Yes, this is the novella you can read or listen to for free right now at DownloadTheDarkness.com, but many readers have asked if there's a quick and easy way to get the book loaded on their Amazon Kindle today, several months before the hardcover edition is published, so we arranged for this Kindle edition to be listed for sale immediately.

This Kindle version does not include the freebies from the promotional version, the artwork from the hardcover, or Brian Keene's introduction. It's a legal thing. Sorry about that.

But if you just wanted to read the novella to see what everyone's talking about, and you want it on your Kindle now, this is the easiest way to be reading it in a matter of moments!

Seven Stories (Bundle)

This collection contains seven of Brian's short stories that are currently available individually on Amazon. Save $4 if you order them together in this great bundle!

Brian's best work has always been his short stories, which are haunting and beautifully written. They often feature characters who are searching for answers to deeply troubling questions, and there's often a real emotional punch before you reach the ending.

The stories collected here are some of his very best:

• "Walking With the Ghosts of Pier 13"
• "Running Rain"
• "Answering the Call"
• "The Punishment Room"
• "What They Left Behind"
• "A Dreamlike State"
• "Where Sunlight Sleeps"

The only short story currently listed on Amazon that is missing from this bundle is "The Silent Attic," which is an experimental piece closely related to "A Dreamlike Sleep." If you like "A Dreamlike Sleep", be sure to download "The Silent Attic" to see another glimpse of that same world.

This bundle won't be available at this price forever, so don't wait to download your copy!

Walking With the Ghosts of Pier 13: A Short Story

"On these hot summer days at the beginning of the New World, we're all walking with the dead."

A grueling summer of horror is finally winding down, and Jeremy is one of the wandering survivors who can't come to grips with the acts of terror that have ripped his nation apart.

Now he's returning to Pier 13, the ocean front amusement park his family visited every summer when he was a child.  The park is still open for business, although it resembles an old west ghost town populated by a strange and broken cast of characters.

Jeremy's destination is the wooden roller coaster called the Screamin' Demon, and his purpose for coming here is simple: he wants to understand why so many people have been dying in such violent acts.

But that might not be the only answer waiting for him on the docks...

Running Rain: A Short Story

"The first time he saw this river, he thought: those waters are deeper and faster than they look.  That has troubled him ever since."

In the year since their son was the first victim of a serial killer known as the The Riverside Strangler, a devastated husband and wife have tried to pretend life can somehow be normal again... but the secrets they're keeping from each other are pushing their relationship to the brink. 

To make matters worse, The Riverside Strangler was never caught, and now the husband is obsessed with running along the river at night, searching for the truth about why his son died: a truth he may not really want to know...

The Punishment Room: A Short Story

"Michael wasn't sure exactly how long he had been chained naked to the floor of the Big Man's Punishment Room, but he did know the Big Man would be coming back soon.  Then the bleeding and the screaming and the torture would start again."

Assuming Michael manages to escape The Punishment Room with his sanity and his life, he isn't sure if he'll be able to go on living with the knowledge of what he did to survive...

But then again, that's a dilemma he wouldn't mind confronting, given the finality of the alternative...

Answering the Call: A Short Story

"The young man must be lonely.  There is something terrible about the look in his eyes, about the way his body slumps over the heavy, black answering machine perched on his lap."

The young man in question is indeed lonely, and his very unusual job is taking a heavy toll on him: he stays in homes during the owner's funeral.

Someone needs to be there to answer the phone, receive deliveries, and deter thieves who might have seen the obituary in the newspaper and decided this would be a good time for a break-in.  That is a more common problem than you might think.

The young man has seen a lot of strange things over the years in the homes of the dead, and sometimes his job is truly a matter of life and death...

What They Left Behind: A Short Story

There's something lurking in the basement of the old Timlico office building, which Scott's future father-in-law has just purchased in a last ditch effort to save the family business.

This thing is evil, the result of the tragic fire that killed dozens of Timlico employees and sent that business spiraling into bankruptcy — or maybe the thing was the cause of the fire.

Scott and a few friends will learn more about this thing before the day is over, including some very bad news for everyone: the thing in the basement is still hungry.

Where Sunlight Sleeps: A Short Story

"Every Saturday, his little boy awakens with the rising sun.  The middle-aged widower is already awake in the bedroom down the hall where he lies in the bed he has shared with no one since his wife died.  The man hears his son's bedroom door creak open, and he closes his eyes so that his son won't know he's been awake most of the night again...."

A grieving father and his young son, both dealing with their loss in their own ways.

A Saturday ritual, retracing the last steps of the woman they loved more than any other.

A search for the place where the sunlight sleeps, where bad feelings can be released.

And a trip down a memory lane lined with jagged edges and vicious traps that just won't let them go.

A Dreamlike State: A Short Story

"When Danny Walker was a child, when he was six years old and Christmas came and went and he finally understood that his sister was never coming home again, nightmares began to consume his nights—even the nights when he couldn't sleep at all."

Today Daniel Walker is driving back to his hometown for the first time in six years because his father is dying, but he knows there's more than a sick patriarch waiting for him in the house where he grew up.

There's also the memory of his sister and her tragic last days.

There are the ghosts that haunted him for all of his childhood.

There's the voice that whispers: Sometimes after I fall, I bleed.

And most importantly, there's an imaginary world known as The Dark Country, Daniel's childhood safe haven that turned bad after his sister's disappearance.

Daniel is traveling home with a heart full of questions, but all of his ghosts are patiently waiting for him... and they have a few questions of their own.

The Silent Attic: A Short Story

"My mother died three years ago, during the worst heat wave in decades.  I was fifteen.  My little brother, Daniel, was just three.   My father was forty going on forever."

For Amy Walker, nothing has been the same since the cancer consumed her mother.

Her father spends all of his time working at the factory, not just to keep food on the table, but also to avoid the reality waiting for him at home.

Her little brother remembers their mother, but not in the way Amy does. Their mother is an abstract concept to him now, like a history lesson he might learn in school...

And at night Amy is haunted by the memory of her mother's last days... and one last trip up to the silent attic where her nightmares were born.