Showing results by author "Steven Pajak" in All Categories

Thirty-nine terrifying stories that will keep you up all night and make you want to call in sick to work. Enjoy stories of karma, fear, supernatural horror, deadly women, and retribution.The Better Off Dead Series delves into the farthest corners of your mind, where your deepest, darkest fears lurk. These masters of horror will haunt your dreams and stalk your nightmares, taking you to the edge of sanity before pushing you to the brink of madness!

Institutionalized is the latest anthology from the creators of The Better Off Dead series. This installment brings you stories of the mentally unbalanced, the damaged and disturbed, and the criminally insane. Some are locked up. Some are not. We recommend you sleep with one eye open.

Beware of the night, for it shows no mercy. Anxieties run rampant as the last sprinklings of light twinkle out on the inky horizon. The shadows dance their choreography in the damp, dusky air. Night is taking over, and it knows how to keep a dark and deadly secret, for it allows no witnesses. And that screaming you hear nearby? Watch out, because you might be next. The Sinister Supernatural Stories series brings you delicious horror that focuses on elements of the supernatural. Pull up a chair and dig in, but never after dark—everyone knows bad things always happen after dark.

A woman scorned. The sanctity of her sanctuary threatened. The betrayal of trust...even loyalty. Don’t ever tell her not to take it personally, because that’s exactly what it is. Personal. Your first blunder was mistaking her kindness for weakness. Your second was betraying her. The third? Underestimating her. Don’t say we didn’t warn you. Take the plunge into these tales of deadly women who will stop at nothing until vengeance is theirs. The Better Off Dead series delves into the farthest corners of your mind, where your deepest, darkest fears lurk.

Your existence is the epitome of normal…until it isn’t. In an instant, everything changes. The peaceful security you hold dear to your heart has been ripped away, and you are left fighting for your life. But don’t think for a second you have a chance in hell of surviving. Your odds are never good when staring into the face of pure evil. Join us for tales of savagery and slaughter, where the innocent, or not-so-innocent, find themselves in the most ferocious situations they have ever encountered.

The Better Off Dead series delves into the furthest corners of your mind, where your deepest, darkest fears lurk. These masters of horror will haunt your dreams and stalk your nightmares, taking you to the edge of sanity before pushing you to the brink of madness!

Be afraid. Be very afraid. That noise in the dead of night. The shadow that slips by almost unnoticed. The fear that pulverizes your sense of reasoning and pushes you deep down under seven layers of covers. There is no escaping it, and when the dark forces of the universe come after you, the world will know exactly what you are made of. Will you run? Will you fight? Maybe you’ll join forces with the darkness that rips through your quiet little life. Everyone’s dying to find out.

Former FBI Special Agent Victoria Davenport is tough, smart, and gets things done. But when her husband is brutally murdered by a vicious psychopath in the Russian mob, she finds herself in a life and death game of cat and mouse with a trained killer. Fearing for their lives, Victoria and her 13-year-old son, Brandon, go on the run to escape the killer that is quickly closing in, but they can't hide forever. He gets closer to them every day, and it's only a matter of time until they have nowhere to run. Unless Deputy US Marshal Jack Monroe and his team have something to say about it.

Razor-sharp teeth. Vicious claws. The soul-piercing eyes that stare you down right before it pounces. What will you do when it’s you against a purveyor of pure evil? You think it’s just a dream? Think again. These nightmare creatures have transcended the pages of the books they were written into, they’ve ripped their way from the silver screen, and now they are coming for you. There is nowhere to hide - they will find you. But the question remains. Do you have what it takes to conquer the beast or will you let it destroy you?

Don’t deny it. Your mind has dwelled for hours on the things you would do if your name was Karma. Malevolence towards those that wronged you festers and there is no relief - until now. Plunge headfirst into these sinister tales where karma finally takes control and vengeance is a dish that is best served hot.

Sometimes, the dead do come back. Sometimes, they crave your flesh...and sometimes, they desire your very soul, but they aren’t the only thing you have to fear. You don’t believe in what you can’t see, yet something is there, watching, waiting. You can feel its unholy intentions deep down in the marrow of your bones. You don’t know where it came from, but you know with every fiber of your being that it is not from this earth, and as you feel its gaze searing through your skin, you know the end just might be near.

Stan Armstrong dedicated his entire life to science. Branded as a maverick and a risk-taker by his colleagues, his unorthodox experiments and outlandish theories of time and space resulted in loss of funding and, ultimately, his termination from tenure at the university where he’d spent his entire career. Stan’s insatiable quest to explore extreme hypotheses and to prove the unproven were matched only by his neurotic lust to peel back the mysterious layers of time and space to expose the hidden secrets of the universe.

When a grieving widower turns to the occult in a desperate attempt to contact his dead wife, he unwittingly opens a doorway to unimaginable evil. A malevolent entity slithers through, latching onto Walter's pain and growing stronger with every mournful brush stroke as he pours his anguish into increasingly disturbing paintings. His daughter Kate, Aided by her old friend James and a mysterious medium named Tiqua, uncovers chilling secrets as she battles a malevolent entity feeding on her father's pain.

Michael Monroe had a perfect life...until Robert Elliott Lang decided to destroy him. Michael has it all: A fulfilling career, a loving family, a beautiful home. When a disgruntled employee sends a devastating e-mail to thousands university students and co-workers, Michael’s hard-won reputation goes up in flames. In a matter of hours, Michael's life is completely shattered, and the whole world seems aligned against him.

They stalk their prey from deep in the menacing shadows, poised and ready to strike at the penultimate moment. Their victims unexpecting, unaware, until they wake in dark rooms, dank basements, or on chilly floors stained with the rotting blood of other hapless victims. The stench fills their nostrils and permeates their pores, the bile rising up in their burning throats. They scream and try to escape, but all attempts are futile. Fear dances like spiders down their spines as they hear ominous footsteps approaching — their eyes spread wide in horror as they realize the end is near.

World War II Veteran Morris Meridian has lived a long, distinguished life — as a soldier, loving father, and doting husband — but he won't live through the night. As he lays dying, he finds himself face-to-face with an ageless man from his past, who forces Morris to recall haunting memories and a terrifying offer he might not be able to refuse.

Evil never truly dies. It just waits to reclaim what it lost. When high school English teacher Elena Vera begins experiencing terrifying hallucinations and recurring nightmares of a demonic elderly woman, she fears she's losing her grip on reality. But after a horrifying incident at school leads to her forced medical leave, Elena discovers something far more sinister is at work. With the help of her best friend Carrie and student Maria, Elena uncovers a generations-old curse that has plagued her family.

As the first haunting notes of apocalypse resonate through the world, "The Fallen" marks the beginning of the Mad Swine trilogy, a journey into the heart of darkness at the onset of civilization's end. The outbreak of the Mad Swine virus heralds a new era of horror, swiftly transforming the infected into relentless, ravenous undead. In these first days of despair, Matt Danzig finds himself at the epicenter of an unfolding nightmare, fighting not just for his own survival, but for a chance to reunite with his family in the rapidly deteriorating suburb of Randall Oaks.

In "Dead Winter," the second gripping chapter of an unforgettable Mad Swine trilogy, the community of Randall Oaks faces its greatest challenge yet. Three months post-outbreak, with supplies nearly gone and threats on all sides, survival seems more like a slow march towards extinction. The arrival of new allies and an old friend brings a sliver of hope: a perilous journey towards a promised sanctuary, away from the starvation and siege within their own walls.

In "New Dawn," the gripping finale to the Mad Swine trilogy, six months have passed since the outbreak's start. Matt Danzig and his survivors have found a fragile peace at the Finnegan farm, forging a new life amid the chaos. Yet, the call of Randall Oaks and the fate of its residents compel Matt and Brian to venture back to their origins, only to discover it overrun by new, ruthless enemies far deadlier than the zombies they've grown accustomed to.