Recensori in anteprimaPatrick Freivald

"In death - no! even in the grave all is not lost." -Edgar Allan Poe

Wandering souls! Restless spirits! The vengeful dead! Those who die with unfinished business haunt the living and make their presence known from the world beyond:

• A scientist's invention opens a window onto a terrible afterlife.
• A New York City apartment holds the secrets of the dead.
• A grandmother sends text messages from the grave.
• A samurai returns to his devastated home for a final showdown with his past.
• A forgotten TV game show haunts a man with a dark secret.
• A tapping from behind classroom walls leads to a horrible discovery.
• The specter of a prehistoric beast returns to a modern-day ranch.
• And the one seeing eye knows all-including what you did.

Haunted from the other side, these stories roam from modern cities to the shadowed moors to feudal Japan to the jungles of Central America, each providing a spine-chilling glimpse into the shadows not even death can restrain.

Do you dare open these pages and peer into the darkness they reveal?

Stories by Marc Abbott, Meghan Arcuri, Oliver Baer, Alp Beck, Allan Burd, John P. Collins, Randee Dawn, Trevor Firetog, Caroline Flarity, Patrick Freivald, Teel James Glenn, Amy Grech, April Grey, Jonathan Lees, Gordon Linzner, Robert Masterson, Robert Ottone, Rick Poldark, Lou Rera, and Steven Van Patten.

Matt Rowley – super human strength, unnaturally fast reflexes, enhanced senses – augmentation is something that he will have to learn to live with, for the rest of his life. As cults spring up in worship of the demonic beings freed by the last of the nephilim, the United States calls on Matt Rowley to meet the threat. His unnatural powers returning with every passing day, Matt becomes the only weapon able to withstand eldritch forces older than time and darker than the blackest sea. When his wife and infant son are taken in a violent attack on his hometown, Matt falls into a vast conspiracy that could destroy his family and his very soul. They want Matt Rowley’s powers and will kill everyone to get them.

Matt Rowley – super human strength, unnaturally fast reflexes, enhanced senses – augmentation is something that he will have to learn to live with, for the rest of his life. As cults spring up in worship of the demonic beings freed by the last of the nephilim, the United States calls on Matt Rowley to meet the threat. His unnatural powers returning with every passing day, Matt becomes the only weapon able to withstand eldritch forces older than time and darker than the blackest sea. When his wife and infant son are taken in a violent attack on his hometown, Matt falls into a vast conspiracy that could destroy his family and his very soul. They want Matt Rowley’s powers and will kill everyone to get them.

Matt Rowley hasn't been human for years. A commando for the International Council on Augmented Phenomena, he hunts down superhuman monsters the military can't handle. But his abilities come with a price: bloodthirsty whispers that urge him to acts of terrible violence. An encounter with a giant, angelic being with wings of smoke and shadow casts him into a world of inhuman brutality, demonic possession, and madness, where he must choose between his family and his soul.

Matt Rowley hasn't been human for years. A commando for the International Council on Augmented Phenomena, he hunts down superhuman monsters the military can't handle. But his abilities come with a price: bloodthirsty whispers that urge him to acts of terrible violence. An encounter with a giant, angelic being with wings of smoke and shadow casts him into a world of inhuman brutality, demonic possession, and madness, where he must choose between his family and his soul.

Paul Renner has toyed with the FBI since his first kill. When an anonymous contract threatens his father’s life, his search for answers hits a dead end. Desperate to save his dad, he cuts a deal with Special Agent Gene Palomini. With each new development, the FBI needs Paul less, and their agreement begins to unravel. As they fall into a world of inhuman violence and macabre medicine, each side knows that betrayal is only a matter of time.

Paul Renner has toyed with the FBI since his first kill. When an anonymous contract threatens his father’s life, his search for answers hits a dead end. Desperate to save his dad, he cuts a deal with Special Agent Gene Palomini. With each new development, the FBI needs Paul less, and their agreement begins to unravel. As they fall into a world of inhuman violence and macabre medicine, each side knows that betrayal is only a matter of time.

Shackled to her desk, Ani Romero has a hard time concentrating on her studies. One of eight zombie survivors of the Prompocalypse, she's back at school, but this time it's no secret. Locked in their room, flamethrower-toting soldiers watching their every move, they're tasked with homework and classes during the week, and macabre experiments on the weekend. When the courts rule they're not human, only an appeal keeps them alive long enough to discover a cure. College applications and SATs pale under the threat of incineration, and desperation turns them into lab rats... ...but the scientists helping them have ulterior motives, and the promised cure destroys more than the virus. Surviving high school has never been so hard.

Shackled to her desk, Ani Romero has a hard time concentrating on her studies. One of eight zombie survivors of the Prompocalypse, she's back at school, but this time it's no secret. Locked in their room, flamethrower-toting soldiers watching their every move, they're tasked with homework and classes during the week, and macabre experiments on the weekend. When the courts rule they're not human, only an appeal keeps them alive long enough to discover a cure. College applications and SATs pale under the threat of incineration, and desperation turns them into lab rats... ...but the scientists helping them have ulterior motives, and the promised cure destroys more than the virus. Surviving high school has never been so hard.

Tied for 1st place in the 2012 JS writing contest. This is an Advance Reader Copy High School Sucks. It’s worse when you’re dead. Ohneka Falls is a small, Western New York town where everyone knows everyone and nothing of note happens. Ani Romero is a sixteen-year-old girl who wants to play sports, hang out, and kiss Mike, her middle-school crush. A childhood carrier of the zombie virus, she died at fourteen but didn’t become a mindless, brain-eating monster. Her controlling mother forces her to join the emo crowd to hide her condition behind a wall of black clothes and makeup, and her friends abandon her. When creeper Dylan learns her secret, he falls into obsession, with Ani and with death. She bites him in self-defense. Persecuted by the jocks and ignored by Mike, Ani struggles through the motions of life hoping her other’s research unveils a cure, or Dylan dooms them all to a hungry, walking death. As her emo facade crumbles in the face of jealousy and obsession, Ani knows that the worst thing she can do is be true to herself.

Tied for 1st place in the 2012 JS writing contest. This is an Advance Reader Copy High School Sucks. It’s worse when you’re dead. Ohneka Falls is a small, Western New York town where everyone knows everyone and nothing of note happens. Ani Romero is a sixteen-year-old girl who wants to play sports, hang out, and kiss Mike, her middle-school crush. A childhood carrier of the zombie virus, she died at fourteen but didn’t become a mindless, brain-eating monster. Her controlling mother forces her to join the emo crowd to hide her condition behind a wall of black clothes and makeup, and her friends abandon her. When creeper Dylan learns her secret, he falls into obsession, with Ani and with death. She bites him in self-defense. Persecuted by the jocks and ignored by Mike, Ani struggles through the motions of life hoping her other’s research unveils a cure, or Dylan dooms them all to a hungry, walking death. As her emo facade crumbles in the face of jealousy and obsession, Ani knows that the worst thing she can do is be true to herself.