First Contact Horror

Dr. Renee Caisson knows there are worse things than an attractive man in uniform drafting her into a secret government project—especially when Major Jackson makes it clear that he isn’t bothered by her questionable past. But when her labs come back with decidedly odd results, the Major is forced to come clean over who the government is actually studying. Renee is shocked to learn her subjects are demonic-looking beings who call themselves “Neighbors”—refugees from a dying world, who arrived during the nation-wide solar eclipse.

Across America a mysterious disease is turning ordinary people into raving, paranoid murderers who inflict brutal horrors on strangers, themselves, and even their own families. Working under the government’s shroud of secrecy, CIA operative Dew Phillips crisscrosses the country trying in vain to capture a live victim. With only decomposing corpses for clues, CDC epidemiologist Margaret Montoya races to analyze the science behind this deadly contagion. She discovers that these killers all have one thing in common.

You take out one annoying vampire in revenge, and now you have to clean up the mess? What a pain in the...something. Bethany Anne and crew are back! They need to grab a ship, figure out who is trying to dig into her businesses, get their hands around the potential for creating an AI and the ongoing mess with Anton and South America.

It's supposed to be a simple job, a look-see operation to make sure something terrible hasn't happened. The leader is prone to fits of violence, and there are rumors of previous human rights abuses. Only, when they arrive, the ship is...empty. The question is - where did everybody go? Armed only with riot gear, they explore the ship, intent on discovering the truth about what's happened on The Ark. What they find will be more nightmarish than anything they've seen before. Indeed, it's worse than anything they could imagine.

A catastrophic event forces the crew of an underwater research base to evacuate into cold and dark waters. Cut off and alone from the surface, no help is coming.

For two years in deep space, the freighter Demeter and a small crew have collected botanical life from other planets. It's a lesson in patience and hell. Mechanics Ensign Raina is ready to jump ship, if only because her abusive ex is also aboard, as well as her overbearing boss. It's only after a foreign biological creature sneaks aboard and wreaks havoc on the ship and crew that Raina must find her grit - and maybe create a gadget or two - to survive...that is, if the crew members don't lose their sanity and turn on each other in the process.

In book 5 of the Colony Ship Warren series, Beth and Allen find themselves trapped in a vacant place surrounded by deserts. Yet they soon realize that they cannot sit idly by while the Colony Ship Warren is threatened. They risk a dangerous trek to escape and find some assistance. Yet in the vast recesses of the Warren, there awaits horrors which Beth and Allen cannot imagine. What will happen if Beth and Allen encounter one of those horrors?

Scott, Warren, and Missy Walsh did not understand what their roles were to be when the omnipresent light first blinked on. They believed their only obligation was to find a safe place for their small family to escape what was happening all around them. But fate would not allow them to hide away in the North Carolina cabin for long. Now, with their number hovering near a dozen survivors, they must work together - along with Koku, the flawed, self-aware goddess with a long-term memory problem - to preserve Earth for humanity's occupation.

We’ve recorded some 400+ stories since 2015 here at HorrorBabble. This collection comprises some of our very favorites. From Blackwood's evocative "The Transfer", through to Smith's terrifying visit to the vaults of Yoh-Vombis, there’s something here to strike fear into the heart of any horror enthusiast....

In 1988, Lydia Conner was taken from her cabin near Specter Lake, Minnesota, while her husband lay in bed, temporarily paralyzed. She screamed at him for help as she floated up to the ceiling in a blinding flash of light...and then she was gone. In 2009, four film school students journeyed to the Specter Lake cabin where the abduction of Lydia Conner took place. They hoped to capture proof of an alien visitation on film; they hoped to re-create events from the abduction; they hoped to use themselves as bait...but they encountered much more than they ever could've imagined.

Winter was worse than I could have ever imagined. I lost my home and my friends and everything I ever knew. Good thing Timmy Carter’s still around. At least for now. But spring comes with its own set of horrors, including crypto-monsters, melonhead kids, mad scientists, and at long last, the return of the Hive. I’m going to need a lot of allies if I’m going to make it through alive.

An unnamed narrator pieces together the story of an area known by the locals as the "blasted heath" in the wild hills west of Arkham, Massachusetts. The narrator discovers that many years ago, a meteorite crashed there, poisoning every living being nearby. Vegetation grows large but foul-tasting, animals are driven mad and deformed into grotesque shapes, and the people go insane or die, one by one.

DeDe Rose's popular series, Scary Shorts, continues in Book three with two paranormal stories about alien encounters, along with her notes that describe the real stories behind the tales. We Are They delves into the dreaded alien interactions that occur when the alien Grays show up to terrorize a couple by standing at the bottom of the bed ... and just staring. Why are they there? What do they want? This is one of the most frequent stories that real experiencers discuss.

Hope Park’s early years are somewhat of a mystery. Now, as a teenager isolated to one bedroom in her hosts' apartment, she is trying to make sense of the little information she has about her family and her past. She had never been shown or experienced love and affection. With the help of a mysterious visitor from afar and some other outcast friends, Hope learns much about what she really is, about what fuels her, and about her mission. She will have to choose between performing some disturbing dark deeds or risk banishment, or worse. Will she act as commanded by her kind?