A Season of Hauntings
by: Stephen J. Willis
Sit back and enjoy four haunting short stories gathered together in one volume.
Three of these tales have appeared before, now revised and refreshed for a new audience. The fourth, The Butcher’s Apron, is a brand-new story and perhaps the darkest of them all—a chilling tale of old debts, lingering spirits, and a Christmas Eve no one will ever forget.
If you enjoy traditional ghost stories in the classic festive tradition, then The Butcher’s Apron may be just the tale for a winter’s night.
————
Welcome to A Season of Hauntings, which gathers four unsettling tales that move between the psychological and the supernatural. Within these pages are ghosts who refuse to rest, a séance that spirals out of control, a boy who recalls life beyond the grave, and desire which becomes obsession.
Each story explores what happens when boundaries are crossed—between past and present, reason and madness, the living and the unseen. These are not stories of sudden terror, but of slow building dread… of what enters quietly, and sometimes stays.
The Figure in the Mist: a late-night drive turns otherworldly, when the fog hides more than just the road—and a fleeting glimpse changes everything.
One Winter’s Day in June: follows a young boy haunted by a past life memory and an unseen force that grips his mind, until a stranger arrives with the power to unlock what’s been buried deep inside.
Time for Obsession: plunges into the darker corners of desire and fixation—a raw, unsettling journey into what it means to be consumed by something you cannot let go.
The Butcher’s Apron: every Christmas Eve, an old inn awakens with secrets, shadows, and debts long unpaid. What begins as curiosity turns to terror as forgotten bargains and restless souls demand their due. Some doors, once opened, can never be closed.
Intriguing, strange, and unforgettable—these disturbing stories, two of which are based on true events, blur the line between reality and the hidden depths of the human psyche.
These four dark stories can only be found within The Season of Hauntings book.
But you can read more about them if you scroll down…
The Butcher’s Apron
by: Stephen J. Willis
The Butcher’s Apron is a classic Christmas ghost story.
A dark, atmospheric tale of folklore, consequence, and the terrible cost of crossing the devil. Every Christmas Eve, something stirs within the old coaching inn that stands on the edge of the moors.
Locals know better than to ask why, and fewer remember the tragedy that sealed the inn’s fate one hundred and fifty years ago. But when strangers gather within its walls to witness a once-a-year unveiling of its strange and unexplained occurrences, its ghostly past begins to awaken.
A chilling and wonderfully atmospheric Christmas ghost story packed with mystery, folklore and supernatural twists that will keep the readers hooked until the very last page.
From The Wishing Shelf
Coverfly Finalist Award 2025
Plus Quarterfinalist, ScreenCraft Cinematic Short Story Competition 2017 !!! 🎉
Time for Obsession
by: Stephen J. Willis
From just one innocent glance out of a window at a desirable young man, a beautiful woman is driven beyond her sensibilities to where want and desire know no boundaries. With youth comes innocence; where there is sanity one can surely find insanity. And where reason has become Joey’s only weapon… Based on a true story.
Absolutely loved this story, could not put the book down! More stories like this please!
K HewettThe Figure In The Mist
by: Stephen J. Willis
Driving back late one night, a weary driver experiences something inexplicably supernatural, when he finds himself unavoidably lost, and stops to consult an old wooden signpost. Then, upon witnessing a ghostly figure watching him from deep within some woodland, he wonders if he has some unearthly part to play. Is the local folklore tale to be his only logical justification to explain this spectral apparition?
A great, super-short, late-night ghost story…
An enjoyable short read. Hopefully this is the beginning of many more to follow.
KJWatch the full animation here 👉🏻
Or sign up to get your FREE MP3 audio download !
👆🏻 Also heard, in its entirety, on Meridian FM radio! 👆🏻 🎧 📻
One Winter’s Day In June
by: Stephen J. Willis
Enslaved by a past life memory and beaten into submission by his own mind, young Oliver is becoming further and further disconnected from the world about him, as an invisible force takes control of his subconscious. Unable to reach deep into his psyche, Oliver is prey to the psychological trauma of an impossible past. A force which dictates both thoughts and feelings he cannot escape. Yet Oliver reacts out of character to an unknown male visitor, to whom his distraught mother, now at her wits end, responds with both fear and dislike. Can this unexpected stranger liberate the child from his own behavioural constraints? An incredible short story based on a true event.
Some years ago, and quite by chance I heard Stephen J Willis give a talk to a group of people. He was witty, engaging and one of the stories he told appears in his latest book ‘One Winter’s Day in June’. He held the crowd completely captivated by this fascinating and touching story. I was delighted to find out that he had finally committed his story to the written word.
G. Levett