Raindrops pelted against the glass followed by a flash of lightning and a roar of thunder. It was the kind of weather that would make some afraid to even think of sleeping, let alone leave the television on. Eliseo was different; he slept through the storm. Not even the cat rubbing against his legs could wake him. The couch, although relatively new, creaked under his weight as he rolled over. He scratched his chin. The flash of lightning lit up the room and brought a frown to his face. He covered his eyes at another roar of thunder. The loud ringing of the telephone jolted him from sleep.
Sitting up, he turned his attention to the television screen. Static greeted him. No sound came from the device. Maybe it was unwise to leave it turned on during this weather. The loud chiming came from the phone and continued as if the person on the other end was growing impatient. He yawned and grabbed the phone while noticing glowing eyes under the loveseat disappearing. He laughed. Appar
1VvvvV The Beast… first day of spring Walls kept him in. Tunnels that traveled in straight lines or curves then twisted back on themselves confused his mind. Fresh fodder and an amphora of meat were placed in the center of a large room. Once a week, the great stone door closed while the room was cleaned, then it opened to feed him. For a while on the fullness of the moon, they had left a maiden for him and magically tainted food in the hope he would submit to the potion-induced mating thrall, accepting the one not made for him. After he killed and ate the seventh maiden in his beast's madness, they offered no more.Only his sister snuck in and visited him, bringing him sepia-colored ink and paper. She was the only female besides his mother, his beast didn’t try to murder in his madness, but he forbade her from coming near on the full moon, just in case.He
Becky and Millie Asplundh, Dr. Asplundh’s precocious children, were rummaging through their family’s storage unit. Hoping to find a few last-minute Halloween decorations when the city’s power and the public storage facility’s backup power system simultaneously failed.Millie, Becky’s younger sister, had a piercing scream that started whenever she felt discomfited or surprised. When the power failed and the darkness fell suddenly throughout the storage facility, she shrieked and wailed for an extremely long time.When Millie finally stopped screaming, Becky told her sister not to be afraid of the dark.“Calm down and chill out Millie!” she comforted her sister with a soothing voice. “Now that you have done all that screaming, do you feel any better? We are still here in the black void until the power comes back.” Her sister did not answer, so she continued speaking. “Anyway, we can both breat
1RITAOctober 29th…I’m ready for this. That’s what I keep telling myself, anyway.I clasp my hands and rest them on my lap, with the hope it'll stop them from shaking. Maybe staring out of the taxi window will help, and the view of the surroundings will calm me.As the car leaves Northern Beirut, silence, and the natural beauty of a river and mountains, replaces the busy streets, apartment blocks, office buildings and cars beeping at each other for no particular reason.It was nice to be out of the hotel and in the world, even if it shredded my nerves.The company had told me to take more time off, but I needed to fly here, I needed to do something different.Rotting in the temporary accommodation in London, with nobody to talk to was only making things worse. That’s the thing with grief; people are amazing at off
‘The presence of life is not the absence of the dead.’Arianna, quoted to Matt, who’d just read her a few horror stories on Halloween weekend. An odor of burning firewood began to mantle around them. It alerted of a shady existence, which they’d no idea so far was there. As it enclosed, Matt creased his brows.“Are you scared?” he inquired, closing the last book he brought from the city library.They have been neighbors for quite some time, and subconsciously he developed romantic feelings for Arianna, but never dared to confess until he got drunk two years back on a rainy evening.In that intoxicated stupor, he professed his undying love with a forceful kiss. Shocked with his actions, she had slapped him and ran away while he’d drowned himself in his guilt.Next day, when he sobered up at noon, he’d gone to her and apologized. Her charcoal eyes intimidated him even without her making the sli
The walls are so pale. It's nothing like the lively paper that furnished our beautiful and cursed home. At first, I loved that house so much. The memories we were building there made it home. If only it wasn't for that damned woman; that damned monster. That was no woman, it's a monster. Now, I’m laying here on this cold metal bed. It feels like each evening gets shorter, so I decided to write what really happened. It doesn’t matter that no one believes me. What I know is true; that thing took my baby.I knew it was lights out as the orderlies always force me to take my medicine around 8:45 p.m. They were always claiming that these meds will help me get better, such a lie. Could those pills make her and her crime disappear? No, all they do is make me feel numb and empty. My eyes grew heavy as the pills began their work through my blood and muscles. The rustling of the nearby trees announced the arrival of the late fall winds. I used to love Halloween so much
Asa SwiftAsa Swift is a police officer in Indianapolis and has been in law enforcement for thirty-four years. He is married to his wife Janet and they have three sons. Ready for something new and having a creative side, he took to writing horror, his favorite genre of books and movies. Born in Hartford, Indiana, despite getting a late start in writing, he improves every day. Swift enjoys fishing, firearms, cooking and his grandchildren, and of course, HORROR! As a means of continue writing, he keeps his grandparents close to his heart and mind for always encouraging him to not give up.Brandon Ebinger Brandon Ebinger is a horror/dark fantasy author who lives in upstate New York with his fiancé and two cats. He holds a BA in creative writing. He enjoys horror films,Gothic rock and punk music and video games. He is a huge fan of haunted attractions, and spends October as a haunt actor. Brandon
Every family has stories. Stories of Christmases and birthdays. Funny stories and sad ones. Handed-down family history, if you will, and when we get together, we love to reminisce about them. About the “old days.” Some stories are unusual or even something scary that happened to one of our family members. Well, this is one of the latter, and if you’ll be patient, I think it will be satisfying and intriguing, maybe even chilled. Just trust me.This story was told to me by my beloved grandfather, whom I always called ‘Grandpa’. I was fifteen years old at the time. I adored my grandpa, and he felt the same as me. I followed him everywhere like a lost puppy.On one of his visits, which was during the Halloween season, he told me a particularly chilling story about his teen years at fifteen. Grandpa loved to tell me scary stories and there was nothing I liked more. It was our thing.I’m older now, and I have a husban
It’s when you’re in your cups that you’re most vulnerable to the delving inquiries of friends, and over the years those who know me best have waited until I was drunk to probe into my past. Who was the most beautiful woman I ever saw? The best meal I ever ate? What’s my favourite song, or the greatest play I have seen? The list really does go on and on. Looking back, by far the most-asked question over the centuries has been what was the most dangerous battle I was involved in?Those who ask are rarely happy with the answer. People have a morbid fascination for how things were in the past; yet they are seldom interested in the actual truth. Instead, they seem to hope for validation of their own simplified, glossed-over, modern view of history, not the brutal, terrifying horror of those bygone days.I have watched as humanity grew from a small tribe of hunters to the first harvesters of a planted crop. From biting an apple, they learn
Asa SwiftAsa Swift is a police officer in Indianapolis and has been in law enforcement for thirty-four years. He is married to his wife Janet and they have three sons. Ready for something new and having a creative side, he took to writing horror, his favorite genre of books and movies. Born in Hartford, Indiana, despite getting a late start in writing, he improves every day. Swift enjoys fishing, firearms, cooking and his grandchildren, and of course, HORROR! As a means of continue writing, he keeps his grandparents close to his heart and mind for always encouraging him to not give up.Brandon Ebinger Brandon Ebinger is a horror/dark fantasy author who lives in upstate New York with his fiancé and two cats. He holds a BA in creative writing. He enjoys horror films,Gothic rock and punk music and video games. He is a huge fan of haunted attractions, and spends October as a haunt actor. Brandon
The walls are so pale. It's nothing like the lively paper that furnished our beautiful and cursed home. At first, I loved that house so much. The memories we were building there made it home. If only it wasn't for that damned woman; that damned monster. That was no woman, it's a monster. Now, I’m laying here on this cold metal bed. It feels like each evening gets shorter, so I decided to write what really happened. It doesn’t matter that no one believes me. What I know is true; that thing took my baby.I knew it was lights out as the orderlies always force me to take my medicine around 8:45 p.m. They were always claiming that these meds will help me get better, such a lie. Could those pills make her and her crime disappear? No, all they do is make me feel numb and empty. My eyes grew heavy as the pills began their work through my blood and muscles. The rustling of the nearby trees announced the arrival of the late fall winds. I used to love Halloween so much
‘The presence of life is not the absence of the dead.’Arianna, quoted to Matt, who’d just read her a few horror stories on Halloween weekend. An odor of burning firewood began to mantle around them. It alerted of a shady existence, which they’d no idea so far was there. As it enclosed, Matt creased his brows.“Are you scared?” he inquired, closing the last book he brought from the city library.They have been neighbors for quite some time, and subconsciously he developed romantic feelings for Arianna, but never dared to confess until he got drunk two years back on a rainy evening.In that intoxicated stupor, he professed his undying love with a forceful kiss. Shocked with his actions, she had slapped him and ran away while he’d drowned himself in his guilt.Next day, when he sobered up at noon, he’d gone to her and apologized. Her charcoal eyes intimidated him even without her making the sli
1RITAOctober 29th…I’m ready for this. That’s what I keep telling myself, anyway.I clasp my hands and rest them on my lap, with the hope it'll stop them from shaking. Maybe staring out of the taxi window will help, and the view of the surroundings will calm me.As the car leaves Northern Beirut, silence, and the natural beauty of a river and mountains, replaces the busy streets, apartment blocks, office buildings and cars beeping at each other for no particular reason.It was nice to be out of the hotel and in the world, even if it shredded my nerves.The company had told me to take more time off, but I needed to fly here, I needed to do something different.Rotting in the temporary accommodation in London, with nobody to talk to was only making things worse. That’s the thing with grief; people are amazing at off
Becky and Millie Asplundh, Dr. Asplundh’s precocious children, were rummaging through their family’s storage unit. Hoping to find a few last-minute Halloween decorations when the city’s power and the public storage facility’s backup power system simultaneously failed.Millie, Becky’s younger sister, had a piercing scream that started whenever she felt discomfited or surprised. When the power failed and the darkness fell suddenly throughout the storage facility, she shrieked and wailed for an extremely long time.When Millie finally stopped screaming, Becky told her sister not to be afraid of the dark.“Calm down and chill out Millie!” she comforted her sister with a soothing voice. “Now that you have done all that screaming, do you feel any better? We are still here in the black void until the power comes back.” Her sister did not answer, so she continued speaking. “Anyway, we can both breat
1VvvvV The Beast… first day of spring Walls kept him in. Tunnels that traveled in straight lines or curves then twisted back on themselves confused his mind. Fresh fodder and an amphora of meat were placed in the center of a large room. Once a week, the great stone door closed while the room was cleaned, then it opened to feed him. For a while on the fullness of the moon, they had left a maiden for him and magically tainted food in the hope he would submit to the potion-induced mating thrall, accepting the one not made for him. After he killed and ate the seventh maiden in his beast's madness, they offered no more.Only his sister snuck in and visited him, bringing him sepia-colored ink and paper. She was the only female besides his mother, his beast didn’t try to murder in his madness, but he forbade her from coming near on the full moon, just in case.He
Raindrops pelted against the glass followed by a flash of lightning and a roar of thunder. It was the kind of weather that would make some afraid to even think of sleeping, let alone leave the television on. Eliseo was different; he slept through the storm. Not even the cat rubbing against his legs could wake him. The couch, although relatively new, creaked under his weight as he rolled over. He scratched his chin. The flash of lightning lit up the room and brought a frown to his face. He covered his eyes at another roar of thunder. The loud ringing of the telephone jolted him from sleep.Sitting up, he turned his attention to the television screen. Static greeted him. No sound came from the device. Maybe it was unwise to leave it turned on during this weather. The loud chiming came from the phone and continued as if the person on the other end was growing impatient. He yawned and grabbed the phone while noticing glowing eyes under the loveseat disappearing. He laughed. Appar
uncanny valley[ uhn-kan-eeval-ee ] Nouna psychological concept that describes the feelings of unease or revulsion that people tend to have toward artificial representations of human beings, as robots or computer animations, that closely imitate many but not all the features and behaviors of actual human beings. Dictionary.com 1“Hello everyone! I'd like to welcome you on this chilly Halloween night to the Tenniel Doll and Toy Factory. We are so glad to have you all here tonight for the first tour of the facility since it shuttered its doors eighty years ago. In just a few minutes you will walk the same floors as Arthur Tenniel himself, observe the same machines and workstations that he oversaw, an
“Filthy Hunters,” Lazlo said, peering through the cornstalks at the hearse that really wasn’t a hearse parked in the middle of the graveyard.Billy was nervous. He hadn’t been a werewolf for long but managed to avoid crossing paths with hunters. Hell, it was the number one rule of survival. Werewolf and vampire hunters knew too much, yet they also knew too little. Unlike most mortals, they were aware the nightmare creatures of legend were real but unaware those creatures wished for nothing more than to live normal lives. Well… in most cases, anyway. There are always the bad seeds who make it more difficult for everyone else.With keen eyes and the help of the light from a full moon, Billy watched two young men and an older gentleman exited the hearse. The car itself had been customized with expensive rims and a hot rod paint job. The men opened the back door of the hearse and pulled automatic rifles from within. Then each strapped a sword