But then a dark cloud threatens the bright promise of summer vacation: on the last day of school, their classmate Tubby Cooke vanishes. Soon, the group discovers stories of other children who once disappeared from Elm Haven. And there are other strange things happening in town: unexplained holes in the ground, a stranger dressed as a World War I soldier, and a rendering-plant truck that seems to be following the five boys. The friends realize that there is a terrible evil lurking in Elm Haven...and they must be the ones to stop it.

    But when they arrive at high school, things change. Gretchen begins to act….different. And as the strange coincidences and bizarre behavior start to pile up, Abby realizes there’s only one possible explanation: Gretchen, her favorite person in the world, has a demon living inside her. And Abby is not about to let anyone or anything come between her and her best friend. With help from some unlikely allies, Abby embarks on a quest to save Gretchen. But is their friendship powerful enough to beat the devil?

    A successful military father, a loving mother and five beautiful teenage daughters. But on the inside, life isn't quite so idyllic: the Cane sisters can barely stand each other, their father is always away, and their neglectful mother struggles with addiction and depression. When their youngest and most beloved sister, Rose, dies in a tragic accident, Mona Cane and her sisters are devastated. And when she is brought back from the dead, they are relieved. But soon they discover that Rose must eat human flesh to survive, and when their mother abandons them, the sisters will find out just how far they'll go to keep their family together.

    But the real world comes to her in this dystopian tale with a philosophical bent. Rumors of massive unrest on the “Outside” abound. Something murderous is out there. Amish elders make a rule: No one goes outside, and no outsiders come in. But when Katie finds a gravely injured young man, she can’t leave him to die. She smuggles him into her family’s barn—at what cost to her community? The suspense of this vividly told, truly horrific thriller will keep the pages turning.

    And ghosts.All the logic and reason in the world can’t protect her from the truth—she can see and communicate with spirits. But Akira is sure that her ability is just a genetic quirk and the ghosts she encounters simply leftover electromagnetic energy. Dangerous electromagnetic energy.Zane Latimer believes in telepathy, precognition, auras, and that playing Halo with your employees is an excellent management technique. He also thinks that maybe, just maybe, Akira Malone can help his family get in touch with their lost loved ones.But will Akira ever be able to face her fears and accept her gift? Or will Zane’s relatives be trapped between life and death forever?

    Comments and new ‘friends’ were acquired … all with the same goal … writing!This is not one person’s achievement, but a collective of people from around the block and around the world.~*~“Hal L. O’ween” is the pen-name of a group of writers from around the world that have joined together to ‘scare your pants off!’Many thanks go to the following writers—without their involvement, this collection wouldn’t have been possible:Devin Berglund, Brian Bigelow, Melissa Blume, Carol Bond, Michelle Patricia Browne, Jaleta Clegg, Richard Cotton, Russell Cruse, J. A. Cunningham, Toy Davis, Bella Doerres, Debra Elliott, Jiva Fang, Paul Freeman, Joseph Alan Gharagheer, Pamela Griffiths, Erik Gustafson, Rylee Hales, Denise Hemphill, Bruce Hesselbach, Rob Holliday, Katrina Jack, Gerald D. Johnston, Mel L. Kinder, Merita King, Pamela K. Kinney, Neil Leckman, Tracy Lesch, Rosemary Lynch, Ellen McKinney, Wolfen Lee McKoy, Shannon Marie Mead, Jason Mueller and C. L. Foster, Matthew Christopher Nelson, Sharon Van Orman, Patrick Ottuso, Cheryl C. Ramirez, Martin Reaves, Katherine Rochholz, Kincaid Savoie, Adam Sifre and Splinker, Gretchen Steen, Michael L. Turner, Rahima Warren, Richard A. Wentworth, Lisa Williamson, Sherill Willis, Stephen L. Wilson, Kay D. Ziegler.Enjoy these spooky bits, for they are what makes Halloween special!

    Unfortunately, it explains a lot. Like why she's able to see in the dark and walk through solid objects. What she doesn't understand is why the other vampires expect her to have all the answers. It's their fault she turned into one of them...right? Jalmari's hatred for his old-man intensifies when he's ordered to bring that troublesome girl to their castle. He has a clan to run; there's no time for babysitting newborn vampires no matter how they were converted to their culture. But when a two-thousand-year-old premonition threatens to take the crown and his life, Jalmari sees no other choice than to take out the catalyst, Ema Marx. Fortunately for Ema, she could also be the clan's only savior. The race to figure out her vampiric origins is on. And maybe she'll get the hang of the blood-drinking gig along the way.

    Not to mention she's the family outcast, lacking her parents' innate abilities, and is terrified of the occult things lurking in their basement.Maxwell Oliver is supposed to be enjoying the summer before his senior year, spending his days thinking about parties and friends. Instead he's taking care of his little sister while his mom slowly becomes someone he doesn't recognize. Soon he suspects that what he thought was grief over his father's death might be something more...sinister.When Maxwell and Vera join forces, they come face to face with deeply disturbing true stories of cults, death worship, and the very nature that drives people to evil.

    Twenty years later, one is found--but she's still the same age as when she disappeared. The secrets of witches have reached across the centuries in this chilling Gothic thriller from the author of the acclaimed The Nesting. When single mother Liv is commissioned to paint a mural in a 100-year-old lighthouse on a remote Scottish island, it's an opportunity to start over with her three daughters--Luna, Sapphire, and Clover. When two of her daughters go missing, she's frantic. She learns that the cave beneath the lighthouse was once a prison for women accused of witchcraft. The locals warn her about wildlings, supernatural beings who mimic human children, created by witches for revenge. Liv is told wildlings are dangerous and must be killed.Twenty-two years later, Luna has been searching for her missing sisters and mother. When she receives a call about her youngest sister, Clover, she's initially ecstatic. Clover is the sister she remembers--except she's still seven years old, the age she was when she vanished. Luna is worried Clover is a wildling. Luna has few memories of her time on the island, but she'll have to return to find the truth of what happened to her family. But she doesn't realize just how much the truth will change her.

    Investigating a series of horrific murders, grave desecrations, and missing persons, Kiera uses her unique ability of seeing, and soon realizes her own life is in danger. When Kiera falls for police officer Luke Bishop, not only are her mind and heart opened to a terrifyingly new world, she comes to suspect that Luke might be involved in the killings. In a race against time to unearth the truth, Kiera must discover the identity of who - or what - is behind the gruesome deaths on her Vampire Shift. "Vampire Shift" is Book One of The Kiera Hudson Series One.

    Unfortunately, Brian’s father has made him take along Oliver, the strange kid who moved in next door. When Brian and his friends decide to scare Oliver by daring him to enter the old abandoned house on Cottage Lane, an evening of Halloween fun quickly turns into a nightmare.

    As a supernatural specialist, and far more intelligent than anyone her age, she has always been ignored by her peers. Because of the isolation she has always felt, she put her life and soul into her job. Being a supernatural specialist hasn't given her the divine intervention she always longed for, until one day a shipment arrives from Italy containing three dead bodies with an uncanny ability to regenerate. Gabriella is frightened and intrigued, but not as scared as she becomes when a dark creature attacks her.As the bodies come back to life, the plot takes an unexpected twist that you won't see coming. The supernatural world only begins to unfold before her as angels appear, her dreams start to haunt her, and the very past she has forgotten comes back with startling clarity. Romance blooms, escape plans are made, an assassin is out to kill her, and death is only around the corner. But what is more terrifying than all of it is the fact she is the chosen one, the Illuminator, the one who will save them all.

    Moore offers up ten autumnal tales of the darker things that lurk just around the corner of Indian Summer. A man learns of a town's obsession with scarecrows and tries to find the answers as to why they are so important. Children move through familiar streets and find that Halloween makes everything different. Tis' the season when ghosts are real, witches soar through the night, and things in the Beldam Woods are not always what they seem. Sometimes it's the monsters that wear the masks.

    Cynical and jaded by sixteen, Ivy’s only hope is to escape the legacy she was born into. She has a plan, a carefully thought out, feasible plan. She just has to play by the rules until everything falls into place. Unfortunately as predictable as her life can be, she never sees Ryder Sutton coming. He tumbles into her life unimpressed and untouched by her and the life she lives. He’s an enigma to her. A gorgeous, frustrating, sincere mystery and a complete phenomenon in the ugly world she lives in. What blooms between them is a fiercely intense attraction that cannot be ignored. Even though they would both be better off without each other—Even if both their lives depend on staying apart.

    With no idea how to cure himself of this odd new compulsion, he decides to let it take its course and go for a drive, hoping that once he proves to himself that there is nowhere to go, he can return to his normal life. Instead, he finds himself hurled headlong into a nightmare adventure across a fractured Wisconsin as the dream reveals itself one heart-pounding detail at a time. <br><br>Horror, science fiction, dark fantasy. From the author of The Temple of the Blind. 84,000 words.