What woke me up that night was the sound of a female voice screaming, coming from underneath my bedroom, but I was so tired and young that I mistook the screams for a horror movie playing loudly on the TV downstairs. But they were just starting to subside when I […]
This is Your Father Speaking Read More »
One of the first kids to hear the bouncy calliope music was six-year-old Lisa Reid, who was sitting on the front porch of her house with Becky Briarwood, her best friend in the whole world. Lisa’s long blonde hair, held in place by the pink scrunchie her mom helped her
Scream for Ice Cream Read More »
Two white vans waited on the street while our luggage was being fetched and dragged into our new home. I, my eight-year-old daughter Sue and my wife Megan had traveled across the USA to a state which provided better work opportunities for both of us. I worked as an editor
Terror From the Walls Read More »
A child’s laughter bubbled in the air. A little girl was lost in play, twirling and dancing with a toy bear swinging from her grasp when she unknowingly wandered out onto the street. The whine of the breaks led in a grating shriek; it was all that she would hear
Grandpa Cobalt hated letting things go. Whether it was the wobbly chair he kept in his study or his favorite warped record he fed to the gramophone—looping the same groove over and over. He was a tall man with a frosty thin hairline and a nose capable of the most
Tony peeled the rotten banana skin off his arm while pieces of unidentifiable litter trailed behind him as he stumbled towards the school building. Billy and his asshole friends had dumped him in the dumpster for the third time this week alone. People began to stare and whisper among themselves
I need help with my nephew, Nicky. The kid is eight, and he’s been doing magic tricks since he saw the Amazing Howard perform at his fifth birthday. It was cute at first, but it started to get a little annoying as the years passed. He wears his cape everywhere,
It had been at least three years since I had last seen John. I wondered if “best friend” was still applicable, given the circumstances. Somehow semantics were the last thing on my mind. Who left a voicemail in this day and age, anyway? Only John. His social and emotional ineptitude
It was almost Halloween. Leafless tree branches swayed in the crisp breeze. The grey overcast sky hinted at yet another day of rain. Yellow-grey cornstalks flitted past and dead leaves scattered as the big, brown Buick carried us down the empty country road. I looked forward to seeing Granny, even
What Lurks Beyond the Indiangrass Read More »
“We’re hungry,” Mia said in her usual monotone voice. “You know we need to eat. Otherwise, you’re responsible for what happens.” She stared at me with icy blue eyes, waiting on a response. Her sister, Nia, a carbon copy both physically and in demeanor, stood at Mia’s side nodding. I
Candy, laughter, scares, ghosts and ghouls. Halloween, easily my favorite holiday of the year. It has all the things I love most in life. Sweets, costumes, and the excuse to be someone else even if it is just for a night. Where fiction and reality can intertwine without it being
The Unnatural Rivalry Read More »
“I love you Halloween!” This exclamation six-year-old Harry cried out to the night sky left his mother, Mrs. Jane Florence, reeling with laughter at the door. They’d just gotten home, from trick-or-treating, along with Harry’s older sister Sabrina who was already inside, calling for them to hurry up so the
“Listen to them, the children of the night. What music they make!” ― Bram Stoker, Dracula As if a mad carnival rolled into town, the leaf-strewn street of the quaint picturesque village seemed to transform overnight in ghoulish metamorphosis into a riotous necropolis with skulls grinning and witches cackling at
Smiles of Fire to the Night Read More »
I like mornin’ best in summer. Chet don’t, cuz he’s fifteen and likes his sleep, but I’d rather make my own breakfast, get chores done quick – enjoy the rest of the day if Mama gives me a choice. Let Chet take the afternoon. He thinks he’s winnin’, but he
Take in that fresh air girl! Damn it feels great to be back. Everything looks smaller though. “Yeah, because you were like three feet tall last time you were here, ya walnut.” Buddy “Bud” Jake looked at Gwen with a smile. The classic platonic boy-girl relationship where no sexual tension
They Only Take One Read More »
Have you ever known one of those people who made you feel truly unsettled? For me, it was Mary Marble. She was a pretty girl, all things considered. She had long, straight jet black hair, a fair complexion and spoke in a cute, squeaky voice. She was neither bigger nor
The Malice of Mary Marble Read More »
Everybody’s got a story. I don’t believe in ghosts but if you ever asked me if I’d been somewhere haunted, this is the story I’d tell. Down the road I lived on as a kid, there was an old dilapidated house. It was small and the yard was always overgrown
I have sat with the knowledge of that night for ever such a long time now. I have flirted with the idea of telling someone – maybe the police – or confiding in a counselor, but I know it will do little good. They would think me mad, even my
Congratulations on your admission to Oak and Ash Academy, one of the most exclusive private academies in North America. You are part of the largest incoming class since our founding in 1763. Although this is a unique opportunity—consider that in any ordinary year, three out of four of you would
That is Not the Fire Alarm Read More »
I stare at the corpse in the mirror. How desperately the dry, clay-colored skin clings to its skull. Rubbery. How narrow its tired eyes are, weighed down by the dark satchels hanging from them. How many broken vessels I could count beneath its sullen cheeks. A nebula of spider veins.
Read Part One here Read Part Two here As I was putting on my clothes to get ready for school, I grabbed the pair of jeans I had worn the night before. On inspecting my pockets for my house keys, I found a small piece of paper wrapped around something
Cheesy’s World (Part 3) Read More »
Read part one here Weeks went by with absolutely nothing. We tried to keep in contact with the park and the police every day, but we always got the same response. They were ‘looking into it.’ From what we were being told, they were contacting people that had been at
Cheesy’s World (Part 2) Read More »
Everybody loves the woods, until they follow you home. When my father came back from the military, we bought our first house—a boxy, two-story affair on the woodsy outskirts part of town. I was twelve, going on thirteen then. Our neighborhood was a little off the beaten path, nestled somewhere
Forever and Always Read More »
I grew up on a small-town ranch in the Midwest region of the United States, on land that had been passed down in my family for several generations. It can be brutal out there, with hot dry summers that threaten to suck every last drop of moisture from you, and
The Land Where Nothing Grows Read More »
