Life played its horrible games with the girl. As she grew up she devised clever places to hide - inside and outside of her mind. She was tricked by her own illusions; she was caught in traps of her own creation. It began with a kidnapping, a locked room, and the broken doll that was more than a plaything…and always, in the shadows, the dangerous painting from her past waited, threatening to expose her.

Evil rules the mean streets in many guises, waiting in the shadows along the crumbled edges of the mega-cities, where murder is the only crime that leaves a trace for lesser violent acts are simply not reported. Children, the elderly, the slightly and severely damaged make up the homeless. The weak and the helpless are deemed beyond salvation and beneath contempt by all but the strongest and the cruelest who see them as a source of sustenance.

Millions of threads so thin as to be invisible, so vaporous as to be ductile, drift through the classroom, emitting a chill and leaving a sense of unease. Hidden deep in their cloaks, the Blue Lights analyze the odors that cling to the individual cells of every child, from the top of each little head to the bottom of their ticklish feet and every dark secret place in between, from their gathering brains to their blood-soaked spleens. One girl feels dizzy; one boy throws up.

I am going to die here. My name is Mindy Mason; I’m a student from the University. I volunteered for one experiment; it was to be for one day only. I want to go home now. I hear cries, screams, and shrieks in the night. Some of the voices sound as if they are coming from the pillow under my head, others as if from a radio behind a door in a far room, and yet others come from my dreams, thus layering my terror. I know Wendy has a knife; perhaps she has killed again. How can I stop her? 

A box full of newspaper clippings, photographs, and tiny bones found under a dying woman’s bed leads to the discovery of the existence of an unusual group of children. Kept apart, these children grew up believing their fathers were the wealthy mortal men who had wed their pregnant mothers. One of these children was named Crystal; she was raised by a scientist who was obsessed with the secret of winged flight. Her mother died during one of his tests, and Crystal was sent to a foster home.

Everyone from Wakarusa, Indiana, remembers the infamous case of January Jacobs, who was discovered in a ditch hours after her family awoke to find her gone. Margot Davies was six at the time, the same age as January—and they were next-door neighbors. In the twenty years since, Margot has grown up, moved away, and become a big-city journalist. But she’s always been haunted by the feeling that it could’ve been her. And the worst part is, January’s killer has never been brought to justice. 

Witch Island used to be feared. Even the bravest would not dare go there. Legend said a witch had been burned alive at the stake, and upon her death she cursed the town. Terrified residents performed rituals to keep her spirit trapped on the island where she was buried. 

Hugo and Nebula award-winning author, David Gerrold, explores the darker realms in these seven unsettling stories. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have a pet dinosaur? Or maybe you'd like to attend the devil's enrollment seminar? Or perhaps a sleepless journey on the night train to Paris? And by the way...what's chewing on the dream catcher?

Emily thought she was leaving her money troubles behind when she inherited an old house from her great aunt, who went missing the previous year. But when she and her husband Jesse arrived at the house, they discovered that Aunt Matilda was murdered - and the culprit was still at large. 

Though Darren Rust is serving a life sentence in prison, Alex Fletcher is desperate to escape the shadow of his former best friend. Darren is a psychopath who thought he’d found somebody who would kill with him, and when he realized he was wrong, he took everything from Alex. Alex is unable to have a normal social life. Until he meets Luna Booth. Alex may not have found his soul mate, but he’s found somebody that he loves spending time with. Somebody who doesn’t mind the nightmarish skeletons in his closet. In fact, she may be too understanding. Too interested.

Trapped in a nightmarish skyscraper and stalked by their darkest secrets, a group of office workers must band together to escape the malevolent plans of their new employer. SiDug Tech promised to change the lives for a team of newly hired employees. Twice the pay of other firms, the ability to work from home, zero micromanagement, and incredible benefits. All that was required was to complete one week of training at their headquarters near downtown Tampa.

An 11-year-old boy's violated corpse is found in a town park. Eyewitnesses and fingerprints point unmistakably to one of Flint City's most popular citizens. He is Terry Maitland, Little League coach, English teacher, husband, and father of two girls. Detective Ralph Anderson, whose son Maitland once coached, orders a quick and very public arrest. Maitland has an alibi, but Anderson and the district attorney soon add DNA evidence to go with the fingerprints and witnesses. Their case seems ironclad.

Fifteen-year-old Ellie Mack was the perfect daughter. She was beloved by her parents, friends, and teachers. She and her boyfriend made a teenage golden couple. She was days away from an idyllic summer vacation, with her whole life ahead of her. And then she was gone. Now her mother, Laurel Mack, is trying to put her life back together.

Alicia Berenson’s life is seemingly perfect. A famous painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer, she lives in a grand house with big windows overlooking a park in one of London’s most desirable areas. One evening, her husband, Gabriel, returns home late from a fashion shoot, and Alicia shoots him five times in the face and then never speaks another word. Alicia’s refusal to talk, or give any kind of explanation, turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander, a mystery that captures the public imagination and casts Alicia into notoriety.

Nell Martin is moving again, this time to the Winslow Grand Hotel, built in 1878. As Nell is settling in, strange things begin to happen. Doors lock of their own accord, writing appears on bathroom walls - and most horrifying of all - visions of a dead boy permeate her waking life. Thinking it was her mind playing tricks on her, she soon finds the past and the present colliding as she learns horrific details of a murder that happened at the hotel in 1907 involving a girl named Lea.

In early 1800s Tennessee, two men find themselves locked in an intimate power struggle. Richardson, a troubled Revolutionary War veteran, has spent his life fighting not only for his country but also for wealth and status. When the pressures of westward expansion and debt threaten to destroy everything he’s built, he sets Washington, a young man he owns, to work as his breeding sire.

When young Eleanor Amore gets pregnant, she returns to her estranged family in the Bronx, called by the "Sight" they share. It is the first time she has been back since she was 10, and while everyone else remembers that summer, Eleanor can’t recall anything earlier than the moment she left. With her past coming back to her in flashes, she becomes obsessed with recapturing those memories. Aided by her childhood sweetheart, she learns the secrets still haunting her magical family.

Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.

The summer of 1976 should have been the best of times for nature-loving Eli Book, but instead it is filled with terrible changes. His sister begins to hate her country. His beautiful but distant mother is caught between his traumatized Vietnam War vet father and his former antiwar protester aunt, who has come to live with them. And the only person with whom he can be himself, his best friend, Edie, begins to turn inward when her parents split up. Watching from the sidelines while his world falls apart, Eli must take his first courageous steps toward truth-telling and adulthood.

Three audiobooks in one volume. This family saga follows three generations of 13-year-old girls and their families from 1941 to 1982 Appalachia.

In the Society, Officials decide. Who you love. Where you work. When you die. Cassia has always trusted the Society’s choices. And when her best friend appears on the Matching screen, she is certain he’s the one - until she sees another face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. Now she is faced with impossible choices: Between Xander and Ky, between the only life she’s ever known and a path no has dared to follow...between perfection and the truth.

FML is becoming Avery's motto. Just when she doesn't think things could get any worse, they do. When her car stalls out at a busy intersection, she gets out to check under the hood, and a guy steals her car. Armed with a dress and a pair of Chucks, Avery runs after the thief. When a hot stranger offers to help, she can't say no. That's how Avery mets Sean Ferro, the totally sexy, totally damaged guy with more secrets than she has time for.

Benji and Red couldn't be more different. They aren't friends. They don't even live in the same town. But their fates are entwined. A chance meeting leads the boys to discover that they have more in common than meets the eye. Both of them have encountered a strange presence in the forest, watching them, tracking them. Could the Madman of Piney Woods be real?