Jeremy Simons

Strangers within is a compilation of four novella and novelette-length works. The stories within these pages run the gamut from everyday Joes and serial killers all the way to ghosts and hounds of Hell. Diary of a Madman Chuck Collins, overzealous journalist with larger than life ambition. Robert Kane Bradley, convicted rapist/serial killer and known necrophiliac. The interview of a lifetime. What starts as a career-shaping interview quickly turns to a battle of wits as Kane divulges his intent of escaping. The Veil A simple vacation between friends turns disastrous after a bad decision of drinking and driving. The thin line between life and death is put to the test as Darryl Walker has to decipher between reality and imagination. He must choose to save himself or save his beloved. Pathological We all have that one friend that exaggerates a little too much or simply lies even when it's easier to tell the truth. Laura Morgan is the epitome of that person. But what happens when the liar is lied to? Or even worse, what happens when the liar is called on her fibs? Invoked Ancient heirlooms. Curses. Native American Warriors. Henry Schneider gets more than what he bargained for when he accidentally breaks what was thought to be a simple whatnot. His life becomes plagued by a spirit that wants him dead. In order to rectify what was done, he must find out the truth behind the spirit he somehow invoked.

Sheriff Tom Justice does the unthinkable. He agrees to allow a government project to be released in the woods of Rednest. The project, created at Si-Tec industries as a means of warfare, a perfect killing machine, an animal genetically engineered to kill our enemies. However, when civilians go missing in the woods and only pools of blood are left behind, the sheriff is faced with a dilemma. He can cover it all up which is what he swore to do, or he can choose to fight and kill the beast. An eleven year old boy is killed on a camping trip with five of his friends and two of their parents. It leads to the long time Sheriff Justice's retirement. It changes everyone's lives involved forever. Ten years pass before the boys deliver on their childhood pact of one day going back to the lake where their friend had been brutally murdered. Ten years pass before Sheriff Justice realizes that he had been played for a fool all those years ago and the government never captured the beast. Ten years pass before the sheriff (on a vengeful hunting trip), the boys (on a trip down memory lane), and one of the parents end up back in the woods of Rednest on the same night Their final showdowns will all come before the sun is up, and no one is guaranteed to survive the night.

Monica wakes, it's cold, damp. She feels confined...trapped...alone, and doesn't know where she is or how she got there. Then panic sets in...clawing, feeling the dirt falling onto her face, Monica realizes she's been buried alive. Escape may not be easy, it may not even be possible. She tries to remember what happened, how she became trapped inside this box, who it was that did this to her, and then the truth becomes crystal clear. Soon they will learn, when you kill someone, you better make sure thy're actually dead...