Take a journey into darkness. Visit places where one might expect to find the dark—in a house where love was shared and lost, a milky-white pool in an Australian cave, the trenches of World War I, the deep woods. You would not be surprised to find the dark in a cheap apartment on the wrong side of town, down mean streets, under a gallows-tree, along dank passageways, trapped underground, in the near future, or among the mysteries of old New Orleans. Dunes, lakes, isolated cabins, old books, and Old West saloons—well, the darkness might easily be there. But we've also found locales you thought were safe from shadows—a rib joint with good blues playing, inside an old wardrobe, on a baseball diamond, the Beverly Wilshire Hotel... Travel into the best dark fantasy and horror from 2011 with more than five-hundred pages of tales from some of today's best-known writers of the fantastique as well as new talents—stories that will take you to a diverse assortment of dark places Contents Hair • (2011) • shortstory by Joan Aiken Rakshasi • (2011) • shortfiction by Kelley Armstrong Walls of Paper, Soft as Skin • (2011) • shortstory by Adam Callaway The Lake • (2011) • shortfiction by Tananarive Due Tell Me I'll See You Again • (2011) • shortstory by Dennis Etchison King Death • (2011) • shortfiction by Paul Finch The Last Triangle • (2011) • shortfiction by Jeffrey Ford Near Zennor • (2011) • novella by Elizabeth Hand Crossroads • (2011) • shortstory by Laura Anne Gilman After-Words • (2011) • novelette by Glen Hirshberg Rocket Man • (2011) • shortfiction by Stephen Graham Jones The Maltese Unicorn • (2011) • shortfiction by Caitlín R. Kiernan The Dune • (2011) • shortfiction by Stephen King Catastrophic Disruption of the Head • (2011) • shortfiction by Margo Lanagan The Bleeding Shadow • (2011) • shortfiction by Joe R. Lansdale Why Light? • (2011) • novelette by Tanith Lee Conservation of Shadows • (2011) • shortstory by Yoon Ha Lee A Tangle of Green Men • [Chronicles of the Borderlands] • (2011) • novella by Charles de Lint After the Apocalypse • (2012) • shortfiction by Maureen F. McHugh [as by Maureen McHugh ] Why Do You Linger? • (2011) • shortfiction by Sarah Monette Lord Dunsany's Teapot • (2011) • shortstory by Naomi Novik Mysteries of the Old Quarter • (2011) • novelette by Paul Park Vampire Lake • (2011) • shortfiction by Norman Partridge A Journey of Only Two Paces • (2011) • shortstory by Tim Powers Four Legs in the Morning • (2011) • shortfiction by Norman Prentiss The Fox Maiden • (2011) • shortfiction by Priya Sharma Time and Tide • (2011) • shortstory by Alan Ryan [as by Alan Peter Ryan ] Sun Falls • (2011) • shortstory by Angela Slatter Still • (2011) • shortfiction by Tia V. Travis Objects in Dreams May Be Closer Than They Appear • (2011) • shortstory by Lisa Tuttle The Bread We Eat in Dreams • (2011) • shortstory by Catherynne M. Valente All You Can Do Is Breathe • (2011) • shortstory by Kaaron Warren Josh • (2011) • shortfiction by Gene Wolfe