A woman walks on the side of the road. She wears a white dress and is known by many names: the Ghostly Hitchhiker. The Phantom Prom Date. The Woman in White. She may accept a ride, but she disappears before she ever reaches her destination.Is she an apparition? A memory? Or something beyond our understanding? Five authors offer their speculations on her story – of love, loss, and redemption.Rumors of a ghostly hitchhiker draws a woman back to her hometown twenty years after t...

Anastasia "Andru" Weber was always different. That was the fact of her life. Only it wasn't so simple. From the day she was born strong faerie magik filled her blood and soul. When she was young she hid it, tried to ignore it, to not let the power inside her body rule her every action.As a grown woman she tries to live a normal life as a military officer in the vampire nation where she was raised. But strange things have a way of creeping up on you when you're surrounded by ancient...

The Jersey Devil mystery has endured for centuries, birthed from within the untamed acres of the Pine Barrens. Is it a monster? A man? Or a hoax? What does it want and where does it hide?Five stories explore the origins of a mystery that preys upon our most primal fears.In a future fighting to recover from environmental catastrophe, a young girl's attempt to prove herself to her parents leads to a startling discovery.A close encounter leaves two men obsessed, fifty ...

So Dark and So Grimm...The glossy veneer of happily ever after has fooled readers into believing fairy tales are bright and happy stories;, but if you scratch the surface of any story collected by the Brothers Grimm, it bleeds. Manipulation and Murder, Tension and Torture. Grimm Retold cracks open the horror splattered between the pages of the old stories to reveal the thriving darkness within these classic tales.Twenty stories and poems, from twenty author...

Anastasia Drusilla "Andru" Weber is a captain for the vampire governed free-state army, and her life is complicated.Still wounded from the painful breakup with her ex, Andru's been trying to move on by throwing herself into her work, but her partner, vampire Captain Romeo, is distractingly attractive and too easy to provoke, and her boss, General Galen, leader of the vampire military, seems to be around every corner, watching her with ancient and irresistible eyes. Maybe it could a...

CRO. This message, carved into a tree, was the only clue to the fate of the colonists on Roanoke Island. For centuries, stories have circulated, theories were explored. But to this day, no one is really sure what happened to those first English settlers in the Americas. These stories may offer a clue: A road trip through dystopian United States brings adventure and danger, and perhaps answers about the mysterious disappearance of the settlers. Gods of different worlds converge but their pe...

Mayhem on the Eno River Visitors to the Eno River don't expect to encounter haunted houses, train wrecks or fun outings that turn into tragedy, but some of them have experienced just that. In 1771, a few of America's first rebels were hanged near the river. An accident at a sawmill led to a series of hauntings. A Valentine's Day dance became the area's greatest murder mystery. Train-hopping teenagers had harrowing experiences, and a baby abandoned in a suitcase was found by a nearby farmer...

Vampires stalk us from the shadows. They've been feeding on blood, our very life force, since before words were pressed into clay. But we are not unprotected. For as long as vampires have hunted us, there have been those who hunt them. This is a record, fragments of journals, letters and transcripts, collected to chronicle how vampires can be identified, how they are evolving, slaying strategies, and the threat they pose to humanity.From Agamemnon to Edgar Allan Poe, Cape Canaveral...

When the winter solstice tucks the land beneath dark covers, and the frost hovers at the edge of warm beds, it is time to slow, to sleep and to let our minds escape. The dream world in winter can be many things; a place of refuge, of exploration, a fantasy to pursue, or a journey to the truth. The gods speak, the worlds shift, and our imaginations are free to explore all snowy paths. Like the Aurora, it swirls across our sleeping minds, lighting up places we cannot see when awake.

When the sun diminishes and darkness begins its reign, we become introspective, and in turn storytellers. Every culture has their own winter tales. Some are romantic and bold, some are of an awakening from the depths, and still some are of ethereal dreams and bright colored lights. What connects them all is the growth that emerges with the sunlight come springtime. The maturation of self that can only come from quiet contemplation.In the pages of Evergreen: Tales of Winter Shad...

Abby, a transfemme videogame YouTuber, finds an anonymous package left at her door. Inside is a VHS tape that seems to call to something within her, and opens up a door to the 40 year old mystery of Polybius. The urban legend claims that an arcade cabinet allegedly caused madness and hallucinations in its players while it was installed over a single month in Portland in 1981. The package indicates that there may be even more to the story.Something about it compels Abby on a journey...