NCW Libraries

I entered the building-which, despite its name, was just another steel barn-from the east, taking out my Maglite and turning it on. The chickens were there; sleeping (I presumed), although it was hard to tell with animals who routinely slept with one eye open (as they had often done on my grandfather's farm, an evolutionary adaptation, he'd explained, that allowed them to rest while also watching for predators). I suppose that's when I first noticed...

"We've stepped out of a safe line somewhere ..."

A tale of otherworldly terror and haunted wind turbines from Wayne Kyle Spitzer, author of Flashback and The Witch Doctor..... What on earth did you plan to do? Dunn: Well, the only thing we could do, which was to right the boat and continue on-while doing our best to bail, of course. And that's when I first noticed it: way up there beyond the ridge; something moving, swinging, like the tip of a giant sword-only black against the sun-something which,...

Handlebar stared at his own boots, which were soaked in blood. He seemed to be having some sort of internal crisis. He reached up with a trembling hand and twisted his mustache repeatedly. He came out of it suddenly and looked at Lonny. "Hey. Kid. Listen." He walked toward him, changing clips. "You're taking all this too seriously. It's toying with us, that's all." He held out his shotgun to him. "Here. The goo-Chin-he's right. It's still beneath...

When a black road grader begins stalking the streets of Schenectady, NY, its residents soon find that the road to Hell is paved ... in blood!Detective Rowe: Let's go back now-to when you first saw it move. Is that all right?Westbrook: Sure. Like I said, I'd just woken up from the dream when I heard it, just rumbling across the field where they'd been working on the road-Detective Rowe: The I-890–North Schenectady Corridor.Westbrook: Sure, I guess....

I watched as Aaron approached one of the workbenches and fetched an intricately-crafted gold box."Ah, yes. The shem, you see, is what gives the golem its power-thank you, son, a sheynem dank. It is what gives it the ability to move and become animated."I glanced at Aaron, who only looked back at me uncertainly, as his father approached the golem and opened the box, the gold plating of which gleamed like a fire before the candelabrums. "This one consists...

dark horse/ˈdärk ˈˌhrs/noun1. a candidate or competitor about whom little is known but who unexpectedly wins or succeeds."a dark-horse candidate"Join us for a monthly tour of writers who give as good as they get. From hard science-fiction to stark, melancholic apocalypses; from Lovecraftian horror to zombies and horror comedy; from whimsical interludes to tales of unlikely compassion--whatever it is, if it's weird, it's here. So grab a seat before...

"Take the fatal shot," said Horseshoe. He must have laid down his rifle because I remember him helping to steady my own. "Easy now, you'll own this forever-" I stared the thing in the eye and squeezed the trigger. It threw back its head, rising up. It gasped for breath, spitting more blood. It barked at the sky. Then it fell, head thumping against the deck. Its serpentine neck slumped. The rest of its blood spread over the boards and rolled around...

First came the time-storm, which erased half the population. Then came the dinosaur apocalypse.How did it all begin? That depends on where you were and who you ask. In some places it started with the weather-which quickly became unstable and began behaving in impossible ways. In still others it started with the lights in the sky, which shifted and pulsed and could not be explained. Elsewhere it started with the disappearances: one here, a few there,...

dark horse/ˈdärk ˈˌhrs/noun1. a candidate or competitor about whom little is known but who unexpectedly wins or succeeds."a dark-horse candidate"Join us for a monthly tour of writers who give as good as they get. From hard science-fiction to stark, melancholic apocalypses; from Lovecraftian horror to zombies and horror comedy; from whimsical interludes to tales of unlikely compassion--whatever it is, if it's weird, it's here. So grab a seat before...