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This story is about you. You're lost in the snowy wastes with a terrible hunger and a sweet voice in your ears. |
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Hazel believes the creaking of her bones is due to age, disuse, or maybe diet...until the whispers start. |
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Miriam should be happy with what she's got and stop obsessing about the portraits. |
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Can't you see me? by Amber Reinke Madelyn died a few weeks ago, which is fine, she's fine, but her wife and kids haven't noticed yet…and that's less fine. She needs them to see her, to know she's gone, how else can she move on? |
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Beneath the Brine by Amber Reinke A cautionary tale written by a former pirate as he copes with the quiet, lonely horror of being lost at sea. |
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A one night stand on Halloween night finds a man with a clown nose that won’t come off, giggles in his veins and a sinking suspicion it’ll only get weirder. |
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The Chimera Snare: Fragments by S&E Black For Rayshell and her best friend Trish, senior year of high school is going to hell in a handbasket. The feud between Celestine and Daeva is bleeding into their world. When a mysterious visitor infiltrates her dreams, Rayshell is thrust into a realm of profound, otherworldly secrets. Together, Rayshell and Trish uncover the unbelievable – they are the living vessels for two banished Celestine guardians. Amidst mystical recollections and a wondrous magic system that shatters the veneer of their everyday lives, the two friends embark on a journey against time to connect with the Celestine guardians' allies in hopes of freeing them from their imprisonment. Simultaneously, the shadows cast by Daeva darken. The notorious outlaw, Merisek, has positioned himself to claim dominion over the Order of Existence—a trio of powerful artifacts capable of reshaping reality. Armed with two of these relics, Merisek races against the emergence of the Celestine guardians to claim the third. The stage is set for a showdown that will determine the fate of existence itself. Rayshell and Trish are all that stand between Merisek and his unhinged desire to twist the fabric of reality into his making. As the threads of destiny unravel, the question looms: who will be the author of existence, and what profound truths will be unveiled in the final, decisive act? |
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Closure May Never Come by PD Doling When a romantic holiday ends in tragedy, Rob Wyatt is determined to help his wife, Vikki, recover from her accident. As he fights to restore her to her former self, an ancient evil begins to manipulate their lives. Rob’s growing suspicion leads him to a chilling realisation: that the soul he’s trying to save may no longer be human… --- Perfect for fans of Stephen King's Bag of Bones, Mike Gayle meets H.P. Lovecraft in this genre-spanning, gothic-tinged tale of love, commitment, and paranormal suspense. |
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Arboriah Lux by Kathleen I. Lyons In a world where social discourse and injustices destroy the world around it, only an Aster-Blood can correct it. In a field of dead flowers and tall grass, Lux awakens to a sky of cool gray and a white sun. As she journeys to the city of Obsiditourma, she's met with danger as well as friendship in those who save her life. As she's plagued by visions of another Aster-Blood -- the twin sister of a dhampir named Esilas, the one who saved her life -- she's called to solve the mysteries surrounding her: her sudden appearance, the death of Esilas' sister, and the imbalance that has caused poverty and discourse in the city of Obsiditourma. Lux must learn vital lessons in order to survive. Keep your nature hidden. Protect those who need it. And trust very few. |
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Lagoon: A Short Story by Kurt Barlow Who doesn’t dream of a vacation along the world’s most beautiful shores? This story dives into how the sea itself can turn into a nightmare. If your train ride feels endless, if you’ve got an hour to kill at the office, or if you just need to unplug after a long day and feel that cold shiver down your spine, Lagoon is here to feed your fear. |
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Shadows In The Mirror by Abagail Brown Mistie escaped a past she'd mostly forgotten. No one would go looking for her buried past if she lived up to her dreams. Or so she believed. Smoky tendrils wrapped the horrors she couldn't quite remember. Flickering shadows crept through the mirror to bring her past to her present. Nightmare generational abuse on a scale she never imagined. Never knew she had been part of. Didn't want in her past. Or her future. Secrets are twin sisters. Whether fraternal, or identical, depends on the shadows dancing in the mirror. Like mother, like daughter, Goddess of the moon, Selene watches over us, Leaving Helen to carry on her task. Patricia, Quin, and Eleanor, Must find the missing ones, To bring Selene's dream to pass. The daughters returned - Mistie, and another Patricia, Home together, at last. |
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Suck Suck Suck by Brandt Scheidemantel "Riveting, disturbing." "Deeply weird...very ticklish...the strangest thing I have ever read." "An odd collection...Scheidemantel can weave a story!" In this genre-bending debut short story collection, psychological horror gets a magical twist. A man makes a routine stop at the bank—and surfaces days later sucked dry of his identity. Faced with eviction, a babysitter trades her sin to a troll—but there’s a lustful catch. A breast cancer survivor awakens in the Devil’s sock drawer and runs like Hell. Two closeted young men find love—but a deranged murderer finds them, too. Suck Suck Suck is a surreal ride fueled by dark comedy, satire, and desperate longing. |
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Bury Me Cold by Jacob Steven Mohr An uncanny snowfall revives a cattleman’s dead wife—with terrible secrets from beyond to spill like blood. A plague-like curse infects the memories of its victims, forcing them to go viral in an increasingly grisly fashion. Twin sisters share a psychic link nothing can sever, not even the cold of the grave. Curiosity lures two stepbrothers into an imaginary haunted house—and the eager arms of its very real sole occupant. Infatuations. Trespasses. Abominations. Resurrections. Jacob Steven Mohr’s second volume of pitch-black fiction kicks over moss-covered rocks and shows us all the awful things that squirm beneath. In fourteen tales—including the titular “Bury Me Cold”—this collection is living, bleeding proof that when the lights go off, terror always gets the last word. |
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Reanimated Love by Kevin L. Williams Elizabeth Lavenza is a tortured woman living alone in a crumbling estate. Haunted by her father's death, she is an outcast ridiculed for her appearance and otherworldly abilities. Tambora is a reanimated creation, hunted as a monster and tormented for being different. He longs to find peace amid the harshness of the world. When Elizabeth discovers the injured giant on her doorstep, what begins as a mystery soon blossoms into a love that will transcend death, life, and death again. A true Gothic romance, Reanimated Love tells the story of a timeless love between two lost souls reaching out. |
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The Bone Drenched Woods by L.V. Russell Carve the bones. One for the gate, one for the door, two for the mantel, and three for the floor… Hyacinth Turning knows the terrors beyond her village, the insatiable hunger of the Teeth. She listens to the sermons given by the Elders in their hare-skin masks. She watches as the heathens hang and the witches burn. They tell her to be good and quiet. But Hyacinth is neither good nor quiet. After a series of tragic events, Hyacinth finds herself hastily wedded and sent far away from all she has ever known to a settlement at the edge of the sea. Where more than just the Teeth are hungry. Another horror swims below, leviathan shadows kept at bay by offerings of flesh and bone. But no sooner does Hyacinth take root in her new home do the Teeth and the Deep come to feed. Suspicion soon falls upon the outspoken Hyacinth, who spends more time with the outcasted Morgan Carroway than her own husband. The Elders want her burned, her husband wants her hanged, and a long-lost love claws at her dreams, but Hyacinth only wants one thing. A life and death of her choosing. |
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The Musings of He by Elowen Greywell A forgotten author. An abandoned manor. A manuscript that was never meant to be read. Vattica Wilde was once the darling of London's literary elite-until his brilliance dimmed, and his name decayed beneath the weight of a single, forgotten masterpiece. A one hit wonder. Shamed and desperate to reclaim his former glory, Vattica flees the city for a crumbling manor buried deep in the countryside. There, through rotted walls and whispering halls, he begins to write again. But the lines begin to blur between author and story, memory and hallucination, god and editor. Reality unravels as Vattica details the constant shifting stairs. The peculiar whispers in the walls. The lines he cannot remember writing. And Him. What emerges is not a novel, but a requiem. And it demands to be written. Told through recovered journal entries and editorial notes, The Musings of He is a gothic descent into madness. As Vattica's manuscript darkens and a figure known only as He begins to speak, the line between author and authored begins to dissolve. |
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Where Dark Things Rise by Andrew K. Clark Sixteen-year-old Mina is frustrated by Daddy’s drinking, her mom’s fanatical religious beliefs, and growing up poor in the Southern Appalachian Mountains. Most of her teachers assume she won’t amount to much despite her 4.0 GPA, and the country club guys think she’s easy prey. But they don’t know Mina’s dark secret: She can control a magical force of supernatural creatures known as the Shadow Faces. Mina doesn’t want powers. All she wants to do is escape the trailer park for a leafy college campus far away. But when her crush, Gabe, is stalked by a shapeshifting preacher/wolf, Mina learns to use her powers to protect him. Mina soon discovers the same preacher is trafficking teens for a mystical brothel and has kidnapped her best friend, Erin, after a failed attempt at conversion therapy. Can Mina use the Shadow Faces to save Erin and the other kids without losing her chance at a normal life? |
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The Secrets of Blackthorn House by Marie McWilliams After a whirlwind romance, Evelyn is excited to start her new life with her husband, Peter. But when the sudden passing of Peter’s father gives him the title Lord Black, along with the family’s remote manor, Blackthorn House, she finds herself in the middle of the wild Yorkshire Moors, separated from the only life she has ever known. She quickly realizes something is wrong with Blackthorn House: children’s laughter can be heard throughout the halls, the constant fog is full of wailing specters, and her dreams are haunted by an entity wearing her mother’s corpse like a suit. Furthermore, her new husband has become a stranger to her, treating her with barely veiled disdain. Under the constant surveillance of the staff of Blackthorn House, Evelyn struggles to find answers. Unable to gain any insight from the frightened locals in the nearby village, Evelyn and her trusted servant, Lilly, must seek answers from the dead. They learn that the Black family has long kept a dark and terrible secret. A secret that threatens both of their lives and, now, the life of Evelyn’s unborn baby. A secret involving a bargain paid in blood. |
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Gifts Between Us by C.C. Adams Elderly Londoner Augustus has lived a long, miserable life. Having driven his few remaining loved ones away years ago, he now whiles away his time drinking rum and hoping for the end. One night his death wish is nearly granted by a mugger, but a local youth called Michael intervenes. Much to the old man’s horror (and fascination) Michael promptly begins to devour the mugger’s body. Slowly, Augustus and his mysterious saviour form an unlikely friendship, one built on sharing the gifts of trust, camaraderie, and acceptance. And one last a secret. It is the cause of Michael’s cannibalistic nature. And, perhaps, a reason for Augustus to go on living… |
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May I Exist? Pending Review by Asium Hesidros & Erika Kukkar May I Exist? Pending Review is a dystopian elegy for a society strangled by aristocratic control and bureaucratic obedience. In a state governed by an aristocratic council of oligarchs, power is a birthright, and life is a ledger. The elite rule from above, unquestioned and untouched, while the working class toils in silence below, stripped of private property and personal freedom. Here, permission replaces autonomy. Every act, from taking a tram to boiling water is taxed in Credits, the regime’s unforgiving currency. Existence itself is a transaction. The system runs on bureaucracy so intricate it chokes. Housing is privately owned by corporate landlords contracted by the state. Wristbands blink orders, and penalties are posed. May I Exist? Pending Review is a haunting portrait of a society ruled by aristocratic democracy and totalitarian bureaucracy, a story not just of class descent, but of the silent war between endurance and falling prey. |
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The Witch Hunter's Debt by J.L. Coulbeck Monsters wake. Glass shatters. And Thrazo is the poor bastard left paying for it. All the orc sellsword wanted was ale, a bed, and a night without getting stabbed. Instead, a nightmare clawed its way out of a tavern alley and nearly tore him apart—until witch hunter Elijah Lynton, stepped in, bound him to an obligation he never asked for. Now the hunter has come to collect. The job: a village drowning in swamp water, mirrors that show the dead, and fiends wearing the faces of the long-buried. There’s even a witch tangled in the middle—though whether she’s the cure or another curse, no one can say. Elijah hunts like Dion himself is watching. Thrazo swings his axe and tries not to drown. But debts don’t vanish. One way or another, this one’s getting paid. |
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Little White Flowers by Amber Hathaway When she and her brother venture to Evanston, Maine to clean out an estranged relative’s estate, horror enthusiast Alice Drayon’s life begins paralleling her favorite page-turners. The sojourn in their grandmother’s “wicked” hometown provides the perfect opportunity for Alice to delve into Grammie’s mysterious past. However, she soon discovers that the horrific event that drove Grammie away is but one small piece of the town’s blighted history. Confronted with increasing hostility from Evanston’s insular religious community as she closes in on the truth, Alice must risk everything to save lives. Her soft-spoken new neighbor, Riley Moore, seems to have answers ... and some dark secrets of his own. Can Alice trust him to help her put an end to Evanston’s insidious practices, or will she become yet another casualty? |
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Everything Not Saved by N M J Coveney A debut Queer YA novel combining the power of video games, and the potential of young love with magic, horror and the supernatural. Praise for Everything Not Saved : "THINK SEX EDUCATION MEETS BUFFY. MY MIND WAS BLOWN!" - Justin Arnold "RIVETING...TOLD WITH HEART AND PASSION BY AN EXCITING NEW VOICE IN YA FICTION" - Benjamin Dean "A GRIPPING PAGETURNER FOR GAYMERS YOUNG AND OLD" - Will Kostakis "A BREEZY AND HEARTWARMING ODE TO GAY GEEK CULTURE" - L.C. Rosen 'CHILD OF DARKNESS, CHILD OF LIGHT, ONE BORN TO MOURN, THE OTHER TO FIGHT. TEACH WHAT YOU KNOW. SEAL THE BELOW.' Everything Not Saved follows two very different teenage Mikey Redman & Kris Dwyer and the unlikely bond between them. The boys' shared love of computer games glues them together over the years and helps them overcome struggles at school and at home. While they try and understand what is happening to their friendship, and figure out why increasingly unpleasant things are happening in Pytt End. There's more magick about both of them than they realise. There's also more than it seems to the creepy well in Mikey's back garden, where an ancient evil is stirring underneath the village. Can they save the world without losing each other? |
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Meet Me in the Woods by Courtney Reece When Lowen Lawrence is invited to participate in the annual Moon Water Ritual, she unknowingly unlocks an ancient curse, turning her life upside-down. With two mysterious--and gorgeous--strangers pop up in her sleepy Midwest town of Moon Creek, Lowen is both intrigued and alarmed. Sebastian, with his forward flirtation, and Wesley, who seems steady and familiar, both appear to be keeping secrets. The problem is: Lowen can't seem to stay away from either of them. When teens are found murdered in town, Lowen understands how dangerous her life has become since Sebastian and Wesley recklessly barged into it. With the help of her friends, Noah and Taylor, she must dive into the mysteries of alchemy, telepathy, and witchcraft in order to figure out who is haunting the woods of Moon Creek, or else become a ghost herself. |
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Yelen and Yelena by C. M. Rosens In a rural corner of the Provinces simmering with civil unrest, Laundress Yelena's village is afflicted by a dangerous fungal rot-plague. When she is falsely accused of dark sorcery, Yelena is evicted from her cottage and forced into the rot-infested forest... Yelen is a forgotten tyrant, turned into a monster hundreds of years ago and desperate to distance himself from the power-hungry brute he once was... But he craves companionship and an end to his lonely existence. When the wind leads Yelena to Yelen, she discovers a kindred spirit in the aromantic, bi-attracted monster, and their relationship quickly escalates. But being a guest in a cursed castle with a lonely, amorous Beast is not all fun and games - while exploring, Yelena makes a disturbing discovery about the rot-plague's source, and starts showing symptoms of infection herself. Can Yelen and Yelena work together to find a lasting cure for the rot seeping beyond the castle walls, or will the castle's curse claim another victim? YELEN & YELENA is a standalone, monster-loving 'tour de force', perfect for fans of Beauty and the Beast re-imaginings, Silvia Moreno-Garcia's Mexican Gothic, and T. Kingfisher's What Moves The Dead. Look no further for a deeply atmospheric Dark Gothic Fantasy with a Hopepunk core, and a sapphic riff on Orpheus & Eurydice subplot. Yes, this is a Beauty and the Beast retelling, but it is a genuinely refreshing one. For one, it is emphatically not a love story. Both Yelena and the beast, Yelen, are aromantic. They lust plenty, but their love is strictly platonic. We witness sincere affection blossom, but it’s the affection of dear friends. ... if you’re happy with no-strings attached smut, you will not be disappointed. This is one for the monsterf---ers, emphasis on f--k. It gets weird, it gets dangerous, and it is utterly unapologetic about it. - Dai Baddley, Divination Hollow Review |
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Choking On Will-O'-Wisps by H.S. Wolfe I wanted my life to change but not like this, not stuck in a faerie circle trying to outwit these horrifying twins. I might not be clever, or quick, but I’m stubborn… and maybe that will be enough to survive a night of their games. |
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Happy Face by Sirius Casper makes his living by chasing the dead. He specializes in helping confused spirits, and the people they leave behind, move on. He’s also deathly afraid of clowns. Lately, all his nightmares have centered around Buttons the Merrymaker, a clown-like entity who trapped and tormented him while he was fleeing his Appalachian home. Casper has been willing to write off the whole experience as a bad dream for the past 20 years. But now, the clown is calling him back, as are the family secrets he so desperately tried to leave buried. His fears are catching up to him, whether he’s ready to face them or not. Taking the reins of his own fate will mean returning to that funny little town of Bustagut. Where, in some ways, it will be just like he never left. |
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The Killing Song by Felix Graves Fierce pirate captain Romada is about to retire from her high-stakes life when her siren girlfriend, Neiara, is abducted right in front of her. Together with Injago—her brother and quartermaster—and the rest of her crew, Romada sets out on what should have been a simple rescue mission, but as they begin raiding the siren holding camps and witness horrors there, they have to make a choice: fully commit to a burgeoning resistance against these atrocities, or stop for nothing and no one to find Neiara before she’s lost to them forever. |
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EXEQUIAL by Hannah Rebekah Graves Don’t be late for your own funeral. An embittered soul ascends from the underworld to seek revenge on those who wronged her. (“The Dead Rise in Greece”) In an online forum, a tight-knit group takes their serial-killer infatuation to the next level. (“A (Potential) Ghost Story”) A corpse laments the loss of each falling petal. (“On Bodies and Bouquets”) Thirty encounters with ghosts, cursed books, incriminating VHS tapes, entities from the skies, and questions that are best left unasked. |
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Silence Next The Sea by CJ Hooper Twelve strange tales each evoking the atmosphere of the haunted environment. Each tale has a sense of place unique to its own setting and environment. Some may haunt you, others may terrify, yet some will address more unusual feelings. The title story features a deaf woman who’s disability becomes her strength, until it isn’t… |
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A Ballad of Inferno and Ruin by Adrielle Reina Terror. Violence. Blood. Death. War takes everything—even your humanity. While a second Civil War rages on in the Former United States of America, other countries are embroiled in World War III. Uncertainty and unrest result in an upheaval there’s no escape from. People have a choice: choose a side, or die. Determined to get vengeance and help salvage what’s left of the world—and herself—Emma Sandalwood joins up with the Motley Rebellion, an independent militant group that cares for displaced victims of both wars and fights to end the bloodshed. Between keeping herself alive and searching for what little remains of her family, the last thing she needs is to uncover a man-made virus that could turn the tides of war. Betrayal comes in many forms, and the end of humanity is near. |
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Blood on the Boardwalk by Donna Taylor Vampire Slayer wasn't an option on career day... Surf, sand, neon lights, and vampire jokes have been Jenna's life ever since her former best friend, Georgie, spilled her darkest secret to the whole school. A secret that's haunted her since she was little-she was attacked by something inhuman. When she stumbles across blood-drained bodies on the boardwalk and is attacked by a vampire-looking monster, old nightmares come back to haunt her. Now in the crosshairs of an undead serial killer, Jenna's convinced the killer is also Georgie's new boyfriend. Dodging a murderer is easier than talking to her enemy, but when Georgie starts changing in even more monstrous ways, Jenna has to suck it up and work with the person she hates most if she wants any hope of stopping a killer before they both end up dead. |