Short story novel of historical horror and dark fantasy, featuring 7 SNM Mag published stories and 7 new ones. Debut novel authored by Jeff Parsons. 216 pages, 67,500 words. Edited by Steven N. Marshall. Artwork by Samantha Marshall. Fiction. "When your life becomes a dream from which you cannot wake, your nightmares slowly take shape within your own darkness, forming shadows of helpless fear, anxiety and horror. The end of sanity is near and, even though you can sense it, it is not yet defined, and is quite inescapable." Jeff Parsons Experience the dangers of knowledge without wisdom and the need to acquire magical power without the restraint to wield it, as a shaman encounters a corrupt secret agent... The desperation of a woman about to die may override the price required to stay alive from a greedy doctor...The sadistic need to hurt the one she loved leads to the ultimate act of selfishness by a woman too jaded by her marriage to care...In a last effort to cure a disease, the government requires a few human guinea pigs for their new experiment... A conscious awakening occurs in an inanimate object that only wants to cure people's pain...The best of intentions lead to the deadliest of consequences as a man is possessed by a demon who must do good to be spared from Hell...Hope flourishes as a devastating plague strikes down mankind in a post apocalyptic world of grim uncertainty... Some legends are made from the evil that men inflict upon others, just like in the Salem witch trial days...Mining operations go too deep when a team of explorers uncover an ancient myth from yesteryears past...A boy's personal Hell is discovered when a tragedy occurs where only a strange man can show him just how the truth will set him free... Some hidden memories should be best left buried underneath the surface, where an old abandoned science lab created more than they had bargained for...A rich traveler learns a valuable truth from the servants he employed and discovers it in a mountain of buried secrets at the Temple of Reflection. A man discovers his past from a house he inherited from his family where evil atrocities occurred -- and learns the truth of how his parents were murdered....An archeological expedition uncovers a dark, ancient awakening as the last surviving team member reflects about it in retrospect to an ambitious journalist...it's all here interwoven in this collection of sordid nightmares.