhouse and Charlie Zailer have been published in 27 countries and adapted for television in 2011 and 2012. In 2004, she won first prize in the Daphne Du Maurier Festival Short Story Competition for her suspense story The Octopus Nest, published in her first collection of short stories, The Fantastic Book of Everybody’s Secrets. Sophie has also published five collections of poetry. Her fifth, Pessimism for Beginners, was shortlisted for the 2007 T S Eliot Award. In 2014 she published The Monogram Murders, a new challenge for the little grey cells of Hercule Poirot, Agatha Christie’s famous detective. Sophie lives with her husband and children in Cambridge. Reviews: Voted one of the Top Ten Books to Talk About for World Book Day. Sophie Hannah's (short story) debut will leave you feeling genuinely tickled and wanting more. The award-winning "The Octopus Nest” is menacing enough to keep the pages turning, and astute enough about rocky relationships to make even the narrator wince. Emma Hagestadt, The Independent Hannah has an uncanny knack for letting you feel you could find your way blindfold amongst the Formica and office furniture, get comfy – only to find yourself tripping over the psychopath lurking by the kitchen sink…superbly unsettling. Sarah Hilary, The Short Review

    It currently appears in the Konrath story collection 65 PROOF. Because THE AGREEMENT ties into the Jack Daniels thriller LAST CALL, Konrath has made it available on its own. Also included is a chapter from LAST CALL. Warning: Though this only takes a few minutes to read, the images will stick with your for life. This is a wickedly mean story. So let the reader beware... If you are a more sensitive (or adventurous) reader, this handy scale rates specific categories from 1 (lowest) to 10 (highest) to give you some idea if this is your kind of book. THE AGREEMENT by JA Konrath Bad Language - 2 Scary - 6 Violent - 9 Funny - 3 Sexy - 0

    A free short story taken straight from the pages of THE MONSTER’S CORNER, an all original anthology from some of today’s hottest supernatural writers, featuring stories from the monster’s point of view.In THE LAKE, Abbie LeFleur, a lifetime Bostonian, has relocated to Graceville to start her life anew when she sets her eyes on a young student in her English class.

    What happens when a gritty Connecticut detective teams up with a young woman who can locate dead bodies by visualising their final memories? Find out in this unique short story set in Egypt, featuring Gross's Ty Hauck and Harris's Harper Connelly - a thrilling tale with a supernatural twist.For more exciting short story pairings, don't miss all eleven short stories in Match Up!

    Read how it all begins in this short story, The First.It's been just over a year since Edmund Blithe died, and just over a month since his fiancée, Emily, stopped wearing her engagement ring. Emily has finally begun to move on… Until Edmund mysteriously and inexplicably returns, sending the world—and Emily—into a tailspin.Edmund is only just the beginning. Around the world, people's loved ones are returning from beyond, seeking only to reenter the lives they left behind. As the world dives deep into uncertainty, Emily and Edmund are determined to find their way back to one another…even if it means risking everything.The reappearances continue in The Sparrow, and look for The Returned from Harlequin MIRA, a moving tale of a family given a second chance at life and a world where nothing—not even death—is certain.

    He's a part-time lobsterman and full-time painter who sells his art at galleries in Rockport and Newburyport. Between the two jobs he makes enough money to get by, living in an in-law apartment in the family home owned by his brother Jim. Jim runs Feehan & Sons Funeral Home, a business started by their grandfather in 1921.All in all, despite the tension with his brother, and despite the grumbling of his friends, whose business has suffered because of a lengthy red tide and a spectacularly bad overall fishing season, Richie enjoys his life very much. He's content, and believes that's pretty much all a man can ask from his life.That is, until a horrible mystery begins to unfold in Gloucester.Out lobstering, Richie sees something nightmarish in the surf one day, catches a bare glimpse of it beneath the surface. He doesn't dare speak of it for fear of what others might say-he doesn't want to become the town crazy. But he's having a hard time sleeping at night, and several days later, while out hauling in his traps for the winter, Richie finds one of them stuck on something. When he finally hauls it up, there's a corpse attached, a corpse that has been eaten at by sea creatures, including something large . . . the corpse of Greta Wagner, a woman who had been waked at Feehan & Sons two weeks earlier and buried a couple of days later.Someone stole her corpse from the ground.And her grave won't be the only one disturbed.

    Some of the stories are inspired by true events and some are inspired by ideas of my dear readers! Find out which ones inside this scary collection."BABYSITTER"Rachel was just a regular teenager living a normal life, when the new, rich family moved into town. They had 2 children and were looking for a babysitter. She thought it would be a nice way to get some money. What was in store for her, however, was a bloody and shocking night to remember."DARK SIDE"Selene and Damien seemed like a normal couple, but Damien started to act weirdly and spent a lot of time in his price room where he did his job. Damien was an artist and needed his private area. What was Damien actually doing in his private room was more terrifying than Selene could ever have imagined."THE CURSE OF HERNANDEZ"A newly married couple found the perfect home to call their own. While cleaning out the upstairs attic the husband discovers an old suitcase. Upon opening, they find the remains of documents and papers with their last name on them- Hernandez. Strange, but they decided to ignore it and throw the suitcase away. They should have never done this because that is when strange things started to happen.

    It can be read in ten minutes. Please don't purchase this expecting a novel for your dollar.This story was written in a small cafe on the corner of Bleeker and Grove in New York City on Tuesday, May 27th. The idea came to me yesterday while walking across the Brooklyn Bridge. I saw the locks on several of the small cables on the bridge. I remembered my time in both London and Paris, taking pictures of all the love locks on bridges there. And I thought about all the couples those locks represent. I wondered how many are still together.Maybe this story isn't worth your dollar. If I could price a work on Amazon for less, I would. It is what it is. I hope this will be the first of many short pieces that I write and publish in a single day while recording what I'm thinking and where I am when I write them. For those who take the plunge, I hope you get your money's worth. Thank you for all of your support.-Hugh

    Taught you everything he knows. Everyone in your ordinary American town knows who you are. So even though Dear Old Dad is safely behind bars, when the killing starts all over again, you are the first person the police come to see.They don't know whether it's nature or nurture. And neither do you.

    Adeline vows to never speak again. But that’s not her only secret. After her mother takes a housekeeping job at a lighthouse off the tip of Cape Ann, a local woman vanishes. The key to the mystery lies with Adeline, the silent witness. New York Times bestselling author of The Rules of Magic Alice Hoffman crafts a beautiful, heart-wrenching short story.Alice Hoffman’s Everything My Mother Taught Me is part of Inheritance, a collection of five stories about secrets, unspoken desires, and dangerous revelations between loved ones. Each piece can be read or listened to in a single setting. By yourself, behind closed doors, or shared with someone you trust.

    “The real deal!”“Oh yeah?” Bobby replied. “Tell me more.”“She's the most amazing woman I've ever met!” He snatched his cigarettes from the coffee table...

    But then she discovers a string of suggestive texts on his secret burner phone. Even worse, he’s flirting with the woman who shook their unstable marriage once before. But knowledge is power. What’s more dangerous—what Liz knows or what Phil doesn’t know?Laura Lippman’s Slow Burner is part of Hush, a collection of six stories, ranging from political mysteries to psychological thrillers, in which deception can be a matter of life and death. Each piece can be read or listened to in one truly chilling sitting.

    Yeah, his name was in the credits of a bunch of low-budget B-movie horror shows, but at least he could say he was in the movies.That was a long time ago.Now Ben sits alone in a trailer park listening to an old married couple across the way argue about money, just nursing a beer, waiting for something to happen.But nothing ever happens. That pisses him off.No, Big Ben Coburn isn't going to wait around anymore. He jumps on his motorcycle and tears off into the night.Intent on escaping into a new life, he races past a field of scarecrows, barreling headlong down the highway toward a blazing inferno and a bottomless pit. Click here to download a FREE Mobi or ePub copy now! Note: This story originally appeared in TWO: The 2nd Annual Stupefying Stories Horror Special.

    Finally, on Terathalion, the truth of Mortarion’s sinister heritage will be exposed, and the future of the XIV Legion will be written...READ IT BECAUSEThe Death Guard have already embraced treachery, but this story follows their Primarch as he continues upon the road that will eventually doom his Legion to a plague-wracked damnation.THE STORYChagrined by his defeat at the hands of Jaghatai Khan, Mortarion abandons the pursuit of the White Scars and instead leads the Death Guard in a spiteful, punitive rampage across the systems of the Prosperine empire. World after world has fallen to this horrific onslaught, and yet the insular and secretive primarch seems preoccupied by some other, unspoken goal. Finally, on Terathalion, the truth of Mortarion's sinister heritage will be exposed, and the future of the XIV Legion will be written...This story is also available in Blades of the Traitor.

    Because of his inability to remember things for more than a few minutes, he uses notes and tattoos to keep track of new information.