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My own origin story begins when I was about seven, or maybe eight years old. I was raised by a single mom who worked most nights, which meant that I was under the care of my older brother. He was five years my senior (putting him around thirteen), and he absolutely loved horror (movies and books). On the nights our mom was working, my brother would sit on the couch and obsessively watch scary movies. Everything from Friday the 13th to Ghoulies. Now, picture little, tiny me, faced with two options. One, go elsewhere in our house, alone, while the sounds of bloody mayhem bounced through the rooms of our home from the television. Scared out of my mind. Or two, sit and actually watch these terrifying bits of cinema, but do so from the safety of being next to my big brother. Spoiler alert, I chose the latter.
From there, the horror tree (because that’s how I sort of picture it. The seed was planted while watching those movies with my brother) continued to grow. Once again, my brother was influential in the next step of my evolution, as he introduced me to horror literature. Some of the first horror novels I ever read were bowered from him. Richard Laymon, Stephen King, and Dean Koontz all came to me by way of his book shelves.
By the time I reached adulthood, the tree was in full bloom. I no longer needed my brother to provide me with the goods (like some sort of horror drug dealer). I was finding them just fine on my own. Which is why, when I first sat before my computer and had the notion that I would like to try my hand at writing, it was obvious what the genre would be. I had been training for it my whole life.
Dug from the twisted mind of C.M. Forest, the acclaimed author of Infested, comes a collection of 15 horror stories that will drag you into the abyss of fear and despair.A fast-food playland with a nightmarish secret, a greenhouse with a bug problem, a busload of kids lost in the woods, a trip through the solar system to investigate a strange comet, and many more.
Brace yourself for an unrelenting journey through a world where evil knows no bounds, and darkness consumes all.
Enjoy an Excerpt
Alison got out of her car, the engine still on, and staggered down the road. Blood soaked through the front of her dress. It looked black—like a growing oil spill—under the sickly haze of the street lights. A smattering trail of circles on the pavement marked her route as she stumbled away. Her underwear, torn and soiled, hung limply around one ankle.
She did not want to look back at the car, but a deep, primal urge overrode all her wants and desires. Even as her body trembled, she found herself peeking over her shoulder. Tendrils of mist, which were seeping in off the nearby dark fields, gave her vehicle a ghostly appearance. A 3000-pound wraith waiting to lunge. The headlights, blazing though the fog, seemed to stare back at her. The fender, a taunting grin. Specks of blood dotted the windshield from the inside; gory handprints stained the seats.
Something moved within the car. An arm, a face, briefly—horribly—illuminated by the interior lights. A shifting figure, covered in a blanket of shining viscera. It was already bigger than it should be. It was growing fast.
About the Author: 
C.M. Forest, also known as Christian Laforet, is the author of the novel Infested, the novella We All Fall Before the Harvest, the short story collection The Space Between Houses, as well as the co-author of the short-story collection No Light Tomorrow. His short fiction has been featured in several anthologies across multiple genres. A self-proclaimed horror movie expert, he spent an embarrassing amount of his youth watching scary movies. When not writing, he lives in Ontario, Canada with his wife, kids, three cats and a pandemic dog named Sully who has an ongoing love affair with a blanket.
Allan Everard, an earl’s illegitimate son, is dismissed from his employment at his father’s death but inherits a former coaching inn. Needing to make a new life in London, he begins by leasing the inn to a charity.
I was a 9-1-1 dispatcher for the Glendale Police Department and to keep from going totally bonkers – I mean people have no idea what a real emergency is. Take this for example: I answered, “9-1-1 emergency, what’s your emergency?” And this hysterical woman yelled, “My bird is in a tree.” Sometimes I really couldn’t help myself, so I said, “Birds have a tendency to do that, ma’am.” The woman screeched, “No! You don’t understand. My pet parakeet is in the tree. I’ve just got to get him down.” Like I said, not a clue. “I’m sorry ma’am but we don’t get birds out of trees.” The woman then cried, “But… What about my husband? He’s up there, too.” See what I had to deal with? To keep from hitting myself repeatedly in the head with my phone I took up writing.
Obsessed with learning the origins of the cosmos, the actual meaning of life, and the true purpose of civilization, a fine Scotsman named Fingal T. Smyth dedicates himself to the study of Plato’s most extraordinary ideas. Convinced of Plato’s belief that humankind possesses any and all innate knowledge deep within the collective unconscious mind, Fingal soon conducts a series of bold, pioneering occult-science experiments by which to resolve the riddle of the universe once and for all. However, Fingal forgets how violent and perilous the animal impulses that reside in the deepest recesses of the unconscious mind. And when Fingal unleashes a mysterious avatar of his innate knowledge, the entity appears as a burning man and immediately seeks to manipulate innocent and unsuspecting people everywhere into immolating themselves. Now, with little hope of returning the fiery figure into his being, Fingal must capture his nemesis before it destroys the world.
Honor and Fidelity. That is the motto of the 65th Infantry Regiment, also known as the Borinqueneers, the only Puerto Rican unit in the United States Army.
Talia Aikens-Nuñez writes chapter books, picture books, and nonfiction for children. Her daughter inspired her to write her OMG Series of books about an accidental little witch. She and her husband live on a river in Connecticut with their daughter and son.
