Cross Your Heart and Hope to Die

Greetings, creatures of the night!  Welcome to our 2016 Halloween update.  The veil is thin, and all manner of wicked mischief creeps among the cornfields and orchards.  Come take a sip, and relax with a haunting assemblage of fantastic tales.

Your front-side is just as ugly as your back-side!

Dordji has returned with a new pair of offerings.  The first is illustrated by Ryan Rich and colored by Dordji.  It depicts a deadly confrontation between a monster and a knight, but for the life of me, I can't decide who to root for.  Dordji's second image is a portrait of the elusive werewolf or lycanthrope.  Rarely seen except on nights of the full moon, this creature can be repelled by wolfsbane or by simply locking one's door at night and not venturing outside it once a month.  View the rest of Dordji's gallery to see what other kind of monstrosities he's crafted from the aether.  

 He's having one hell of a night.

Fall into the abyss with Caleb Beechem.  He's turning up a new leaf.  You can see more of his colors on his website and follow him on  Instagram.  To see more beauty from the natural world, look at the rest of Caleb's photos including more from many Autumn's past.

FALL IS A FEATHERED FOREST OF FIRE.

Mike Maes has a pair of photos that reveal the beauty of decay.  Here's an open invitation to view the rest of his gallery.  He's taken many photos of abandoned houses, most of them a marvelous kind of unsettling.  

Whatever you do, don't go in there.

John Beechem has penned his newest Halloween horror story, "Reap a Bloody Harvest".  It's about Elijah, an old-fashioned, blood-thirsty assassin hired to murder a corrupt pharmaceutical executive at an industry conference in Las Vegas.  With his partner, Jacob, and boss, Malichi, he drives a stake into the corrupt heart of Sin City to seek revenge on a different kind of blood-sucker.  In case I am being too subtle, this is a story about vampires.  I hope you enjoy, but perhaps you should wear a turtle-neck tonight.  

Thank you for returning to American Fantastic.  I invite you to peruse our horror section in case you would like to read even more disturbing stories.  Carve pumpkins, drink plenty of cider, sprinkle some holy water and relish this season of the Dead.

And remember, when reality becomes a burden, enjoy a sojourn into the fantastic...