Valentine’s Day often wears hearts and flowers, but it also carries a thread of shadow for those who listen closely. In these stories, romance and longing cross paths with the uncanny, turning a night meant for affection into a doorway for memories that refuse to fade. The tone moves between sweetness and suspense, inviting readers to explore how love can outlive a moment and how the ache of loneliness can echo through rooms long after a kiss has ended. Across these pages, the holiday becomes a lantern that lights up old wounds and unseen presences, suggesting that heartbreak, when given room to breathe, might still hum with life. These tales keep the focus on affection sharpened by sorrow, on bonds that resist time, and on the strange companionship between the living and what remains when the lights go out.
“CRAZY” IN LOVE — There was a manor known as Vermont House perched on Shooter’s Hill, a quiet ridge overlooking the town. Locals avoided the place, convinced by reports of a tall, dark-haired woman in a purple gown who moved through the corridors with a gaze that seemed to pierce the walls. The legend named her Bertha Rungate, a young woman who could not bear to be kept apart from her cousin, Philip Rungate. When his heart refused to mirror hers, the tale says she took a drastic step and harmed him, then hid his body beneath the house. Decades passed, and when Philip’s remains were finally found and given a proper burial, the house quieted—only to have the hauntings vanish as if the sorrow were laid to rest along with the bones. Some still whisper that Bertha’s spirit lingered at the threshold, trapped by a love that refused to die, and that once Philip was laid to rest, the ghost finally moved on, leaving the manor in peace.
THE REAL CORPSE BRIDE — If travelers drift along one of California’s haunted byways, a pale figure in a wedding dress might appear, a reminder that love can end in tragedy as quickly as it begins. The tale locates her near a chapel off Highway 152, where witnesses recall a bride who waited on the eve of her vows and watched as her fiancé ran off with another woman. Public humiliation at the altar followed, and, heartbroken, she walked the highway in search of the man who broke her heart. As days turned to weeks, she disappeared into the shadows of the road, and some say her grief led her to end her life. Since then, drivers have caught glimpses of a spectral bride wandering the pavement, seeking closure or revenge on the man who betrayed her, forever tethered to the spot where love turned to dust.
LOVE THROUGH DEATH — The tale of Tiverton Castle in Devon unfolds across several generations. In the 17th century, Sir Hugh Spencer lived there with his daughter Alice, a bright, headstrong young woman who believed her future lay with Maurice Fortescue, the castle’s manager, a man who shared her devotion. Alice’s heart knew its own rhythm, and her happiness clashed with the wishes of the powerful Sir Charles Trevor, who stood to gain from a quick wedding to Alice. When Maurice challenged him to a duel, the confrontation ended with Maurice’s death. The news crushed Alice, who felt herself obliged to marry the other man and, overwhelmed by despair, chose to end her life. The castle’s stones still remember the lovers who walked its halls, and visitors sometimes glimpse Alice and Maurice wandering hand in hand, as if their love refused to bow to time, their specters proof that a bond born of true feeling can outlive a lifetime and even the bounds of death.
Illustrations accompany the stories in this collection.