Why do we feel So safe in the light, With nerves of steel So free of fright, When darkness lies Round every bend, And sleeps inside The most trusted of men? For even with the sun, Riding high in the sky. All its light is undone, If you just close your eyes. Within that darkness,…
As children, we often get ourselves into trouble by not listening to our parents or sneaking into places we shouldn’t be. This is Nicole’s story. September 22, 1988 Ever since she was a little girl, 14-year-old Nicole had a fascination of exploring unfamiliar places. For this expedition, she wanted to explore a patch of forest…
I walked up to an old house in shambles. It sits in the middle of a farm in rural Wisconsin. The paint was faded almost entirely off the wood paneling of the two story farm house. There were tinges of light red where the rain and weather had not wiped it entirely clean from the…
You jolt awake to some noise off in the distance. You look at your red lettered clock: 3:21. You hear it noise again. Someone’s knocking on your door. There’s no reason to be afraid, you remind yourself, but you can’t imagine any reason why someone would be up this late. You quietly walk over to…
“One may attain the Metaphysical’s wealth, All they have to trade is blood and good health.” This was the message written on the mineshaft’s sign. My brother and I read it out aloud, mocking its corny Dr. Seuss-esque warning. We dared each other to enter the tunnel, which eventually escalated into him chasing me inside….
This was it: night one of my new job as the night watchman for Disneyland. Anywhere else, I’d be referred to as an ordinary security guard. Here, I was a cast member. Something about that label just oozed sophistication and privilege. It was now 12:00 AM. All the cleaners and maintenance workers had done their…
Anne was new to the city, and she knew without a doubt that it wasn’t the place for her. She was used to winding country roads, gentle breezes on the porch, and the rustle of the wind through the trees. Here she was simply surrounded by angry drivers, angry cyclists, angry pedestrians, smog, car horns,…
December 15th, 1985 Joram Bernstein Well, time surely does fly. It’s already been forty years since my wonderful stay in Auschwitz. To my surprise, I’m not horribly tormented by the memories of that putrid hellhole of a prison like most people I have come to know during the time; well, at least not anymore. Probably…
There is a house that I spent a good portion of my childhood in, and the house that I, to this day, although no longer living in it, will always call my true home. I have many fond childhood memories in that house, and it’s where our family lived the longest. What I’m about to…
*Jenny, short for Jennifer, is a feminine given name, a Cornish form of Guinevere/Gwenhwyfar adopted into the English language during the 20th century. It may mean “white enchantress” or “the fair one” (from Proto-Celtic *Windo-seibrā “white phantom”). I heard this story from my grandma when I was, like, seven or something. She was already getting…
My father’s footsteps ringing distant from the hall was my lullaby when I was younger. In the dead of night, when my back was turned to the door, I would hear the familiar padding of his white and gray socks colliding with the hardwood floor outside my bedroom. The door would open, and a thin…
It was almost three o’clock in the morning when something woke Leah up. She stayed in bed for a few groggy minutes, warm beneath the familiar blankets. For the last three days, an enormous rain storm had been falling on the island of Kauai, bringing an unusual chill along with it. The rain smacked against…
Tony and Allison sat jovially at the edge of the schooner anticipating the plunge while their captain settled the boat somewhere between the sun and the water. Tony and Allison’s anniversary had been but a few days back, and for their first they had decided to do something the both of them had recently begun…
My life is not what you would call privileged. It has been one of endless work and sacrifice. Born into a life of slavery, my life has never truly been my own. My time has always been dictated by others, when to eat and sleep, when to rise and when to rest. Very little of…
Kuchisake-Onna is the legend of a Japanese woman, mutilated by her jealous samurai husband who murdered her for infidelity scarring her horribly and leaving her repulsive. Her jealous Ghost still haunts places in Japan, usually on foggy nights, wearing a surgical mask when she will approach people and ask shyly: “Watashi kirei?” (Am i beautiful?)…
Three and seven; the fold was imminent. I looked conspicuously around at the other two player’s faces to see if they were pleased with their hands. Number two gave a slight gaze of confidence in his elevated eyebrows and balanced lips. He has to have something good in his hand if he’s giving those kinds…
I never knew something as simple as a knock on the door could forever send me into a frozen state of terror. It all started with a cold and rainy autumn evening. The wind was blowing fiercely, whistling through the little cracks in the windows and door frames. I was sitting by myself in the…
Linda, I’m not sure whether this letter will ever reach you, but I’m going to put it in the mailbox and hope for the best. It seems unlikely anyone’s actually going to deliver it, but this may be my last chance to contact the outside world, so I’m going to seize it anyway. You’ve probably…
Ever since I was a child, I always had a crippling fear of doctors. You may wonder why; these individuals were here only to heal us, mend us. Ignoring slight hiccups in medical practice, everything they did was beneficial. And yet, I could not even be in the same room as one without shivering, without…
When I was younger I used to work as a night auditor for a very popular hotel chain in New Orleans. This particular hotel was once an old warehouse in the Central Business District. It had a long history that dated back to the Underground Railroad where tunnels built throughout the building were used to…
You know how Fox has a weird way of counting Simpsons episodes? They refuse to count a couple of them, making the amount of episodes inconsistent. The reason for this is a lost episode from season 1. Finding details about this missing episode is difficult, no one who was working on the show…
I wake up. Another beautiful day. You know the best thing about living in a big city? You can completely reinvent yourself at any time. Become someone entirely new. That’s great for someone like me. I don’t like routine. I did try living in small towns at first, but the problem with that is everybody…
“So long as man is protected by madness, he functions and flourishes.” -Emile M. Cioran Move it, now! I shouted as everyone reached the staircase, their ragged breathing and obvious exhaustion did nothing to stop the water that was flooding the lower levels of the building we had taken shelter in nor was it going…
“Take off the blindfolds,” they said as I started to gain consciousness once again. When they took it off, I shielded my eyes for a second to keep the blinding light out of my eyes. Once my eyes adjusted, I looked around to figure out what was going on. I looked at myself to see…