Some doors are meant to stay closed.

In eight dark and unforgettable stories, Nathan Grey takes readers to the edge of what people choose, what they survive, and what they find only after everything else has failed.

A man who refuses to cheat the world finds something better than what he was chasing. A boy on a mountain trip discovers that the most dangerous predators wear friendly faces. A spider loses everything and builds it back from nothing. A woman alone on a night train learns that the most important thing she can hold onto is herself. A widow is guided through war and ruin by the voice of her dead husband. A man stranded on a monster-haunted island gambles on the one chance he'll get. A traveller follows a trail of green grass to a door that leads somewhere no door should go. And a young man caught between a village's rage and an innocent girl's danger pays the price for the choice he makes.

These are not comfortable stories. But somewhere inside each one, underneath the darkness and the grief and the strange choices, there is something that loves. Something that refuses to stop moving forward.

The Last Door is the debut collection from Nathan Grey. A first step, not a full stride. But an honest one.