"Fidwell", I said, "why don't you go lose yourself"! He stared at me uncomprehendingly for a full three seconds. Then a glimmer of understanding leaped into his beady little eyes and he got up from the chair before my desk and started happily toward the outer door of the office. "Okay, Mr. Nelson", he said over a thin shoulder. "Just whatever you say". "Better still, ,I amended, tapping the glass top of my desk with manicured nails, "go shoot yourself".

The child-parent relationship has a major influence on most aspects of child development. Optimal parenting skills and behaviors have a positive impact on children's self-esteem, school achievement, cognitive development, and behavior. Parents differ in the degree to which they respond to children's signals and control their behaviors. 

All students of any subject are at first apt to be perplexed with the number and complication of the new ideas presented to them. The need of comprehending these ideas is felt, and yet they are difficult to grasp and to define. Thus, for instance, we are all apt to think we know what is meant when force, weight, length, capacity, motion, rest, size, are spoken of. And yet when we come to examine these ideas more closely, we find that we know very little about them. Indeed, the more elementary they are, the less we are able to understand them. 

Clayton Carter and Chastity Harrison embark on a gruesome killing spree across Southern California, always staying one step ahead of the authorities while slaughtering their victims. Homicide Detective Harvey Skinner, frustrated by his failure to catch them, decides to use an unconventional method to punish Clayton and Chastity. He releases a notorious serial killer from death row and sends him to hunt and torture Clayton and Chastity in a brutal game of cat-and-mouse. 

After a prank lands him in serious trouble, Malcolm Hernandez, a 16-year-old boy, is shipped off to live with his grandparents while his mother attempts to save him from expulsion and criminal charges. Malcolm believes the stay will be easy - a vacation with milk and cookies and tales from the past. His hopes, however, are shattered when he bumps heads with his grandfather, Ronald O'Donnell - a stern, violent man with a sinister past. Ronald plans on disciplining his grandson in order to "save" him from himself. He is not afraid of abusing him, either.

The streets of Redwood, California, are being stalked by a brutal serial killer known as The Scattershot Slayer - a tall, lanky man who kidnaps and tortures his victims before creating grotesque pieces of public art with their mutilated bodies. Viola Santoro, a freelance journalist, is tracking Scattershot for her independent investigation in hopes of writing an exposé. After she unwittingly captures the serial killer's attention, she receives the scoop of a lifetime.

Keith Klein, a beat cop in the small New Mexico town of Montaño, sets out to find his missing daughters after they vanish on their way home from school. He enlists the help of Gerald Greenwood, an old friend and a private investigator. When their investigation stalls and desperation creeps in, Keith’s methods become unorthodox, illegal, and extremely violent. Meanwhile, Keith’s daughters, 14-year-old Carrie and eight-year-old Allison, witness horrors beyond imagination at the Wolves’ Den, a house in the middle of nowhere.

While traveling through West Virginia on a camping trip, the Bakers and the Riveras - two close-knit families - have the misfortune of running into a peculiar hitchhiker. After ditching the hitchhiker, the families set up camp and begin their vacation. However, they soon find themselves stalked by a group of feral, cannibalistic people lurking in the woods.

The Stranger had thought he was the last in his bloodline who carried the will to kill without prejudice, until now!  

Ashley Collins, a 16-year-old girl, has severe behavior issues. She regularly fights with her parents, Logan and Jane. When the fights become personal and physical, Logan and Jane decide to take matters into their own hands. They chain their daughter in the basement and abuse her in an attempt to rescue her from her bad behavior...while delving into their own deviance and depravity.

Massive nights, picturesque days: There is nothing Claire doesn't love about her summer job in Mission, Massachusetts. Claire is just trying to keep her head down and start a new life after burning out in the city, but those kids out in the woods seem like they throw awesome ragers.... It's only once she's in too deep that Claire discovers the real tourist trade that keeps the town afloat. It's then that her soul-searching in Mission becomes a fight for her life.  

Ryan Martin decides to take his wife, Alexa, and his five-year-old daughter, Lucia, to a lake house in Pennsylvania for a vacation. Before they can reach their destination, the family is stopped by a group of teenage troublemakers led by the fearsome Caden Clark. The confrontation ends in tragedy. Two years later, Ryan and Alexa visit Caden and his family in hopes of exacting their revenge. At the Clarks' house, however, they discover a sinister secret....

When three teenagers decide to explore the urban legend of the crazy old man on Samsonite farm and the army of scarecrows he has built, they soon discover that not all urban legends are false, and sometimes the biggest threat comes from within.

A brutalized student. A gang-infested school. A vengeful teacher. After his star pupil, Rina Ogawa, is sexually assaulted in a school restroom, Edward Clifford sets out on a journey to find the truth and bring her attackers to justice. He finds himself delving head-first into the lives of his other students - lives filled with crime, violence, and hatred. What starts as a desperate attempt to achieve justice quickly sends Edward down the path of vengeance.... Who attacked Rina Ogawa? Can Edward bring her attackers to justice? Or will he take matters into his own hands?

We decided upon the shopping list theme for this particular volume of horror short stories as an antithesis to those wildly successful writers (they know who they are) of whom it is often said "we would read their shopping list if they published it!" Well, we have given 21 of the hottest new horror authors in the independent scene the unique opportunity to have their own shopping lists listened to by you - along with their most terrifying tales, of course!