Everyone knows the term “cheating death”: it’s when you get to escape the ending of your life, or the cruelness of how it will end or just the terror itself it carries. But everyone knows that Death will eventually catch up to you. Some people can evade it for a long period of time while…
Addy Long is dead. No one understands why I was so upset about her death, though. They didn’t see how different she was. Or they may have seen the same things I did, but naively believed her when she said “I’m fine.” I can never tell them the truth. I can never tell them I…
A shiver of terror runs through me, and I’m awake, gasping. I lay still, fists clenched in my sweat soaked sheets, shaking from the nightmare. Forcing my eyes open, I confront the darkness. My breath hitches in my chest as my eyes desperately search for something to focus on, but there’s nothing. This is what…
The first thing Jenny noticed about the new house wasn’t the Jacuzzi, or the wrap around porch, or even her new room. It was the moths. The first one flew out the door when they unlocked the house for the first time. It wasn’t a big deal, and the family had even had a good…
I’m not sure why I’m up right now. It’s almost half past one in the morning and the only company I have are infomercials, the sound of my air conditioner on a setting you see as the lowest, but sounds like a fan on the highest setting, and a friend from some distant past. I…
It’s a simple enough thing. It’s all a part of the body’s sleep processes. Sleep Paralysis, right? No big deal, really. Your body produces a chemical that paralyzes your body during R.E.M sleep to prevent you from hurting yourself by thrashing about during your dreams. No big deal. Okay, so, you opened your eyes and…
My mother had gotten it for me at a neighborhood garage sale. The family had just lost their son, about my age too, nine or ten and they were trying to get rid of some of his older toys, and other things they didn’t need around the house. It had been horrifying; as my mother…
My house is so quiet. Except for the pattering of the rain on the window, and the scribble of my pen as I frantically write in order to get a good night’s sleep tonight, and the grandfather clock ticking. When I’m alone, I seem to pick up every little sound. To sleep without first recording…
Ever since I could remember, ever since I had been a child, I had been afraid of the dark depths of any sea or deep lake. Dark blue or green water had a nauseating affect on me, and seaweed dancing sinuously at the bottom of pools made me shudder. Worse than that, however, was the…
In any city, in any country, go to any mental institution you can get yourself to. When you reach the front desk, close your eyes and ask to visit someone who calls himself “The Holder of Lightâ€. You will be guided to a single door leading to a long winding hallway. You will be told…
Call it sleep paralysis. I don’t care. At this point, I’m used to people throwing explanations and diagnoses at me. Everybody wants to be the one to make sense of what I’m saying. I can tell you now-it does not make sense. It does not make sense and I could not care less about your…
“Oh! that my young life were a lasting dream! My spirit not awakening, till the beam Of an Eternity should bring the morrow.” -Edgar Allan Poe In a dream Joseph saw himself sleeping. His twelve year old body tucked in a thick comforter, on top of his old hand me down mattress. Even as he…
Silence is not quiet, its loud. It’s a deafening roar. I’ve experienced quiet before; I always start work at 4am. Quiet is the gentle hum of the street lamps. Its the first songs of the birds, the last scream as the foxes return to their warrens, the warm caress of the wind, a million things…
My father was not a famous man, but he should’ve been. He was the first person to break ground on that archaeology dig in Egypt you didn’t hear about. I go to see him once a week now. I tell him how things at home are, and he just sits there and rocks back and…
When I was seven years old, I awoke in the middle of the night. I ordinarily wouldn’t have thought anything of it; it happened rather often. I would wake from nightmares and stay upright in bed for a short while before coaxing myself back to sleep. My parents had quite the tendency not to be…
[ADMIN NOTE: THE FIRST PART OF THIS PASTA CAN BE FOUND HERE] Oh, so I see you got my email. Your reply was rather vulgar, I’ll admit, but I have to tell you this, I fear for my family and friends. I want them to know I didn’t die an insane man. Let me get…
Four-year-old Shade Godwit always loved her teddy bear named Thomas. He was a brown bear with a blue raincoat and hat. She had him since she was a baby. Her parents got it from an eccentric, old woman’s yard sale before she was born. There were rumors that that the eccentric woman was actually a…
I’m terrified about introducing myself, but I feel I must for the sake of keeping both my story and my head straight. I’m Greg, and I’ve just had my 41st birthday. I was married to my beautiful wife, Karen, who had passed away of health complications just a few years ago. All I had left…
While I’m writing this letter, I don’t really know what I should write. I mean that I’m not sure if I’m going to wake up tomorrow, so I can’t decide if it should become a sort of my testament. My final goodbye to everyone I knew, whether they’re going to believe in what happened to…
You’ve been dating your girlfriend almost two years now. You often stay late over the summer and on weekends and arrive home long after the rest of your family go to sleep. Every night you drive the deserted rural roads back home from a pleasant evening at her house you become overwhelmed by fears that…
Whenever Gideon said something like “This is going to be fucking awesome” the end result was, inevitably, disaster. But that was ok. Aidan loved disaster. So when Gideon showed up on that gleaming summer Thursday morning and asked if he wanted to do something, Aidan immediately said yes. The repetitive buzzing hum of the Arizona…
There are few times in life when a man can admit that he’s afraid of a beautiful woman. Sure, the shyness of lust and romance may be one excuse, but the legitimate fear of her power, as small or infinite as it may be, is something very hard to come by. This is the reason…
I am Sam. I have reached the gates of Hell. I entered without fear. I met the Lord of All Evil, and we made a deal. I got back to Earth, with a task. I have to kill 665 people before I die. If I do so, I will spend eternity as a Demon King…
You’re at work alone, when you suddenly hear the copy machine start up. You walk out to take a look at what’s going on and see several copies filling the tray. Picking up one of the pieces of paper you discover that it is a copy of a picture depicting you sitting in your office…