DON’T TURN OUT THE LIGHTS Volume 1 book cover by Bruce Goldwell
Volume 1

DON’T TURN OUT
THE LIGHTS

Ghost Stories for Halloween and Other Dark Nights
by Bruce Goldwell

Six original ghost stories filled with haunted places, supernatural mysteries, chilling encounters, and things that refuse to stay in the darkness.

These are stories built on suspense, atmosphere, mystery, and the unknown rather than gore—the kind of tales that make you think twice about an unexplained knock, an empty room, or what you just saw in the rearview mirror.

Whatever You Do Tonight… Don’t Turn Out the Lights.

A woman appears in an upstairs window of an abandoned house. A motel has a Room 13 that shouldn't exist. At 11:47 on Halloween night, one last trick-or-treater knocks on a widower's door.

A passenger appears in the back seat of a moving car. An abandoned house whispers the names of neighborhood children. And an antique Halloween photograph begins adding members of the family who bought it.

DON’T TURN OUT THE LIGHTS — Volume 1 brings together six supernatural stories by Bruce Goldwell for readers who enjoy ghosts, haunted houses, eerie mysteries, Halloween legends, and the delicious feeling that something may be watching from the darkness.

Six Stories. Six Dark Encounters.

The Woman in the Upstairs Window illustration

The Woman in the Upstairs Window

Everyone knows the abandoned house is empty. So who is the woman who keeps appearing in the second-floor window?

Room 13 illustration

Room 13

A stranded traveler receives a motel key to a room the manager insists does not exist.

The Last Trick-or-Treater illustration

The Last Trick-or-Treater

At 11:47 on Halloween night, a strangely old-fashioned little boy knocks on a widower's door.

Someone Is Sitting in the Back Seat illustration

Someone Is Sitting in the Back Seat

A woman driving home keeps seeing a passenger in her rearview mirror—yet every time she turns around, the seat is empty.

The House That Calls Your Name illustration

The House That Calls Your Name

Neighborhood children know the rule: if the abandoned house whispers your name, keep walking and never answer.

The Photograph illustration

The Photograph

A family buys an antique Halloween photograph. Each morning, another member of their family appears inside it.

“Six stories. Six nightmares. And this is only Volume 1.”

Read It With the Lights On.

Available now in paperback and Kindle editions on Amazon.

The Darkness Continues

DON’T TURN OUT THE LIGHTS — Volume 2

Volume 1 was only the beginning.

Seven more original ghost stories are waiting in the darkness. A lighthouse that has been automated for fifty years still has someone climbing its stairs. Drivers keep encountering the same mysterious girl at Mile Marker 17. Three knocks at midnight test an old superstition. An empty chair waits for an unexpected guest. And children can be heard laughing in a cornfield where no children have lived for generations.

The Lighthouse Keeper

The lighthouse has been automated for fifty years. Someone still climbs the stairs every night.

The Girl at Mile Marker 17

Drivers have been picking up the same hitchhiker since 1963. She always asks to be taken home.

Three Knocks at Midnight

An old superstition says never open the door after the third knock. A skeptical teenager decides to find out why.

The Empty Chair

Every Halloween dinner, Grandma sets an extra place. The year after she dies, somebody else does it.

The Children in the Cornfield

A farmer hears children laughing in a field where no children have lived for generations.

The Man Who Attended His Own Funeral

Everyone remembers seeing him standing beneath the trees. The problem is that he was in the coffin.

Don’t Turn Out the Lights

A grandfather tells his grandchildren the one ghost story he swore he'd never tell—because the ghost only appears to people who hear the ending.

And the final story gives the series its name.

Grandpa finishes his story. One of the children laughs and asks, “So what happens after you hear the ending?”

Grandpa doesn't answer.

He's staring over the child's shoulder.

DON’T TURN OUT THE LIGHTS — Volume 2
Coming Soon