* In "Running Rain," a devastated husband and wife pretend life can somehow be normal again after their son becomes a victim of a serial killer, but the dark secrets they're keeping from each other push their relationship to the brink.

* Jacob is a cable repair technician who doesn't much care for his job, and in "Mama's Sleeping" he finds himself troubleshooting a very serious problem with the unusual little girl who appears to be all alone in Apartment 6B.

* Considering how high the radiation levels still are, no one is supposed to be in the abandoned town near the old nuclear power plant, but journalist Stephen feels he is being watched just the same in "An Instant Eternity."

* "Where Sunlight Sleeps" is the tale of a grieving father and his young son, both dealing with a shared loss the best they can, who take a trip down a memory lane lined with jagged edges and vicious traps.

* The young couple in "Marking the Passage of Time" face the imminent end of the world while trying to determine where all of the time they thought they still had has gone.

* In "Walking With the Ghosts of Pier 13," a young man visits the beach front amusement park where his brother died during a terrorist attack that changed the country forever.

* And finally: the question isn't how do you prove "A Mother's Love," but instead, how does a son prove his love for his mother is truly eternal and never-ending?

These hauntingly beautiful stories show why Publishers Weekly called Brian James Freeman's writing "skillfully composed prose" and why Tess Gerritsen said, "Brian James Freeman managed to both scare me and move me to tears."