HellBound Highway: Anthology of Traveling Terror

by Jane Nightshade, Ann O’Mara Heyward, James H. Longmore

We invite you, fellow horror aficionados, to take a ride on HellBound Highway – a terrifying trip into the darkest recesses of the human mind you’d care to discover, your ticket to ride provided by a bunch of the very best authors writing on the independent horror scene today.

Of course, it’s not your ordinary ticket, it’s a boarding pass to twenty-eight sinister tales about terror excursions you most definitely wouldn’t want to experience first-hand.

We present to you, for your ghoulish delectation…

— A family’s pleasant, end of summer road trip to a waterpark turns into a nightmare when they happen upon a car that bears an uncanny resemblance to theirs, its occupants uncomfortably familiar…

— A fleeing highway convoy of ragtag vehicles keeps just fifty-seven miles per hour ahead of a constantly mutating mega-monster that devours everything in its path. If the speed drops below 57 mph, it’s certain death. Meanwhile, gas and food are running perilously low…

— A woman with a guilty secret, desperate to leave town, steals a train ticket from a ragged elderly passenger. . .and encounters a sentient train cabin that inexplicably adjusts itself to her crimes…

— A hitchhiking waif finds herself in a truck stop diner where the management posts a sign telling customers, “ Gators Ahead.” She’s thumbing her way through bone-dry Wyoming. . .where alligators don’t exist. Or do they?

— A desperate ,unemployed dad really, really needs to catch a plane to Florida. But his wife chooses to use the terminal’s ladies’ room only a few minutes before boarding time. When she doesn’t come out, his two-year-old son runs after her…

So, please do immerse yourself in HellBound’s bone-chilling anthology of traveling terror, curated by indie horror superstars Jane Nightshade and Ann O’Mara Heyward, and featuring stories

James H. Longmore, Ann O'Mara Heyward, Jane Nightshade, Todd Mitternacht, Damon Nomad, D.W. Milton, Michael Penncavage, John Wolf, Andrew Adams, Ross Baxter, D. Winchester, Ricardo Rebelo, S.J. Townend, David Bartlett, Nicola Lombardi, Blake Kourik, R. D. Davidson, Harley Carnell, Kevin Hollaway, Eliza Hyde, Mason Gallaway, D. C. Kugtima, Patrick Wright, Sean Seebach, Eldon Litchfield, Meg Belviso, Jay T. Levy, and Randall Drum.

Genres: Collections

429 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 11, 2025

About the author

I write non-fiction and fiction. Check out my non-fiction articles on Horrornews.net and Horrified. My fiction includes The Drowning Game: A Story of the Supernatural, A Scream Full of Ghosts, and the just-released Jane Nightshade's Serial Encounters. I've also been published/dramatized in more than 20 anthologies and/or podcasts.

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a massive tome of 28 (!) short stories inside. The quality was okay but except for Jane's Godfather Poker and the one on Salvation I would have loved to read more highlights. Okay, it was about horror on the road, uncanny encounters, mysterious happenings but somehow I had expected more. Maybe I'm too spoiled with all the books I already read or the ideas I have in my mind. Overall a solid with road horror as a general topic. Recommended rather to starters in this field.

[Milt Theo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, what an amazing anthology this proved to be! The theme is traveling, or, as the editors put it, "stories of road trips, train trips, plane trips, boat trips, and head trips gone terribly, horribly wrong". This is 100% accurate, in respect of both range and content. There are hitchhiker tales, serial killer stories, even an alien invasion one! Most of the stories are supernatural horror (which I love) and extremely bleak in tone (which I also like). The theme itself is very close to my heart as well, since I move around a lot, and some of the tales really hit home! But what impressed me most was the quality of the writing: almost all the stories show incredible craftmanship and skill, several by authors I'd never heard of before! The book turned out to be such a pleasant surprise, I'll check out the other HellBound anthologies, too!

Picking favorites out of the 28 stories within was quite hard, they're all gems. More than half I hugely enjoyed, so I'll mention the ones I enjoyed most:

"Brutal" by Eldon Litchfield (bleak, disturbing, paranormal revenge tale, kids on the warpath)
"Not Much Left" by D.C. Kugtima (bleak, dystopian, bio-horror, people on a bus trying to survive)
"Telaraña" by D. Winchester (immersive, supernatural, young guys searching for a ghost town)
"The Long Row" by Ross Baxter (suspenseful, immersive, two women on a transatlantic rowing race)
"Godfather Poker" by Jane Nightshade (creepy, atmospheric, a man on a Greyhound bus)
"Yellow Car" by SJ Townend (the weirdest tale of the volume!)
"End of the Road" by Andrew Adams (unsettling, apocalyptic, family on a road trip)
"What Waits" by R.D. Davidson (creepy, a driver stops to help a stranger on the road)
"A Cottage on the Interstate" by Patrick Wright (creepy, family on a trip, kids meeting a strange creature)
"Passengers" by Meg Belviso (creepy, supernatural, dad and kid daughter traveling)
"Comanche Country" by Todd Mitternacht (western horror, twisty, men hunting down a thief)
"The Last Migration" by Ann O’Mara Heyward (apocalyptic, heartbreaking, a couple on a trip to a bird sanctuary)
"Watch Me Go" by Randall Drum (creepy, emotional, two friends on a cross-country ride on bikes)

I could easily go on, but I've already mentioned 13 stories out of the 28- not bad! I highly recommend the anthology to everyone, especially to those who hate traveling LOL! Every story pulls you in and stays with you long after the lights go out!

[Emily Haynes · Rating 5 out of 5]

A road trip that turns into something far scarier than a breakdown. What happens when your trip takes a frightening turn. These stories give you a peak at what happens.

[A.M. Symes · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a frequent road-tripper, this was a great book to read. We probably all envision the multiple ways a trip can go bad, which is exactly what these authors did. The horror twists were unique to fun to read. Some were very creepy, some were almost comical (in a dark way). While I enjoyed almost every story, my two favorites were The Long Row by Ross Baxter and Godfather Poker by Jane Nightshade. It's a must read for your next trip!

[Kat M · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a really well written anthology, I enjoyed the idea of the theme being about traveling horror. It was engaging and enjoyed how different each story was and enjoyed the way each author took the topic and created something unique in this collection. It worked well in the horror genre and hope to read more anthologies from this company.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Jane Nightshade · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm biased because I'm the co-editor and a contributing author of this book (my story is called Godfather Poker), but this is a fabulous anthology full of 28 massive stories--whose authors gave their all for this book. There are plenty of chills, thrills and dread within these pages!