When the Light Leaves your Eyes
Written & Illustrated by Josh Croll & Matt Lewandowski
A collection of ten adult psychological horror stories
When The Light Leaves Your Eyes offers a unique blend of emotional tension and supernatural payoff, appealing to readers who demand character-driven and viscerally terrifying horror. This terror is further amplified by haunting, color-palette-specific illustrations, strategically placed at points of maximum impact to match the stories’ visual theme and guarantee nightmares that linger long after the final page is turned.
What Color Is Fear?
Red, of course. It’s the easy answer: the color of blood. Or perhaps Black—the shroud of death that hangs over us all. But when the end finally comes, what will you see? It is the choking Blue of deep water closing over your head. The Yellow of a lone bulb fighting to stay lit. The disorienting Green of a forest that refuses to let you go. The Brown of a stalking animal that has made you its prey
This collection explores the full spectrum of dread, revealing exactly what hue fear takes When the Light Leaves Your Eyes.
Do you know what’s worse than struggling with addiction? Facing it alone. In "BETH, EAT!" Beth’s Binge Eating Disorder sponsor relapses, leaving her to confront the hungry voice inside her head on her own. Driving home in a manic state, she seeks refuge at the last place she'd ever go: a seedy gas station where a strange derelict seemingly knows her secret.
Beth, Eat!
On a remote lake, surrounded by majestic Spruce trees at the height of summer, Ford and his son, Douglas, have “GONE. FISHING.” Only problem is, this might be the last trip they share. On the surface, it’s a necessary trip Ford planned to bare heartbreaking news of his terminal cancer diagnosis. However, beneath the water, trouble takes on a whole different form.
Gone. Fishing
Aspiring artist, Jackie sees Cavan, Indiana’s prestigious pumpkin carving contest as her ticket out of small-town mediocrity and into the glitz of Hollywood special effects. But her pride and desire for revenge against a rival leads her to make an erratic choice, pitting her in a race against time and a collision course with malevolent spirits at the mysterious O’Sullivan Farm. Leaving her to question whether she’ll be left with “SQUASHED DREAMS.”
Squashed Dreams
As a would-be high school socialite and debutante, Alice Liddell, has recently migrated to Cheshire, Massachusetts where her meticulously planned birthday party is going off without a hitch. From tasteful French inspired floral arrangements to the Carte du Jour funded by her father, everything is set to wow for all those in attendance, deliberately selected by invite only. But then the unwelcome Chester enters! A raunchy, charismatic, jester who seems hellbent on making this a “NOT-SO-SWEET-16.”
Not-so-sweet 16
After a blind date-gone-wrong, waking up and not knowing where you are or how you got there can shake even the stoutest of hearts; especially when that someone is both blindfolded and restrained. Therein lies Will, a divorced, dipterologist playboy, frantically searching for a means to escape his confinement while being forced to relive his sordid past and wonder about “THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY.”
The One that got away
Returning home from a business trip, Silas— a reputable judge who prides himself on reading people— receives a chilling call from a scorned woman he’d blocked on a number he doesn’t recognize. When she threatens to expose their affair, he tries to call her bluff, but that mistake could cost him everything. How far is she willing to go? More importantly: will he reach his family in time? This uncertainty is enough to get “UNDER YOUR SKIN.”
Under your skin
You should “COVER YOUR TRACKS” if you intend to conceal something. But on a rainy night, deep in the backwoods of Alabama, a solitary elderly woman is expecting company: a handyman; one she hopes can solve an issue that she’s desperate to fix. It’s not until he arrives that it becomes clear: things may not be what they seem.
Cover your tracks
Samantha hasn’t stayed over at her best friend’s house in years. But that all changes tonight. Her younger brother and unwitting accomplice, Ted, will sleep over at the Radcliffe Manor where her real intention remains a secret. Inexplicable red spots that have appeared on her brother’s body shine a light onto her own previous experiences. She will need to “CONNECT THE DOTS” to see how this all ties to something more sinister than slumber parties.
Connect the dots
Every town has its ghost story. In Diniyotli, Tennessee, that infamy belongs to “THE BENT BABUSHKA.” Unaware of the reputation, Katherine Davis, looking for a fresh start for her family, has poured every cent into a house she knows nothing about. The very same place where legend has it, an evil witch who murdered her family in cold blood still remains, killing anyone who dares to enter, provided you believe in such things.
The bent babushka
About Us
From childhood friends filming on Hi8 camcorders to recent fathers collaborating as professionals, our Midwestern roots have always been steeped in the macabre. We’ve traded our parents' cameras for the keyboard, focusing our shared creative energy on the intricate, unsettling world of psychological horror writing.