A new employee works the overnight shift at a mattress store that sells beds full of monsters. A traveling student eats a fried tarantula only to find it bites back. A jogger is forced to use a kitchen knife and hammer to keep her neighbor's skull and kneecap from fusing together. A young man running from his past gets wrapped up in a small fishing town's bizarre ceremony for sacred beasts that lurk beneath the ocean's surface. In Austin Mooney's debut short story collection Midnight Mattress , horror and humor combine in 25 exciting tales that echo influences from Stephen King, Shirley Jackson, Junji Ito, H.P. Lovecraft, and 80s horror movies.