And it isn't over yet. Celebrating their friend's birthday with drunken debauchery and intoxicated antics they've just stumbled through a mini-wave of mindless vandalism and though they've wandered far out of the realms of civilization they are keen to keep the party vibe going. When they encounter a band of mysterious fugitive women who call a bizarre encampment deep in the woods their residence it appears a strong likelihood that continuing the party is on the cards. But it won't come without a price. The collective of unnerving lawless women are open to the suggestion but not without the threesome completing a request first, a seemingly straight forward barter proposition that will bring the boys face to face with something else that dwells in an unorthodox co-existence with the girls in the wilderness. These are the Plebs and the shocking violent encounter the trio are unwittingly pitched into with these freakish feral fiends may be their first but it won't be the last. As the shiftless young men become inextricably entwined and involved with the agenda driven dangerous women so too do their fates, with them unravelling killer secrets, duplicity, bloodshed and brutality along the way that encompasses not just them but more of their friends, new enemies and old enemies. A simple night of bad decisions escalates and snowballs into an expedition of terror spanning all the way home and beyond with Corey and his friends engulfed in a nightmare where the lines between man and monster blur. Depravity, death and destruction reign supreme and it isn't just the Plebs that want them all torn limb from limb.

    For Jimmy Hawthorn it is even worse. Not only does he need to successfully make that transition, he has to do it while hiding the fact that he is the one responsible for the disappearances of two fellow high school girls, both of whom are prisoners in a secret underground fallout shelter he discovered behind an abandoned house on the outskirts of town.

    No sign remains of any other structure around them, no ruins of long forgotten buildings. They look... wrong. They feel wrong. Bad things happen if you get too close. Horrible things.You must never, ever ever talk about them.Thirty-four of today's best up and coming writers provide wonderfully unique interpretations inspired by the urban legends of the Internet age. Tales range from science fiction to fantasy, horror to mystery, and one writer even penned a romance!But you must never tell anyone about the stairs!Containing the stories:* Nothing Ever Happens Here by Richard Paolinelli* Star Thistle by J. Comer* Let Him In by Josh Dygert* A New Trail Off Of Old King?s Highway by Michael Reyes* The Strange Stairs at the Aldebourne Estate by Kristen Brand* Exclusive Scoop by J. Trevor Robinson* The Flash-Back Stairs: A Story of Betrayal by Patrick T. Luce* The Peacock House by Matthew Pegg* Where The Wood Thrush Sings by NB Williams* The Refuge by Dawn Witzke* Upon The Stair by Daniel Humphreys* Grand Staircase to the Yellow Court by R.C. Mulhare* Another Dead Man?s Curve by Chris Ingram* Game Warden by Russell Newquist* Stepping Stones by Jarrett Mazza* Reap Dance by James G. Hancock* Descending Stairs, 1699 by Meghan Casey* Where Angels Fear to Tread by Michelle Mellon* Sobek's Staircase by Jeremy Megargee* The Curses We Carry by Russell Mahon* Stranger?s Wood by J.S. Arroyo* Stairway Back to Jonathan's Farm by Dan Allen* The Thirteenth Step by MJ Mars* Cajun Ray by S.D. McPhail* W/M by Isobel Horsburgh* The Sentinel by Richard W. Watts* Sleep, Child by A.G. Lopes* The Lost Ones by Karen Thrower* Ready For Seven More by Christopher Lansdown* Fire and Pine by Bethany C. Gotschall* Stairway to? Where? by William Lehman* The Dead Always by Darren Todd* Missing Persons by Jonathan Bronico* Cedar Road by Mocha Pennington

    But when his ex-partner asks him to track down a missing girl, Parker embarks on an odyssey that leads him to the heart of organized crime; to an old black woman who dwells by a Louisiana swamp and hears the voices of the dead; to cellars of torture and murder; and to a serial killer unlike any other, an artist who uses the human body as his canvas and takes faces as his prize, the killer known only as the Traveling Man.DARK HOLLOWHaunted by the murder of his wife and daughter, former New York police detective Charlie Parker retreats home to Scarborough, Maine, to rebuild his shattered life. But his return awakens old ghosts, drawing him into the manhunt for the killer of yet another mother and child. The obvious suspect is the young woman's violent ex-husband. But there is another possibility—a mythical figure who lurks deep in the dark hollow of Parker's own past, a figure that has haunted his family for generations: the monster known as Caleb Kyle.... THE KILLING KINDWhen the discovery of a mass grave in northern Maine reveals the grim truth behind the disappearance of a religious community, Charlie Parker is drawn into vicious conflict with a group of zealots intent on tracking down a relic that could link them to the slaughter. Haunted by the ghost of a small boy and tormented by the demonic killer known as Mr. Pudd, Parker is forced to fight for his lover, his friends...and his very soul.

    You've seen plenty of stories of zombies, decapitation, "double-tapping" and gore...but if you've never experienced this story (now a film by Ryan Lieske...

    They're all he has left. Thinking that his life is all but over, he takes to wandering the cliffs, carrying broken things that he always promised his son he would fix, but never did.

    With no outside stimuli, Jenny naturally turns inward and revisits her guilt-ridden past, desperate to figure out which wronged person would be angry enough, evil enough, to do this to her. She must survive her own demons, and then time itself when she finds remnants of previous captives?a plate, a tooth, a bone. Scratched hashmarks in the stone walls around her, leave her to wonder what happens next. What happens after six days?Maelstrom Volume 1, Book 3

    Reluctantly returning for another semester at UC, campus editor Jim Parker and library assistant Faith Pullen are alarmed by a series of bloody accidents that seem to be linked to an eerie and sinister force.

    Naked on a bed in an unfamiliar, empty room, she is unable to move her limbs. Worse, she cannot remember who she is. Panic-stricken, Hillary desperately searches her mind for answers, but finds nothing more than fear and confusion.A man enters the room—a stranger to Hillary. He introduces himself as Dr. Morrison. Seemingly benign, he informs Hillary that she is there for her own good…that she is under his care until she regains her memory. Hillary cannot remember anything, but her instincts warn her not to trust this man who claims to be her doctor. She can only hope that someone will come looking for her…that someone will find her before it is too late. Several weeks later, Hillary’s situation has grown even more dismal. Still unclothed, coarse ropes bind her limbs to the bed while she is fed intravenously. Two new strangers have entered her life—Monica, Dr. Morrison’s wife, and Dr. Bentley, who claims to be her psychiatrist. Yet they are more evasive than forthcoming. Her questions remain unanswered. She is trapped, with no hope of escaping…left to piece together the mystery of her miserable existence.Abused and neglected, Hillary knows that with each passing day, her chance of survival diminishes. She spends her long days wasting away, growing depressed…growing angry. When all hope seems lost, a cruel twist of fate provides the opportunity she has been waiting for. With renewed hope and an unrelenting will to survive, Hillary does whatever it takes to escape. She yearns for her freedom more than anything in the world.Hillary just wants to go home….