After surviving a mine collapse that should have killed him, Larry disappears from his devastated hometown—only to return decades later with wealth, influence, and a chilling purpose. As he reopens the mine that once nearly buried him alive, it becomes clear he’s not just digging...

When Aiden invites his classmates to an impromptu beach weekend, Dylan and the others eagerly pile into a van for sun, surf, and nonstop partying. But the scent of salt and freedom hides something far more dangerous, and as the night deepens, the line between...

At a convention center full of vendors and merchandise, one seller discovers a mysterious shortcut that promises to save time—but carries an unspoken warning. As strange visions and dreams begin to haunt those who dare pass through the Hallway of Shadows, one man must decide...

It was supposed to be a fun weekend in the woods. The four of us had rented a little house with a backyard that opened onto six thousand acres of forest, or something like that. Honestly, I hadn’t paid that much attention to the details....

It wasn’t my fault that Albie went into the lost mine. I keep telling myself that. I guess if I really believed it, I wouldn’t have gone in after him. It was my fault that he had the lantern, after all. This all started on a...

A year after losing his wife, a grieving man struggles to move forward. When a mysterious dating app sets him up with a woman who seems almost too perfect, he dares to believe in a fresh start. But as the nights pass, his backyard stones...

Emmett, a young pastor, arrives in the town of Culling to take over for the late Pastor Orshank. The church, abandoned and locked, seems to hold the key to the town's spiritual unrest. But as Emmett pushes to reopen the church, he uncovers unsettling truths...

Smoking was supposed to be a teenage rebellion, not a death sentence. But when the narrator witnesses a horrific incident involving his friend and a sinister figure named Ash, he’s thrust into a decades-long relationship of fear and coercion. Cigarettes become the chain that binds...

There weren’t ever any stories about the forest. It wasn’t haunted. It wasn’t sacred ground. It wasn’t anything except a bunch of pine trees, and whatever grows under pine trees. Mostly smaller pine trees, as I recall. Pine trees tend to kill off anything else...

I imagine that the folks in the city didn’t see anything at all. Out here we’ve got fewer lights. The sky’s a lot clearer at night. Gives a man something to think about, looking up at all that space. I know it’s no deep philosophy,...

When Rick is awakened by his son’s midnight cries, he dismisses them as the product of an overactive imagination. But in the dim light of Desmond’s bedroom, he finds something far stranger—a massive, unnatural wasp nest that seems to have appeared overnight. As Rick and...

The submarine mess hall was total chaos. It rang with clanging trays, raised voices and general hubbub. Even so, Nathan’s head snapped up when the first rivet pinged free. The sharp fracturing of metal was followed immediately by a second report as the massive pressure...

“We’re gonna make this a tradition,” Jerry said confidently. The others in the back of the van could barely hear him over the music. “Arbor Day getaway.” “We’re not, Jer,” said Sarah. Jerry gave her a wounded look, and she reached over and put a hand...

“Ah, welcome!” The man who stood at the open door was painfully suburban. His thick-rimmed glasses were slightly too large for his face, even with the wide grin he was currently sporting. His pastel polo shirt was tucked into the belted waistband of his cargo shorts....

Nearly half a million children are reported missing each year in the United States. Averaged out across all of the cities, towns and the like, that comes out to about four missing kids per populated area per year. Fortunately, all but a tiny handful—about twelve...

THE FOLLOWING STORY IS A SEQUEL TO THE STORY: "Kill the Curdler" The funny thing about problems, Ackerman reflected, was that they never went away. They just changed into other problems. Sometimes smaller, sometimes larger, but never gone. Problems fed on each other, just like everything else....

Charles Walker Woods was a gentleman of means. In a city rapidly being subsumed by the dim fog of industry, he felt it was not just his right to stand out as a breath of fresh air—it was his duty. Were it not for people...

The poster was simple. Someone had done their best with it, but their best wasn’t very good. MONSTIR HUNTIRS WANTED, read the boldly misspelled words at the top. Below that was a drawing straight out of a child’s imagination. It showed a hunched creature with big,...

As a kid, I read a ton of sci-fi.  Pulp stuff, real trash, most of it, but it inspired me.  It told me that there were things out there to be discovered, that there were new worlds to open up.  No matter how far we’d...

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