Now Read This: The Haunted Zone

“The Haunted Zone” is a diverse collection of twenty-one horror stories penned by twenty-one women, each a remarkable military veteran.

The Haunted Zone offers a unique and intriguing perspective that has earned it significant recognition.

Edited by Sirrah Medeiros and published by Tundra Swan Press, this outstanding anthology secured second place in the 2024 BookFest and was a top-ten finisher in the Best Anthology category in Critters’ Annual Readers Poll. These accolades are a testament to the distinctiveness and power of the stories within.

Embark on a journey with me, where you’ll be tantalized and teased by astonishing stories that transport you to the unseen darkness of the Haunted Zone.

Each story is a thrilling rollercoaster that promises to captivate and terrify, making this anthology a heart-pounding must-read for all horror literature enthusiasts, keeping you on the edge of your seat with every turn of the page.

The 21 Chilling Tales of The Haunted Zone

Our journey begins with The Witch of Dunlora by Queras Abuttu. On All Hallow’s Eve, a troop of innocent young boy scouts camp outside an abandoned, decaying house. The Scout Master sets the mood by telling a ghost story about the house, but now our intrepid youngster investigates to see if it’s true. What they discover will leave you breathless with a surprise you never saw coming.

Arachne’s Shadow by Rachel A. Brune is our next terrifying tale. Octavia receives a loom as a gift from her abusive husband, Evan. She still appreciates his attempts at righting the wrongs against her. But the gift gradually consumes her every waking moment as she weaves for her life as if guided by an unseen force.

Tiny Kitty plays hide-and-seek with her father and waits in the closet’s darkness for her father to find her in this disquieting story by K.P. Kulski titled Rayon. Eventually, she is discovered, but not by her parents.

We are granted a slight respite with the poem Sappho at Sea by Sam Casey, allowing us to lower our racing hearts and ready ourselves for Never The Princess by Ell B. Rite. Charity and Grace brave the debts of a dark forest to visit a Fortune Teller to find Charity a Husband. They are warned that ‘the Wolf’ is loose, so do our fair ladies in cloaks meet up with him?

Sara Crocoll Smith’s The Phone in the Woods draws us in when Christie loses her beloved Whippet, Domino, in the woods. She returns to them and searches areas she hadn’t before, hoping against hope that maybe Domino was also trying to find her. Christie’s hunt for Domino takes her down a path she wasn’t expecting, a journey filled with emotional depth and connection that will resonate with you.

Evans and Chris: The Security Guards at the local mall work together to ensure that no one who doesn’t belong gets in. After being scared by Evans, Chris becomes a little jumpy until he sees the shadow of a naked Evans ahead of him. Chasing after him, Chris learns something is horribly wrong.

Our next break from the tension-strumming stories is the poem Baby Boy by Donna Zephrine. A mother has to make a horrible decision that many hope they will never have to.

Ernie Jackson’s car breaks down on his way home, so he braves the lonely stretch of road instead of staying in his car. T.R. Whitney’s heart-pounding tale The Beast opens with Ernie walking down that road seeking help. Unfortunately, he isn’t alone in the dark, and Ernie’s chances of being rescued are minimal.

People are attached to their phones nowadays. If they aren’t always talking about them, they are downloading games. In Pamela K. Kinney’s Haunted App, Neri downloads a free application that her friends recommend. The application allows players to check out haunted places without physically being haunted. However, once she downloads the game, reality blurs with it until she doesn’t know what is real and what isn’t.

A poem grants us intermission in The Dead’s Grin by Sirrah Medeiros, leading us to the following link in the chain of horror: Shaft Alley by Sam Casey. A sailor must climb a ladder deep into the ship’s belly to repair the safety net. Once down, he runs into something that shouldn’t be there and has to fight back to the light.

The reader enters the next story, Guilty Conscience, by Tara Moeller. Amanda likes to party and tends to do so every weekend. But this weekend, she wakes up in pain, not remembering anything that happened. Turning on the news, Amanda hears that a car matching the description of hers killed someone. So, she is on a journey into terror as she tries to discover the truth.

In Hotel Monroe by K. E. Jennings, Reggie learns that some things must remain buried. He is an archaeologist who loves to unbury history and learn the secrets of the past. Until one fateful day in Egypt, something is released, and it wants revenge for being disturbed in its sleep.

Natalia K. Glaros’ poem Hanging On leads us to The Gobble-Uns by Thea Brune. Six-year-old Charlie feels abandoned by his parents for his younger brother, Mattie. So, when the monsters under his bed come for Charlie, he tells them to go after the brother. Yet, that’s not exactly what happens.

Lance Corporal Thomas Carter lies in a ditch among rotting corpses of the dead in the middle of a battle. Tired and cold, he wonders if he will ever make it home to his orphaned son. The Turk by Lee Franklin aptly describes the horrors of this battle and how impossible the odds are that Thomas will make it out alive.

A poetry break with Rook Riley’s poem, Never Agan, before taking us to (F)law of Attraction by Dacia M. Arnold. Life Coach, Tiffany Manetti, seems to have it all: a loving husband, money, a great home, and fame. She counsels abused women on how to get out of their abusive relationships until one fateful night.

Endings and Beginnings by Janine K. Spendlove tells the story of true love. Neil and Maria Julieta have been happily married for twenty-two years, through good times and bad. Then, one horrifying day, a virus attacks the world, turning humans into Zombies. Can their love survive this?

We have a poetry interlude with Dark Mists by Quercus Abuttu before being once again propelled into the horror world with Edie of Witches Pond by Sirrah Medeiros. After her husband passes, Becky and her son, Mark, move to a house by a lake to start a new life. But Becky begins hearing strange noises and seeing dark shadows flit by outside. Her brother, Joe, worries about her, and when he checks up on her, he finds a terrifying mystery instead.

Urban Myths and Legends abound in the world, but what would you do if you discovered they were true? Rico, an Army Veteran, started a nursery business to help him reintegrate into the civilian world and found the answer to that question when driving home one night on the Devil’s Highway by V.L. Jones.

Ghosts of Written Words, a poem by Pamela Kinney, gives us a quick rest before Lorelai by Lane Blevins. Expectant mother Marta has been anxiously awaiting the birth of her daughter, Lorelai. But she isn’t ready to be born any time soon. Once she is, Lorelai chooses not to arrive conventionally.

We end our anthology of terror with Joy and Patchwork Lady by Rook Riley. Joy’s sister, Devony, was beaten by her husband, Vaughn, and is in the hospital. She’d asked Joy to get her son, Oskar, and care for him until Devony could. But Joy plans to do much more than that.

Every story and poem offers an unmatched voyage through the darkest recesses of terror in the minds of man and the supernatural.

With unpredictable twists and turns in every well-written story, The Haunted Zone has it all for horror readers, especially those looking for stories with an extra dash of the unexpected.