Tucked away in the darkest depths of this world, tales of the bizarre and the supernatural quietly unfold. These inexplicable stories are chronicled throughout the pages of a certain strange encyclopedia, sheltered within a crumbling, decrepit building. Do you dare to open its cover and experience the horrors firsthand? Each of the macabre tales held within the book's pages details some unusual, surreal experiences that often come to a gruesome end. A man searches for his adulterous wife, only to find himself at the mercy of otherworldly visitors; a boy befriends a snowman who harbors a sinister secret; crop circles suddenly form on a family farm, created by some unexpected visitors; hidden in plain sight, menacing mechanical beings continue on undetected. In all of these horrifying stories, nothing is as simple as it seems, revealing a terrifying darkness that perhaps might have been best left alone.

Like many hardworking members of the workforce, Kuroto Nakano is perpetually stressed out by his job. Still, since he lives alone, he must carry on to sustain himself. Little do humans like Kuroto know, this stress takes the form of darkness residing within a person's body and will bring one's life to ruin. Fox deities can see this darkness and have the duty to save people before it is too late. To help rid Kuroto of his stress, Senko-san, an eight hundred-year-old foxgirl, volunteers to take care of him, and will do everything she can to ease the tension in his weary soul.

Lain Iwakura, an awkward and introverted fourteen-year-old, is one of the many girls from her school to receive a disturbing email from her classmate Chisa Yomoda—the very same Chisa who recently committed suicide. Lain has neither the desire nor the experience to handle even basic technology; yet, when the technophobe opens the email, it leads her straight into the Wired, a virtual world of communication networks similar to what we know as the internet. Lain's life is turned upside down as she begins to encounter cryptic mysteries one after another. Strange men called the Men in Black begin to appear wherever she goes, asking her questions and somehow knowing more about her than even she herself knows. With the boundaries between reality and cyberspace rapidly blurring, Lain is plunged into more surreal and bizarre events where identity, consciousness, and perception are concepts that take on new meanings. Written by Chiaki J. Konaka, whose other works include Texhnolyze, Serial Experiments Lain is a psychological avant-garde mystery series that follows Lain as she makes crucial choices that will affect both the real world and the Wired. In closing one world and opening another, only Lain will realize the significance of their presence.

Fushihara-san spends most of her time stuck in front of her office computer, regularly toiling at overtime like a corporate slave, even after all her coworkers have gone home. Noticing her unhealthy situation, a ghost in the form of a little girl rumored to haunt the building takes it upon herself to scare Fushihara-san out of the office in order to relieve her stress. However, the ghost's overwhelming cuteness only does the opposite and instead motivates Fushihara-san to work even more. Even so, the presence of this adorable soul will only bring more positivity and happiness to Fushihara-san's life as the two spend more time together.