BENEATH YOUR FEARS

The first story in this collection is funny. It is the only one that is.

Six horror stories, arranged so the last one costs the most. Each one begins somewhere ordinary: a job you hate, a cat that wakes you before dawn, a wet meadow behind your mother's house. Where they finish is somewhere else entirely.

THE ASSISTANT TO THE MONSTER
A vampire who despises the actual work of hunting charms a man too polite to refuse and puts him on the payroll as a delivery driver. He turns out to be very good at it. The reasons he is good at it are the problem, and so is what he learns from watching her.

WHISKERS IN THE DARK
A man wakes to something crashing downstairs, finds his belongings hidden in the wrong rooms, and spends the morning cleaning up after his cat. He is sure about that cat. He is sure about everything he tells you.

THE INKCAP WIDOW
A girl kneels in a wet meadow while her mother points out which mushrooms turn poisonous when mixed with drink. She is too young to ask why her mother needs her to know. Years later she is married to a man who drinks, and she remembers every word.

WE FOUND A HIDDEN CAVE AND IT WASN'T EMPTY
Four friends follow an old survey map to a cave mouth that shouldn't be there. The tunnels are worn smooth by something. One snack bag opens, and something in the next passage answers.
(Co-written by Narrative Strokes and Shadowthread Stories)

SHELTER IN PLACE
A freight train derails half a mile from Dana's back door. Her husband says the wind is blowing the other way, tapes plastic over every window, and keeps her phone for safekeeping. That night someone in a hazmat suit knocks, reads their names off a clipboard, and asks to be let in.

STUFFED
Two thieves come back to a carnival after closing to take a prize they were cheated out of. The booths are fully stocked at the end of a season, the horses on the carousel are all facing inward, and everything on the shelves has been waiting a long time to be picked up.

From the author of Seas of the Damned. Includes a story co-written with Narrative Strokes.

These stories escalate. Content warnings appear before each one, and they are there to be read.

Book cover created by Aean Studios https://aeanstudios.com.
To see how the cover was made check out https://aeanstudios.com/projects/beneath-your-fears