Shim and Shay don’t like staying home alone while Mom and Dad go to work in the castle. Then one day a gnome tells the children how the fairies gave him a bag of gold. The children set off to ask for a bag of gold of their own so Mom and Dad won’t have to work. But there are dangers they never could have imagined waiting in the wide world outside their village, including a monster in the forest.
Authorities said everyone was dead. When Milton arrived at the site of his church’s Brazilian mission, everyone he knew was dead, or gone. The only person in the burned out village is a strange, beautiful, naked red-haired woman who is both wise and childlike. Milton decides to smuggle Amara home and continue his mission work with this one lost soul. Amara is more than she appears to be and she is about to shake the foundations of everything Milton believes to be true. A heartbreaking story of faith, forgiveness, and the foundation of religious belief. Can Milton learn and accept the truth before he loses everything and everyone he loves?
Dena is recently divorced and ready for a new life in Benevolence, Oklahoma. She has a new job and and old house. The job is promising. The house is perfect, with plenty of space for her and her two young daughters. She really thought this first week in her new house was going to be the start of a new life. The house, however, had other ideas ...
Steven E. Wedel offers four short stories that run the gamut from pure horror to shocking hilarity. First, in "The Zombie Whisperer," a young lady living in a secure compound with a few fellow survivors of the zombie apocalypse invites in a man who says he can communicate with the walking dead. In "One Night in Benevolence" a man returns to the home where he suffered so much abuse at the hands of his now-dead father, only to find that some things are never forgotten. "Dead Betty" tells the tale of a scientist who finds a way to reanimate the dead. Unfortunately, he underestimates the power of his creation. Three buddies on a fishing expedition in Oklahoma's backwoods reel in more than they bargained for when "Noodlers Nab Nekkid Nymphs."
Keith’s mother is dead, but that doesn’t mean she’s stopped trying to help him turn his life around. His dad, however, doesn’t see any reason he or Keith should stop drinking or using drugs. Ashley and her two best friends have never known real love. When the girls make a road trip into a larger city near their home on the Oklahoma plains, they stumble upon a book in an estate sale that might be the answer to their romantic problems. When the school’s renowned drug user approaches Ashley, she doesn’t think there’s any way she’d ever fall for Keith. As her friends use the grimoire to wreak havoc on the boys of the school who have mistreated them, Ashley can’t help but wonder if Keith’s interest is real or the result of the spells her friends claim to be creating. Then the high school erupts in chaos and the unlikely couple have to work against the evil that has been unleashed on their small town.
11 Tales of Terror The God of Discord – A man discovers the single eye of an ancient god watching from space, and soon realizes he’s been noticed. When the Lady of Byblos Calls – When this ancient goddess calls you home to the sea, there is no resisting her, even if you’re a Nebraska corn farmer. Lulu – The carnival fat lady needs a new caretaker. It’s a job with a very high turnover rate. Did someone say “turnover”? Nocturnal Caress – He is ancient and he lurks under beds, waiting to satisfy his fetish whenever someone lets a stray foot dangle outside the blankets. Path of Pins – Times are hard and some men will do anything for a few bucks and a good fix. It’s good to ask questions first, though. Reunion – An Oklahoma church congregation works to assure that a lost lamb is ready for the Resurrection. Summer Offspring – Mutant rats created by flushing condoms down the toilets during a heat wave take to the streets. Wandering John – He’s on a mission from God, and he doesn’t like cats, which is a shame considering they follow him, eating the baby mice that form in his saliva. Warren Pepper’s Victory Choir -- A boy who meets the ghost of a Vietnam veteran who came home with some issues, and a very peculiar craving. A Drink from the Springs – In the Old West, a cattle drover goes looking for water along the Chisholm Trail and finds a mysterious woman living in a spring-fed lake. Grandpa Frost – Meteorites slam into the North Pole, shifting the Earth on its axis and awakening a creature that lives under the ice and feeds on warmth.
Lynette Cook knows about abuse. She learned it from her father and, later, had the lessons reinforced by the boyfriend she thought was her savior. Free at last from her own tormentors, Lynette now lives with her teenage daughter, Kari, in a small town in Oklahoma. Then one day she comes home from the grocery store to find her daughter's boyfriend and his two buddies raping Kari. Blinded by rage, Lynette shoots one of the boys and locks the other two in her storm cellar. Lynette surprises herself with the ease with which she disposes of the body during a record rainy season and smoothly lies to investigating police. But in the days that follow, Lynette must face the fact that her torture of the two captive boys is as cruel as the treatment she received at the hands of her father and ex-husband. Meanwhile, the date-rape drug has worn off, and Kari is wondering why her boyfriend won't return her calls. She has unfocused memories of partying with him and his friends and, although she can't pinpoint why, she blames her mom for whatever happened next that is keeping them apart. As Kari's memory sharpens, Lynette's unrelenting rage against men drives her to an ever-darker state of mind - until finally Kari learns the grisly truth. In a final showdown between mother, daughter, and boyfriend, a choice has to be made. Who will inherit the title of victim?
Daniel thought he had lost his high school sweetheart, Penny, over an abortion 35 years ago. But when a woman named Alicia arrives at his assisted living center claiming to be his long-lost daughter, Daniel must face the truth of his past. With Alicia's presence, old truths are exposed and new bonds are formed. But always, Daniel remembers the promise of his abusive father, "Life never gives you shit without taking something in payment." In this powerful story of family, redemption, and the power of enduring love, readers will be taken on a journey of discovery as Daniel and Alicia await the DNA test results to determine whether they are related. If you enjoyed the emotional and suspenseful novel, Before We Were Yours, by Lisa Wingate, you will love Yes or No by Steven E. Wedel.
When a young girl from eastern Oklahoma went missing in 1978, the community came together to search for her. One group of high school students and their teacher vanished the day of the search and were never seen again. This is their horrifying story.
Legend has it that on October 31 the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead is thin and things that are bound in one realm or the other are allowed to pass between the two worlds. Children and devils roam the earth looking for treats or offering tricks. It is a cool, crisp, special time of the year. A time of change. A time for stories. "Unholy Womb" is the story of a young boy who finds more than he expects when he goes to carve his Halloween jack-o-lantern. In "The Halloween Feast" a man gets the opportunity to be reunited with his dead wife and daughter. Revenge is the theme in "SKN-3", a grisly story about an angry doctor out for a trophy. "Hungry is the Night" tells the tale of what happens when an ancient evil seeps out of an old well and engulfs a small town. In "Scream of Humanity" a pioneer doctor learns there may be something to those old wives' tales about child birth.
