The desert wind always sounded like someone trying to whisper through a throat full of sand. Outside of Natasha’s bedroom window, the giant saguaro cacti stood like jagged, frozen silhouettes against the bruised purple of the Arizona night sky. We were in Ocotillo Wells—a town wedged deep into the Sonoran Desert, named after the skeletal,…
Read Part One here Read Part Two here Read Part Three here Read Part Four here “DID YOU REALLY have to do that, Ibnar?” “Of course. According to the Law, I provided for your needs while teaching a con man a lesson.” “By bullying him into giving us all his poison vials! How are you…
THE FOLLOWING DOCUMENTATION IS NOT INTENDED FOR DISTRIBUTION Warning: The following document is not intended for distribution, only personnel with proper authorization, privilege, or clearance are permitted to view or edit this document. Unauthorized access, reproduction, or disclosure of protected information may violate applicable state or federal law If you do not fall under one…
Behind the Redwood Curtain, the California I knew seemed to fall away. Off the PCH or 101, the scenery shifted from the billboards of the Bay Area, advertising marijuana or some new AI firm into towering trees older than time itself. Rain darkened the redwood bark toward umber, while sword ferns and moss held their…
One I saw the house. It was beautiful. A big Victorian sitting in the middle of the woods. And I knew I shouldn’t go in. I really shouldn’t go in.Next thing I know, I’m knocking on the front door. Three knocks. No answer. I tried the handle.Unlocked.I didn’t know if I should take that as…
The sound of the television static always felt louder when the room was entirely dark. On Halloween night, the air in Duskwood, Virginia didn’t just feel cold—it felt heavy, as if the shadows themselves were pressing down against the glass of the living room window. I sat on the plush leather sofa, my fingers gripping…
My name is Steven Kerns.Yes.That Steven Kerns.If you are reading this, it is probably because my lawyer released this document after something happened to me. I told him to put it somewhere people might at least consider whether it was true.I wish it weren’t.If you grew up anywhere near Sun Valley, you already know the…
By the time Thomas Grady turned sixty-eight, most people on Margaret Street had stopped taking him seriously. They were polite about it, of course. Small towns tend to be. Neighbors waved when they passed his house, exchanged a few words with him at the mailbox, and listened patiently whenever he started talking about the woods….
The Police Warns… The Serial Killer is Still at Large.Anyone who notices suspicious activity or an individual is urged to report it immediately. For months now, we had all been on high alert due to the serial killer haunting our city. My father was a police officer, and from what he had told me, they…
Before going to the Dead Fields, I was never really afraid of anything. I didn’t have a fear of heights, or the dark, at least not one that was crippling. I was sort of a thrill seeker, always eager to jump headfirst into the unknown, regardless of how much trouble it got me into. But…
The moon hung low and bloated over the town of Hallowville, Oregon, bleeding a sickly orange light across the frost-dusted fields. It was Halloween night, the one time of year when the veil between the living and the dead supposedly thins to a translucent shimmer; but for seventeen-year-old Layla, however, the “spooky season” wasn’t just…
Being afraid of yourself is something you rarely hear anyone admit—not to others, and certainly not to themselves. Fearing your own existence sounds almost made-up. When you actually stop to think about it, the obvious counterquestions always follow: “What are you actually afraid of?” Is it a lack of self-confidence? Is it your appearance? Are…
Read Part One here Read Part Two here Read Part Three here TRAVEL is an eye-opening, life-changing experience. That’s what merchants and adventurers at the Pit always told me. They wisely omitted how dull and draining it is. Maybe the merchants had wagons to pull them along, and the adventurers had horses. Ibnar and I…
Samir stood beneath the concrete awning of Masjid al-Noor, rainwater dripping from the edges of his black coat, and studied the brass lettering bolted above the entrance. The letters were a tarnished green and the glass doors behind them were filmed with dust. According to the O.S.A. report, the building had been vacant for about…
Martin Mann squints as he scans the horizon, the nub of a used cigar clenched between his teeth. He lets out a frustrated sigh as he dismounts Blue Baby. His dusty boots hit the ground. “You can take it easy, girl. We’re done fer today,” he says, giving his horse a gentle pat on her…
We lived a good life, nothing lavish or anything, but good. That all changed when my mom died in a car wreck. She was going seventy down the highway and a car on the curb tried to merge too soon without a blinker. Mom was going to my aunt’s baby shower. She had asked me…
Whenever you go camping with some friends, sit around a campfire at night there always comes the time for everyone to share a spooky story with the rest. And while the others are retelling urban legends or talk about that time they woke up and saw a strange shadow in the room, I brace myself…
The sky over the golden kingdom had turned the color of an open wound. Lseynda pressed her back against the shattered remains of a marble colonnade and tried to breathe through the smoke, through the pain in her side where a goblin’s blade had found it’s way through her robes. Blood ran warm down her…
The white metal sign peppered with rusting bullet holes read Welcome to Summerville. Lara frowned, her foot lifting slightly from the accelerator. She leaned forward, squinting through the dust on the windshield. Summerville? The name was puzzling. As a child, during the sun-drenched July she had spent here with her Aunt Summer, the town had…
Read Part One here Read Part Two here “BEFORE WE MOVE OUT,” Ibnar says, “we need to visit our homes and retrieve our gear.” “Right you are. Uh…” My stomach plummets. “It’s all in Thomas’s barn. My lute, my rations, my dagger. Everything except the leather armor I’m wearing right now. I can’t go back…
The kitchen smelt of booze. Like it always did. Jack was slumped over the table, snoring. His hair matted with his own sick. A halo of empty bottles around his head. I grabbed a glass and slowly poured the water so not to make a sound. Then, I crept out of the room and onto…
Night One — 11:17 PM The refrigerator hums in the kitchen, falls silent, then starts again. I’ve been staring at the same paragraph in my nursing notes for nearly twenty minutes. Outside, rain taps against the window while tree branches scrape and rattle against the frame. The temperature has dropped so suddenly that the room…
The house on 4th Street didn’t break all at once. It fractured slowly, in the quiet spaces between arguments, until the tension became a living, breathing thing that crowded seven-year-old Joy out of her own home. During the last four months, the soundtrack of Joy’s life consisted of slammed doors, muffled weeping through drywall, and…
My job’s an interesting one. Putting “loan shark” on any résumé likely won’t end in success. Adding “hell’s best” at the beginning will probably succeed in a one way trip to the nearest psychiatric ward. So, yeah, it’s odd. Sure, the hours are horrible, but those benefits do be hitting. As I write, I’m realizing…