The Ash-Born Boy


Victoria Schwab - 2012
    Before he met Lexi... Before they faced the witch... Who was the boy named Cole? Follow us to Dale, a city on a hill, where in a matter of days fire will devour everything. Meet the Lord and Lady, and their son, the boy destined to inherit all...until everything turns to ash. It's time to learn the truth behind the stranger's story.

Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad


M.R. James - 1904
    When Professor Parkins finds an old whistle, his stay at Globe Inn takes a turn for the eerie.

Once Upon a Winter's Eve


Tessa Dare - 2011
    A Spindle Cove NovellaViolet Winterbottom is a quiet girl. She speaks six languages, but seldom raises her voice. She endured bitter heartbreak in perfect silence. The gentlemen aren't beating down her door. Until the night of the Spindle Cove Christmas ball, when a mysterious stranger crashes into the ballroom and collapses at Violet's feet. His coarse attire and near-criminal good looks would put any sensible young lady on her guard. He's wet, chilled, bleeding, and speaking in an unfamiliar tongue. Only Violet understands him. And she knows he's not what he seems. She has one night to draw forth the secrets of this dangerously handsome rogue. Is he a smuggler? A fugitive? An enemy spy? She needs answers by sunrise, but her captive would rather seduce than confess. To learn his secrets, Violet must reveal hers—and open herself to adventure, passion, and the unthinkable... Love. Warning: The heroine packs a pistol, the hero curses in multiple languages, and together they steam up a cold winter’s night.

The Death Clock


J. Rock - 2010
    She started seeing them when she got on the bus that morning. She didn't know what they meant...until she saw them run out...

The Shell Collector


Christopher Golden - 2005
    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.

The Murders of Molly Southbourne


Tade Thompson - 2017
    Experience the horror of Tade Thompson's The Murders of Molly Southbourne.The rule is simple: don't bleed.For as long as Molly Southbourne can remember, she's been watching herself die. Whenever she bleeds, another molly is born, identical to her in every way and intent on her destruction.Molly knows every way to kill herself, but she also knows that as long as she survives she'll be hunted. No matter how well she follows the rules, eventually the mollys will find her. Can Molly find a way to stop the tide of blood, or will she meet her end at the hand of a girl who looks just like her?

The Lake


Tananarive Due - 2011
    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.

Ashes


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

Camp Slaughter


Sergio Gomez - 2019
    No one is sure if this “Camp Slaughter” place is real or not. But a group of college kids renting out a cabin deep in the woods of Pennsylvania will soon realize the truth. They’ll realize the danger, too. Or rather, the cannibal out in the woods will bring the danger to them…

The Winter Courtship Rituals of Fur-Bearing Critters


Amy Lane - 2011
    When sweet, charming tenderfoot Ben McCutcheon moves onto Crawford’s rural road, Rance is very aware that Ben makes it a grand total of two gay men in their tiny town, and even though he is instantly, painfully smitten, any move he makes could be simply chalked up to being hard up. Using his best weapon and favorite skill, Crawford launches an awkward, wordless effort to make sure Ben is kept warm during the cold Colorado winter, every last piece of him—especially his heart.

Dead Clown Barbecue: Expansion Pack


Jeff Strand - 2014
     (No previous DEAD CLOWN BARBECUE reading experience required.) This 21,000-word collection contains the first-ever publication of "Gave Up The Ghost," the basis for the horror/comedy short movie directed by Gregory Lamberson, that will appear in the upcoming anthology film CREEPERS. In addition to a report from the movie set, this collection contains... "The Car." A pair of vampires get together for an evening of vicious fun. "The Loneliest Jackalope." Bunnies with antlers! You can't go wrong with bunnies with antlers. "Inside the Boxes." Whatever is in there can't be good... "A Bit of Christmas Mayhem." Andrew Mayhem vs. a trio of axe-wielding Santa Clauses. "Scrumptious Bone Bread." It's not just for giants anymore. "A Flawed Fantasy." Sometimes, two girls at once isn't the best idea. "Tin Cans." What will you hear when you put one to your ear?

Equoid


Charles Stross - 2013
    Now Bob Howard, Laundry agent, must travel to the quiet English countryside to deal with an outbreak of one of the worst horrors imaginable. For, as it turns out, unicorns are real. They're also ravenous killers from beyond spacetime...At the publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied.

The Damned Thing


Ambrose Bierce - 1894
    Told from several different perspectives, the story focuses on a freak fatal accident that is written off as a wild animal attack. But does that description get at the truth of the matter? At least one witness is convinced otherwise. A story of the paranormal that was once loosely adapted for an episode of the television series Masters of Horror.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow


Washington Irving - 1820
    He was a gullible and excitable fellow, often so terrified by locals' stories of ghosts that he would hurry through the woods on his way home, singing to keep from hysterics. Until late one night, he finds that maybe they're not just stories. What is that dark, menacing figure riding behind him on a horse? And what does it have in its hands? And why wasn't schoolteacher Crane ever seen in Sleepy Hollow again?

Don't Drink the Water: The Year of Short Stories – August


Jeffrey Archer - 2018
    Released as one of a limited number of digital shorts released to celebrate the publication of Jeffrey Archer’s magnificent seventh short-story collection, Tell Tale. Taken from Cat O’ Nine Tales, Jeffrey Archer's fifth collection of short stories, Don’t Drink the Water is a captivating, witty and ingenious short read.Richard Barnsley is in St Petersburg to close a pipeline deal that will make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. Having spent years bribing the Energy Minister, Anatol Chenkov, the deal should go through smoothly. However, the president of Russia wants preside over the signing ceremony which means he needs to finalise the contract in a matter of weeks. But then Richard’s home life unravels when he finds a letter from a divorce lawyer intended for his wife. He suspects she is waiting for the deal to be signed before divorcing him, which leads Richard to take drastic action . . .