Download or read book The Conjured Chest written by Drac Von Stoller and published by Drac Von Stoller. This book was released on 2024-07-04 with total page 12 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The night was dark and stormy as a group of friends gathered around a crackling fire in the middle of the woods. Jenna, a self-proclaimed horror enthusiast, had convinced her friends to embark on a camping trip to the remote location in search of a mysterious chest rumored to have been conjured by a powerful witch centuries ago. The flames danced erratically, casting elongated shadows that seemed to writhe with a life of their own against the dense foliage surrounding their campsite. The air was thick with the scent of pine and petrichor, punctuated by the occasional crack of thunder that made even the bravest among them flinch. Jenna's eyes gleamed with an almost feverish excitement as she gazed into the fire. Her long, dark hair whipped about her face in the wind, giving her an almost wild appearance. Beside her, her childhood friend Mark shifted uncomfortably, his usually easygoing demeanor replaced by a palpable tension. "I still can't believe you talked us into this, Jen," he muttered, pulling his jacket tighter around his broad shoulders. "This place gives me the creeps." On the other side of the fire, Karen and Tom huddled close together, their fingers intertwined. Karen's pale face was a mask of anxiety, her free hand clutching a worn leather-bound book to her chest – a tome of local legends she'd borrowed from the town library before their trip. "Maybe this wasn't such a good idea," Karen ventured, her voice barely audible over the howling wind. "The stories in this book... they're not just campfire tales, Jenna. People have gone missing in these woods." Jenna's laugh cut through the night, sharp and dismissive. "That's what makes it exciting, Karen! Besides, we're all adults here. What's the worst that could happen?" As if in answer, a bolt of lightning illuminated the sky, followed almost immediately by a deafening clap of thunder. In that brief flash of light, Tom could have sworn he saw something move in the trees beyond their campsite – something large and distinctly inhuman. He blinked, trying to convince himself it was just a trick of the light. "Guys," he said, his voice shaky, "maybe we should head back in the morning. This storm is getting worse." But Jenna was already launching into the legend of the chest, her voice taking on a hypnotic quality that held her friends spellbound despite their misgivings. "It all started back in 1692," she began, her eyes reflecting the dancing flames. "A woman named Abigail Thorne lived on the outskirts of a small settlement, not far from where we are now. The townsfolk whispered that she was a witch, but they had no proof – until the night of the blood moon." As Jenna spoke, the wind seemed to die down, as if nature itself was listening to her tale. The fire cra "On that night, Abigail was seen dancing naked in the woods, chanting in a language no one recognized. The next morning, three children from the village had vanished without a trace. When the townspeople confronted Abigail, they found her in possession of a strange chest – the very one we're looking for." Karen's grip on Tom's hand tightened as Jenna's story unfolded. Even Mark, who had been skeptical from the start, found himself leaning in, captivated by the tale. "They say Abigail had made a deal with dark forces to create the chest," Jenna went on, her voice dropping to a near-whisper. "It was said to grant immense power to whoever possessed it, but at a terrible cost. The chest was cursed, bringing misfortune and death to all who dared to open it." A twig snapped in the darkness beyond their circle of firelight, causing everyone to jump. Tom's eyes darted around nervously, searching for the source of the sound, but saw nothing but impenetrable shadows. "W-what happened to Abigail?" Karen asked, her voice trembling. Jenna's eyes glittered with a mix of excitement and something darker, more primal. "They tried to burn her at the stake, but she escaped. The chest disappeared with her, and Abigail was never seen again. But they say her spirit still haunts these woods, guarding the chest and waiting for someone worthy – or foolish enough – to seek its power."

Download or read book The Conjured Chest written by Virginia Hudson and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2017-10-04 with total page 46 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The authoritative true story of the notorious deadly chest and the victims of the curse placed on it around 1830. The original letter by Virginia Cary Hudson is researched and published by Dr. Beverly Mayne Kienzle, Virginia's granddaughter and retired Harvard professor.

Download or read book Cursed Objects written by J. W. Ocker and published by Quirk Books. This book was released on 2020-09-15 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beware...this book is cursed! These strange but true stories of the world’s most infamous items will appeal to true believers as well as history buffs, horror fans, and anyone who loves a good spine-tingling tale. They’re lurking in museums, graveyards, and private homes. Their often tragic and always bizarre stories have inspired countless horror movies, reality TV shows, novels, and campfire tales. They’re cursed objects, and all they need to unleash a wave of misfortune is . . . you. Many of these unfortunate items have intersected with some of the most notable events and people in history, leaving death and destruction in their wake. But never before have the true stories of these eerie oddities been compiled into a fascinating and chilling volume. Inside, readers will learn about: • Annabelle the Doll, a Raggedy Ann doll that featured in the horror franchise The Conjuring • The Unlucky Mummy, which is rumored to have sunk the Titanic and kick-started World War I • The Dybbuk box, which was sold on eBay and spawned the horror film The Possession • The Conjured Chest, which has been blamed for fifteen deaths within a single family • The Ring of Silvianus, a Roman artifact believed to have inspired J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit • And many more!

Download or read book Haunted America written by Michael Norman and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2007-09-18 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contains over seventy tales of ghostly hauntings from each of the fifty United States and Canada.

Download or read book The Conjured Woman written by Anne Gross and published by Beaufort Books. This book was released on 2016-05-09 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the early 19th Century, Adelaide Lenormand, a fortune teller popular with the Paris elite, conjures a golem for Napoleon Bonaparte during a dinner party. But something goes wrong. It looks nothing like the manservant she promised. Even worse, immediately after it arrives, the golem steals the Emperor’s Emerald Scarab from a chain around his neck and mysteriously disappears. Minutes later in London, Elise Dubois, an ER nurse from Tucson, is found sprawled in front of The Quiet Woman Public House. She’s wearing nothing but tattered shorts, a sports bra, and one pink running shoe. Gripped in her fist is an Egyptian jewel, the scarab. Now Bonaparte’s Minister of Police is breathing down Adelaide’s neck while her wealthy clients are abandoning her. The women of La Société d’Isis, so wickedly encouraging when she’d first launched her plot, remain silent to her pleas for help. Adelaide has no choice but to find the golem and restore her reputation. Troubled by nightmares of a wild-eyed French woman and worried she might be losing her mind, Elise tries to blend in at the pub. But blending in is not her forte. She knows the moment the opportunity arises she’ll stop at nothing to return to 21st Century Arizona, even if that means breaking the heart of the one man who understands her. The Conjured Woman is the first in the Emerald Scarab Adventure series aimed at lovers of hard-edged heroines. In a story of time travel, romance, and fortune, anything can happen.

Download or read book Copycat written by Erica Spindler and published by MIRA. This book was released on 2007-09-01 with total page 474 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Five years ago, three young victims were found murdered, posed like little angels. No witnesses, no evidence left behind. The Sleeping Angel Killer called his despicable acts 'the perfect crimes.' The case nearly destroyed homicide detective Kitt Lundgren's career— because she let the killer get away. Now the Sleeping Angel Killer is back. But Kitt notices something different about this new rash of killings— a tiny variation that suggests a copycat killer may be re-creating the original 'perfect crimes.' Then the unthinkable happens. The Sleeping Angel Killer himself approaches Kitt with a bizarre offer: he will help her catch his copycat. Kitt must decide whether to place her trust in a murderer—or risk falling victim to a fiend who has taken the art of the perfect murder to horrific new heights.

Download or read book A Thousand Moons written by Sebastian Barry and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2021-04-20 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A brave and moving novel [that] has a tender empathy with the natural world.” —Hermione Lee, The New York Review of Books From the two-time Booker Prize finalist author of Days Without End comes a dazzling companion novel about memory and identity, set in Tennessee in the aftermath of the Civil War Winona Cole, an orphaned child of the Lakota Indians, finds herself growing up in an unconventional household on a farm in west Tennessee. Raised by her adoptive parents John Cole and Thomas McNulty, whose story Barry told in his acclaimed previous novel Days Without End, she forges a life for herself beyond the violence and dispossession of her past. Tennessee is a state still riven by the bitter legacy of the Civil War, and the fragile harmony of her family is soon threatened by a further traumatic event, one which Winona struggles to confront, let alone understand. Exquisitely written, A Thousand Moons is a stirring, poignant story of love and redemption, of one woman's journey and her determination to write her own future.

Download or read book The Book of Disquiet The Complete Edition written by Fernando Pessoa and published by New Directions Publishing. This book was released on 2017-08-29 with total page 516 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For the first time—and in the best translation ever—the complete Book of Disquiet, a masterpiece beyond comparison The Book of Disquiet is the Portuguese modernist master Fernando Pessoa’s greatest literary achievement. An “autobiography” or “diary” containing exquisite melancholy observations, aphorisms, and ruminations, this classic work grapples with all the eternal questions. Now, for the first time the texts are presented chronologically, in a complete English edition by master translator Margaret Jull Costa. Most of the texts in The Book of Disquiet are written under the semi-heteronym Bernardo Soares, an assistant bookkeeper. This existential masterpiece was first published in Portuguese in 1982, forty-seven years after Pessoa’s death. A monumental literary event, this exciting, new, complete edition spans Fernando Pessoa’s entire writing life.

Download or read book Maps of Hell written by Paul Johnston and published by Harlequin. This book was released on 2012-11-15 with total page 441 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: I fell into the deepest of holes. I am no one. I awake in a windowless room--naked, filthy, bruised, robbed of my every memory. I feel inexplicably drowned in a sea of hatred and rage. I...don't know who I am. But I know I must escape. This is Matt Wells, hero of The Death List and The Soul Collector, as you've never seen him. Crime writer Matt Wells could never have conjured a plot this twisted--a secretive militia running sick brainwashing experiments in the Maine wilderness, himself a subject. He knows they've been subconsciously feeding him instructions...but for what? Taunted by maddening snatches of a life he can't trust as his own, Matt's piecing it together: three gruesome killings he's blamed for...and a woman...someone from his past he should remember.

Download or read book Thieves Quarry written by D. B. Jackson and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2013-07-02 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ethan Kaille isn't the likeliest hero. A former sailor with a troubled past, Ethan is a thieftaker, using conjuring skills to hunt down those who steal from the good citizens of Boston. And while chasing down miscreants in 1768 makes his life a perilous one, the simmering political tensions between loyalists like himself and rabble-rousing revolutionaries like Samuel Adams and others of his ilk are perhaps even more dangerous to his health. When one hundred sailors of King George III's Royal Navy are mysteriously killed on a ship in Boston Harbor, Ethan is thrust into dire peril. For he—and not Boston's premier thieftaker, Sephira Pryce—is asked to find the truth behind their deaths. City Sheriff Edmund Greenleaf suspects conjuring was used in the dastardly crime, and even Pryce knows that Ethan is better equipped to contend with matters of what most of Boston considers dark arts. But even Ethan is daunted by magic powerful enough to fell so many in a single stroke. When he starts to investigate, he realizes that the mass murderer will stop at nothing to evade capture. And making his task more difficult is the British fleet's occupation of the city after the colonials' violent protests after the seizure of John Hancock's ship. Kaille will need all his own magic, street smarts, and a bit of luck to keep this Boston massacre from giving the hotheads of Colonial Boston an excuse for inciting a riot—or worse. Thieves' Quarry is a stunning second novel in D. B. Jackson's Thieftaker Chronicles.

Download or read book Hildegard of Bingen and Her Gospel Homilies written by Beverly Mayne Kienzle and published by Brepols Publishers. This book was released on 2009 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179), the only medieval woman known to have authored systematic works of exegesis, composed fifty-eight little-studied Expositiones euangeliorum, homilies on twenty-seven Gospel passages. Hildegard described her divine charge to restore the tottering faith of her era through the revelation of hidden mysteries in the Scriptures. She was to continue the exegetical tradition of the Fathers and to construct moral fortifications with the words of Scripture in order to defend her sisters against the forces of evil. Hildegard of Bingen and her Gospel Homilies constitutes the first in-depth study of Hildegard's Expositiones and of her exegesis, preaching, and use of sources. It explores the Expositiones in the context of Hildegard's intellectual and cultural milieu and underscores the central role of biblical interpretation in the seer's works. Furthermore, this book re-examines Hildegard's self-depiction in the context of monastic education for women, the magistra's exchange with her mentors and friends, and her rich use of divine voice to empower her own expression. This is a new, exciting, and erudite study on one of the most influential female mystics.

Download or read book The Scar written by China Miéville and published by Del Rey. This book was released on 2002-06-25 with total page 658 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A mythmaker of the highest order, China Miéville has emblazoned the fantasy novel with fresh language, startling images, and stunning originality. Set in the same sprawling world of Miéville’s Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning novel, Perdido Street Station, this latest epic introduces a whole new cast of intriguing characters and dazzling creations. Aboard a vast seafaring vessel, a band of prisoners and slaves, their bodies remade into grotesque biological oddities, is being transported to the fledgling colony of New Crobuzon. But the journey is not theirs alone. They are joined by a handful of travelers, each with a reason for fleeing the city. Among them is Bellis Coldwine, a renowned linguist whose services as an interpreter grant her passage—and escape from horrific punishment. For she is linked to Isaac Dan der Grimnebulin, the brilliant renegade scientist who has unwittingly unleashed a nightmare upon New Crobuzon. For Bellis, the plan is clear: live among the new frontiersmen of the colony until it is safe to return home. But when the ship is besieged by pirates on the Swollen Ocean, the senior officers are summarily executed. The surviving passengers are brought to Armada, a city constructed from the hulls of pirated ships, a floating, landless mass ruled by the bizarre duality called the Lovers. On Armada, everyone is given work, and even Remades live as equals to humans, Cactae, and Cray. Yet no one may ever leave. Lonely and embittered in her captivity, Bellis knows that to show dissent is a death sentence. Instead, she must furtively seek information about Armada’s agenda. The answer lies in the dark, amorphous shapes that float undetected miles below the waters—terrifying entities with a singular, chilling mission. . . . China Miéville is a writer for a new era—and The Scar is a luminous, brilliantly imagined novel that is nothing short of spectacular. BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from China Miéville’s Embassytown.

Download or read book The Penguin Book of Hell written by Scott G. Bruce and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2018-09-04 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "From the Bible through Dante and up to Treblinka and Guantánamo Bay, here is a rich source for nightmares." --The New York Times Book Review Three thousand years of visions of Hell, from the ancient Near East to modern America A Penguin Classic From the Hebrew Bible's shadowy realm of Sheol to twenty-first-century visions of Hell on earth, The Penguin Book of Hell takes us through three thousand years of eternal damnation. Along the way, you'll take a ferry ride with Aeneas to Hades, across the river Acheron; meet the Devil as imagined by a twelfth-century Irish monk--a monster with a thousand giant hands; wander the nine circles of Hell in Dante's Inferno, in which gluttons, liars, heretics, murderers, and hypocrites are made to endure crime-appropriate torture; and witness the debates that raged in Victorian England when new scientific advances cast doubt on the idea of an eternal hereafter. Drawing upon religious poetry, epics, theological treatises, stories of miracles, and accounts of saints' lives, this fascinating volume of hellscapes illuminates how Hell has long haunted us, in both life and death. For more than seventy-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 2,000 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Download or read book Deacon King Kong Oprah s Book Club written by James McBride and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2020-03-03 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Fiction Winner of the Gotham Book Prize One of Barack Obama's "Favorite Books of the Year" Oprah's Book Club Pick Named one of the Top Ten Books of the Year by the New York Times, Entertainment Weekly and TIME Magazine A Washington Post Notable Novel From the author of The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, the National Book Award–winning The Good Lord Bird, and the bestselling modern classic The Color of Water, comes one of the most celebrated novels of the year. In September 1969, a fumbling, cranky old church deacon known as Sportcoat shuffles into the courtyard of the Cause Houses housing project in south Brooklyn, pulls a .38 from his pocket, and, in front of everybody, shoots the project’s drug dealer at point-blank range. The reasons for this desperate burst of violence and the consequences that spring from it lie at the heart of Deacon King Kong, James McBride’s funny, moving novel and his first since his National Book Award–winning The Good Lord Bird. In Deacon King Kong, McBride brings to vivid life the people affected by the shooting: the victim, the African-American and Latinx residents who witnessed it, the white neighbors, the local cops assigned to investigate, the members of the Five Ends Baptist Church where Sportcoat was deacon, the neighborhood’s Italian mobsters, and Sportcoat himself. As the story deepens, it becomes clear that the lives of the characters—caught in the tumultuous swirl of 1960s New York—overlap in unexpected ways. When the truth does emerge, McBride shows us that not all secrets are meant to be hidden, that the best way to grow is to face change without fear, and that the seeds of love lie in hope and compassion. Bringing to these pages both his masterly storytelling skills and his abiding faith in humanity, James McBride has written a novel every bit as involving as The Good Lord Bird and as emotionally honest as The Color of Water. Told with insight and wit, Deacon King Kong demonstrates that love and faith live in all of us.

Download or read book The Realm of Beyond written by Venna Jackson and published by Bighorn Publishing. This book was released on 2002-12 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a charming tale of fantasy, enchantment, and adventure.

Download or read book College of Witchcraft Books 1 3 written by Alicia Rades and published by Crystallite Publishing LLC. This book was released on 2022-06-09 with total page 1625 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR Alicia Rades presents a spellbinding three-book box set where love is cursed at a paranormal academy and witches investigate dark mysteries to save their coven. Nadine is the only witch of her kind. With unique powerful abilities, she’s a prime contender to sit on the witch’s council—yet she’s anything but welcome. A haunting family curse threatens to force her out of her magical college, and revealing her greatest secret may lead to the destruction of her people. Lucas is the Reaper’s Apprentice, the only warlock of his generation destined to ferry the souls of the dead. Accepting his dark gift is as brutal as investigating the coven’s mysteries—from finding missing children to exposing the culprit behind a dangerous brew. He’s prepared to fight the darkness alone, until he receives a warning beyond the grave from Nadine’s mother. Magic is disappearing from the town, and fear is causing the coven to turn against their own. Nadine and Lucas agree to come together to restore the coven’s magic, but the priestesses that rule their coven have other plans… *** College of Witchcraft: Books 1-3 includes the first three books in a new adult urban fantasy series. Witches, warlocks, and reapers solve mysteries in this college-aged paranormal romance featuring a diverse cast and disabled main characters. Over 1300+ pages of wicked drama and supernatural schemes! The Coven's Secret is a Gold Medal Winner in the Readers' Favorite International Book Awards Contest. "Nadine and Lucas serve as the linchpins of The Coven's Secret, and Rades does an admirable job rounding them out with interesting, heartfelt—and, most importantly—relatable backstories." -The BookLife Prize by Publishers Weekly "The story has a lot of action and plenty of twists - the ending will leave you wanting to read the next book straight away." -Anne-Marie Reynolds, Readers' Favorite ★★★★★ "The Coven’s Secret is a magical story that pulled me in from the first word and had me enthralled right up until the end." -Nancy Allen, The Avid Reader ★★★★★ "This was dark, mysterious, drama and angst filled, a touch romantic, tons magical and I can't wait for the next book so I can jump back into this world that I was not ready to leave! " -KRLGA, Smada's Book Smack ★★★★★ This title is one omnibus in a set of Hidden Legends collections. The Hidden Legends Universe features college-aged protagonists attending magical academies, dual points-of-view, disabled and diverse main characters, and steamy, empowering romances. Omnibus sets connected to this series include Academy of Magical Creatures, University of Sorcery, and Prison for Supernatural Offenders. Recommended reading age 18+ Search terms: paranormal romance, fantasy romance, urban fantasy, box set, magical books, academy books, new adult fantasy, witchcraft

Download or read book ArtCurious written by Jennifer Dasal and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2020-09-15 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A wildly entertaining and surprisingly educational dive into art history as you've never seen it before, from the host of the beloved ArtCurious podcast We're all familiar with the works of Claude Monet, thanks in no small part to the ubiquitous reproductions of his water lilies on umbrellas, handbags, scarves, and dorm-room posters. But did you also know that Monet and his cohort were trailblazing rebels whose works were originally deemed unbelievably ugly and vulgar? And while you probably know the tale of Vincent van Gogh's suicide, you may not be aware that there's pretty compelling evidence that the artist didn't die by his own hand but was accidentally killed--or even murdered. Or how about the fact that one of Andy Warhol's most enduring legacies involves Caroline Kennedy's moldy birthday cake and a collection of toenail clippings? ArtCurious is a colorful look at the world of art history, revealing some of the strangest, funniest, and most fascinating stories behind the world's great artists and masterpieces. Through these and other incredible, weird, and wonderful tales, ArtCurious presents an engaging look at why art history is, and continues to be, a riveting and relevant world to explore.