Night Terrors by Nick Burgin

Penny Dreadful  Twenty-five years ago, in the dying days of the Weaver Carnival, seventeen-year-old Penelope Weaver endured years of unimaginable abuse after being left one day at the orphanage. The carnival, initially her sanctuary, became her prison. The man who adopted her, ringmaster Big Tommy Weaver (No relation, he’d say with a wink), the clowns, the magician Marvo – all men who used their power to exploit her body and silence her voice. When the torment became unbearable, Penelope snapped. In a single blood-soaked night, she turned their own weapons against them - hacksaws, machetes, knifes - leaving the big top a slaughterhouse of staged corpses. Detective Elias Crowe, a rookie at the time, cornered her in the Hall of Mirrors. She confessed everything through tears and thick clown makeup. He almost saved her. Almost. A bullet stopped her, but she escaped. No body was ever found. Now, a new wave of murders grips the city. Predators – men and women who abuse the young - are being hunted with theatrical precision. Throats slit in motel rooms, bodies nailed to floors with messages carved into flesh, victims posed like carnival props. The killer leaves no fingerprints, no DNA, only the memory of red noses, white face paint, and the lingering scent of greasepaint and vengeance. Crowe, now a weary forty-five year old, recognizes the signature. Penelope Weaver is back - frozen at seventeen, preserved by trauma or something darker. She’s not just killing; she’s performing. Each death is a lesson, a punishment, a mirror held up to the monsters who once hurt her. As bodies pile up, Crowe is forced to confront the girl he failed to save - and the monster she became. The trail leads back to the abandoned carnival grounds, where rusted rides and faded clown faces wait under a single spotlight. Penny is calling him home. One last performance. One last chance to finish what they started in the mirrors all those years ago. Some shows never end. Some lessons are written in blood. Torture Porn  Four college friends - Jed, Ally, Steve, and Sandy - are obsessed with extreme horror. Late-night marathons of Hostel, Saw, and underground gore classics fuel their desire to create something truly shocking. Tired of sanitized mainstream violence, they launch a Slasher.netchannel for uncensored “torture porn” shorts, betting that horror fans will pay for raw brutality. Their early films - stylish slashers and ritualistic horrors - gain a cult following. Sandy’s fearless performances, full nudity, and willingness to push physical limits make her the breakout star: the “gore-soaked goddess.” Ally’s hyper-realistic practical effects, Jed’s direction, and Steve’s scripts blend sex and violence with increasing intensity. Views climb past 100,000; subscribers reach 1,500; money flows in, promising a future beyond student projects. Success breeds hunger. Faking gore grows stale; fans demand “more real content.” They recruit classmates - athletic Rico, and eager twins Mia and Lia - for larger productions at an isolated scout camp. Boundaries blur: simulated sex becomes intimate, pain edges toward genuine. A traumatic event shatters the group. Steve is brutally assaulted by a charismatic quarterback. Devastated, he withdraws. The others, enraged on his behalf, cross the final line: luring the attacker to the camp, torturing and murdering him on camera for a “director’s cut.”  When another of the group – horrified by what their friends have done - threatens to go to the police, they become the next victim: bound, violated, and slaughtered in a filmed masterpiece of betrayal. Steve discovers the videos while recovering at home. Devastated by his friends’ fate, he returns for vengeance. A savage confrontation erupts. Blood and treachery consume the house. Only one survivor walks away, claiming the twisted fame they all once craved. A chilling descent into obsession, desensitization, and the dangerous allure of crossing forbidden lines in the name of art. In the end, the most terrifying monster isn’t on screen - it’s the one holding the camera. Night Swim  In the quiet coastal town of Bantayan on Cebu Island, sixteen-year-old Sabrina Cadao is the undisputed queen of the waves. Captain of her high-school swim team, she moves through the turquoise sea with the grace of a sirena from old folklore – beautiful, sun-kissed skin, long dark hair trailing like ink, a smile that lights up the barangay. Kind to younger kids, sweet to elders, popular without trying, Sabrina has everything: friends, family, admiration. But the ocean calls to her most powerfully at night, when the world quiets and the water turns black and mysterious. One humid, sleepless evening, unable to rest, she slips out of her family’s modest beachside home and walks the deserted shore. The idea hits like a sudden wave: a midnight swim, naked and free. She strips, folds her clothes neatly on the sand, and dives in. For ten blissful minutes she floats, weightless, the sea cradling her completely. Then she glances shoreward - and freezes. A shadowy man stands on the beach, broad-shouldered, scanning the waves. He prowls the sand, finds her clothes, tucks them under his arm, and vanishes into the darkness. Panic surges. Naked and alone, Sabrina waits, then wades ashore and flees into the bordering mangroves rather than risk exposure in town. The forest swallows her. Twisted roots snag her feet; branches scrape her bare skin, drawing blood. Mosquitoes swarm. Every rustle feels like pursuit. She runs blindly - until a rough hand clamps over her mouth from behind. What follows is a night of unrelenting terror: violation in the dark, pursuit through the trees, a second attack by multiple men who bind and use her without mercy. Sabrina survives – barely - crawling home broken and bleeding, hiding her wounds, feigning illness to avoid questions. But something has changed inside her. Shame battles with fury. One thought takes root and grows cold and clear: revenge. Take from them what they took from her. In the quiet coastal town where she once reigned over the waves, Sabrina begins to hunt. The men who took everything from her will learn what it means to be prey. And the sea - patient, eternal - will watch. FansOnly Kat is a beautiful, shy, sweet, and quiet eighteen-year-old who’s always felt a step behind everyone else, especially when it comes to love, sex, and confidence. Still a virgin, and often feeling like the odd one out among her peers, Kat nevertheless hides a secret desire: the thrill of being seen, watched, admired from a distance. It’s a fantasy she’s kept locked away, until one night, when curiosity and courage finally lead her to join FansOnly, a site where people can show off, earn money, and indulge in the attention of anonymous admirers. Behind a masquerade mask and green contact lenses, Kat finds a new version of herself: bold, powerful, adored. Her popularity grows fast - tips, requests, praise, and adoration follow. But the attention comes with a dark edge. Not everyone watching her is just a fan. And as her world begins to blur between the virtual and the real, Kat is forced to navigate a path filled with obsession, secrecy, and danger. FansOnly is tense, erotic thriller about fantasy and fear, desire and control. It’s a story of one young woman’s awakening, both the power it brings, and the price it can exact. Cover Created by Grok