The head of yet another six-inch nail is forced crudely into the hard flesh of what feels like the millionth wooden plank, its end contorted by the panicked blow it had been dealt by my shaking hands. There must have been about forty or fifty wooden boards covering every possible […]
It Had My Mother’s Voice Read More »
Room 371. Some hotel near the Cape. I was on a business trip with my boss, closing in on the final set of investors we needed to launch our latest start-up. That’s all I could remember. Then this. Waking up in a bedroom next to an unfamiliar woman with a
I Think I’m Trapped in a Sitcom Read More »
I sat against the red and brown brick wall outside the police station, knees tucked into my chest. My heavy breaths clouded in front of me as the cold winter air bit at my skin, making my fingers numb, but I didn’t care. The cold air provided me with the
My DNA Genealogy Test Shattered Everything I Thought I Knew About My Life Read More »
The darkness of the nighttime sky hangs like a shroud cloaking the Earth in mystery. The shroud is empty, devoid of the decorations that usually dot its fabric every hour past sunset. There is no night light to assure the inhabitants of Earth, that we are safe. The ground reflects
I was a bloody mess. After the twelve car pile-up on the freeway, it was a miracle I was even conscious, albeit just barely. There was only one hospital within a thirty mile radius, so all of us were sent there; some via ambulance, others by helicopter. Overwhelmed with the
Stay Away From the Angels Read More »
Have you ever heard the legend of Stingy Jack? No? Well, no matter. I’d never heard of him either, not until I had the misfortune of meeting the shifty bastard face-to-face. I encountered Jack, not realising who or what he was, and my ignorance almost cost me my life…Not just
The night I drank with Stingy Jack Read More »
The air was cotton candy and popcorn. The mood was light. Children did as children did, running and jumping and laughing and crying and fighting, at varying intervals, sometimes all at once. It was summer. The carnival was in town. Along the riverbank, the traveling carnival crew had worked for
My name is Noah Ryley, and I like to burn things. It had all started when I was nine, after my parents separated. Custody was granted to my mother since my father had taken the opportunity to jump ship. Probably to start a new family with the tart he had
Hitchhiker’s Haven Read More »
“Alright, Jack. Are you ready?” After being strapped down by the orderlies, an older gentleman with a white coat stepped over and looked down at me as my back caressed the cold, metal slab I was fastened to. I presumed this was Doctor Covenwood, the lab’s head of operations. “Uhhh…
“Did you see that?” “Hmm?” “There’s an animal in the lake,” I took off my sunglasses and sat up, looking at where she pointed at to see small ripples breaking the water’s calm surface. “What did it look like?” I asked Rosalba. “It looked like a crocodile’s head,” “It must
Paradisal Sequence Read More »
Whatever exists between the worlds of the known and the unknown is a mystery to me. I know only the things I have seen and experienced in this realm: in the here and now. All else is up to interpretation. But there is a forbidden matter I have long kept
The City Forgotten Read More »
I awoke to the sound of my phone buzzing on the bedside table. “Hello?” I said, groggily. “You’re that paranormal hunter, right?” I had the website changed, new business cards made up, and even sunk some money into an ad campaign. Still, all callers insisted on referring to me as
It all started about twelve years ago, when Yuki and I were climbing in the Colorado mountains, near the Grizzly Peaks. It was summer, and the snow was melting in a slow but determined fashion, creating a warm, if not misty, view of the valleys below us. The mists billowed
If You Find An Old Temple In The Grizzly Peaks, Leave It Alone! Read More »
Grey sea beneath a grey sky. Tossed carelessly between the waves, I cling desperately to the promise of air. Something awaits me within the water’s depths; I’m certain of it. If I look down, in the brief moments of calm, I will see it beneath the waves. The wind’s frigid
It was 3.00 AM on July 17th, 2004 when I found myself outside the site of the seventh murder in four weeks. My partner Jim McAllister and I had been the first responders to this particular incident, the first two to survey the carnage before the forensics team and clean-up
Things Darker Than Man Read More »
The room was one of many. Experiments that allowed us to tamper with the fabric of space-time in an enclosed location; to toy with the delicate laws of our physical world and fine-tune them to our liking. The first three hundred and seventy went off without a hitch. Some of
The Room 371 Experiment Read More »
The terrible thing happened at night—as most terrible things do. While I click-clicked away at my home job as a transcriptionist, I’d often watch the boys playing in the backyard. They’d be at it for hours, acting out some scene with foam swords and plastic guns, only stopping when the
Those Deep, Dark Wells Read More »
I couldn’t sleep. I didn’t want to sleep. Sleep has eluded me for several days at this point, but to sleep is to give up and let guilt destroy me. That’s what I call it anyway. Guilt. It’s as plausible an explanation as anybody has ever had for explaining this
Unconscious Objection Read More »
It’s mid January, and, as I had recently turned 19, I had decided that it was time to take a rite of passage to manhood so to speak. So after nagging my parents (my mother mostly to be honest) for weeks, they had finally caved to my pleas to take
I’ve lived in the same house my entire life. I grew up here, and now I’m raising my own family under this roof. Our home is no mansion…far from it. We live in a small-terraced house on a narrow back street in North Belfast. At first glance, there isn’t much
The Big Man of Arden Street Read More »
There is an almost universal feeling of discomfort and unease that a person experiences when they see a deserted place that their mind tells them should be full of people. A stark feeling of wrongness and creeping dread that is perhaps a holdover from our animalistic ancestors, meant to warn
The Late-Night Creature Feature in Pompeii, Indiana Read More »
When I turned sixteen, my Dad gave me a book. The leather cover was so old and worn that I couldn’t even read the title. “This was given to me by your grandpa,” he said. “Forgot to go out and get you something, so I thought I’d just give you
For as long as I could remember, my Uncle Chet was always a strange fellow. I can still imagine him clearly, even after all these years. He was a gaunt, chestnut-haired saturnine man with features that spoke of late nights and childhood malnourishment. He was spacey, spoke very little unless
When people think of police officers, I think there’s a disconnect between our image and the reality of who we are. A lot of people see us as the good guys. Real-life superheroes that jump in at the last moment with shining golden badges ready to stop the “bad guys”
I Investigate Disturbing Cases: Here Are My Stories – Watchers Read More »
