There is something about weird tales and ghost stories that fascinate and please the human mind while sometimes terrifying it. It probably has to do with our being able to experience the fearful in a way that is completely non-threatening to ourselves, saying to ourselves (as Montague Rhodes James wrote): "If I'm not careful, something of this kind may happen to me " Here are thirteen tales of the strange, the uncanny, and the horrific for your reading pleasure, with notes in back for the curious. When reading these tales, pick your location with care, keeping in mind the words of the writer Colston: "You are brave enough to read me in a streetcar, but---in a deserted house---alone---in the forest---at night I have a manuscript in my pocket that would kill you " "There are sacraments of evil as well as of good about us, and we live and move to my belief in an unknown world, a place where there are caves and shadows and dwellers in twilight."---Arthur Machen: "The Red Hand"