In the spring of 1953, when I was nine years old I saw my brother die. I’ll remember that day for the rest of my life. The memory has never left me and it never will. Part of it is the trauma, the slow, insidious...
When people whistle, it kind of irritates me. Not like Axl Rose from "Patience" whistles, but just does so to pass the time. When people whistle or hum to themselves it's always just kind of grated on me, but only when it's been tuneless. When...
I am currently sitting in front of my computer, scared witless. Any moment now I am going to be killed. Today a friend of mine told me a story. His aunt had taken care of him since he was a small boy, and she told him last...
All Joe Jenkins wanted was to go to bed. Work had been tough on him and lunch, hardly edible. Not to mention, his car’s CD player (yes, CD player) was broken, and no radio station was playing Alice in Chains on a loop like he would...
The rain beat a steady rhythm on the asphalt. In the dark sky above, the rumble of distant thunder rolled slowly toward us. “Daniel.” The sound of my name pulled me from my reverie. I turned my head away from the drenched playground and toward Miss...
Lost lovers Jake and Christine Headrick plowed down the windy mountain roads without a care to have or a fuck to give. They needed no reality-augmenting substances, merely their presence was enough. In love, stupidly-so, they sought refuge from their noisy and rambunctious lives in...
After a short time of exploring the Oklahoma territory where they were forced to go, a group of Native Americans stumbled upon a mysterious plant while hunting. This plant looked like a gnarled tree root, with so many twists and turns within its seemingly fragile...
“When is Miracle Girl coming?” I asked and got a stony look of disapproval from my uncle in return. If he read comic books, he’d appreciate my nickname for an immortal elementary schooler. Grandpa laid his good, gray eye on me. The filmy, unseeing one wandered...
“Halloa! Below there!” When he heard a voice thus calling to him, he was standing at the door of his box, with a flag in his hand, furled round its short pole. One would have thought, considering the nature of the ground, that he could not...
There wasn't much about 2015 that didn't completely suck. My marriage was falling to pieces. My spouse had grown cold and indifferent. Our son hadn't been diagnosed with autism yet. He was still a toddler. But, we knew there was something off about him. We...
My name is Jim. I’ve been in and out of construction contracts for the last seventeen years. Between those contracts, I do what I can to make a few extra bucks, since you never really know when the next contract will show up and unemployment...
There’s a small village out in Alabama called Saint’s Glen. You won’t find it on any map, at least not since 1965. But you can still find the remnants of the town. If you follow the river southwest of Thomasville, you’ll find it, somewhere in...
When I first saw Arron, he was lying on the floor of the Thompson's bedroom, still as death. “Hey! Are you okay?” I prodded him with my toe. Then I crouched down and shook him, like mad, until his eyes fluttered open. “Don’t do that!” he yelled in my face....
“They say the tree bleeds when you peel off the bark.” Liz’s eyes flickered in the orange light. Her lips curled into a small smile, as if she enjoyed that particular detail. “That’s ridiculous. There’s no way a tree could bleed,” Tucker said, yanking his burning marshmallow...
“Damn, Valentine shit already?” I asked my friend Gabriel as we were walking inside a Wal-Mart post Christmas. “Yeah, bro, and it’s still December. It’s like they’re completely ignoring the months in between the other months that have major holidays.” “True, true, annoys the shit out of...
The first time I saw Bret, I was nineteen. I’d found a job working security at Dave’s Storage Unit. My duties included keeping vagrants and thieves from disturbing the 40 rental units that were laid out in five neat rows in the middle of downtown...
I grew up in a small town in the Midwest. Now when I say that it’s a small town, I mean other people from my state have never even heard of it. That being said, for such a small town it actually has a pretty...
Part 1 All my friends are dead. Don’t take that the wrong way though. I can’t say I knew any of them when they were still alive. Well, at least most of them anyway. I guess I’m what you could call a psychic. I’ve never liked that...
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNZE3vmzzX4[/embedyt] In a sparsely-populated German settlement, the Becker family earned their living raising and slaughtering cattle. At that time, those who called the hilly, oak and maple-dotted valley home found quality meat hard to come by. But Markus Becker and his wife Lena, along with...
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbdgHXARWRc[/embedyt] “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...
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3di0SU1zd4[/embedyt] Dreams are supposed to be a magical place, a place where we can escape from our everyday lives, where our imagination can run free. I have often heard my friends complain that they don’t dream enough, or that their dreams are too dull, but not...
"So...
To tell this story I must go back even further to the very beginning. In the year 1841, a self-made paper mill owner, by the name of Alvah Crocker caught wind of plans for the Western Railroad project. Crocker began lobbying his idea for a...
I am a chronic sleep talker. Always have been. Everyone who's ever slept in the same house as me will tell you that. My parents, siblings, friends, and especially my exes. They're the ones who got an ear-full. It was something we'd laugh about in...