Book picks similar to
Don't Turn On The Light by Max China


horror
ebook
short-story
02k-stand-alone-horror

Underneath


Heather Marie Adkins - 2001
    An ancient city, entombed beneath a museum that seeks to understand the brutal race that once inhabited the underground world.A young woman with special empathic powers offered a job to create an exhibit of the city's artifacts.Underneath, they wait for her.Underneath is a ten-thousand word novelette, approximately fifty pages.

One Star


The Behrg - 2019
    But when Li posts a one-star review of a novel on her book blog, the results are far more frightening than she could ever have imagined. Not every story was meant to have a happy ending.ONE STAR is a previously unpublished horror short story, being released in The Behrg's upcoming short story collection--"The Passengers You Cannot See." It is the author's love letter to book bloggers and reviewers, and thus is being offered as a free download to any book reviewer in part to thank all those who have been a part of the author's journey. And if you haven't yet been a part, there's no better time than now to jump in that car and ride along. Oh, the vistas you will see.

Weirder Than Weird


Francis Burger - 2013
    "Weirder Than Weird" is assured to keep the reader captivated on those cold winter nights when all you want to do is to curl up with a good book and let your mind run wild.Imagine, if you will, the worst case scenario for a woman who holds the deepest and darkest of secrets. She tries to keep this ignominious shame from her psychologist but he knows her secret all too well and she ends up paying the ultimate price for her indiscretions. Or... consider poor Keith Tuttle, a young man who unwittingly becomes part of a horrifying tale that damns him for all eternity but strangely enough, someone close to him unexpectedly profits from his doom. Another story called "Arrival Time" will allow you to peer into the life of a solitary man traveling through space and what he has come to rely on in order to keep his sanity. Will he lose it? Stand by..."Weirder Than Weird" is chock full of the most unusual tales that you will ever read. Can you hear the whistle blowing? The train is about to leave the station. Next stop: Macabre-Ville, Humor Heights and Whacky Wherever. The only question now is... Will you be on board?

Last Pursuit


Piers Platt - 2014
    But time is running short: the mark knows that he’s coming, and he’s not the only contractor on the job …

Carnival Of Strange Things


Amy CrandallSamie Sands - 2019
    The carnival is about to begin, and the show is to die for... Grab your ticket and take a seat. The ringmaster’s opening act? A creature showcasing its bloody feat.There are haunting spirits with much to tell. Tales of torture and screams straight from the burning flames of hell.Tick-tock goes the time, seconds passing by as you slowly lose your mind.Watch.Wait.Listen.Evil is coming, and it’s striking from behind.Horror and fear, like filth on your skin it clings,Question is, are you brave enough to endure…The Carnival of Strange Things?

Blizzard at Three Bears Lake


Rachel Kovaciny - 2019
    reimagined. Adventurous, imaginative Mary Rose simply wants to explore a little more of the Wyoming mountains around her grandmother's ranch. She knows that once winter arrives, she'll be stuck at the ranch for months and months. She seizes her chance for one last autumn outing and heads for a beautiful lake her new friends have told her about. But a blizzard descends while she's out riding alone, trapping her in a cabin inhabited by three fierce and furry strangers. Whether you got to know Mary Rose in her Little Red Riding Hood adventure, "Cloaked," or are meeting her for the first time, you'll find plenty of excitement in her company!

The Cat, the Crow, and the Cauldron: A Halloween Anthology


Joe DeRouenJalpa Williby - 2015
     Joe DeRouen’s Good Fortune teaches us a valuable lesson about why you should be very careful when you hold someone’s fate in your hands. It may come back to haunt you, just as it does for Grimsley Harkness, who dares to wish for more than he deserves. Celia Kennedy’s Nothing Scares Me takes readers on a test of endurance. Lost in the Florida Everglades, Ardith Deblois, wife, mother and intrepid adventurer, fights for her life. Enveloped within the humid swamplands is a perilous maze full of obstacles and adversaries. Which is the greater impediment, the humans that hunt her or the deadly animals and poisonous plants she hides amongst? Can she fight through fatigue and dehydration to save herself? Nothing Scares Me. True or not? Zeece Lugo’s Five Stories Up finds us on October 31st, 1966, and night is falling over the city. Below, the groups of little ghosts and goblins stream in and out of the front stoops and basement bodegas, running, laughing, white blankets flapping in the wind, their candy treasures tightly held in hand. But above, in the dark rooftop of Sonia's building, something pale and evil watches her, and beckons... Angie Martin's "Sold" follows a paranormal team as they investigate the home of a serial killer for their live Halloween night televised show. In Heather Osborne's Will You Remember Me? past and present collide when ghosts from witch trials of long ago come to life. It's up to Sierra to lay things to rest. In Leonie Rogers' Roast Pumpkin, Anna discovers that going trick-or-treating in her new home town is more of an out-of-this-world experience than she'd ever imagined. CJ Rutherford's 'Treaters' tells the story of Jaz. Who would believe the world would end on Halloween night? Can Jaz, a retired U.S. Marine, battle loss, grief, demons, and loneliness, to survive the end of the world? In Jada Ryker’s Dead Eye, Alex takes Marisa to an unusual Halloween party in an isolated Kentucky community… with a murderer ready with deadly tricks, rather than treats. In Jalpa Williby’s Beauty and the Beast, Kelsey’s entire family perishes in a fire on a dreadful Halloween night. Overcome by grief and guilt, she decides to end her pain once and for all. Will the mysterious stranger be her savior, or will he ultimately cause her tragic demise?

Pay The Ghost


Tim Lebbon - 2015
     A girl goes missing ... the father gives up hope ... but the mother never stops searching. Now, a year later and close to Hallowe'en, they have a chance to rescue their child. But to do so they must face something terrible.

Sold ~ Party Toy (The Billionaires Club Interracial BDSM Book 1)


Q. Zayne - 2017
    I had a three-day notice to pay rent or quit. The ad was the answer to my problem. Someone needed a party hostess for 24 hours on a private island. With my catering experience and model looks, I could get the gig. But when I set eyes on the man about to fly me to the island, I realized I might have made a mistake. The tall, older, arrogant stranger didn’t just undress me with his eyes, he used me right there on the pavement. Deviant desires seemed to radiate from him. He pulled a black leather dog collar out of his pocket. “Wait. You have to sign this before we do anything. Read it.” He handed me a contract. The wind swept a bottle down the runway and blew my skirt up. It was hard to read with his dark eyes looking right through my underwear and into my secret places. “This is a mistake. I didn’t know the ad meant —.” “You thought you were going to serve canapes on a tray?” He chuckled. “No, Brittani. You’re the main course.” His eyes worked me over again. “And you’re perfect.” He handed me a pen that probably cost more than my laptop. “Just sign at the bottom of the page. Full disclosure, full consent. That’s the way I do business.” “Can I leave?” “Of course you can leave. If you leave now. But you don’t get paid if you leave. Once we get to the island, you’re ours for 24-hours.” He tapped the contract with his long finger. “When your service is over, I transfer $10,000 to your account and send you home.” “$10,000?” I choked on it. That was more than generous. I scanned the contract again. It had long, dense paragraphs of disclaimers and waivers but not much in the way of details. “I’ll be — okay — when it’s over?” “You’ll be okay.” He smiled. I liked his smile. I needed the money. I signed. He put the collar around my neck and buckled it. If you like dark short erotica, kinky alpha billionaires — and no-entrances-barred hard-and-unprotected group interracial action with a white woman at the center, you'll love Q. Zayne's creamy story about Brittani’s scary-hot visit to The Billionaire’s Club. Click Buy and get the adventure! All characters are 18+ and readers should be, too, due to language and sexual content. If you're over 21, enjoy the dash of interracial BMWW romance sparked amid all the juicy action. :)

Ashes


Scott Nicholson - 2010
    The afterword explains where the ideas for the stories came from.

This is Gonna Hurt


A.I. Nasser - 2015
    He lost his job, his home, and his girlfriend is sleeping with his best friend. Life just doesn’t seem worthwhile anymore.But he has a plan. He will bring suffering to every single person who hurt him. Every cruel act visited upon him will be met with grave retribution.Revenge has never been more horrifying.

Rage Against the Night


Shane Jiraiya CummingsStephen King - 2011
    These brave men and women stand up to the darkness, stare it right in the eye, and give it the finger. These are the stories of those who rage against the night, stories of triumph, sacrifice, and bravery in the face of overwhelming evil. Rage Against the Night features the megastars of dark fantasy and horror—including Stephen King, Ramsey Campbell, Peter Straub, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, F. Paul Wilson, Jonathan Maberry, Scott Nicholson, Nancy Holder, Sarah Langan, and many, many more.

A Thousand Fiendish Angels: Stories Inspired By Dante's Inferno


J.F. Penn - 2013
    On the edge of horror, thriller and the occult. Sins of the Flesh: When the tortured and mutilated corpse of a wealthy author is discovered, the police officer sent to investigate finds a curious diary amongst the occult objects at the scene. Will he uncover the author’s secret at the ruined chapel, and can he pay the price that it demands? Sins of Treachery: On the death of their Grandfather, twin brothers Simon and Gestas are left a map covered in alchemical symbols that could lead them to great wealth and power. But they find more than they expected in the frozen wastes of the Arctic north … Sins of Violence: In a brutal post-apocalyptic world, a young girl is about to be taken to The Minotaur for a Blessing that will end her innocence. Can her sister gain access to the fortified city of Dis in time to stop the ritual and avenge her own lost youth? Includes the Prologue of Desecration, a dark crime thriller, at the end of the book.

Pizza Delivery


Robert Kent - 2014
    College student Brock Clouser is working a summer job delivering pizzas. During a run to the outskirts of Harrington, Indiana, he wrecks his car at an isolated country home. Though most everyone there has been violently murdered, he's not alone.WARNINGThis is a novelette, not a full novel, and it's mean and nasty and intended for a mature audience. It is absolutely not appropriate for younger readers. It's a gruesome, repugnant tale featuring horrific acts of violence sure to warp young minds. Also, these particular characters speak in EXTREMELY COARSE language.

Ghosts of Rosewood Asylum


Stephen Prosapio - 2011
    It's Zach's dream investigation- but there's a catch: the network forces Xavier Paranormal Investigators to partner with the more dramatic-but less ethical-Demon Hunters. Now, Zach must fight for both his show's integrity and his team's loyalty while trying to protect his own secret: that he, himself, is possessed.