✨Shortlisted for the WATTYS 2025!!✨ Lesley and Nick Livingston leave the hustle and bustle of the big city of New York. Trading in the daily sky-scraper sightings and the sounds of blowing car horns for serene days and quiet nights in the small, tranquil town of Arcaden in upstate New York. But little do they know, beneath the glistening waters lies a dark secret, a haunting mystery that is waiting to be unraveled. Their lake house was supposed to be a dreamy haven of relaxation and peace. Until the somber history of the house begins to awaken with the spirit of a dead soul. The daughter of the previous owners, Leah Meyers, supposedly drowned there. This tragedy doesn't deter Lesley, though; she's hopeful she can turn the lake house into a charming and cozy home. However, very eerie occurrences begin to unfold right before her eyes. Lesley senses an ethereal presence, and soon she is visited by a ghostly figure whom she believes to be Leah Meyers herself. Lesely feels unsettled, and her sanity slowly begins to fray. Her once promising photography career spirals toward collapse. Things go from bad to worse when Nick goes missing, leaving Lesley to grapple with both the haunted lake house, the strange ghostly sightings around Arcaden and Nick's disappearance. The clock continues to tick, and time is slowly running out. Will Lesley unravel the mysteries that are lurking beneath the lake house? And will Nick be found before it's too late? FEATURED: @Mystery (Amateur (Sleuth)) @Fright (Creatures & Zombies)

Eleanor and Lydia, Book 2 When Eleanor's great-granddaughter, Lydia, shows up seeking her help, the "retired" detective knows she has no choice but to spring into action once again. Lydia has been attending classes at a local university and has great admiration for one of the teaching assistants who has been doing cutting edge research. On a trip to Washington DC to start on a new, ground-breaking project, the woman and her work disappeared. The local police aren't taking the case seriously, but Lydia believes her friend is in real trouble. With a solid history of sleuthing together in the past, the unlikely team confidently heads out in search of clues. Soon, they find themselves knee-deep in corporate intrigue and murderous greed with nothing more than their wits and the contents of Eleanor's enormous handbag to save themselves. My entry for the 2020 Open Novella Contest.

*** The Vision was shortlisted for the Watty India Awards 2019 under the horror/paranormal category.*** This is a supernatural adventure story of Abhay along with his childhood friend Vipul. Abhay has some visions which were earlier ignored as nightmares but it turned out to be something else. Join Abhay and his friend Vipul along with Officer Madhav as they solve the most twisted cases in the town. Cover Picture designed by- @InfamousPaint This is a work of Fiction. The story and the characters are an integral property of Biswajit Patnaik and all copyright reserved. Please do not copy or reproduce the story in any form. If you are reading this story on any platform other than Wattpad you are very likely to be at risk of a malware attack. If you wish to read this story in its original, safe, form, please go to https://www.wattpad.com/user/Patnaik87. Thank you.

The small town of Ridgewood is shocked when the pale and frozen corpse of a teenager is discovered. But there's more than meets the eye to this grisly scene; the death hides a terrifying secret. A horror that extends beyond the barriers of the physical world and into an labyrinth of other worlds and strange places. Tasked with unraveling the mystery, Roberta Arlington struggles to cope as her world falls apart. And, though aided by her friends - and, indeed a few odd eccentrics - a sudden, unseen evil stirs inside her and threatens to do far worse than take yet another victim. ***** Inside Evil is a paranormal mystery set in a small town on the borders of England and Scotland. Like so many similar places, its residents cannot help but be drawn into each others lives, as they rarely venture from their seclusion. But, with such isolation comes danger, and whilst the world is blissfully unaware, an ancient terror is preparing for murder. Book 1: Inside Evil Book 2: The Tower of Souls Book 3: Spirits of the Middlelands Book 4: New Alliances Book 5: To Kill A Curse

[UNEDITED AND TO BE REMOVED DECEMBER 31st, 2025] *** After moving to Connecticut to room with her best friend for the summer, Chastity Blake doesn't know what to think of the charm bracelet she finds, caught under the floorboards in her new bedroom; with the initials D.K. engraved into it. But ignoring the bracelet's origins isn't an option when she begins to live out strange scenarios as a young woman named Delilah. And when these scenarios start cutting too close to reality, she can't help but suspect they're memories. She quickly realizes though they're not her memories. They're Delilah Kim's memories -- a girl who was believed to have committed her family's murder, then suicide. But her memories tell a different story other than what everyone else in town seems to know. And it's up to Chastity to place the missing pieces of the puzzle together. [Cover made by @Vanoeuxx] ✨From our Stars - featured 10/14/20✨ ✨Editor's Choice - featured 12/31/20✨

[ORIGINAL DRAFT SAMPLE] She is twenty-nine when the FBI comes for her, but Catherine Themis was only seventeen, grieving and naive and angry, the first time she wiped someone else's blood from her fingers and felt the snake rise in her chest. She was seventeen when she stepped into the dark and never looked back. ***** By day, Catherine Themis is an unassuming civilian administrator for the Dedwich Police Department, but by night, she is a notorious vigilante known as The Hangman. Struggling with her violent urges and the psychological cost of her actions, Catherine becomes the target of an obsessive serial killer and a relentless FBI agent, and as the hunt for the Hangman intensifies, Catherine must decide which life she wishes to live and what she values more: vengeance or her fading humanity? A psychological thriller in the vein of MINDHUNTER and HANNIBAL, SERPENT HEART is a deep-dive into the life and history of a conflicted vigilante forced to confront her inner demons and evade a national manhunt. Catherine questions the efficacy of her own convictions as the FBI closes in and a vindictive murderer puts her family, love, and identity in jeopardy. With everything on the line and time running out, who will Catherine Themis become? --- [[AVAILABLE ON AMAZON]] [[REMOVED 24 DEC 2021]] [[2019 Watty Winner - Mystery & Thriller]]

Alexander Langley wasn't looking for trouble but Charlotte Porter found him anyway. Only, this new partnership has them in over their heads and way before their time. 2020 WATTYS WINNER in MYSTERY The life of a poor merchant's daughter in Victorian Era London is quite boring. Charlotte Porter, it seems, is the exception. Desperate for a source of income once her father's gambling debts have drained their funds and placed them in the sights of some of London's most notorious criminals, Charlotte is in search of salvation. It comes in the form of handsome detective Alexander Langley, a curious gentleman with a strange connection to Scotland Yard and an even stranger connection to the American West. Charlotte soon finds herself swept into his world of investigation and intrigue. When a case of art theft turns into murder and she and Alexander are thrown into the seedy underbelly of the London elite, Charlotte realizes that the work isn't the only thing she's become attached to. But now, her father's powerful creditors are ready to close the books on them, and Charlotte must find a way to keep them out of the red because this time it won't be written in ink. Book 1 of the Langley & Porter Series *Featured on: The Wattpad Stars For Fans of Bridgerton List Wattpad's Strong Female Leads List @HistoricalFiction 's The Gothic List EDITOR'S PICK April 2021 Content warning: This story contains violence. **This is only the first five chapters. The rest of the book is available on Amazon for purchase and via KU.**

Angie, a grieving expectant mother, must help the spirit of a little girl find the remains of twelve other children who mysteriously disappeared three years ago. ***** After the death of her twin brother, Angie Abernathy immersed herself in her painting to help her deal with her overwhelming grief. When her husband, John, finally convinces her to sort through some of Cory's belongings, she unexpectedly finds the closure she needs in the form of a map and a journal full of cryptic notes. When the notes lead her to the bodily remains of six-year-old Mary Drake, the first of thirteen children who went missing three years ago, Angie finds herself caught up in her own investigation and quickly starts to believe that Mary's bones aren't as dead as they seem to be... Content warning: This story contains mature themes, including references to the murder of children

An #OpenNovellaContest (#ONC) Ambassador Pick! Eleanor and Lydia, book 1 Armed with knitting needles and a fantastic playlist, Eleanor and Lydia set off to solve The Mystery of Novak Manor. Eleanor Albright is a spritely ninety-year-old ex-detective with more than a few skeletons in her closet and a grim determination to keep them there by hiding from the world. Her great-granddaughter Lydia is twenty-two- years old and sorely misunderstood by the world. After all, just because a girl dresses in all black and listens to My Chemical Romance doesn't mean she lacks vision or hope. Well... maybe hope. When Lord Novak calls Eleanor from his castle in a tiny, beautiful Eastern European nation with a desperate plea for help, she agrees, with mixed emotions, to come out of retirement and she talks Lydia into serving as her assistant. Now the two women must find the truth about the fearsome ghost that's haunting Novak Manor before the "ghost" finds the legendary secret treasure with the power to bring the monarchy to its knees.

In a world where security cameras prove what you have done and databases define who you are, the few who know how to manipulate the technology can play God. They can change the future; they can alter the past. They can make big money, they can save the world, and they can get away with murder over and over again. Danielle Leaf grew up believing she was safe. Now she knows she was wrong. Award-winning author Jon Evans returns with new heroes and a compulsive, fast-paced story that examines issues of Third World exploitation and the extreme edge of anti-capitalist activism. Invisible Armies is Cold War suspense for the modern age, a thriller that looks behind the power of protests and the politics of big business. Reviews "Thought-provoking ... Invisible Armies is an intriguing, pacy read and Mr Evans shows great potential."-The Economist "A tough-as-nails technothriller... People who aren't morons and like thriller novels ought to read this."-Bruce Sterling "Evans has created a new genre, the travelogue as fast-paced action thriller."-Montreal Gazette About the Author Jon Evans's novels have been published around the world, translated into half a dozen languages, and praised by The Economist, The Times of London, and the Washington Post. His journalism has appeared in Wired, Reader's Digest, The Guardian, The Globe & Mail, and The Times of India, and he writes a weekly column for TechCrunch. He can be found online at www.rezendi.com.