The Most Horrific Ghost Tales: George Thomas Spillman’s ‘Retribution’
Mighty is the storm that rages in the sky; but it is as nothing to the storm that rages in the heart of the murderer. —George Thomas Spillman (Retribution)
Tag: horrorwriting
The Best Werewolf Tales Episode 5: C.M. Eddy Jr & H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Ghost-Eater”
The ascending succession of horror was fast paralyzing my will and consciousness, for the eyes that now glared toward me from that hellish head were the grey phosphorescent eyes of my host as they had peered at me through the darkness of the kitchen. —C.M. Eddy & H.P. Lovecraft (The Ghost-Eater)
The Most Horrific Ghost Tales: Frank Marion Palmer’s “The Thing”
It floated in–slowly, slowly, as a mist of early morning might enter one’s casement or a wisp of smoke, wafted in on a stray breeze—unsubstantial, filmy, yet seeming to have the substance of flesh and blood. —Francis Marion Palmer (The Thing)
Greatest Sea Horror Tales: Robert E. Howard’s “Restless Waters”
It’s Dick Hansen, calling to me through the wind and the night and the black waters! Alive or dead, I’m his till I die! —Robert E. Howard (Restless Waters)
Greatest Sea Horror Tales: Frank Belknap Long’s “The Ocean Leech”
I saw through the folds of animated jelly a great reddish sucker, or disk, lined with silver teeth. —Frank Belknap Long (The Ocean Leech)
Funeral Horror Tales: Ambrose Bierce’s “John Mortonson’s Funeral”
The surviving members of the family came severally every few minutes to the casket and wept above the placid features beneath the glass. This did them no good; it did no good to John Mortonson; but in the presence of death reason and philosophy are silent.–Ambrose Bierce (John Mortonson’s Funeral)
The Best Ambrose Bierce Horror Tales: A Collection
For there be divers sorts of death—some wherein the body remaineth; and in some it vanisheth quite away with the spirit. This commonly occurreth only in solitude (such is God’s will) and, none seeing the end, we say the man is lost, or gone on a long journey—which indeed he hath; but sometimes it hath happened in sight of many, as abundant testimony showeth. In one kind of death the spirit also dieth, and this it hath been known to do while yet the body was in vigor for many years. Sometimes, as is veritably attested, it dieth with the body, but after a season is raised up again in that place where the body did decay.–Hali (Ambrose Bierce’s “An Inhabitant of Carcosa”)
Tibetan Dragon Horror: Elizabeth Walter’s “The Tibetan Box
“That double curve folding back on itself with the foot uplifted—was it not the dragon of the box? She wiped her eyes, blaming an overstrained nervous system, and looked again. But surely those were scales!” —Elizabeth Walter (The Tibetan Box)
Witch Horror Collection: “A Night of Witches”
“Her voice was the voice that women have,
Who plead for their heart’s desire.
She came—she came—and the quivering flame
Sunk and died in the fire.
It never was lit again on my hearth
Since I hurried across the floor,
To lift her over the threshold, and let her in at the door.”–Mary Elizabeth Coleridge (The Witch)
Jack the Ripper Horror: “A Night with Jack the Ripper”
“Never mind the John,” I whispered raising the knife, “Just call me Jack!”–Robert Bloch (Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper)
Witch Horror: Robert Bloch’s “Catnip”
Has the cat got your tongue?–Robert Bloch (Catnip)
Hospital Horror: Joseph Payne Brennan’s “Who Was He?”
“Well, when he hopped over the fence, the bag caught on the top strand of wire and fell back in the parking lot. I picked it up later and what do you suppose I found inside?’
“I have no idea” I told him. “Don’t keep me in suspense!”
“Dirt!” He answered. “Just plain dirt. Earth dirt.”—Joseph Payne Brennan (Who Was He?)
Arctic Howling Horror: Hugh B. Cave’s “Two Were Left”
“Nimuk came closer. Noni saw fear in the animal’s gaze. He could see hunger and suffering in the animal’s labored breathing and awkward movements. Noni’s heart wept. He hated himself and fought against it.”—Hugh B. Cave (Two Were Left)
Haunting Oil Field Horror: John H. Green’s “Seven Men in a Tank”
“Omar Khayyam was right: Hell is the reflection of a soul burning.”–John H. Green (Seven Men in a Tank)
Cthulhu Mythos Vampire Horror: Stephen King’s “Jerusalem’s Lot”
“And the Latin was replaced by an older tongue, ancient when Egypt was young and the Pyramids built, ancient when this Earth still hung in an unformed, boiling firmament of empty gas: “Gyyagin vardar Yogsoggoth! Verminis! Gyyagin! Gyyagin! Gyyagin!”–Stephen King (Jerusalem’s Lot)
Jeffrey LeBlanc 