Monday, April 18, 2011

10 horror short stories online for free

Here you will find tales of horror. Some of these tales are not for the squeamish, just to warn you beforehand. Some are quite gory, others more literary. Some quite short, some a little longer. Here you will find undead, serial killers, aliens and much, much more.

That's tears, as in the water that leaks from your eyes. How can zombies cry? Do zombies cry? Perhaps, perhaps not, but sometimes a zombie can have remorse, or at least the one in this story does. It's a first-person account of how one man became a zombie and what happened to him afterward. There's definitely some gore here, and some cursing, so readers who do not like such may want to move on elsewhere. Just a suggestion.

Do vampires exist? And are there things more deadly than vampires? This short story examines vampire mythology to a very small extent, with a focus upon the very existence of such. No blood and guts here, but this tale might shake you up a little. Or it might not. Depends upon your tastes.

The shortest story found in this collection. Extremely short. In fact, it's probably shorter than these remarks about the story. This tale raises a question: What lengths would you go to to protect the ones you love?

This is historical horror, taking place in 1586 in Europe. Priests have failed at an exorcism and have called in the help of an occultist. But this occultist is more than he seems. Just to possibly draw a little more interest to this story, the main character here was also featured in the story above, "Walking Between the Rain."

Another historical tale, this one taking place in Italy in 1892. And yep, a certain figure returns once again. This particular story was a challenge to myself, an attempt to write horror without anyone dying, no bloodshed and no monsters or serial killers. I think it works.

Day Trip (pdf)
This is pretty straight-forward Hollywood B-movie material. A couple goes for a trip into the woods, becomes lost and is hunted down by something rather nasty. Not a nice way to spend a mini vacation. There's some gruesome stuff here, so beware. And if you like happy little endings where everything is explained and tied up in a bow for you, this probably isn't your kind of story. Also, the link to this story will take you to a PDF file for Deadman's Tome magazine (though it was called Demonic Tome until a few months ago), and you'll have to search through the PDF for this particular story; while you're there, enjoy some of the stories by other writers.

August (pdf)
Another PDF file, so be prepared to look around for this particular story. In this tale, a private detective with some unusual abilities is called upon to remove a ghost from a home. But looking into the ghost's past, the detective wonders if he should really send the ghost on. Language and gore are fairly strong here.

Forlorn (pdf)
Deadman's Tome online magazine ran this story in its PDF edition, so check out the table of contents to find this tale. Here, a serial killer is on the loose on a college campus. Who could the killer be? And what are his motivations?

It's a zombie story without actually any zombies. Or is it? You be the judge. No gore here, but there are some disturbing trains of thought. This is one of those stories that gets into a character's head and stays there.

This story was written to be somewhat reminiscent of the old science fiction stories and TV programs from the 1950s and 1960s. If you remember "The Twilight Zone" and "Outer Limits" from television, you should have a pretty good idea of what kind of story this is. It's not solid horror, almost more light science fiction with some light horror elements. This is another PDF file, so check the table of contents for the story. This story was published by the fine folks at Ray Gun Revival online magazine.

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