We tell the dark our deepest secrets, fears, and desires. What if, one night, the darkness should reply?
Darkness isn't simply the absence of light, it's a living, breathing presence. It is the death of a loved one and the murder of hope; it is a whispering shadow, unrelenting loneliness, and inner hatred. We are both terrified and tantalized by the unknown, the supernatural, and the monstrosities of daily life. Stare into the abyss with the new collection by bestselling author William P. Simmons, WHEN DARKNESS ANSWERS.
Reality unravels and faith crumbles in these haunting and subversive tales of supernatural, psychological, and visionary horror. Journey deep into darkness with "a writer whose approach is both original and unconventional" (Publisher's Weekly), and who "joins the ranks of such writers as Ray Bradbury and Charles Grant" (Kealan Patrick Burke, Sour Candy). Hailed by British Fantasy Award Winning author Adam Nevill (The Ritual) as a writer who "draws from a well with waters dark and deep, that taste of guilt, despair and fear, to cultivate his surprising and inventive tales of horror," Simmons reveals the nightmares hiding in the cancerous fabric of surface reality. These tales occupy the twilight realm between the uncanny and mundane, the shocking and the subtle, threatening everything you hold dear, safe, or true.
A grieving husband is attacked by memories in an endless cemetery. A housewife searches her home for a screaming woman. A jilted lover brings his hate to public school. A vengeful wraith plays malicious games with his parents. An abused young man with paranormal powers learns that the dead remember. A father fears the holes in his son's face. A dead mother's love turns deadly. A woman is transformed by her lover's hunger. A creature's skin turns lust to despair. A deadly shadow is birthed by a hateful marriage.
These and other stories thrill, provoke, and disturb. Evoking fear and wonder, Simmons merges traditional genre themes with modern concerns. Nothing as it seems. Nowhere is safe. No one loves you. And only the darkness really knows who you are. You've called to it day after day, year after year. Something has heard you. And, tonight, the darkness answers....
TOC:
Davy
Following the Stones
Strange Birth
I'll Never Let You Go
Small Decisions
Do the Dead...?
The Ritual
Skin
The Screaming Woman
The Holes in His Face
When Darkness Answers
BIO:
William P. Simmons is a critically acclaimed author of four #1 Amazon bestsellers, including The Halloween Boy and We Feed the Dark. His five collections and seven anthologies have been featured in Publisher's Weekly, Rue Morgue, Dark Discoveries, and Cemetery Dance. The active HWA member has received eight Honorable Mentions in THE YEAR'S BEST FANTASY & HORROR, and has been praised by such authors as Adam Nevill, Kealan Patrick Burke, and Graham Masterton. A book reviewer and interviewer, he has spoken with icons Richard Matheson, Ramsey Campbell, and the surviving scribes of The Twilight Zone. He feeds the dark...so that it won't take everything.
SHADOW HOUSE PUBLISHING
: Makes available the best of both classic and modern supernatural, horror, and weird fiction.