Ronald Kelly

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree... what lurks among thy branches...Christmas can be the most wonderful time of the year. Candy canes and hot cocoa. Snowmen and sleigh rides. The love and hope that the Nativity brings. Cold milk and warm cookies for Santa. Family, friends, and the cheerful laughter of children.But, beneath the festive wrapping paper and the gleam and glitter of the lights and tinsel, things less jubilant may lie in wait. The holiday season can bring love, peace, and benevolence... but it may also spawn a darkness lurking amid the shadowy boughs of the Christmas tree, ornaments that should have never seen the light of day, let along hung on festive branches, and bones that jingle and dance, in search of Santa's crimson suit... and the flesh that resides within.In this collection of harrowing holiday tales, Ronald Kelly leaves ten frightful and horrific gifts in the Christmas stockings that hang from the mantle of your cheerful fireplace. Ghastly and gruesome presents that slowly unwrap and burst into life while you are tucked, snug and warm, in your bed and take on nightmarish form in the icy winter hours of Christmas Eve, turning comfort and joy into terror and dread.Stories included in this collection: Jingle BonesThe Skating PondDepravity RoadHeirloomsThe Winds WithinThen Came a WoodsmanAs for Me, My Little BrainBeneath the BranchesPapa's ExileThe Peddler's Journey

When you first enter The Halloween Store, things seem normal. Fun and frightful decorations, ghastly costumes and masks of the season, and bags of candy galore. Then, as you travel farther into its shadowy depths, things begin to change. The air smells of damp autumn leaves and candle-scorched pumpkin. The shelves of All Hallows' Eve fare grow darker and more disturbing. Strange and unsettling things of Halloweens past and present lurk amid the cobwebs and dust... Four trick-or-treaters purchase vintage costumes from a strip-mall shop, only to discover that they must sign a mysterious disclaimer for the Halloween celebration to come... After a man's missing daughter is found-near death and physically altered-he must once again face a horrifying monster from his own childhood... A teenage girl hitches a ride after a Halloween rock & roll concert, only to learn that her favorite singing idol has made a pact with the Devil himself... Three kids receive unusual treats during a Halloween stop at their favorite teacher's house... During a random visit to his hometown, a businessman treats a young boy to the joy and excitement of a Halloween festival, only to find that things are not what they first appeared to be... A rash of ghoulish jack-o'-lanterns leads a small-town sheriff to the doorstep of one of the most notorious serial killers of all time... An advertisement in the back of an old comic book prompts two friends to place an order that they soon come to regret... Seven horrific tales and two nostalgic essays... hand-picked for your Trick-or-Treat bag. With the arrival of a 2020 Halloween, there is no telling what terrifying treats and petrifying prizes may await you

A graveyard feast beneath the summer moon ...The rural town of Old Hickory. Tennessee was a quiet, picturesque community ... until the O'Sheas came to town.Becoming the new proprietors of the town's only funeral parlor, with the help of their charming patriarch, Square McManus, the Irish family was wholeheartedly accepted by the local townfolk. The thing began to happen. Strange things ... horrible, unspeakable things ... in the dead of night.The sighting of wolfish beasts congregating around an open grave in the town cemetery. Frightening changes in several of Old Hickory's less desirable residents. And the brutal murder and devourment of a varsity football player in the wooded wilderness outside of town. Soon, what was once concealed in shadow and secrecy was now starkly revealed, in all its ravenous fury, by the silvery light of the full moon.As the residents of Old Hickory, as well as the local police, begin to fall victim to an unknown evil, four individuals-the town nerd, a high school jock, a widowed gunsith, and a mysterious transient from a distant shore-find themselves facing what could possibly be a hellish lycanthrope from ancient Ireland ... the legendary Arget Bethir ... the Silver Beast.