How Does The Excerpt Exemplify Gothic Fiction Novels & Stories

Willow, a city girl, is heartbroken after walking in on her best friend and husband sleeping together. In an effort to find herself she rents a cabin in a secluded forest. To her surprise the remote cabin is full of surprises and it is soon clear the forest is full of secrets. To fuel her sadness she finds out her best friend is carrying her husband’s baby. This is the final straw for her and she runs into the forest and follows a wolf to a stone table. It turns out Willow has a family secret of her own, a magical bloodline that she had no clue about. She will have to find out fast because a family of werewolves fighting against a rival clan that wants to release a monster older than time. They will need Willows help if they want to keep the monster in the prison. Willow will have to look deep within herself and make choices she never thought possible for the greater good.

I was a semi-retired actress, joining a divorce reality show with my billionaire husband. "I want a divorce." Facing the camera, I spoke calmly. Off-camera, Hector Sinclair frowned as he reviewed the scene with me. "You need to show more emotion when you say it. That’s what will get people talking, stir up discussion, and drive the views. "Otherwise, who’s going to believe you really want to divorce me? They’ll just think you’re acting again. “Use your head. I can’t guide you every step of the way." Yeah. To outsiders, I was nothing more than a pretty face—vain, shallow, and talentless. Meanwhile, he was a shrewd and cultured businessman, commanding a fortune worth billion. No one believed I would willingly give up the title of Mrs. Sinclair, not even Hector himself. However, he had no idea that this time, I meant it.

I take a step back, ready to change course and leave, but the Lycan King closes the distance between us. He’s dangerously close to me now, his body in full display and sending my whole body aflame. The familiar heat between my legs starts to appear. “Where are you going?” he whispers, his breath hot against the top of my head. “Are you really trying to leave?” I don’t say anything. I can’t. All I can think about is how his length would feel like inside me, and that’s not something I want to linger on right now. I need to focus. He laughs softly. “I know you feel it too. There’s no denying it. You’re mine.” * * * Outcast. Freak. Cursed. These are things that Beta heiress Valeria Ross is used to hearing. After all, with her otherwordly appearance, and her cursed white wolf, she’s bound to be set apart from everyone else. So much so that even her mate who promised her eternal love casts her aside, choosing her much better stepsister as a partner. Deciding that things should end on her terms, she decides to flee her pack. Only to run into the arms of the Lycan King, Ares Ryder, who’s spent centuries looking for his mate and finally found it in her. Now Valeria is faced with a hard choice. Will she stay in the shadows of her family, forever tormented with the sight of her mate with her sister? Will she exchange that hell for a softer one, a life with a cruel King who’s known for collecting women like trophies?

It’s end of October 1985 and the crumbling river town of Dubois, Iowa is shocked by the gruesome murder of one of the pillars of the community. Detective David Carlson has no motive, no evidence, and only one lead: the macabre local legend of “Boris Orlof,” a late night horror movie host who burned to death during a stage performance at the drive-in on Halloween night twenty years ago and the teenage loner obsessed with keeping his memory alive. The body count is rising and the darkness that hangs over the town grows by the hour. Time is running out as Carlson desperately chases shadows into a nightmare world of living horrors. On Halloween the drive-in re-opens at midnight for a show no one will ever forget. ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing

The best way to live in a sinful and harsh world is to choose your battles wisely. That was what Tayla Del Mariano, a 23-year old college student knows ever since her parents died in a car crash and was forced to live in a house with owls. The girl thought that staying silent and not arguing with fools will make her life easier, and enduring everything will make her closer to her goal: To build a better life for his younger brother, Terren.She works three jobs and studies, believing that she will reach her dreams when she got fed up with her family's treatments and met Auton Smith and found out about his little secret–he was a musician hiding behind a criminology student. He happened to be her new landlord, but she didn't know that those small talks and silly acts would make her fall.Tayla only wants the best for his brother, and Auton only wants the people to hear his story through music. Auton thought that Tayla is her safe place, she's her home, for she's the only person who believes in him, until something came up which led the mute beauty's voice to howl.

What I thought was fictional turned out to be real, and I eventually fell under the spell of the two beasts that shifted under the moon. Meet Jasper, the young man who lives next door and whom I trust the most. Then I met Damon, one of my class's most mesmerizing and strange students. They aren't just good-looking teens because they have a secret that only I know. And knowing their secret is what will put me in danger. The closer I get to them, the more dangerous it is for me. The moon will show what kind of creature they are. And what are they? It's a secret!

"He told me to run. I didn’t listen. Now I can’t escape him… or the curse." On the eve of her eighteenth birthday, Elena Blackthorne should be celebrating the moment every werewolf dreams of — finding her fated mate. But when the bond snaps and she's cruelly rejected in front of her entire pack, her world shatters. Wounded, ashamed, and desperate to feel anything but pain, Elena flees into the forest... and collides with something older than myth. Silas Blackmoor is a rogue with silver eyes, a violent past, and a soul marked by the same bloodline curse Elena unknowingly carries. When her mate rejects her, the Moon Goddess grants her a second chance — and that chance is Silas, the one wolf every pack fears. Now bound to a stranger with a dangerous legacy, Elena is thrust into a world of secrets, ancient rivalries, and a prophecy soaked in blood. The deeper she falls for Silas, the more she begins to question everything she was raised to believe — about her pack, her past, and herself. But love may not be enough to save them. Because some fates were written to burn.

Olivia Penn was the only daughter of the Penn family. She was born into privilege and status. People often called her the holy maiden of high society. She was untouchable and devout. The system gave me a mission to win her heart, but I ended up losing mine to her. After we got married, the mission was successfully completed. I should have left this world immediately, but I chose to stay for her. The cost was constant, bone-deep pain every single day. One day, I saw her being intimate with my younger brother in a church. The rosary she never took off was teasingly caught between his lips, then removed and tossed aside. Even our son wanted my brother to be his father. So, I gave them what they wanted. However, if this was what they wanted, why did they regret it after I died?

If we psychologically damage an individual beyond repair, what will be the consequence of it? We all have a limit to the amount of mental and psychological stress we can take. Once the stress exceeds the limit, we’ll reach our breaking point. What happens after that is a mystery no one can solve, or is it? Lydia Johnson faces a similar situation. She is a complex young woman who faces a downfall stemming from the mental and physical abuse of her father and siblings, the negligence of her mother, and a chilling secret. From abused to loved, to abused again--that’s how life is for Lydia. Her family taught her only one lesson: emotions are for the weak and the weak don’t have a place in this world. With each kill, Lydia atones for the loss of her innocence by getting rid of another emotion and also rids the world of someone undeserving of her love and forgiveness. What lengths will she go to, for revenge, and prove her resilience? Will she ever be able to live her life like a normal person again? Or will she continue killing everyone until her own death?

Years after graduation, someone suddenly tags me in the class group chat. "Mr. Warren is gravely ill, Mira. Aren't you going to do anything? You really are heartless!" I only realize what's going on when I click on the fundraising link in the chat. Our high school homeroom teacher, Joseph Warren, has late-stage cancer. Thus, Lyra Fairfield, the class belle, is leading a fundraiser and patient-donor matching process. "I'll donate ten thousand dollars. My husband is the director of Waverly General Hospital, and I've already asked him to arrange a VIP ward for Mr. Warren." Right after I send that message, the group pounces on me. "Mira, you contracted an STD back then and tried to pin it on Lyra. She didn't even hold it against you, and now you're trying to steal her thunder? You're unbelievable!" "I can't believe you're still lying through your teeth during such a serious situation. You never change, do you?" Lyra immediately defuses the tension. "Mira, I don't blame you for what happened in the past, but you really shouldn't impersonate the director's wife. I've already arranged the ward and surgery, and I'm donating another 100 thousand dollars to Mr. Warren!" I'm this close to laughing out of sheer anger. She's the one who scratched her name off the diagnosis report and framed me for having an STD all those years ago. I never even confronted her about it, and now she's playing the victim? Lyra soon posts a photo in the group chat, showing off her husband's car. Yet, when I see the man in the passenger seat, I guffaw. Isn't that my husband's driver? When did he start running a hospital?