It was a lovely fall afternoon with leaves crisp and fiery and nary a cloud in the sky. The sun shone gloriously in the deep cyan ether giving off the perfect amount of heat, the kind where you can wear shorts comfortably without that unsettling chill on your legs but you don’t find yourself covered…
I groggily opened my eyelids in an attempt to pull myself out of slumber. My eyes burned with exhaustion as it was still the middle of what had been a long night. I reached for the glass of water sitting on my bedside table. My warm hand enveloped the condensation and as I pulled the…
I really wish I had left that fucking light switch alone. Who would have thought the flick of a switch could mean the difference between life and death. Actually everyone’s thought that. That’s why I turned it on. Stupid little rituals that we take from childhood. The light will chase the monsters away, the blanket…
In any city, in any country, go to any mental institution you can get yourself to. When you reach the front desk, ask to visit someone who calls himself “The Holder of the End”. Should a look of child-like fear come over the workers face, you will then be taken to a cell in the…
Throughout my years of reading people’s stories of this nature, I have noticed that many of them speak from the perspective of a child. This is entirely apt: we’ve all been children, we’ve all had the strange and unexplainable experiences before we “grew up” and convinced ourselves we’d figured out how the world worked. As…
The following is a true story, including the account of, first, my friend we’ll refer to as Kaskie, and my own. We were in Basic Training for the Navy, nearing the end of our stay there and moving on to the fleet soon enough. As you can imagine, people get really close in Basic, so…
When I was young, I was told my mother committed suicide by jumping from a bridge. Her body wasn’t found, as the river she landed in led to the sea and many bodies of the people that went missing in it weren’t ever recovered. My mental health was understandably not the best, as I was…
On June 8, 2010, I turned 14. Two days later, my mom tripped over a pair of my tennis shoes and died. She was carrying laundry down to our washer in the basement when it happened. She broke her neck. Her name was Meredith and she was only 45. Her and my dad would have…
Day 1 After stowing our luggage away under the bottom bunk and taking a few moments to adjust to our new ‘home’ for the next seven days, we turned to face our travelling companion or the random stranger who made the journey work out that little bit cheaper. She seemed pleasant enough. Her name was…
The sun did not shine. It was too wet to play. So she sat in the house All that cold, cold, wet day. She just sat in a chair All alone, by herself. As she watched the paint dry On her brand new bookshelf. Too wet to go out And too cold to play ball….
The hallway was dark, just like all the other hallways she had staggered down. Unreasoning fear filled her mind as she ran. Gasping and crying she leaned against the wall trying to remember which way she had come from. But, the truth was, her flight had been so frantic that she had lost sense of…
There’s a small, inconspicuous building called “Padraic Willoughsby and Co.” in the industrial district of Birmingham, UK. Most of the time, its doors are locked and the windows are draped. However, on February 29th of every leap year, there will be a small plastic container outside the front door containing business cards. On the front…
Winter had arrived again, but this winter was different than the others. This winter, my aunt and uncle decided to go on a ski trip, leaving their house for me to look after. You would have expected me to grumble and moan with the additional chore of checking in on a relative’s house every day,…
On your 33rd birthday, go to your local gas station and pick up the newspaper. The classified ads will have a small segment commemorating your birth and asking you to turn around. Upon looking behind you, a man dressed in a black cloak will be advancing in your direction. If you choose to run away,…
The trading ships had arrived in Venice from Kaffa only two days ago. The summer solstice had come and past and now the days were hot and heavy with humidity. The piers were alive with the sound of activity and excitement. I could smell the tang of varnished wood , the stale odor of stagnating…
I’ve always liked old horror movies, but I never really was a silent film enthusiast. I just found them too artsy and strange to really enjoy. It’s like watching a talkies era movie where everybody has been replaced by mimes and with awful camera quality. Though you have to respect movies like Nosferatu and The…
You and Sarah rush through the doors as Rachel screams. Her cries abruptly cut off as the stone doors slam shut, though you can still hear a faint grinding coming from behind you. At the beginning, there were five, but now it was just you and Sarah. You catch your breath and try to get…
I used to be fearless. Horror movies never really scared me. Scary books had no effect. Haunted houses are meaningless. I was never a child who slept with the covers over their face, or with a night light. As a little girl, I never felt the need to crawl into bed with my mother after…
“You’re such a baby!” my friend Elise exclaimed as I held her arm tight when the power in my house went out. “I am not! I just hate the dark! I don’t know what it is about it, I just always have.” I was frowning, and the hairs on the back of my neck were…
My wife and I were driving down a dark road, on our way to Colorado for our honeymoon. It had to be around midnight and I’d been driving for hours. My wife was fast asleep in the back seat and I had nobody to talk to, so I listened to the radio to keep me…
Barbara was sure the ritual worked. She stood up from the pentagram as 5 wicks slowly swirled their smoke in the room. The weather seemed angry—lightning flashed and roared through the coastal home, and suddenly the lights went out. “Damn the power. Let him come” she thought to herself as she calmly went downstairs in…
If you are interested in the weird and wonderful, then you might already be familiar with the strange case of the Uist mummies. Discovered in 2001, the mummified remains of two ancient residents of the Scottish island of South Uist have perplexed and puzzled archaeologists ever since they were unearthed. Buried deep in the ground…
Case Number 31 Name: Emily Coles Nationality: American Age: 32 Location: Elliot Gram’s Institute of Mental Illness ======================================================================= You want to know about the Indigo Village? Well, I’ve been there you know. No seriously, I have. I even stayed there for a couple of weeks. You know, just to get away from it all. Where…
A few months ago a friend of mine, who is an up-and-coming nature photographer, decided to spend a day and night alone in the woods outside of our town. She wanted to get photos of the woods and wildlife as naturally as she could for her portfolio. She wasn’t afraid of being alone, as she…