Showing results by author "Ric Wasley" in All Categories

Now in its fifth incarnation, Tell-Tale's horror anthologies have become an annual benchmark of emerging talent and well-told stories. The select seven featured here will yank you backward and forward again in time, visiting the exotic and the seemingly mundane, at a pace and a pulse calibrated for Halloween chills. Beware of a cat named Sabrina and a Celtic goddess with a passport to Salem—yes, that Salem. An old farmhouse could hold more vivid memories than just its mortal foundations, and think twice about rescuing the sister of a young boy if you find yourself in a desert.

Ever see one of those seedy-looking hotels in the middle of nowhere and get reminded of Psycho, even as you wonder who might actually stay or work there? Or perhaps you’ve traveled on business and found yourself in the wrong part of town—and the natives are restless.

The year is 1863. After two years of battles, the Civil War has evolved into a bloody slaughter with scarcely a town or home on both sides untouched by the tragic loss of its young men. President Abraham Lincoln has just announced the first order of "Draft" in the history of the American Republic. After Jeptha enlists, Fiona Dawes finds herself working their farm with her five-year-old daughter, Bridget, on a thin spit of sandy peninsula stretching out into the Atlantic from the rocky coast of Massachusetts.

The Newport Folk Festival provides a groovy backdrop for this drug-and-60s-music-soaked mystery, featuring partners in love and danger, Mick and Bridget, hopping on their motorcycles and into action. As the family of detectives quip, banter, and swing into action, posh Newport is threatened by a perverse, shadowy secret. Mick and Bridget's exuberance and optimism manage to glimmer through even the darkest of perils, as they delve into a seamy world of drugs and sex, and are forced to match wits with both the mob and a shadowy psychopathic killer.

This is the story of a woman who some claim is a myth, someone who never existed at all—a character made up from a composite of representative metaphysical personalities prevalent in occult groups at the turn of the last century. And yet...there are others, many others, perhaps millions who have seen her face on hundreds of UFO and paranormal websites and TV shows. They have gazed at images of the enigmatic woman called Maria and are convinced she is real and her story is real too.

Have you ever wondered if you've lived before? Imagine then if you could remember every moment of every life you have lived for the past 2000 years! That is the continuing fate and curse of a soldier of fortune named Cody. Not only is he cursed to recall each life, but he knows that each succeeding one will end the same - in violence, tragedy, and death. He has only one slim ray of hope that keeps him clinging to sanity - The Girl.

"Secret Santa" by Marcus Mattern: If you think you have problems at work, you will change your mind and think it’s the magic kingdom after reading about Darren Young's day. One just never knows their coworkers as well as they think they do. Do you have a Secret Santa activity where you work? You may not want to participate after you listen to this edge-of-your-seat, hand-over-your-eyes tale. Marcus starts his story off with a bang, and the thrills never end until the surprising conclusion.