top of page

Horror Shorts & Anthologies

Here are your next reads

Drifting Bodies and Demented Dreams

Horror Anthologies

From the subtle to the shocking, from dark humor to grotesque depravity, Drifting Bodies and Demented Dreams is a journey of escalating transgression and horror with each subsequent story a bit darker, a bit nastier, than the last. A rural farm is terrorized by a mysterious nocturnal monster... A young boy's first Halloween goes horribly wrong... A mortician prepares the body of a young women for her service with a nasty deal in the works... A single father can't stop fantasizing about murdering his infant son... All this and more awaits you in Drifting Bodies and Demented Dreams.

It Bubbles Under The Skin

Horror Short Stories

Jayce has spent her whole life by the ocean as part of the close-knit communities found across the Îles de la Madeleine. With a place to call her own, a job she adores, and a girlfriend she loves, her life has always been a comfortably predictable one. But after a night in the waters at Pointe aux Loups Beach, Jayce quickly finds her world upended as something calls to her from the ice-cold waves. When blisters filled with saltwater ooze from her skin and ropes of seaweed slither from her body, Jayce realizes she can’t ignore the voice for much longer.

Magnum Opus

Horror Short Stories

Charlotte Curran is willing to do whatever it takes to make sure her newest book is a best seller... even if that means murdering her best friend. Nobody suspects her of killing renowned author Kim Lavoie, but when Charlotte starts seeing Kim everywhere she turns, she quickly realizes it's more than just her guilty conscience haunting her. With each passing day, Kim’s judging gaze grows more difficult to escape. Magnum Opus is a dark look at the price of fame and the legacy we leave behind.

04.46 - a short story

Horror Short Stories

Gary, a night-security guard at an office building, returns to work after some much-needed time off, only to find his co-worker has mysteriously vanished during his absence. Plagued by unsettling visions, Gary begins to question his sanity, whilst other staff begin behaving strangely, seemingly influenced by some unseen force within the building. On the fifth-floor.

Josh's Wish - a short story

Horror Short Stories

Josh experiences grief, and a seashell that whispers memories of his loss.

Midnight Harvest

Horror Anthologies

Welcome to Midnight Harvest, a collection of chilling short stories that will crawl under your skin and linger long after the last page, Each tale is a doorway into a world where the familiar turns sinister, and the light of day offers no sanctuary. From cursed fields where nothing grows but despair, to shadowed corners where unspoken horrors dwell, these stories will keep you awake at night. Beware the scarecrows that move when they shouldn't, the whispers that rise from empty fields, and the strange, crimson moon that watches it all. Midnight Harvest isn't here to make you laugh-it's here to make you look twice at the darkness and wonder what might be looking back. Are you ready to reap the terror?

Another Life: And Other Mindbending Sci-Fi Stories

Horror Anthologies

Have you ever wanted to live ANOTHER LIFE...? A VR addict receives an anonymous letter hooking her on the idea of true love. A starship commander, accused of killing his wife, takes a drug to absolve himself of his sins. An ex-con is forced to kill for sport to keep his captive daughter alive. An astronaut is infected by an alien pathogen that robs her of her identity. An alien race repels human colonization using their unique affinity for mushroom spores. A desert wanderer finds a sentient supercomputer with a plan to restart civilization. And a young man emerges from forty years of cryostasis, cured of a terminal disease, only to find his world has moved on just enough to leave him behind.

The Long Black Dress

Horror Short Stories

"There is no greater Hell than watching a man who loves you more than his own soul, one whom you love more than your own soul, deteriorate into a monster." "The Long Black Dress" is a short tale of gothic horror told by a young woman returning to an empty home after her husband's funeral. In the oppressive and sentient silence of the hollow house, she descends into grief-fueled memories of their relationship and its tragic end, culminating in a haunting ending.

Tales From Cemetery

Horror Anthologies

Author C. J. Daley welcomes you to Cemetery. Whether this is your first trip, or your return to town, get ready for ten blood-fueled nightmares. Read the stories Hudson Valley residents tell around campfires about Cemetery’s dark underbelly. While the police chase serial killers, the streets run rampant with occult, paranormal, and supernatural beings. And while on the surface these stories tell the lore of the town, don’t be surprised if you make some connections between them... Be prepared to experience an unhinged killer clown, a blood thirty monster in the woods, sinister killer phone calls, vampires with hidden pasts, star-crossed ghost lovers, seances gone awry, a flesh hungry zombie, confinement in a basement, two best friends tackling a haunted mansion, and a shapeshifting woodland spirit. Buy now and be the first to read the next official part in Det. Williams’ story in the bonus novelette, Off with their Sleds.

Palimpsest

Horror Anthologies

From one of Canada’s hottest young talents comes this stellar collection of contemporary horror stories and poetry. Caitlin Marceau’s work ranges from the quietly unnerving to the deeply disturbing, taking in post-apocalyptic futures, supernatural forces, psychological terrors and deals with the devil. One thing’s for certain: these stories will linger in your mind for long after you’ve read them.

Dustin - a short story

Horror Short Stories

Home / Dustin by Cat Callender Every boy needs a hobby. But Dustin is not like other boys, and he comes to regret his unsavoury pastime when he finds a new specimen to add to his 'collection'.

Maisie - a short story

Horror Short Stories

A mirror, and a game. Say the words - Melted Maisie five times, and see what happens. But what if you never ask Maisie to leave?

The Night Before Christmas - a short story

Horror Short Stories

Home / The Night Before Christmas - a short story by Cat Callender Harold was alone for Christmas for the first time in 50 years after his wife recently passed from cancer. He finds himself in the pub, the one he always spent Christmas in, drinking and reminescing, but then something strange and wonderful happens.

Acts of Violence

Horror Anthologies

A young woman fights for survival through a frozen hellscape. An office worker is menaced by the undead. A couple's search for their dream house becomes a nightmare. A man reaches his limit with the people next door and the voice in his head telling him to do something about it. A mother is desperate to learn what horrors befell her daughter the day she went missing. A congregation learns of an unholy new gospel during the End of Days. These stories and more from Marcus Hawke, author of The Miracle Sin, with favorites like Every Hunt Is A Cold One and zombie.com and others appearing in print for the first time like Under The Black Top and The Reign and The Rapture. All guaranteed to shock, disturb, and shed blood as you witness a dozen... ACTS OF VIOLENCE!

The Wrought Iron Gate

Horror Short Stories

“That’s why I do this job. To find places that are seriously wrong.” Sydney Blake has been debunking so-called "haunted houses" for ten years, but she may have finally met her match with 1366 Cumberland Street. This dilapidated manor house in Bangor, Maine has a century-old history of suspicious deaths and disappearances and when Sydney arrives looking to do what she always does, she quickly comes to realize that there is something deeply wrong with this place. As she explores the house, the past Sydney has worked so hard to forget and forgive herself for comes back to vengeful life...and this time, she might not be able to escape it. A short haunted house story, "The Wrought Iron Gate" was originally published in Midnight Hour: A Compilation of Short Horror Tales in 2017 by Rachel M. Martens.

What Dances in the Dark

Horror Anthologies

Fourteen twisted tales from the mind of Shawn Brooks. A woman finds an eye in her bathroom wall, what comes next is even worse. A boy hears a tapping on his bedroom window, on his walls, on his roof. Did it come to take back what he stole? A lonely spirit watches lovers in a park. It just wants a friend. A face that appears in your window at night, and then it climbs up to your bedroom. The bells the play in the forest, and the figure that dances in the dark.

A Blackness Absolute

Horror Anthologies

A Blackness Absolute is a collection of short horror stories by Canadian author Caitlin Marceau. The collection takes in uncertainties of perception, feelings of vulnerability—to the weather, the natural world, the tenuousness of sanity—and mixes these elements with a strong sense of history and folklore. From the title piece, which evokes the pure claustrophobic terror of becoming lost and disoriented in a cave-system, to the final tale, Doireann, where a woman performs unusual funeral rites in a starving community, each story layers ambiguities to create an unnerving effect that will get under your skin.

Femina

Horror Anthologies

FEMINA: A Collection Of Dark Fiction explores the horror of womanhood. Or, more accurately, the horror of gender norms and societal expectations placed on women. This collection features work that delves into themes of identity, motherhood, sexuality, and isolation. A mix of Kristen Roupenian’s “Cat Person And Other Stories” and Carmen Maria Machado’s “Her Body And Other Parties: Stories”, this collection is a blend of psychological, supernatural, and body horror. FEMINA looks at the horror of being a woman in a man’s world.

The Last Carriage - a short story

Horror Short Stories

Alex just wants to get home. He's tired and aching from a long, stressful day, and the next carriage on the hot, noisy and busy London tube train he's travelling on looks enticingly quiet and calm. So why are so many of his fellow passengers avoiding it?

Night Swimming - a short story

Horror Short Stories

Regan has been having a rough time; her fiance has been cheating on her, her closest friend has betrayed her and she's lost her job. One evening, fed up of staying home and drowning her sorrows, she decides to go for an impromptu run. This decision results in her fighting for her life, in a nightmarish scenario she never could have imagined.

Bleeding Sun

Horror Short Stories

On a moonless night, in a small apartment on the worst side of the city, a Soldier, a Father, and a young Wrestler indulge in a night of reminiscence, death, and transcendence. This short story, a lost chapter from the Vile series, digs deep into the cursed heritage of the Mort family.

In the End, Nothing

Horror Anthologies

With In the End, Nothing, Michael Patrick Hicks has brought together a number of dark, strange and moving short stories, collected here for the first time. Join six guests for a remarkably disturbing twelve-course meal. Venture into the far reaches of space where, aboard an abandoned mining station, a team of scientists make a surprising discovery about the origin of life. Watch as a contestant competes for money on a gameshow unlike anything currently on-air, one where the biggest celebrity is death itself. Featuring two brand-new stories exclusive to this collection, In the End, Nothing crosses the genres of horror and speculative fiction, and pushes the boundaries between life and death in unsettling, provocative, and occasionally gruesome, ways.

Midnight Hour

Horror Anthologies

Midnight Hour is a compilation of short horror fiction that explores different types of darkness with each tale coming to a consensus: darkness is a thread weaving throughout our lives that we cannot deny or escape. The book includes a shudder-inducing haunted house tale, "The Wrought Iron Gate", a classic Gothic tale, "The Long Black Dress", a glimpse of modern horror in the novella "So Broken", and more.

Share Your Scare Volume 5: A Lulu Anthology

Horror Anthologies

Lulu's Halloween anthology is back with Share Your Scare - Volume 5! Get pumped for spooky season with these chilling tales. Each story in this volume was selected by the Lulu Team from the entries received during our Halloween Fiction contest. If you're ready for a good scare, this is the book for you!

Author Search

authors.png

© 2025 Indie Reads. All rights reserved.

bottom of page