I’d been travelling around Australia for about eighteen months doing the usual things travellers do. Between partying and sightseeing I’d worked on chicken farms, picked fruit and worked in call centres. I’d originally gone with some friends but one by one they ran out of money or got homesick so I was the last. I…
Attention: Please read this sentence aloud: Hello, Molly. If you read it out loud as I instructed, you should be safe. If you read it in your head… Molly is now safe, too. Inside your head.
The gloomy interior of an abandoned factory. The air is dank and fetid. Somewhere in this crumbling, dark space the sound of machinery can be heard. The creak of metal grinding on metal, the hissing of steam and the low groan of rolling gears. In the centre of this vast, derelict mausoleum to industry a…
I’m waiting at the bus stop, the rain is falling lightly and it’s just about getting dark. I missed the last bus and now I’m tired and hungry, longing to be in my warm bed with a hot drink. I’m so busy daydreaming that I didn’t notice the little old lady stood next to me….
Deep within the dark, foreboding woods, nestled among the gnarled trees and overgrown shrubs, stood the abandoned cabin, shrouded in mystery. Its cracked walls and broken windows bore witness to the passage of time, and its wooden door creaked ominously as if warning intruders to turn back. Rumors of a cursed melody, whispered by the…
Rumor had called this section in the vast city where I found my dwelling Old Hope, and it was often said that dreams of industrializing and modernizing the untamed Western coast had been rooted here by humble Americans. Those of the past had toiled under the hot sun shedding blood and tears to erect the…
“Whom the Gods would destroy, they first make mad” Prometheus, The Masque of Pandora In the upper echelons of society there exists an ever growing group of individuals with entirely too much time on their hands. The members hark from around the world, but share similar traits. Often from lives of exceptional wealth, they are…
Everybody’s been looking for her. Haley, my fiancée has been missing for over three weeks now, and I’m beginning to think the absolute worst has happened to her. I try not to let my mind drift to those kinds of rash thoughts, but sometimes I just can’t help myself. I catch myself thinking of just…
This is me. I’m here. I’m shifting the words that you’re reading, altering them from whatever this person wrote. I’ve been here for awhile. For as long as you can remember, anyway. Sometimes I say your name as you’re falling asleep, or whisper urgently in your ear. Do you remember the time that I screamed,…
Let me begin by stating that I have always had a fascination with nature and its creatures. Even at a young age, I would watch documentaries that explained nature, its inhabitants and humanity’s place as the apex predator. As I progressed from childhood to adulthood, the documentaries ingrained in my subconscious would determine my career—an…
I tried not to notice it. I pretended it wasn’t there. I wore long sleeve shirts, and I never looked down. If I didn’t think about it, I hoped, it would cease to exist. But I couldn’t forget it. At night my arm would throb in bed like the stain in the Scottish play. Spots…
Dear Mr. Valentine, As per your request, I’ve collected reliable morsels of information from the many and often incoherent accounts that detail the events which transpired in Merton on September 2nd, 1996. It is only with great reluctance that I reveal this information to you, for I fear for my life that I am pursued…
I could say I was having a pretty peaceful life. I just graduated high school and is about to enter college in a week, to which my mom is really proud of because I decided to pursue something great for my life instead of just applying for McDonalds or something. Anyway, everything was going along…
“There lies a darker world under us. An eversion of all there is. Though, I wonder if that place is more real than ours…” -Unknown I wake up to darkness. I might as well not have woken up, considering that closing your eyes has the same effect… I move the palm of my hands in…
“There was a little man in my room last night, and he says he’s going to take me with him.” I glanced up from my cereal in surprise and fixed Mabel, the light of my life as well as my only daughter, with my best fatherly gaze. She giggles, showing her pearly white teeth. She’s…
Hidden deep within the rural countryside of mainland China sits a rotting edifice of failed consumerism: the decrepit remnants of Disneyland China. Half of a Western-style castle, bits of girders and wires and planks jutting out of moldy particleboard like shattered bones from gangrenous skin, looms over a wide swath of flat swampland. Tourists and…
I’m afraid to look outside windows at night. I guess some people are. It’s just paranoia, right? You don’t want to look outside your window at night and come face-to-face with an abhorrent creature. But, again, it’s just paranoia, right? Too many scary movies, spending too much time on Creepypasta. Well, let me just tell…
Rain tapped at the windows, and wind howled outside. The weather was crappy for summer, but Lisette couldn’t be happier. Curled up with a book and steaming mug of tea, the fifteen-year-old girl quietly read and sipped contentedly, occasionally glancing to see the unbroken, glossy sheet of rainwater slide down the cool glass of the…
The wind brushing up against my face was common, but it never felt subtle to me. Never felt as if it was there to cool or comfort; only there to remind me of where I was. In my bed laid me – and in me laid my mind, which was a sanctuary where I reviewed…
I met James Vickers when we were both about 12. We were next door neighbours, and I had been out in my back yard playing soccer by myself, kicking the ball against the fence. It was at this point I met James. It took me a little while to notice his little spectacled face peering…
When the fog first came, it loitered around the coastal towns and cities, occasionally venturing inland, out of its comfort zone, to cause problems for a few hours each day in the early hours or late at night before retreating back to the safety of the sea. The long, oppressive grey days hadn’t fully materialised…
Thomas rose from his modest flower garden and wiped his filthy hands on his jeans. He stood there for a moment, his eyes lingering on the lush blossoms. A sense of accomplishment overcame him. Though the plot was humble, what it lacked in quantity, it was overly abundant in quality. The blooms were vibrant and…
There are times in ones life where one feels unsafe. Insecurity permeates their being, and despite their best efforts they cannot quell the fear that builds within them. They seek some form of solace; a refuge against the tumultuous and unpredictable storms that seek to overwhelm them. Some weather the storm stoically, holding to some…
The Moon. Quite a spectacle if you ask me. It never ceases to enthrall my nocturnal, star-gazing eyes. I look at it each and every night with a very large sense of wonder, mixed with just a pinch of awestricken euphoria. It captivates and compels my curious nature, but as of late it has also…