Jarod Huntingdon wants more than anything to start a family, yet he’s unable to commit to his girlfriend and isn’t sure why. When the father of his childhood best friend, Scotty, passes away, Jarod takes the opportunity to return home to the remote rural community of Annastasis Creek for a season of soul-searching.
But overnight, a violent rainstorm traps everyone in the valley, blocking roads and severing communication with the outside world. And one by one, the residents of Annastasis Creek go missing.
While helping with the search efforts, Jarod learns of a curse as old as he is, one tied to the reappearance of the cicadas, first placed on the community after five young people perished in a house fire decades before. To temporarily appease the curse, defrocked Pentecostal pastor Uriah Zalmon must find a sinner to sacrifice.
The dead are returning to Annastasis Creek…
Can Jarod break the curse for good, save the innocent from the homophobic Covenant Trustees, and vanquish what the screaming cicadas have awoken?
#LGBTQhorror #CultHorror #ReligiousHorror #FolkHorror #OccultHorror #RuralHorror #GayRomance #ParanormalRomance #DarkFiction #TheCovenantSacrifice
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Nineteen-year-old Kennet Singleton lives with his invalid mother in a personal care facility, but he wants out. He operates the crematory at the local funeral home, where he discovers he can discern the cause of death of those he cremates—by toasting marshmallows over their ashes.
He thinks his ability is no big deal since his customers are already dead. But when his perception differs from what’s on the death certificate, he finds himself in the midst of murderers. To save the residents and avenge the dead, Kennet must bring the killers to justice.
#SupernaturalCrime #SupernaturalThriller #Spiritualism #Ghosts #Cremation #Marshmallows #DarkFiction #DeathPerception
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His urination led to ruination.
Russell Pisarek is twenty-six years old and still wets the bed. He grew up different from other young men because his vicious mother punished him for wetting by shaving his head. When he confided this to his girlfriend Tina, she betrayed him by advertising his problem to all their high school classmates. He took out his frustration by skinning neighborhood cats.
Now Russell fantasizes about finding the right woman—so he can shave her bald. He struggles to overcome his dark tendencies, but when his sister discovers he’s wetting again, she puts him in dire straits.
During this time of stress, the mythical Piss Fairy appears in his dreams, and Russell is driven to satisfy his twisted desires with an innocent coworker.
When his plans go awry, the Piss Fairy commissions him for a much darker task that graduates him from shaving to scalping—and worse…
Armed with electric hair trimmers and a military fighting knife, Russell accepts his dark commission.
#PsychologicalThriller #PsychologicalHorror #CharacterStudy #Psychopaths #SerialKillers #DarkFiction #TheBedwetter
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There’s a creepy old house in the neighborhood. Even in 1977, everyone still says it’s haunted. Fifteen-year-old Rendo Flex doesn’t believe it—until he sees the face in the window.
Already struggling with the stigma of an institutionalized mother, Ren is tormented by his older sister, Calista, who is following their mother’s path toward mental and emotional instability. Why must he suffer for his family’s dysfunction?
When Mom wants to leave the psychiatric halfway house for her first family visit in eight years, Ren decides to run away. That’s when he glimpses the ghostly face in the tower window…
#YA #Gothic #Supernatural #Ghosts #MentalHealth #SmallTown #DarkFiction #TheAdamsonFamily
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Today’s stories of alien abduction and experimentation include temporary embryonic implantation. The Sixth Seed, a dark paranormal fantasy fraught with suburban Pittsburgh horror, takes this scenario one radical step further when the first alien/human hybrid fertilization develops to full term in utero.
Believing a vasectomy will prevent another unplanned pregnancy, thirty-four-year-old Tom Furst—Melanie’s loving husband and the father of their five children—wants more than anything to dig them out of the fiscal hole they’re mired in and become financially secure. However, during the procedure, mysterious Dr. Prindar Krakhil secretly implants a worm-like alien seed in Tom’s vas deferens that not only ensures that Melanie gets pregnant, but plants in her womb a child half alien.
Their children are abducted. Melanie becomes gravely ill. When Tom loses his job, their home, and the sixth seed is born, will he accept the child for what it really is—and conquer the temptation to exchange it for the money Krakhil offers?
#ParanormalFiction #AlienAbduction #FamilyDrama #DarkFiction #TheSixthSeed
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24 stories of human and supernatural horror and crime will chill you to the bone. Can you escape perpetual nightmares?
“Mama Said”: On his 13th birthday, Buddy is sent north by his religious mother who can’t cope with his sister’s teen pregnancy. Resigned to spending the summer at Gram’s farm caring for kittens and cows, his bitter sister arrives, ending his peace and solitude. When her boyfriend Jackie shows up and turns his attentions toward Buddy, Buddy must do what Mama said—or take matters into his own hands.
In “Poor Old Soul,” Nevah Stevenson finds meaning in her old age caring for an invalid and her great-grandson. Nice people, she thinks. Think again.
In “Keeping Cool,” after a late night at work helping hospitals handle the strange flu sweeping Pittsburgh, Terry’s exhausted options to get himself home. Searching for a working phone, he encounters a deserted diner—and another way to stem the tide of disease. Fia checks her house every night in “Alone and Waiting,” for she doesn’t want an intruder. Or does she?
In “The Butcher’s Reunion” a cuckolded butcher slaughters his wife and seeks her lover, finding he can’t escape dire and prophetic justice. In “Almost Betrothed,” a timid woman unlucky in love finds the courage to break what daddy thinks is a promising engagement when she discovers he’s Mr. Dead Wrong.
Debbie Antonelli tries to help her mother adjust to her father’s untimely death in “The Gloves and the Glasses.” When she learns what the neighbor man is up to, she finds she’s the only one who can stop her mother’s nightmares.
“Mixed Breed, Loves Kids” is about a boyhood dog that’s not so ideal as those in Scott’s father’s stories. “Vain Imaginations” deals with an old woman’s fantasies. When they coincide with a stranger’s, the worst happens. Mr. Claudera avoids his strange and frightening neighbors in “The Big, Dark World of Commerce.” Can he keep them at bay, or will he let them in?
In “The Vacant Lot,” a supernatural presence beckons from the empty neighborhood lot. Calvin’s curiosity leads him to a portrait painter with a terrible secret about a dead undertaker and his missing wife, who seeks eternal release. A seemingly innocent spirit appears in Calvin’s foyer in “How I Was Cured of Naïveté.” He sets her free to find little girls aren’t always made of sugar and spice.
Tad is a “Stray” with a problem: he ran away from home to find he has no place to stay in the big city. After selling his abusive father’s comics collection, the 16-year-old twink hasn’t near enough money for a bus ticket home. Two days without food and two nights in an alley force him to do what he swore he wouldn’t: trick for cash. But trick he must to get back home, lest he end up living on the streets of Pittsburgh. What will Tad forfeit for a bus ticket home?
Wyatt is looking for a no-strings fling in “Savoir-Faire.” When he meets the beautiful and sexually voracious Natalie, all his fantasies come true… until he discovers that unseen strings are more entangling than he bargained for.
“GTO Judge”: Justin wants to be cool like Drew, so he tags along to throw corn at cars on Halloween night. When a 1970 GTO Judge stops on the country road and its ghastly occupants pursue them, he wishes he’d gone trick-or-treating instead.
“Kevin MacGruder’s Last Gamble” is about a would-be dandy in 1863 who finds the wrong way to settle his gambling debts. In “The Summer House,” Greg is haunted by what happened thirteen years ago. He returns to the summer house where his little sister went missing. He finds her again—with a nasty surprise.
In “The Worst Thing,” Petie’s first sleepover seemed like a good idea. But after dark at Nate’s house, he can’t fall asleep. Braving the terrors of the night to make it home, he must face the worst thing that could happen—and sacrifice what he treasures most to save his parents from a horrible fate.
#ShortStories #Horror #DarkCrime #SupernaturalCrime #DarkFiction #PerpetualNightmares
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If you like crime and mystery with a supernatural bent, succumb to the call of Desperate Spirits!
In this short-story duo of supernatural thrillers, Calvin Bricker deals with desperate spirits right in his own neighborhood of McKeesport, Pennsylvania.
In “The Vacant Lot,” a supernatural presence beckons from the empty neighborhood lot. Calvin’s curiosity leads him to an aged portrait painter with a terrible secret about a dead undertaker and his missing wife, who seeks eternal release.
In “How I Was Cured of Naïveté,” a seemingly innocent spirit appears in the foyer of Calvin’s home. When he discovers her fate, he sets her free—only to find that little girls aren’t always made of sugar and spice. Snick, snick!
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If you love things that go bump in the night, Night Monsters presents four stories to read with the lights on.
Wyatt is looking for a no-strings fling in “Savoir-Faire.” When he meets the beautiful and sexually voracious Natalie, all his fantasies come true… until he discovers that unseen strings are more entangling than he bargained for.
In “The Worst Thing,” Petie’s first sleepover seemed like a good idea in the daylight. But after dark at Nate’s house, he can’t fall asleep. Braving the terrors of the night to make it home, he finds he must face the worst thing that could happen—and sacrifice what he treasures most to save his parents from a horrible fate.
“Keeping Cool”: After a late night at work helping hospitals handle the strange flu sweeping Pittsburgh, Terry finds he’s run out of options to get himself home. Searching for a working phone to call his wife, he encounters a deserted diner—and another way to stem the tide of disease. Chilling!
Justin wants to be cool like Drew, so he tags along to throw corn at cars on Halloween night. When a 1970 GTO Judge stops on the country road and its ghastly occupants pursue them, he wishes he’d gone trick-or-treating instead. Pray the “GTO Judge” passes you by.
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This duo of deadly stories brings you the best in matrimonial butchery.
Everyone’s experienced a choppy relationship. But just wait until you read these two tales of horror…
In “The Butcher’s Reunion,” a cuckolded butcher slaughters his wife and seeks her lover only to find he cannot escape dire prophetic justice. WHAM!
Equally dark and suspenseful, in “Almost Betrothed,” a timid woman unlucky with love finds the courage to break what her daddy thinks is a promising engagement and discovers her boyfriend is Mr. Wrong. Dead wrong.
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On his thirteenth birthday, Buddy gets shipped up north by his religious mother, who can’t cope with his sister’s teenage pregnancy. As he resigns himself to spending the entire summer at Gram’s farm caring for kittens and cows, his bitter sister Brinda arrives, ending his peace and solitude.
When her boyfriend Jackie shows up and turns his attentions to Buddy from his bride-to-be, Buddy must do what Mama said—or take matters into his own hands…
Horrific crime at its darkest.
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