I Steal Bodies
Part 1 I am dead. Well, at least the real me is. You see, this body I’m using to write this isn’t mine. I stole it. Don’t worry, I won’t be using him for too long. Once I’m done writing this all out, I’ll give it back to him. He
Deaths, Murders, and Disappearances
The reCAPTCHA Was Wrong
Have you ever seen a photo reCAPTCHA? Instead of a checkbox, it’s a low-quality photo split into 16 square sections. It’ll say something like: “SELECT ALL SQUARES WITH STREET SIGNS,” and you have to click every square that contains a street sign. At 11 PM on Sunday night, I got one while
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The Honeymoon
Part 1 The day that I married Marjorie, I felt like the luckiest guy in the world. She was smart and beautiful, and ever since I had met her six months earlier, not a day had gone by that I didn’t wonder what she was doing with a guy like
Mr. Banana
We’d been doing civics for the past month. I was teaching second grade at Witherspoon Elementary, struggling to teach the meaning of Gettysburg and the Battle of Princeton to a bunch of eight year-olds, especially without giving a diatribe about the evils of slavery and making them bring that shit
I Saw My Name on the News as a Prime Murder Suspect
Part 1 I was sitting on the sofa, eating a reheated slice of pizza, when I saw it. My Facebook profile picture. On the local news. Underneath the text: PRIME SUSPECT IN JACKSON MURDER. I blinked. Rubbed my eyes once, twice. “The prime suspect is 24-year-old Hamburg resident, Amanda Duffy.” My name.
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Fertilizer
The moment I had signed the sales contract for the old farmhouse I’d been happier than I was in years. You see, in life, I did everything right. I headed the advice of my teachers and parents. After I’d finished school, I went on to university and got my degree
I Found a Forum for Dead People
It’s a tale as old as the internet itself. You’re killing your boredom by browsing the net. Mindlessly scrolling through pictures and reading through forums.One click leads to another, and before you know it you’ve tripped and fallen down the rabbit hole to the weirder parts of the internet. Now,
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The Most Terrifying 911 Call I’ve Ever Received
“911. What’s your emergency?” I said as I answered the phone. “There’s a bat in my house.” A loud scream came over the speaker. “Send someone to come and get it.” “Alright ma’am, I will send animal control over as soon as possible.” The caller thanked me and said she
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When Catfishing Goes Bad
My cousin Patrick was murdered a few months ago. Yeah, Patrick was weird and self-absorbed, but at the end of the day, he was only twenty-four. I didn’t know much about what happened other than what his friend Jamal told me. Jamal had even posted on Reddit about it. The
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Trick or Treat
“No, I’m going to stay in. It’s been a long day and the most I intend to do tonight is hand out candy.” “Lame. Look, just for once, ignore your spinster instincts and come to Jackson’s. We’ll get sloppy drunk and play strip Twister.” “Sounds like a blast.” “I already
The Sunnyside Murders
Serial killers have always fascinated me. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve found myself both scared and intrigued by psychos like Ted Bundy or Clementine Barnabet. And as I grew older, my interest only increased. I was from Atlanta. Growing up in lower-class Latino neighborhoods, I’d seen crime all
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Campfire Stories
“In the morning, she goes to wake her friend, so she won’t be late for class. She doesn’t realize right away why her friend isn’t answering, why she’s not getting up. Then she pulls back the blanket. Her friend’s throat has been cut open so deeply that her head
A Very Special Christmas Supper
The first time you meet your girlfriend’s family is extremely important. Maybe they will become your family too. You have to be funny and charming, but not too funny or to charming that it seems unnatural. You don’t want to be a faker or bootlicker. When I was about to
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Goodnight Precious
My son is 2 years old and does. Not. Sleep. So when I saw an ad online for Goodnight Precious: the only book GUARANTEED put your child to sleep, I clicked. I was skeptical — but there was a video demonstration on the website. “I’m going to show you how this works.
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You Find Yourself in a Tunnel
You find yourself in pitch darkness. You don’t entirely know where you are, how you got there, you simply don’t remember. Neither, you thought to yourself at that moment, do you care. Your main priority was just to get out of there. You start feeling your immediate surroundings for something
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The Wrapper
The point of me writing all this is because I don’t want any of my story to go without hearing, or any of my actions to go without seeing. I honestly don’t even know where to start as I’m anxious for this night to be over already. If you’re reading
My Neighbors Are Disappearing
My neighbors are disappearing.. I’m not sure when this all started, but it seems that everyone in this town already knows. I moved here just over a year ago, it’s lush with green in every direction, townsfolk greet each other on the streets, and children play on every block and
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The Hitchhiker
The stars gleamed above the treetops in the moonless sky for a few short minutes as malicious, black storm clouds slowly rolled into view. Flashes of lightning illuminate the skyline followed shortly by thunderous booms that shake the ground with their force. The air thickens with the damp smell of
I’ve Never Seen A Child Eat Their Pet Before
When I joined the case at 47 County Street, I didn’t know what to expect. As a social worker, I see all kinds of screwed up things from child abuse, to children abusing their parents. Yet, when I got the reports from County Street, I wasn’t expecting much. The initial
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Flatwoods
The window of opportunity was closing. Soon, he would return and likely bring his inanimate metallic friends with him. Although Marty had sustained only a glancing blow, the perpetrator likely did not realize this among the haze and blur of unmitigated furor and bloodshed that had resulted in the death
The Mannequin Farm
I think I’m finally at the point where I’m able to talk about it. It’s been several years since it happened. None of us – not me, nor my friend, brother, or brother’s friend, who also experienced it – have ever told a living soul, and rarely mention it to
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Jeff The Killer: Scars of Corruption
Before we begin this journey, I want it to be known that when I remember my brother Jeff, I remember a friend. I remember a big brother who taught me how to climb a tree, throw a baseball, play video games and about a million other things. He never beat me up, never took my share of the spending money our parents would send us off to the mall with or made me feel like the tag-along when he’d hang out with his friends.
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In-cide
“Holy shit…Gary? Is that you, Gary?” Gary quickly spun around to face the voice he’d immediately recognized, although he was far from convinced that it was actually coming from the form of his brother and best friend: Mikey. It seemed fairly obvious that since he was most likely losing his
The Terrible Old Man
It was the design of Angelo Ricci and Joe Czanek and Manuel Silva to call on the Terrible Old Man. This old man dwells all alone in a very ancient house on Water Street near the sea, and is reputed to be both exceedingly rich and exceedingly feeble; which forms
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