Monster Fiction

31 Brand-New Dark Fantasy Horror Stories. Bloody corridors of ancient rock. A castle surrounded by poisonous thorns. A lost temple of traps and corpses. A subaqueous cave at the bottom of a cursed lake. These are the places where secrets are buried, where ancient evils are summoned, where beasts are imprisoned, where the insane lie in wait. These are tombs of darkness and nightmare, where if you stare into the abyss, the abyss will stare back. Heed the warnings of your elders and return from whence you came. Ahead lie monster lairs.

She spends her days chasing around her high-energy, half-shifter toddler and her nights working full-time trying to make ends meet. Oh, and add in the absolute cluster of a situation her ex dumped in her lap on his way out? Well, that's just icing on the cake. With virtually no options left, Emerson heads for Haven, a sanctuary city for monsters and humans alike. Survival means taking a job at The Monster's Den—a club that caters to the inhuman residents of her new home. But freedom comes with complications of its own.

It’s not easy making the career jump from office-supplies-store middle manager to heroic interdimensional adventurer. At least, Jason tries to be heroic, but it's hard to be good when all your powers are evil. He’ll face off against cannibals, cultists, wizards, monsters...and that’s just on the first day. He’s going to need courage, he’s going to need wit, and he’s going to need some magic powers of his own. But first, he’s going to need pants.

When I answered an ad for a caretaker at Saint Mark’s Sanctuary, I thought I’d be dusting chandeliers and polishing floors. I didn’t expect to be tricked into a curse, going into debt to a monster, and being forced to take a self-paced “let’s learn magic” course so I can fix a 2,000-year-old problem. And that monster? Not your ordinary, everyday beast. He has hooves, and horns, and fur on his legs. But you know where he doesn’t have fur? Yeah. There. Which is fine. Except he doesn’t wear pants.

When portals from another world split open the sky, humanity braces for war… only to discover the monsters from Erethar aren’t here to conquer. They need something from humans. Something oddly specific in order to survive. And when they begin recruiting for a ritual that sounds a lot like a cross-dimensional booty call… Well, my name’s on that sign-up sheet before they even finish the pitch. I’m Everest Hale, and I’m doing my part to save the world with my… Well, I’m not at liberty to discuss, but let’s just say it’s given with vigorous enthusiasm. You’re welcome, Earth.

Everything that falls into his ocean belongs to him. Including me. They threw me out of an airlock. I crashed on a world made of nothing but ocean with no rescue and no hope. Then something ancient rose from the deep. Ishka is massive. Tentacled. He speaks inside my mind, and he doesn't ask permission. He healed my shattered bones. Gave me gills to breathe in his world. Keeps me like I was something precious. He says I'm his. That nothing enters his ocean and leaves. I should hate what he does to me. But when he takes me, it doesn't feel like captivity. It feels like the safest place I've ...

Not all monsters are fantasy. Some are very real, and they walk among us. They're our friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers. They're the people we're supposed to trust...and they know it. Contained within this anthology are 35 never-before-published works by supremely talented authors and best-selling novelists. Brace yourself for the unexpected and unimaginable horror of...human monsters.

It was an ordinary job. Another night, another asshole collector of the supernatural. I free some poor little beasties from their cages, pocket a few trinkets to pay my bills, and burn the place down on my way out. Just call me the Robin Hood of monster emancipation. I didn’t count on three manly monsters following me home like lost puppies. Stunningly hot lost puppies, but still. Now I’ve got a seductively cheeky incubus, a sweetly enthusiastic demon, and a grimly stoic angel camped out in my kitchen.

A Vengeful Killer Carries Out an Insidious Plan of Death and Retribution When a troubled woman is lured to her death in the small coastal town of Belle Harbor, Florida, Special Agent Bailey Flynn discovers an unsettling connection between the gruesome murder and the mutilated body of a teenage girl found hidden in a long-abandoned grave. As the local police begin an investigation into the latest homicide and quickly identify a surprising prime suspect, Bailey realizes that all is not as it seems. And when a resource working closely with the investigation becomes the killer’s next victim, ...

Monster, Loot und Leveln. Die Stadt der Gefallenen Echos ist der zweite Band des epischen LitRPG-Abenteuers. So langsam gewöhnt sich Jason Asano an sein neues Leben als Abenteurer – er hat sogar ein paar mächtige Verbündete gefunden. Und sich ein paar ebenso mächtige Feinde gemacht … In Greenstone herrscht das blanke Chaos. Zahlreiche Abenteurer haben in einer misslungenen Expedition ihr Leben gelassen, und mindestens fünf weitere wurden von einem gefährlichen Artefakt infiziert und scheinen ihren eigenen Willen verloren zu haben.

Loren Calla has only ever been ordinary. As a human struggling to survive in a city that caters to the needs of vampires, werewolves, witches, and other supernatural creatures, she always assumed her life would remain simple, predictable, and as safe as her world would allow. Until she barely escapes abduction at the hands of Darkslayers—supernatural bounty hunters that possess the Sight, a magical tracking ability that allows them to see a person's aura—and one of her friends is taken in her place. The abductors are demanding a ransom: Loren's life in exchange for her friend's safe return.

When a mysterious sound interrupts Cookie Monster's snack time, he follows that sound—hoping to find something tasty! Instead, he discovers super silly mysteries featuring a tap-dancing dinosaur, a not-so-sleepy baby, a mischievous monkey, and more surprising friends. With help from his Sesame Street pals, Cookie Monster learns to ask questions, follow clues, and stay focused (well, sort of). While nothing beats om-nom-nomming cookies, solving mysteries with friends comes pretty close.

All his life, Mark Fields has dreamed of joining the Defense Force to fight the vicious, alien Exlian, just like the rest of his renowned family. But so far, he’s … a dishwasher, trapped in a dead-end job with no powers, no money, and even fewer friends. But an encounter with a dying woman changes everything—granting him the abilities he needs to join the training camps—and his life finally feels like it’s turning around, faster than a movie martial-arts montage (just ignore the weird cat).

My dating life was already hell before I was spirited away to this treacherous Labyrinth with pitfalls and traps around every turn. The King holds my best friend hostage, while the men in the maze play with my life like I'm a disposable toy. The Minotaur hunts the twisted corridors, while a mischievous fox tempts me into dangerous trials, where each encounter is more terrifying than the last.

She crashed in the deadliest desert on Solrath. He found her. Jessamy should be dead. Her shuttle went down in the Burning Reaches, where nothing survives and no one goes looking. But something is tracking her through the dunes. Jorak is a Sand Stalker. A solitary hunter. He hasn't spoken to another living soul in three years, and he likes it that way. Then he catches her scent on the wind. Rain. Life. Something that doesn't belong in his wasteland. He tells himself he's just ensuring a quick death. A mercy. Instead, he carries her to shelter. Keeps her breathing. Starts teaching her to ...

Meet Monster. Meet Judy. Two humans who don't like each other much, but together must fight dragons, fire-breathing felines, trolls, Inuit walrus dogs, and a crazy cat lady - for the future of the universe.

What could possibly be the most infuriating thing to a vampire disgusted by the internet? A twenty-six-year-old social media influencer who just ran out on her cheating ex-fiancé and insists on staying in Vlad's quiet castle. But he needs money to repair his ancestral home, and Aubrey needs a place to lick her wounds after getting her heart broken. He is ready to have humans invading his space. He is not, however, ready for her.

The carnival arrived at dusk, bleeding rust and promising escape. For Lily, it was a one-way ticket out of her dead-end town. But when the moon rises, the main attraction is unleashed. The Carnival Nocturne is a predator, and its charismatic owner holds a monstrous secret. When a local boy vanishes and the first body is found mutilated near the Ferris wheel, Lily realizes the truth: the cheap tricks and rigged games are a cover for something ancient and hungry. A violent storm cuts them off from the world. The power dies. The screams begin. Trapped on the carnival grounds with a handful of ...

Silas turned the fight against Burton Brightfeather into a spectacle and a massacre. But by killing the Brightfeather heir, he doomed both himself and the girls. Their only way out of the mess? To take Ruby, Lyla, and KK through the portal floating above Chi-Tek before their enemies can capture them. What waits on the other side of the portal is nothing like Silas expected. Instead of a primitive world, they find a high-tech society ruled by Mechatronicus the Annihilator—an old acquaintance of Tempest, the Raiju bound within Silas.

He Who Fights With Monsters. Das Versprechen der Macht ist der dritte Band einer epischen Lit-RPG-Serie. Die harte Arbeit an den eigenen Fähigkeiten und Strategien hat sich ausgezahlt: Nachdem Jason und sein Team die Prüfung in der Stadt der Gefallenen Echos mit Bravour bestanden haben, gehören sie zur Elite der Abenteurer in Greenstone. Und das, obwohl sie noch nicht einmal den Bronzerang erreicht haben. Doch auch ihr Gegner – der Kult des Erbauers – verschwendet keine Zeit. Die Räder drehen sich langsam, aber tief im Astralraum scheint etwas Grauenhaftes Gestalt anzunehmen.