With its greenery and crumbling ruins, the small island of Poveglia in the Venetian Lagoon seems a pleasant enough place.

Neat but kind of creepy.

In honor of Halloween, Salon asked 12 novelists to try their hand at the form. Below are their ghostly, bloody, watery and surprisingly pet-focused forays into darkness.

When people retire, they often find new hobbies to fill the time—golf, maybe, or contract bridge. Perhaps Xbox. Rising numbers of elderly Japanese, however, are picking up a more sinister pastime: stalking. In 2012, the number of stalking incidents perpetrated by people aged 60 and over hit 1,834, a surge of 3.8 times compared with 2003.

Given the evidence, or lack thereof, a hack is clearly one of the easiest answers to the “ghost train” mystery. An even bigger, mind-boggling question: why did it take investigators three days to..

The whole point of modern society is separating humans from the unspeakably gross things that keep humans alive. No, you don't want to see how the sausage is made, and you don't want to see where your poop goes. This goes double for medical care, where you expect everything to be sterile and white and made by people in spotless laboratories. But if you're willing to keep an open mind about horrifying things, you'll be pleased to find out that ...

This castle was build in the late 1800s and was abandoned in 1991. Since then it has been rotting away.

Part of the famous SS Thistlegorm wreck, this truck is one of the few left with the steering wheel in place. Photograph by Alexia Dunand.

Stunning photos of abandoned, creepy and haunted hotels from all over the world

Eerie images of Chinese ghost town that has emerged from under water five years after earthquake. Almost 10 buildings including homes, offices and the primary school have gradually emerged from the water after the village of Xuanping was completely destroyed in 2008.

Photograph by Lalit Sen.

How the Internet police mounted an international effort against "The Cache."

Scenes from Miyakejima can look downright post-apocalyptic. Each resident on the tiny Japanese island is required to carry a gas mask, just in case they need to quickly pull it on. But why?

Dad Marc Gilbert was horrified to discover a stranger's voice coming from the baby monitor, calling his sleeping child an "effing moron" and a "little slut".

Spiders are among the craftiest and most beautiful of arthropods, entirely undeserving of their maligned reputation.

Photos from inside the most radioactive place in the world.

Let’s paint a dark picture: You’ve finally snapped and committed the heinous act of murder. The problem is that you let it happen without properly

Forget Disneyland, if you want to go to a theme park which will utterly confound you, best head over to Pasir Panjang Road in Singapore where you’ll find Haw Par Villa (虎豹別墅). Originally named ‘Tiger Balm Gardens’, it’s a theme park focused entirely on Chinese mythology and various levels of Confucianism. In short it’s home to some of the most alarming and unnerving statures you’re ever likely to see.

The author of horror classics like The Shining and its 2013 sequel Doctor Sleep says the best writers hook their readers with voice, not just action.

The Coast Guard concluded that four people were probably dead â victims of the frigid Atlantic â but their families never believed it. They kept looking for the lost boaters, scouring the shoreline and islands of Cape Cod Bay, traveling the country on the advice of psychics, and appealing for help in every imaginable quarter.