This publication is a collection of selected stories by the famous American writer Ambrose Bierce (1842 - 1913), who worked in the genre of “scary stories”. Bierce always wanted to study a person in special circumstances, to test him to the breaking point. Hence the psychological tension of the story, the atmosphere of a “scary plot,” the cruelty and unusualness of situations. But most importantly, the writer mourns the lack of humanity, nobility, and dignity. Bierce considers the main evil to be a person’s non-resistance to all evil and violence. The stories of the wonderful American prose writer Ambrose Bierce are filled with mysterious and terrible events, the reality in them often seems like fiction, and the most fantastic plot seems to have been written off from life. The death of the writer himself, who went missing in action during the war, is also shrouded in mystery, and his disappearance has given rise to many incredible rumors.